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THE SCHOOL 


Library Encyclopedia 

EMBRACING 

HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, DISCOVERY, INVENTION, BIOGRAPHY, 
ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE 

PREPARED ESPECIALLY 

FOR USE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICA 


WITH 

GUIDEPOSTS—A READING INDEX 

jc %, > 

1/ 

EDITED BY 

L. BRENT, VAUQEAN ; ,Rh. B. 


TjfttUij Ytt us t rated 

Lithographs, Engravings, and Historical, Political and Physical Maps 


PUBLISHERS 


THE CAXTON COMPANY 

^78-^88 WABASH AVENUE, 

CHICAGO 




A <3 5- 

.H6 7 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

AUG. 12 1901 

Copyright entry 

Am. /a /oof 

CLASSvf XXc. No. 

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COPY B. 


COPYRIGHT, 1901 . 

Borrows Brothers Company, Chicago. 




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PREFACE 


Hill’s Practical Encyclopedia has been published to supply the demands 
of a progressive and busy age. The last few years of the old century and 
the first of the new are of more interest and more directly connected with our 
welfare than the events of some whole centuries of the past. The rapid advance¬ 
ment made in recent years in every department of learning is not shown in the 
books published ten or fifteen years ago. Much has happened within the last 
decade to call for an entirely new treatment of many subjects. New subjects of 
interest have emerged; many have grown in relative importance; while not a 
few have lost their claim to any presentation in a practical reference library. 

We have endeavored to furnish a set of reliable, practical and up-to-date 
reference books within the mental reach of all, and easily accessible to those who 
desire to be well informed on the topics of every-day conversation, and to those 
who are striving for a higher intellectual development. 

We have treated the more important subjects under a single heading instead 
of breaking them up into a number of shorter articles. The chief aim in the 
arrangement has been to preserve the unity of the subjects treated and to render 
the work easy of consultation. The various articles have been carefully outlined 
and sub-divided so that by glancing down the sub-headings the reader may easily 
find the part or parts desired. In no case, however, have the facts been so 
separated as to lose their mutual relationship. 

Hill’s Practical Encyclopedia is pre-eminently an American work and 
yet world-wide in its scope. The work is not so emphatically American that the 
treatment of foreign countries is narrow or insufficient for practical reference. 
The foreign countries recently opened to civilization have been treated at con¬ 
siderable length. For example, there are fifteen pages on the Empire of Japan. 

In biography it is most difficult to secure information concerning living men, 
therefore we have presented the prominent men of today, especially Americans, 
instead of writing the biographies of a great number of men of the past, who, 
though they may have been prominent in their own times, have left no traces in 
the history of civilization. We have given only those men of the past whose 
names'are inseparably connected with the world’s history. In fact, if the biog¬ 
raphies were chronologically arranged, they would present a history of human 
activity in the field of art, literature and science. 



PREFACE 

In commercial progress, scientific research and industrial life, America is 
given precedence over other nations. The process of making our common 
objects of every-day use is as interesting as it is mysterious. We present the 
method of manufacturing over 200 of the principal articles of commerce, and 
show the process from the time the raw material goes into the mill, factory or 
workshop, until it comes out a finished product. 

The articles on the States of the American Union have been compiled from 
information received from the several states, and from matter obtained from the 
National Bureau of Statistics. All the statistical matter is based upon the cen¬ 
sus of 1900 so far as the returns have been published. 

The work is fully illustrated with multi-colored lithographs; over 200 full- 
page engravings and 1,700 etchings, and the maps are the most recent and 
authentic published, showing the physical features as well as the political 
divisions of the world as they exist today. 

If years of diligent research and almost constant consultation with leading 
scholars and continual reference to comprehensive libraries can avail anything, 
the accuracy of the work is not to be questioned. 


The Editok. 


GUIDEPOSTS 


A READING INDEX 


CONTENTS 


I. Our Own Country. 5 

II. Our Near Neighbors.. 11 

III. A Few Glimpses of European Life. 17 

IV. The Oldest Continent. 23 

V. The Dark Continent. 28 

VI. The “Ologies”. 33 

VII. The Handicrafts. 36 

VIII. Inventors and Inventions. 40 

IX. Successor Failure. 45 

X. Sports and Pastimes. 47 

XI. Home Influence. 50 

XII. Books and their Authors. 53 

XIII. The Arts.. 62 

XIV. Chronology. 68 

The words in italics in the following chapters refer to subjects in the 
Encyclopedia, thus providing systematic courses of supplementary reading. 























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CHAPTER I. 


OUR OWN COUNTRY. 


Two things with reference to our country 
are very hard to realize: first, that its 

citizens are a transplanted people and not 
descended from the people who inhabited 
Ancient America; second, that it is so very 
large. 

Of all the men who are now voters in the 
United States, some were born in Europe, 
many were the children of parents who had 
emigrated to America, and nearly all were 
the descendants of ancestors, who, only 
three centuries ago, were living in what we 
choose to call by comparison, the Old World. 
We are really European people transplanted 
to a new soil, and have grown and prospered 
until we are the great nation we are. It is 
extremely rare that we find an American citi¬ 
zen descended from the red men. 

Until within four centuries our ancestors in 
the Old World had never heard of America 
and had not even dreamed of a country rather 
thickly inhabited, lying between the western 
coast and the eastern shores of Asia. Many of 
us seem to think the history of America began 
with its discovery by Columbus in 1492, when 
in fact it had been inhabited for centuries by 


a truly great people. Of course, the Europeans 
coming to this country four hundred years ago 
thought it was the coast of Asia, and when 
they found the country peopled with inhabit¬ 
ants different in appearance from themselves, 
they called them Indians. In this they cer¬ 
tainly showed very poor judgment, for the 
natives of America are not like Asiatics. They 
are a race by themselves and had lived here 
many thousand years before this country was 
discovered. While they all had a reddish 
skin, little or no beard, straight, black hair, 
high cheek bones, and coal-black eyes, the 
different tribes differed from each other in 
general appearance, size, and customs, as the 
Abyssinian differs from the German, or the 
Englishman from the Italian. 

These ancient inhabitants, or Indians, were 
divided into three great classes: 1, the half- 
civilized; 2, the barbarous; 3, the savage. 
Some of the first group, the most highly de¬ 
veloped of the three classes, still live within 
the borders of our country, and they certainly 
are a very interesting people. They have 
always seemed to choose a chiefly mountainous 
country as their home, and originally extended 



6 


GUIDEPOSTS . 


from New Mexico southward, to Chile in South 
America. This country is so dry that we 
wonder how these people ever grew crops 
sufficient to live upon. But upon looking over 
the country originally inhabited by them we 
find that these ancient, half-civilized people 
had somehow, even in the earliest times, hun¬ 
dreds and hundreds of years ago, learned to 
bring water down from higher up in the 
mountain ranges by means of channels and 
small ditches, sufficient to grow their crops of 
Indian corn successfully. Thus, long before 
the more highly civilized white man came to 
this country, irrigation was successfully car¬ 
ried on. 

This same group of ancient people learned 
how to build very strong; fortresses of adobe or 
sun-dried bricks, and also of well-cut stone. 
Some of the fortresses were six stories high 
and would hold over four thousand people. 
Sometimes these fortresses were extended until 
they grew together into a city of fortresses to 
which the name Pueblo was given. The 
half-civilized Indians who live in them are 
called Pueblo Indians. 

By far the most interesting Pueblo Indians 
are the Zunis of New Mexico and the Nioquis 
of Northern Arizona. In old Mexico there 
were even more of these fortress cities or 
pueblos, and they were organized into federa¬ 
tions, the strongest being that of the Aztecs. 
The Indians who inhabited these pueblos al¬ 
ways had a military chief or king. Their 
utensils, implements, and weapons were usu¬ 
ally made of stone though sometimes of a fine 
quality of bronze. They made extensive use of 
picture writing on bark and on the woven 
fibers of the century plant which answered the 
purpose of paper as used to-day. This sort of 
writing is usually called hieroglyphic writing. 
These half-civilized Indians did not torture 
people to death as did their barbarous and 
savage neighbors, but sacrificed them to the 


gods they worshiped. Many of these interest¬ 
ing people built their pueblos perched up on 
high cliffs like eagles’ nests and were called 

cliff-dwellers. 

The most civilized of all these people were 
the Incas and their principal home was the 
country of Peru. They used the llama as a 
beast of burden and the alpaca for its hairlike 
fleece, which was woven into cloth. They 
raised the best of cotton and made very fine 
cotton and wool cloth. They worshiped the 
sun and were so highly civilized that they did 
not offer human sacrifices. In America east 
of the Rocky Mountains we find mounds from 
which over 50,000 ancient relics have been 
taken, consisting chiefly of stone axes, ham¬ 
mers, water jugs, grinding tools, and arrow 
heads. The people who constructed these 
earthen mounds have been called mound- 
builders. 

The second group, or barbarous Indians, who 
inhabited villages east of the Mississippi River, 
were the first the white men had to fight, and 
who played a most conspicuous part in the 
beginning of the history of our own country. 
The least advanced of all these tribes were the 
Chippeways or, as sometimes called, the Ojib- 
ways; the most developed were the Iroquois. 

The savage Indians lived west of Hudson 
Bay and in a southwesterly direction, between 
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. 
They included the Apache, Athabasca, and 
Bannock tribes. They were not settled in 
villages but moved about from place to place 
living in rude wigwams. They wove baskets, 
but did not make pottery. 

These facts with reference to the ancient in¬ 
habitants of America all show that our country 
is really, after all, a very old country. But it 
is still more difficult to realize the tremendous 
extent of the land we occupy. If one walked 
twenty miles every day, which would be a 
pretty good record for most of us, it would 


OUR OWN COUNTRY. 


7 


require about five months to walk across our 
country from one ocean to the other. We 
have nearly eighty million people in the United 
States yet there are some portions so thinly 
settled that we might travel for hundreds of 
miles and not see a house. 

We can only speak of a few of the principal 
cities in this short article, but this will give us 
an idea of how different portions of our coun¬ 
try are occupied in gaining a living, and how 
different the people themselves are from one 
another. 

Washington is interesting because it is the 
home of our President and is the head-city or 
capital of our country. There are people 
from all parts of the world living in Washing¬ 
ton. They are selected by the governments 
of other countries to come and live with us at 
our capital to help keep up friendly relations 
with their people at home. Most of these for¬ 
eign representatives bring their families along 
and so you will always see Japanese, Chinese, 
Spanish, French, and German children playing 
in the streets and parks of Washington. The 
city is full of interesting public buildings of 
which we are all proud. Among these is the 
building containing the National Library, the 
largest library building in the world. The art 
galleries are full of beautiful pictures, and the 
parks are larger than many farms and are 
filled with rare and beautiful plants, It is al¬ 
ways interesting to visit the White House, es¬ 
pecially on a public reception day when one 
can meet the President and his wife. 

If we go down the river we find Mt. Vernon 
which was the home of General Washington 
and where his tomb now is. 

In New York City , Broadway is the principal 
street. On this street near the post-oflice is 
Trinity Church. It is a very old church and 
in the cemetery near by may be seen the 
graves of many famous persons who were 
among the early settlers of this country. At 


the foot of Broadway is Castle Garden, the 
place where emigrants land on coming from 
Europe. Riding to the north on the elevated 
railroad, high above the streets, one soon 
reaches Central Park which is full of -interest¬ 
ing things. Rare plants, a fine collection of 
minerals, the Art Museum, and the Obelisk 
are well worth seeing. Boys and girls ride 
about the park in quaint little goat carts. We 
ride still farther north along the Hudson River 
and we soon come to a little hillside- in River¬ 
side Park on which is built the tomb of Gene¬ 
ral Grant. On the west bank of the Hudson is 
a high natural wall of rock which we call the 
Palisades. One should not leave New York 
without visiting the Brooklyn Bridge, the fin¬ 
est bridge structure in the world. 

If we go by boat from New York to Boston, 
we will, in all probability, land at Newport, 
where we can see a round tower of stone, sol¬ 
idly built and covered with ivy. It is called 
the “ Old Mill, ” and was in all probability 
built by the Norsemen long before Columbus 
came to this country. It is believed by many 
that the first ships that came to our country a 
thousand years or more ago, landed at New¬ 
port. 

Near Newport is the great factory town of 
Fall River where many mills are located, all 
propelled by water power. It is interesting to 
go through these mills and observe the manu¬ 
facture of calico, gingham, and woolen goods. 

Boston is near by and as we enter the busi¬ 
ness part of the city we soon discover that its 
streets are not so wide, straight, broad, and 
beautiful as those of Washington or New 
York. In the newer part of the city there are, 
however, some very beautiful streets. The 
Public Garden is a delightful place in summer 
and is full of beautiful shrubbery and flowers. 
The Boston Common is a large park of over 
forty acres and is shaded with beautiful old 
elm trees. The name “Hub” was first ap- 


8 


O UIDEPOS TS. 


plied to Boston by Oliver Wendell Holmes, in 
a speech some years ago when he said : “Bos¬ 
ton State House is the hub of the Universe.” 

In Cambridge, a suburb of Boston, is Har¬ 
vard University and near it the home of Long¬ 
fellow, the old Cragie House as it is called. 
Here the great poet lived and died, and here 
General Washington once lived for a short time 
during the Revolutionary War. In Charles¬ 
town, another suburb, to the north we can see 
Bunker Hill Monument, which marks the spot 
of the battle of Bunker Hill. 

One of the narrowest streets in Boston is 
Washington St., and on this street we find the 
old state house and the famous Old South 
Church. Just around the corner we observe 
a small building on which there is a tablet 
saying, “This is the house in which Benja¬ 
min Franklin was born.” It is interesting to 
walk across the Charlestown bridge along the 
New York road, the one that Paul Revere took 
on his famous ride. 

It is not far from Boston to the shores of the 
Merrimac River on which Lawrence, Lowell, 
Manchester, and Concord are located. In 
these towns on the Merrimac nearly every¬ 
thing you can think of is manufactured — 
pins, toys, tools, locomotives, machinery, 
medicines, and miles of cloth are made every 
day. The farms of New England are not very 
numerous and the soil is not very rich, hence 
so many people are engaged in manufacturing, 
making goods to sell in the West where farms 
are larger and more productive. 

Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and its most famous building is Inde¬ 
pendence Hall with its old Liberty Bell , but 
Wilkesbarre and Scranton are perhaps even 
more interesting because they are in the midst 
of the hard coal and iron region. A coal or 
iron mine is well worth seeing. Some of the 
mines are very deep, and it is interesting to see 
the miners working by the dim light of their 


safety lamps. It is but a 3hort ride from 
Philadelphia to Baltimore, which is a most 
beautiful city. Here millions of oysters are 
packed and shipped every year. 

Every year thousands of people visit Buf¬ 
falo because of its nearness to Niagara 
Falls. It is a delightful ride to take the 
electric car from Buffalo to the Falls and then 
ride for eight or ten miles on the trolley car, 
close to the edge of the mad Niagara River 
below the Falls and past the Whirlpool Rapids 
to Lake Ontario. 

As we enter Chicago coming from Buffalo, 
Detroit, or Cleveland, we are quite likely to 
pass the town of South Chicago, where so 
many steel rails are made. When one reaches 
Chicago he will readily find his way to Michi¬ 
gan Avenue and Lake Front Park, in which 
is the beautiful monument to Gen. John A. 
Logan , and across from this park is to be seen 
the handsome Auditorium Building with its 
immense hall. President Harrison was nomi¬ 
nated in this building, before its completion. 
Going northward we come to the Chicago 
Riv§r, near which stands a wholesale grocery 
house on which is placed a marble tablet say¬ 
ing : “ Here stood the old log building, Fort 
Dearborn.” Many people still live who re¬ 
member when Chicago was a little village, 
and Indians and trappers were its principal in¬ 
habitants. Chicago has no crooked, narrow 
streets and no hills, as the city is built on per¬ 
fectly flat ground. Some streets are over 
twenty miles long, perfectly straight and level 
their entire length. Every visitor should see 
South Park, Drexel Boulevard, and Lincoln 
Park. 

In the southland, in Kentucky, we find 
Mammoth Cave , which extends nine miles 
under ground. It has many rooms, and to go 
through all of them one would have to walk 
two hundred miles. In Virginia is the famous 
Natural Bridge, and farther south we find the 


OUR OWN COUNTRY. 


9 


mammoth fields of sugar cane, cotton, and 
rice, and the beautiful orange groves, while in 
the great state of Texas we find immense 
cattle ranches. We fail to realize that Texas 
is more than four times as large as all the busy 
New England states put together. 

New Orleans is a very interesting city be¬ 
cause it is so different from every other city in 
our country. It is still a very French city, 
many people still speak the French language, 
and you also hear Italian and Spanish as well 
as English. The cemeteries are peculiar be¬ 
cause the dead are not buried at all but are 
placed on top of the ground instead of in 
graves. 

From New Orleans to St. Louis on the Mis¬ 
sissippi River is a beautiful ride. Our steam¬ 
boat goes under the wonderful Eads Bridge, 
one of the finest in the world. Farther up the 
river is the newer Merchants Bridge. St. Louis 
has the finest and largest railroad depot in the 
world. One must not fail to see the many 
parks, statues, fountains, and the famous 
botanical gardens, called Shaw’s Gardens. 

Rushing across the plains to the west, we 
are pulled up long grades into the beautiful 
city of Denver, which is a mile higher than 
any city we have mentioned so far. From 
evdry part of the city we have a delightful 
view of the mountain peaks of the Rockies, 
one of which is Pike’s Peak, with snowy top, 
and which, though seventy-five miles away, 
can be plainly seen. Denver is such a new 
city that none of the old people who now live 
there were born there, because when they were 
little children there was no such town as 
Denver. It is a city of broad, handsome 
streets and most beautiful residences. 

By riding through canons and over mountain 
passes we reach Santa Fe, the capital of New 
Mexico. This is not a fine new city like 
Denver. It is very old and very interesting on 
this account. Most of the people here still 


speak Spanish. A good many Mexican boys 
and girls can be seen playing in the streets. 
Here is an old Spanish church, with an old 
bell made in Spain hundreds of years ago. 

North from Denver a few hundred miles is 
the Yellowstone National Park with its mam¬ 
moth hot springs, geysers, cascades, and great 
forests. On the way to San Francisco we pass 
through Salt Lake City, a very wealthy and 
beautiful city, situated in fertile plains and 
surrounded by mountain peaks from which 
flow the clear melted snow water into the 
Great Salt Lake. 

San Francisco was the first city to use cable 
cars which were first invented for the purpose 
of going up and down these steep hills. The 
buildings are chiefly of wood on account of 
the earthquakes that sometimes occur here. 
San Francisco has the largest hotel in the 
world, and that too, is built of wood. There 
are many Chinese in San Francisco; - a part of 
the city is called Chinatown. As one drives to 
the shore of the ocean, beautiful Golden Gate 
Park is passed. Here the grass is green and 
the flowers bloom even in midwinter. The 
most interesting monument is that built in 
honor of Francis Scott Key , who wrote The 
Star Spangled Banner. Out a little way in 
the bay we may see hundreds of seals on a 
group of rocks. 

Away to the extreme north is Alaska , and it 
is a much larger country than we are apt to 
think. You could put in it all of the New 
England states, together with Texas, Califor¬ 
nia, Illinois, and Ohio, and still have some 
room left. Few of us stop to think that a trip 
along the entire coast of Alaska would prove 
of greater distance than that of all the states 
on the Pacific, Gulf of- Mexico, and Atlantic 
Ocean put together. There are great quanti¬ 
ties of coal and sulphur, also much gold brought 
from Alaska. Immense quantities of fish and 
fish products are also shipped. There are sixty 


10 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


great salmon canneries on the islands and ad¬ 
jacent coast. Millions upon millions of cod 
are also found in the Alaskan waters. Otter, 
beaver, and bear are very numerous and the 
chief business of the natives is that of catch¬ 
ing animals for their furs. California cities 
depend chiefly on Alaska for large supplies of 
ice and considerable lumber. Nowhere in the 
world is the scenery more impressive than in 
this far off northland. 

Of course we have been able to mention only 
a few facts about this great country of ours, 


but these may serve to indicate something with 
reference to the beginning of its history as well 
as its vastness, and the various occupations of 
the people living in different localities, due to 
differences in natural resources, soil, climate, 
and other influences. But with all these dif¬ 
ferences of ancestry and surrounding condi¬ 
tions, we are really one people, living under 
the same flag, and as true American citizens 
are desirous that it shall in all respects become 
a country so great that all the nations of the 
earth will recognize its superiority. 



CHAPTER II. 


OUR NEAR NEIGHBORS. 

V 


Two or three centuries ago the very wisest 
men knew even less about geography than the 
school-boy of ten years knows to-day. A little- 
more than 300 years ago the ambitious king of 
France was anxious to find a new route to 
India that would be shorter than by the way 
of Cape of Good Hope. To this end he gave 
three new and excellent vessels to Jacques Car- 
tier , a fearless navigator, and requested him to 
follow the River St. Lawrence, whose entrance 
he had discovered a few months before, and if 
possible reach India by this route. It will be 
remembered that the James and Hudson rivers 
were also regarded as routes to India and this 
led to their early exploration also. 

Cartier crossed the Atlantic, and after many 
severe and trying experiences, sailed on and 
up the mighty St. Lawrence. After going 
for 300 miles, he came with his vessels to a 
great rock, jutting out into the river, and 
toward this rock there extended a bluff from 
an opposite shore, making the river no more 
than three fourths of a mile wide. 

Cartier must have seen into the future for 
he seemed to realize the importance of this 
rock as the most commanding point on the 


river. He gave up his dreams of the yellow 
gold and pearls of India and laid claim to the 
spot in the name of the King of France. 

Fifty years after this Champlain founded on 
this very spot the city of Quebec. He won all 
the Indians but the Iroquois for his friends. 
His treaties with the Indians were never 
broken. He was a very religious man, and the 
influence of the French over the Indians was 
made much stronger by the arrival of the 
Jesuit priests. Champlain from the first made 
Quebec an intensely religious city, and to this 
day there are still in Quebec five times as 
many churches as are needed for the popu¬ 
lation. 

It is not necessary to repeat the story of the 
French and Indian wars with the English set¬ 
tlers of the colonies and how after five unsuc¬ 
cessful assaults on Quebec it finally fell into 
the hands of the English and how both leaders, 
Wolfe and Montcalm, were slain in that terri¬ 
ble battle on the Heights of Abraham. 

Although belonging to the English, Quebec 
is still thoroughly French in its appearance. 
Every traveler who visits it is reminded of the 
castles and cathedrals of France, for Quebec 


2 



12 


GUIDE POSTS. 


certainly appears like the French cities of the 
seventeenth century. Without question the 
strongest fort in the Old World is on the rock 
of Gibraltar. Because of the advantages of 
Quebec from a military point of view, it is 
called the Gibraltar of America. In looking 
at the strong walls you will at one place notice 
a feather carved in the rock. It is related 
that once, when on a visit to this country, the 
Prince of Wales was reviewing the troops and 
examining the fort, a feather fell from his cap 
and touched this very spot. To preserve this 
in memory an officer carved this feather in the 
rock. This indicates a strong feeling of loyalty 
of Canada to England. 

Quebec is full of convents, the first ones be¬ 
ing erected to afford the nuns an opportunity 
to convert the Indian girls, but now they are 
used as schools. It was in the Ursaline Con¬ 
vent that Montcalm died and his skull is kept 
as a relic by the Ursaline nuns. On the wall is 
a tablet bearing in French the words, “ Honor 
to Montcalm.” In the park-like plains of 
Abraham we may see a beautiful monument 
with this simple inscription, “ Here fell Wolfe 
victorious.” 

At the extreme eastern end of Canada is 
Newfoundland, often called the province of 
fishermen, because the majority of its people 
are engaged in catching and preparing fish and 
fish products for market. There are two dis¬ 
tinct classes of fishermen, the shore fishermen, 
and the deep-sea fishermen. The latter look 
down on the former because the shore fisher¬ 
men are not nearly so skillful, meet so little 
danger, and have such an easy time as com¬ 
pared with the hardships they themselves en¬ 
dure. The deep-sea fishermen fish for cod 
and halibut at the distant banks of Newfound¬ 
land, which are shallow places in the ocean 
formed by upheavals of the sea bottom, the 
filling in of sediment, little fine particles of 
mud from the Gulf of Mexico carried in solu¬ 


tion and deposited by the icy Arctic current 
and the warm Gulf stream coming together. 
Also the icebergs carried southward by the 
Arctic current are full of frozen earth. The 
warm water of the Gulf stream melts them 
and the earth and stone of the iceberg sink to 
the bottom of the sea gradually filling in the 
low places until the Newfoundland banks were 
formed. Because the water is so shallow, 
mussels, clams, oysters, jellyfish, starfish, all 
come here to make their home, and they in 
turn attract the cod and halibut in large 
numbers. 

The two great ocean currents by coming to¬ 
gether produce dense fogs that rise very sud¬ 
denly without a moment’s warning, followed 
by terrible storms and gales that make this 
part of the ocean greatly dreaded. When a 
fishing schooner reaches the banks no time can 
be lost in setting to work, for the bait will not 
keep fresh for more than twelve or fifteen 
days. After this the fish will refuse it. Each 
man keep3 count of the fish he catches by 
cutting out the tongueswhich are counted by 
the captain or skipper, as he is called, who re¬ 
cords the number so that each may receive his 
due share of the profits. Each vessel tries to 
gain for itself the record of the greatest num¬ 
ber of fish caught. One vessel in eighteen 
week3 achieved the record of 900,000 fish 
which sold for $20,500, making after the ex¬ 
penses were deducted, the profits for each of 
the men of the vessel who had suffered untold 
risks and endured many hardships, about $325. 

Let us now get a glimpse of that vast region 
between the Ottawa River on the east to the 
plains of Manitoba on the west. This is the 
great forest region of Canada. Fifty years ago 
it was wholly unexplored. To-day it is the 
scene of the busy and active life of the lum¬ 
bermen whose days are almost as monotonous, 
as perilous, and as pleasureless as those of the 
fishermen of Newfoundland. 


OUR NEAR NEIGHBORS. 


13 


This great forest domain is divided into 
timber limits each ten miles square. Valua- 
tion is placed upon these and they are leased 
to the lumbermen for a certain sum of money 
per year, which is paid to the government. In 
addition, a duty or tax is paid on every log 
that is cut. The first thing is the erection of 
a shanty for the lumbermen and a stable for 
horses and oxen. The cracks are stuffed with 
moss and hay to provide against the terrible 
cold of the coming winter. Next, by the side 
of a river or lake, a roll way is prepared by 
which the logs will be piled until the spring 
freshet, when they will be rafted down to the 
sawmills. When the logs are landed at the 
rollway they are given two marks or brands, 
one indicating their owner, the other their 
value. When the logs are launched in the 
spring they are followed by the lumbermen in 
a flat-bottomed boat to their final destination, 
the sawmill. These mills are usually run by 
steam and the sawdust is used as fuel in the 
monster furnaces under the boilers. About 
one half of the lumber is exported to Great 
Britain. For several years twenty million dol¬ 
lars’ worth of lumber have been taken out of 
the Canadian forests annually. These lumber¬ 
men are the pioneers of a future civilization. 
Where his shanty now stands may in the near 
future be a flourishing town or even a large 
city. Farmers find a good market for their 
produce at the lumbering camps. They 
clear farms near by, and are soon joined 
by blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, and 
merchants, and thus a new settlement is 
begun. 

The Canadian country west of the Rocky 
Mountains is very new. Not many years ago 
the news spread like wildfire that on the banks 
of the Eraser River there were vast deposits of 
gold. The most significant result was the set¬ 
tlement of the country. Farmers came not to 
seek gold but to raise food for the vast army 


of miners, and by means of irrigation have 
made this section of the country famous as an 
agricultural region. Victoria is the capital 
and chief city of British Columbia and is thor¬ 
oughly English. The laborers in British Co¬ 
lumbia are chiefly Indians, just as the negroes 
are in the South, serving as farm hands, lum¬ 
ber drivers, longshoremen on the docks, sail¬ 
ors, teamsters, and coachmen. Many Chinese 
are employed as house servants. The Indians 
in the northwest are chiefly members of the 
Flathead Tribe, so named because each Indian’s 
forehead is flattened by his parents’ strapping 
a board across the front of the skull in infancy. 
These Indians live in long, flat huts instead 
of in wigwams. Their chief food consists of 
dried clams and smoked fish. 

Montreal is the largest and most interesting 
city of all Canada. It is called the island city 
because it is built on one of the largest islands 
of the St. Lawrence. To reach it by river one 
must go through the perilous rapids, the most 
dangerous of which are called the Lachine 
Rapids. If the Indian pilot should turn his 
eyes but once the vessel would be destroyed on 
the sharp, jagged rocks. At Montreal is the 
famous Victoria Bridge a mile and three quar¬ 
ters in length, and is really an iron tube or box 
with solid sides. It is 22 feet high and 16 feet 
wide. It is used only by railroad trains. A 
beautiful view is gained from Mount Royal, 
from which, by the way, the name of the city 
Montreal was derived. On the top of this 
mountain is probably the finest park in this 
country. It cost three million dollars. On the 
same mountain are immense quarries from 
which the building stone of the city is taken. 
The wharves of Montreal are so immense as to 
be next to those of Liverpool in size. The 
freight sheds and other structures on the docks 
are all movable on account of the sudden 
freshets when the ice breaks and gorges in the 
river in the spring. 


14 


GUIDEP0ST8. 


The city is divided into French and English 
quarters Jooated at the east and west ends of 
the city, and there is a spirit of sharp rivalry 
between the two. Many of the cathedral 
churches are like the old churches in the north 
of France. With the exception of the single 
cathedral in Mexico, Montreal has the largest 
church on the American Continent. It is 
called Notre Dame, being patterned after the 
cathedral of the same name in France, and 
can accommodate 16,000 persons. There are 
many monasteries and convents for the care of 
the infirm, poor, and the aged, and for the edu¬ 
cation of the children. 

There is a marked foreign and thoroughly 
un-American air about Montreal. In the 
French quarter the streets are very narrow like 
those of the towns in Normandy. The Eng¬ 
lish quarterns very modern because its people 
are more enterprising and see great possibili¬ 
ties in the development of this city. The Ice 

I 

Carnival in winter is a great event. The Ice 
Palace, built in Dominion Square, is con¬ 
structed entirely of snow and ice frozen into a 
solid mass. It is a dazzling sight in the sun 
by day and when illuminated by electricity at 
night. Snow-shoeing is one of the chief sports 
during the long Canadian winter. The snow- 
shoe is really a necessity in getting over the 
dry mealy, deep snow, and was first invented 
by the Indians. 

But interesting as the Canadian country is we 
must now turn to the quaint country south of 
us. Mexico is so different that we can scarcely 
realize that it is such a near neighbor. In the 
United States people are glad to have a rail¬ 
road built in their midst so as to develop their 
part of the country, but in Mexico the com¬ 
mon people have from the first opposed rail¬ 
road building. They even prayed to their 
gods to protect them against the coming of the 
“ iron horse.” At one town they placed their 
great stone idol on the track, its face turned 


toward the fast approaching train, believing 
that they would thus destroy their dreaded 
foe, and with shouts and songs they waited to 
see the engine broken to pieces. But to their 
consternation the train went by without the 
slightest damage to itself, while the idol was 
shattered and the fragments strewn along the 
track. 

One writer has said that “Mexico has a 
backbone of silver with ribs of gold.” Mining 
of the precious metals has certainly been one 
of the great sources of wealth since their acci¬ 
dental discovery by a group of convicts fleeing 
from justice. In a secluded spot on the moun¬ 
tain side they had made a camp-fire upon the 
rocks and this fire so heated the rocks that 
white veins of silver plainly showed. They 
boldly went to the government and told of 
their discoveries, were pardoned and became 
very wealthy. Much of the silver is found 
mixed with clay, and the clay is tramped upon 
by Indians and mules week after week in the 
most tedious and tiresome manner just as it 
was 300 years ago. It has been impossible to use 
steam power because of the opposition of the 
people. Some of the veins of silver are so deep 
and run so far into the sides of the mountains 
that it takes three hours to get into the mine 
and three to come out, so that only six hours is 
left for actual work. This is quite common 
near Guanojuato. In this city the street-car 
is drawn by mules, the driver always being 
provided with a fish-horn with which to warn 
people off the track. The farmers in this part 
of the country have their fields fenced off with 
the organ pipe cactus which really makes a 
better fence than the ordinary hedge used in 
mr.ny portions of the United States. 

The city of Mexico is built in the form of a 
square, about four miles each way. The 
streets are run from east to west and from 
north to south, and are very straight. From 
any high point near by the city looks like an 


OUR NEAR NEIGHBORS. 


15 


Immense checkerboard, so regularly is it laid 
out. The people differ somewhat from those 
seen in the country districts. * Only a few of 
the women wear the “ reboza,” using instead 
a sort of Spanish lace scarf with which to 
cover a portion of the face. 

On the edge of the Grand Plaza we find the 
great cathedral and the National Palace and 
government buildings. The cathedral is the 
largest church on the American Continent and 
is built in the form of a Greek cross. It took 
over one hundred years to build it, the bare 
walls alone costing over two million dollars. 
Just outside the church are found many frag¬ 
ments of curiously carved stone, taken from 
the bloody altar of Huitzelpolzli, erected by 
the Aztecs and first found by the Spanish ex¬ 
plorer Cortez nearly 400 years ago. Thousands 
upon thousands of captives were offered in 
bloody sacrifice on this heathen altar. In the 
National Museum is found the Calendar Stone 
of the Aztecs, covered with characters so 
strange as to completely baffle the learned 
men who have tried to decipher them. 

The flowers found in the Mexican gardens 
are much larger and more richly colored than 
those of our own country. Calla lilies grow 
wild in the ditches by the roadside, and gera¬ 
niums attain the height of eight feet. 

Three miles from the city of Mexico is the old 
castle of Chapultepec, a portion of which is 
the summer residence of the president, and in 
another portion is the military school for boys, 
something like our own academy at West 
Point. There is a monument erected on the 
high rocky grounds of this imposing castle, to 
the memory of the cadets who fell while 
bravely fighting the U. S. troops during the 
Mexican War, a battle occurring at the very 
foot of the castle. Mount Popocatapetl can be 
plainly seen from here as it projects its vol¬ 
canic summit into the clouds. 

The reason so many of the natives are so 


dirty-looking is because of the scarcity of 
water in this dry country. One must either 
go a long way to the public fountain and wait 
sometimes for hours for a chance to fill his 
water jar, or he must buy it from the water 
carrier, who goes from house to house and is 
clad entirely in leather. The poorer Mexican 
cannot afford to buy water, so he goes dirty. 
But wherever water is free and plentiful, as in 
such cities as Calientes or Aguas, there we 
find the natives very cleanly. Ice is pur¬ 
chased from the Indians, who bring it from 
the snow-clad summits of the mountains. 

It is very difficult for a stranger to accus¬ 
tom himself to the Mexican markets. There 
are no stores similar to ours. You cannot buy 
a broom except from the traveling peddler who 
makes and sells them, and his visits are often 
few and far between. The first-class horse 
cars are painted yellow,and the second-class 
are painted green. A cab has either a red, 
a white, or a blue flag to denote whether it is 
first, second, or third class. To ride in a third- 
class cab costs only half as much as in a first- 
class one. Small donkeys or burros are much 
used to carry heavy loads of wood, hay, or 
water. So large are some of the loads that you 
can see only his hoofs and the tips of his long 
ears as he goes down the road ahead of you. 

In the lowlands of Mexico it is exceedingly 
hot. Here we find maguey in abundance. This 
plant is what we call the century plant in the 
United States. From it is mad z pulque, a very 
mildly intoxicating liquor, which is drunk as 
frequently by the natives as milk is in this 
country. It takes seven years for the maguey 
plant to attain full size and each plant is then 
worth about fifteen dollars. Each one of the 
plants yields about six quarts of sap per day. 
This sap is sweetish and is called “honey- 
water ’’ before it is fermented. It requires 
about fifteen days for it to be fermented into 
pulque. Pulque is such a favorite drink that 


16 


GUIDPPOSTS. 


people of the city of Mexico alone use about 
15,000 barrels every day. But in spite of this, 
very few people indeed are seen intoxicated, 
for the saloons, or pulque shops, are closed by 
law at six o’clock in the evening and the 
drunken go home and sleep off the effects, in¬ 
stead of carousing on the streets until late into 
the night. The maguey plant furnishes food, 
shelter, and fire. The roots are boiled for 
food; the leaves, when spread out and dried, 
are used to shingle the houses; the stalks are 
used as fuel. Sometimes the fresh leaves are 
cut into troughs into which water is poured 
and thus frozen into ice, for the oil evaporat¬ 
ing so rapidly from the cut leaves cools the 
water down to the freezing point, somewhat 
on the same principle as that of the modern 
ice-machine. The fibers of the plant are 
shredded and woven into cloth, twine, and a 
fine quality of rope, or braided into mats. 
From the prickly thorns of the plant,nails and 
needles are made. The thorns are sometimes 
torn from the leaf in such a way as to have a 
long slender fiber attached to them,and so the 
needle is already threaded. The large white 
caterpillar that lives on the plant is cooked for 
food and is regarded as a great delicacy. The 
maguey plant is as useful to the Mexican as is 
the date-palm to the Arab, or the cocoa to the 
South Sea Islander. 


Puebla is in all probability the most impor¬ 
tant manufacturing town of Mexico. Thread, 
cotton cloth, blankets, shawls, crockery, glass, 
matches, and soap are all made here. The 
city is built of granite. Near the city are 
great mountains of the beautiful marble stone 
called Mexican onyx. It is one of the cleanest 
cities in the world and is called the “City of 
Angels.” 

The pyramid of Cholula , a relic of the days 
of the Toltecs, is seven miles from Puebla. It 
was built by captives taken in war. From this 
pyramid a better view is had of the distant 
Popocatapetl than that had in the city of 
Mexico itself. The volcano Orizaba is also 
plainly visible. 

Vera Cruz is in the midst of the hot region 
and here the thermometer registers as high as 
125 or 135 degrees. The air is very damp. 
These lowlands are covered with long banana, 
mango, pepper, and fragrant rose trees. The 
country roundabout is filled with large coffee 
plantations. If the Mexicans were more care¬ 
ful in drying and sorting the coffee bean and 
preparing it for market, it would be equal to 
the best Java, Mocha, or Maracaibo coffee. 
Yellow fever or “yellow jack ” is quite preva¬ 
lent during the winter and spring, and on this 
account many travelers evade the lowlands in 
journeying through Mexico. 


CHAPTER III. 


A FEW GLIMPSES OF EUROPEAN LIFE. 


E v ery one of us as children has read the 
tales of Hans Christian Andersen , the great 
story-teller, born in Denmark in 1805. How 
interested all the children are in the stories, 
“The Ugly Duckling,” “ The Top and Ball,” 
or “The Little Match Girl.” A child who has 
not heard or read some of these stories has 
certainly been sadly neglected indeed. The 
land of Hans Christian Andersen is a very 
interesting little country and the chief city 
is Copenhagen, which means “merchants’ ha¬ 
ven.” It is certainly a city of merchants and 
merchant vessels. Danish butter is famous 
all over Europe for its sweetness and freshness. 
This is because it is so packed as to exclude 
the air, a process which dealers in other coun¬ 
tries have tried to learn without success. A 
great number of the spirited horses used in the 
German army are raised in Denmark. Some 
are imported into the United States. The 
country is remarkably flat, the drainage is 
therefore poor, so that cholera or similar 
scourges are at times prevalent. Copenhagen 
was the home of Ben'tel Thomoaldsen, who as a 
sculptor ranked next to Michael Angelo . He 
and Andersen were intimate friends. Thor- 


waldsen Museum is a worthy monument to the 
great artist. 

The Danes, as well as the Norwegians and 
Swedes are a well-educated and very enter¬ 
prising people, and are very polite. It seems 
queer to us to see the men salute and kiss each 
other on the streets. Nearly every one wears 
gloves which are very cheap, costing about 
thirty-five cents a pair. The Danish people 
are very fond of amusements, being of a lively 
disposition, much like the French of Paris. 
They take great pleasure in the theater, danc¬ 
ing, and cards. 

At Elsinore in the extreme north is the 
Castle of Kronberg, which was the house of 
“Hamlet,” Prince of Denmark, the famous 
character in one of the great plays of Shakes¬ 
peare. The guide in showing visitors through 
the castle even points out the place where 
Hamlet met the ghost of his murdered father. 

Leaving Denmark we find the walled coun¬ 
try of Holland that has been reclaimed foot by 
foot from the raging North Sea. Holland is 
the cleanest country in the world. The houses 
are always brightly painted in red, green, yel¬ 
low, or Dutch blue, and are roofed with brick- 



18 


G UIDEPOS TS. 


colored tiles. They are frequently scrubbed 
from the eaves to the foundation stones and are 
so clean and bright after such a “ bath ” as to 
be quite dazzling. The whole country is dot¬ 
ted with windmills that are used to pump 
water, grind grain, crush stone, and saw wood, 
The Hollander smokes a meerschaum pipe al¬ 
most constantly. Some of them really sleep 
with their pipes in their mouths. As one 
Dutchman put it, “Smoke is our second 
breath.” 

In winter every Hollander, young and old, 
skates on the many frozen canals or home-made 
rivers which traverse the country. You will 
see the old woman with a large, heavy basket 
on her head skating to market. The doctor 
skates to the residence of his patient, the 
tradesman to his place of business, and chil¬ 
dren to their school. Ice boats are used to 
convey loads of hay and wood; having 
large sails they are propelled by the wind. 
There are also “push-chairs” mounted on 
runners and pushed about by servants on 
skates. Every lady has her elegant push¬ 
chair with luxurious cushions and lap robes, 
while her feet are kept warm by means of a 
foot-stove, which is simply a box filled with 
hot coals. In winter these foot-stoves are 
placed in every pew or row of seats in the 
churches and theaters by the janitor, who re¬ 
ceives a penny for each stove. 

Amsterdam is the most important city of 
Holland. It is so low that many of the houses 
are built on piles. Some of the streets are so 
narrow that people in the upper rooms of their 
houses can shake hands across the street below. 
Amsterdam is celebrated as being the best 
place in the world for diamond cutting. The 
famous Kohinoor diamond was cut here. In 
Zaandam the traveler is shown the house in 
which Peter the Great lived in disguise while 
studying ship-building. Haarlem, which is 
ten miles from Amsterdam, has an interesting 


history. The cruel Spanish general, duke of 
Alva, attempted to capture it many years ago. 
After a year and a half of terrible hardship, 
driven by starvation, the Hollanders surren¬ 
dered to the Spanish commander on condition 
that he would spare their lives. The wicked 
duke failed to keep his promise and every man. 
woman, and child was butchered. This is one 
of the bloodiest and most heartless deeds of all 
history. The great church organ in the St. 
Barons Church in Haarlem has been played 
upon by both Handel and Mozart. Just outside 
of this church is the statue of Lorenz Jansen, 
who, the Dutch claim, invented the art of 
printing. Just as he was about to reveal to the 
world his great invention, it is said the blocks 
were stolen by a servant who was the brother 
of Gutenberg , who, the Germans claim, in¬ 
vented printing. 

The Hollanders like many other nations of 
Northern Europe believe that the stork brings 
good luck. On many low cottages you will see 
placed old cartwheels, which are supposed to 
be the favorite foundation of the stork on 
which to build a nest. These cartwheels are 
placed there to induce the stork to build, 
and thus bring good luck to the household. 

Leyden is famous as being the retreat of 
the Pilgrim Fathers who fled to Holland when 
persecuted in England three hundred years 
ago. During the cruel war of the Spaniards 
upon Holland the people of Leyden succeeded 
in driving away the enemy by cutting the 
dikes. As a reward for their brave defense, 
William the Silent offered to release them for¬ 
ever from their taxes, but the people said they 
preferred a university. That is how Leyden 
University came to be founded. 

Let us now take a glimpse of the peasant 
life of Germany. In the southern part of Ger¬ 
many we find the Black Forest which in places 
is so dark and gloomy that the sun’s rays can¬ 
not enter. Many of the German legends of 


A FEW GLIMPSES OF EUROPEAN LIFE. 


19 


goblins, giants, witches, and fairies are natu¬ 
rally associated with this weird region. The 
peasants of the Black Forest, both men and 
women, work on their small farms during the 
summer. In the winter they cut wood in the 
Black Forest. These wood choppers have in¬ 
vented most of the mythical tales and ghost 
stories of the Black Forest. The people spend 
much of their time in wood carving, and they 
do this with great skill. Not only do they carve 
many quaint toys, but they also make beauti¬ 
ful wooden clocks that are famous the world 
over. Many of the women help to fill the 
family stocking with pennies by plaiting straw 
bonnets to be sold in the markets at Nurem¬ 
berg, Freiburg, or Munich. The common 
birds of the woods are caught and caged by the 
peasants, and with much pains trained by them 
to sing in imitation of the violin music which is 
an essential feature of every Black Forest home. 
Day after day these bird lessons are given, and 
when they thoroughly learn their lessons they 
are sold in the neighboring city. 

In Tyrol the young men are mostly hunters 
while the girls tend the flocks. The principal 
game is the hare, chamois, grouse, and an oc¬ 
casional deer that breaks out of the Royal 
Game preserves. The girls during the sum¬ 
mer, while watching the cattle, live in a little 
hut or chalet at the top of the Alps. Great 
heavy stones are placed on the roof to keep 
them from being carried away by storms. In 
the early twilight of the evening it is interest¬ 
ing as you look at the beautiful mountains 
and valleys to hear the shepherd girls jodeling 
in quaint rhythm in response to a similar call 
from a more or less distant chalet. On Satur¬ 
day evenings they group together and have 
dances on the short green grass to the tune of 
the zither or flute. It is a gay looking com¬ 
pany, the girls being dressed in bright colors, 
while the young hunter who comes to join in 
the festivities has on his green jacket with 


large silver buttons and short kniclierbocker 
trousers, and a hat with the inevitable tuft of 
grouse feathers or chamois beard fastened to 
its crown. 

These peasants are earnest Roman Catholics. 
The small Bavarian village of Ober-Ammergau 
has become famous on account of 'the Passion 
Play , a religious festival held there every ten 
years. A sore plague once smote the village. 
The peasants entered a vow that they would 
act out the sufferings and death of Christ 
every ten years, if the visitation of the plague 
would only be removed. Their prayer was 
favorably answered and the peasants still keep 
their word. People from all over the globe 
come to witness these solemn exercises and de- 4 
votions. 

Let us now notice the very different country 
of Spain. It seems like a piece of Africa that 
had been given to Europe by mistake, it is 
so different from all the rest of Europe. Its 
homes are different, its people are different, 
its history is different. More than a thousand 
years ago the Saracens or Moors crossed from 
Africa to Gibraltar, conquered the Christians 
of Spain and settled there. They built their 
cities in the Oriental style of architecture and 
erected mosques or chapels to Allah, the god 
of the Mohammedans. Europe owes much to 
the Moors, for they preserved learning during 
the Dark Ages. 

Just before the discovery of America, the 
Christians, ,who had scattered in the north of 
Spain, opened war on the Moors for the pos¬ 
session of Spain. Castle after castle was cap¬ 
tured by the united forces of the Christians 
and at last the only city left to the Moors, 
Granada , fell, and the beautiful Alhambra, the 
celebrated Moorish palace, fell into the hands 
of the enemy, and Ferdinand and Isabella 
rode into Granada as King and Queen of 
Spain. 

All Spanish cities are literally filled with 


20 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


beggars. Even strong, able-bodied men are 
licensed by the government to beg and are the 
most disagreeable feature of Spain. They are 
found in front of all the cathedrals and hotels 
where visitors, whom they waylay, torment, 
and curse, are apt to pass. They are a most 
insolent lot and are a burning disgrace to the 
country. 

The water-carrier is as common in Spain as 
in Mexican cities. Few homes in the cities 
even are supplied with water. The water- 
carrier straps his jars on a donkey or uses a 
wheelbarrow and goes to the fountains. When 
the jars are filled he goes from house to house 
selling his supply. The poorer people carry 
their own water from the mouth of the aque¬ 
duct, but the richer people pay from 25 to 50 
cents a month for the service rendered by the 
water-carrier. The daily supply of milk is 
obtained from goats driven from house to 
house and are milked “ to order ” by the serv¬ 
ants of each house, according to the needs of 
the household for the day. Certainly the milk 
ought to be fresh and unwatered. The streets 
are also filled with fruit venders, who are 
either young girls or old men, who have failed 
to secure a beggar’s license. At Christmas- 
tide this crowd is made larger by the advent 
of the gypsy girls, who sell roasted chestnuts, 
and the turkey dealers. The turkeys are driven 
alive to the market and are whipped into line 
by the owner who drives them just as an 
American farmer would drive hogs or cattle. 

Near Cordova there are many olive orchards 
which are a source of much wealth. The 
orchards must be closely watched because of 
thieves who wait outside with their donkeys 
to steal the fruit if opportunity is afforded. 
Cock fights and bull fights are the principal 
amusement of the Spanish people. They are 
as popular as ever, and ladies and gentlemen 
of high position in society are regular attend¬ 
ants upon this bloodthirsty sport. The Span¬ 


ish bull fight is an outgrowth of the old time 
Roman gladiatorial contests. 

Madrid , the capital city of Spain, is made 
beautiful by fine parks, gardens, and carriage 
drives. It is celebrated for its famous art 
gallery, and its museum containing large col¬ 
lections of Moorish and Christian weapons. 

Cadiz is literally a snow white city built on 
a narrow peninsula running into the sea, on 
which there are many salt marshes. The 
water is evaporated, the salt is heaped up in 
huge piles, and shipped in the many vessels 
near at hand to various* portions of Europe 
and Africa. 

The most historic part of all Europe is that 
along the Rhine. The history of the Rhine 
country is really the history of Europe. 
Caesar fought on its banks, the Goths and 
Huns here fought each other and the more 
civilized people of their time, and on these 
same banks, once lorded over by robber chief¬ 
tains, occurred the fierce contests of Napoleon 
during the late Franco-Prussian War. The 
Rhine is full of suggestions of the past. The 
ruined castles and towns could tell many an 
interesting tale of ancient conquest. Listen 
to the stories of princes fighting with dragons, 
of imprisoned princesses, and of the curious 
miracles of the early church. Strasburg is at 
the southern end of the Rhineland and is fa¬ 
mous for its cathedral. It contains the won¬ 
derful Strasburg Clock. The spire of the 
Strasburg Cathedral is the tallest in Europe. 

About seventy miles farther north is Heidel¬ 
berg , a most charming university town. The 
famous Heidelberg Castle is on the summit of 
the hill and beautiful vineyards fill the val¬ 
leys. Heidelberg Castle is the finest ruin in 
Europe, excepting possibly the Alhambra in 
Spain. In its olden days it was both a palace 
and a fort. It was many times besieged, and 
twice surrendered to the French. In one of 
the cellars is the huge Heidelberg tierce. It 


A FEW GLIMPSES OF EUROPEAN LIFE. 


21 


is a gigantic wine cask capable of holding 
eight hundred hogsheads of wine. When the 
French captured the castle they thought the 
tierce was full of wine and made many unsuc¬ 
cessful attempts to open it. Hatchet marks 
are still plainly visible on its sides. 

At all hours of the day many students of the 
university, wearing queer looking caps, can be 
seen on the streets. Many of the students 
have revolting scars gained in sword duels. 
There is an inn near the town where the peo¬ 
ple meet and drink and still have their sword 
duels. 

At Mainz we find a tower to Gutenberg, the 
supposed inventor of printing, and soon we 
come to Bingen, “Fair Bingen on the Rhine,” 
with its celebrated “Mouse Tower,” which 
reminds one of the old story connected there¬ 
with. Farther down on the Rhine we come 
to the Lorelei, and the dangerous whirlpool 
with its many echoes. Still farther down we 
come to Drachenfels or Dragon’s Height. 
Once it is said a dragon lived up the side of 
the mountain. Siefried, the brave German, 
is said to have -slain it here after a terrible 
conflict. The blood of the dragon soaked into 
the soil and to this day the grapes grown on 
this hill are blood red instead of white as those 
of most of the Rhine vineyards. Bonn , a few 
miles below, is the birthplace of Beethoven and 
also the seat of a great university. Next 
comes Cologne with its great cathedral begun 
500 years ago. Among the precious relics of 
the cathedral are the bones of the three wise 
men who came to worship Christ. St. Ur¬ 
sula’s Church is also in Cologne. Before her 
marriage St. Ursula, accompanied by 10,000 
maidens, is said to have taken a trip to Rome. 
On her return, she with all her attendants 
were slain by an army of Huns, near Cologne. 
The bones were collected and placed in this 
church and they make a ghastly sight. 

Space will not permit us to speak of the 


queer people of Lapland and Finland on the 
extreme north, sunny Italy, Greece, and Mo¬ 
hammedan Turkey on the south, or the largest 
country in the world, Russia. We have simply 
endeavored to give the reader a picture of a 
few of the interesting spots on the continent of 
Europe. 

Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg are familiar 
to all readers, as the wealthiest cities of Ger¬ 
many,— Berlin , the capital of the federated 
German Empire, Dresden , the great art center, 
and Hamburg , the greatest commercial city on 
the continent. At Berlin are the castles, the 
large university with its 7,000 students, the 
many museums and libraries, statues to the 
great characters who have made German his¬ 
tory from Frederick the Great to William II. At 
Dresden is the celebrated art gallery greater 
than that of Paris or Madrid. The most prized 
picture is the wonderful Sistine Madonna of 
Raphael. The government of Saxony has 
refused one million dollars for this peerless 
painting. 

Paris the Beautiful is a delightful rendezvous 
for every traveler. So many Americans visit 
it that we are quite familiar with it. Its 
scrupulously clean streets are admired by all. 
They are kept clean by money raised from 
taxing signs, lanterns, balconies, and window 
glass in the houses. All telephone and tele¬ 
graph wires are underground and not permit¬ 
ted to mar the beauty of the streets. The 
Louvre is famous because of the statues and 
paintings it contains. The most celebrated 
statue is that of Venus de Milo. Here you 
find paintings by Raphael, Ruben, Vandyck, 
and others. At the Luxembourg only paintings 
of living artists are exhibited. In Paris can 
be seen the obelisk of Luxor, brought from the 
ruins of the ancient city of Thebes in Egypt. In 
Place de la Concord the guillotine was set up. 
Here Louis XVI, Madame Roland, and Marie 
Antoinette gave up their lives. Lavoisier, the 


22 


GUIDE POSTS. 


great chemist, was also executed here, as well 
as Danton and Robespierre, the revolutionists. 
The Vendome Column has an interesting his¬ 
tory and really tells of the changes of the last 
hundred years. In fact, every inch of Paris 


is historic, as we have seen. The same is true 
with reference to other parts of Europe, the 
land from which nearly all our ancestors have 
come, and to which we are really drawn by 
very strong ties. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE OLDEST CONTINENT. 

V 


Asia affords the most interesting opportunity 
for study of all the continents. Ancient civil¬ 
ization grew here to a high degree of perfection 
while the world was yet young. Here and in 
Egypt the first steps in the progress of the 
world’s development were really taken. The 
variety of its people, their peculiar customs, 
their high mental and moral development must 
impress everyone with broadened views of the 
world. It is fortunate for us Americans that 
so much was achieved in Asia a thousand 
years ago, for the greatness of our country lies 
chiefly in the fact that we are the heir of all 
the years past, and have had the advantage of 
all the thought and action of centuries, a capi¬ 
tal upon which to begin our national life. 

Not the least interesting of Asiatic countries 
is China. Canton is the great city of Southern 
China. It is surrounded by great rice fields on 
all sides but one. On the river in front of the 
city are boats of every description, chief of 
which are the houseboats on which 100,000 
men, women, and children live the year round. 
In these houseboats the various members of 
the family work at their trades. The children 
playing on these houseboats have ropes fast¬ 


ened about their waists and when they fall 
into the river the mothers easily rescue them. 
Like most Eastern cities, Canton is surrounded 
with high walls. In the narrow workshops on 
the filthy streets you can see people engaged 
in making paper umbrellas, Chinese lanterns, 
fans, ivory ornaments, and weaving silk. One 
street is usually given to a single trade; for 
example, the working and selling of jade , the 
diamond or precious stone of the Chinese. It 
has been known for nearly 3,000 years and is 
regarded as the emblem of many virtues. A 
necklace of rich, dark-green jade beads wili 
cost $6,000. The dirtiest and most uninviting 
streets bear very enchanting names. You find 
them called by such names as “Everlasting 
Love,” “Eternal Joy,” “RefreshingBreezes,” 
“Peaceful Rest,” and such ridiculous names 
as “One Hundred Grandsons.” There are no 
shop windows, for the entire front of the shop 
is open. 

More than 400 years ago 'printing was in¬ 
vented in China and yet there are scarcely 
more than a dozen newspapers and not a single 
school or educational journal published in the 
whole country. 



24 


OUIDEPOSTS. 


The religions of China are an interesting 
feature. Confucius is really the patron saint 
of China and he was indeed a great man of 
master mind. He lived 500 years before Christ 
and his name is sacred to all true Chinamen. 
Buddha is worshiped by a great mass of people. 
Then there are the household gods which are 
mere ancestral tablets set in the walls and are 
worshiped daily. 

There are many curious customs prevalent 
in China. When two friends meet each shakes 
hands with himself instead of with each other 
as we would do. We would remove our hat 
as a mark of regard but the Chinaman keeps 
his on for the same purpose. Women never 
go shopping in China. The merchant carries 
the goods to the house where purchases may 
be made. Under no circumstances will a 
Chinese gentleman ride in the same carriage 
with his wife. Only the very aged men ever 
think of carrying a cane or walking stick. 

The laws of China are rigorous. Even dress 
is regulated by decree. If it is officially an» 
nounced that the emperor has put on his sum¬ 
mer hat every official must also lay off his 
winter garb no matter if he is in the extreme 
north where summer clothing is still made 
extremely uncomfortable by the cold weather. 
Very little traveling can be done in the in¬ 
terior of China because of the intense hatred 
of the people for foreigners, since losing so 
much by the aggression of foreign powers, 
and also because of the utter absence of any¬ 
thing like hotels or inns. There are some few 
telegraph lines in China, but they were at 
first pulled down by the infuriated natives. 
By proclaiming terrible punishments for the 
offenders, Li Hung Chang succeeded in pre¬ 
venting further damage. Li Hung Chang 
is the most distinguished man in China and 
was for years the warm personal friend of our 
own General Grant. Pekin is without doubt 
the oldest city in China. It is so old that no 


record goes back to the time of its foundation. 
It is generally believed to have existed even at 
the time when the Israelites crossed the Red 
Sea. One part of Pekin is called the “For¬ 
bidden City,’’ where the emperor lives, and 
which but very few people are permitted to 
enter. The soldiers who captured Pekin in 
1900 were the first foreigners to enter the 
“Forbidden City.” Another portion is called 
the “ Tartar City,” and is occupied by the 
nobility and soldiers. The remaining part of 
the city is for the common people and foreign¬ 
ers, and is designated “ Chinese City.” 

In Pekin is the great examination hall where 
every three years young men are examined 
for high positions in government service in all 
parts of the empire. Each student is put into 
a little stall or cell where he writes for three 
days the essays and poems that constitute his 
examination. With him into his cell he takes 
a little stove on which to make his tea, and 
sufficient food to last during the examination. 
What would the average high school boy in 
America think of this? Every traveler is in¬ 
terested in the Great Wall of China which has 
rightly been called one of the wonders of the 
world. The three chief products of China are 
tea , silk, and bamboo . Bamboo is put to an end¬ 
less variety of uses. From it is made every¬ 
thing from a pencil-box to a house, buckets, 
chairs, fish rods, musical instruments, bird 
cages, bellows for blowing the fire, fans, meas¬ 
uring cups, chop-sticks, etc. 

The tea trade is one of the great sources of 
income for the Chinese people and gives em¬ 
ployment to a large number of laborers. Dutch 
traders learned the habit of drinking tea from 
the Chinese and taught it to the Western 
world. 

Rearing of silkworms is probably the oldest 
industry of China. The “ cocoon festival ” is 
one of the great events of the Chinese year. 
Legend says that in olden time the empress 


THE OLDEST CONTINENT. 


25 


discovered the use of the silkworms, and so 
they style her the “Goddess of the Silkworm.” 

Japan , the Sunrise Kingdom or Chrysan¬ 
themum Empire, as it is often called, is a 
more progressive country than China. Though 
shut off from the rest of the world, the Japa¬ 
nese developed a civilization far in advance of 
that of the Chinese, Hindus, and other Ori¬ 
ental people. It is regarded as the most inter¬ 
esting country in the world. Until 1854, when 
Commodore Perry negotiated a treaty with 
Japan, little was known of this charming 
country. Japan is made up of islands dotted 
with high mountains and volcanoes, and is 
frequented by earthquakes. The country is 
as large as the coast line from Newfoundland 
to Florida. Less than one eighth of the land 
is cultivated. Yokohama, with its fine harbor 
is the Liverpool of Japan. From here a good 
view of the sacred mountain of Fujiyama can- 
be obtained — a mountain dear to every loyal 
Japanese. One of the chief means of travel is 
the “ jinrikisha.” Commodore Perry took to 
Japan, as a present from the President of the 
United States, a perfectly working toy loco¬ 
motive and a miniature telegraph line. As a 
result, much interest was aroused, and to-day 
railroad and telegraph lines are quite common 
in Japan. Tokio is the great educational and 
political center. Here are located the Imperial 
University and the palace of the Mikado. 

No product of Japanese art is more beautiful 
than its lacquered ware. Lacquer is derived 
from the tree of the same name by a secret 
process. A Japanese may own many fine 
pictures but only one is hung up in his room 
at a time. The gardens are beautiful and the 
chrysanthemum is abundant, it being the na¬ 
tional flower of Japan. The most important 
holiday is New Year’s day, whieh is celebrated 
by every one. Houses are cleaned for the oc¬ 
casion and everybody tries to have new clothes 
to wear for the first time on this day. The 


girls have a festival day known as the “ feast of 
dolls ; ” that of the boys is the “ feast of flags.” 

The first newspaper was printed in 1871, and 
now the newsboy is a familiar sight on the 
streets of Japanese cities. What a contrast 
between Japan and China in regard to the 
news of the outside world! 

Osaka is the Venice of Japan and its old 
castle is of extreme interest, the stones of the 
castle even rivaling in size those of the Great 
Pyramids of Egypt. In Yeddo one of the 
features is its courthouse modeled after the 
capitol at Washington. Coal is found in 
abundance in North Japan, the output being 
as great as that of Great Britain. Some of it 
is shipped to California and Oregon. The ab¬ 
origines of Japan are the interesting Ainos and 
they live much like our American Indians. 
They worship the wild bear and in all their 
villages are many poles mounted with bear 
skulls. 

The great central peninsula is occupied by 
India. Only as large as the portion of the United 
States east of the Mississippi, it has a population 
of 800,000,000 and is thus one of the most 
thickly settled countries of the world. The 
Ganges is the principal river, is the source of 
great fertility, and is to India what the Nile is 
to Egypt. The interior of a portion of India 
is a mass of jungles and these are full of all 
kinds of animal life, and many an American 
boy has had his attention riveted to an inter¬ 
esting narrative of a hunting trip in the Indian 
jungle where elephants, leopards, lions, tigers, 
and monkeys abound. 

There are four principal castes in India — 
Brahmins, warriors, merchants, and slaves. 
No Hindu has the power to change from the 
caste into which he is born. A member of the 
higher caste is not even allowed to touch the 
food cooked by one of the lower caste. A low- 
caste man dare not even let his shadow fall on 
a Brahmin when walking the streets. 


26 


GUIDE POSTS. 


Among the most interesting natives are the 
Parsees, who are descendants of the old sun 
worshipers of Persia. They do not worship 
idols but they keep sacred fire continually burn* 
ing in their temples. The Parsees do not bury 
their dead for that would defile the earth; fire 
is too sacred to burn their bodies; they cannot 
be sunken into the ocean because water is the 
emblem of purity and cannot be defiled, so 
the dead body is carried to the top of a high 
tower to be devoured by vultures. 

In Bombay there is a curious hospital. It is 
called the Jain Hospital. The Jains hold all 
animal life sacred and built this hospital for 
aged and infirm animals. Everything can be 
found here from a sick cat to a lame cow. A 
Jain will strain all the water he drinks for 
fear he will destroy some tiny, unseen, minute 
animal. India is the land of many such queer 
religious customs and is certainly the land of 
idols. The first locomotive was regarded as 
an evil spirit which some white man had 
found, and the natives crowded about it and 
worshiped it. 

In the hotels of India only bedsteads are 
provided and the traveler must carry his own 
mattress and beddings. Before railroads, travel 
was chiefly by means of bullock carts. North¬ 
ern India has had its temples destroyed by 
Mohammedan invasion. Southern India is 
more typical of ancient Hindu life. In all 
parts of India you find wandering magicians, 
conjurors, and snake charmers. The sleight-of- 
hand tricks of the Hindu magicians are per¬ 
fectly marvelous. Calcutta is the city of pal¬ 
aces and the seat of government. It is also a 
great commercial center. It is progressive 
and modern, having several daily newspapers 
printed in English. One of the most interest¬ 
ing events of recent times in India was the 
Sepoy Rebellion. 

The little country of Afghanistan to the 
northwest of India has been the cause of 


much warfare from the earliest times. Alex¬ 
ander the Great at one time conquered it and 
added thereby to his great fame. 

Arabia is mentioned in the oldest historical 
records, and its coasts were visited by the 
earliest navigators, yet its interior has been 
unknown because of the great desert. Arabia 
can probably claim to be the original country 
of the camel and the horse, two most impor¬ 
tant animals. How the Arab loves his horse! 
It lives in his hut with him, is fed from his 
own hand with dates and camel’s milk, and is 
petted by his children. The intelligence of 
the Arabian horse is certainly marvelous. 

The desert tribes are known as Bedouins and 
are fierce and quarrelsome. Mohammed , the 
founder of the great religion, was born at 
Mecca, to which place pilgrimages are made 
by countless thousands of his devotees. 

Leaving Aden we may set sail on the Red 
Sea to the Gulf of Suez where we enter the 
Suez Canal, through which we can pass in 
about twenty hours, as the vessels must go 
slowly to prevent the washing away of the 
sandy banks of the canal. The tolls paid by 
the vessels passing through the canal amount 
to millions of dollars annually. 

Soon we come to Port Said where we embark 
for Palestine , the land of Bible History. The 
first point is Jaffa, the landing-place for Jeru¬ 
salem. In Jaffa is shown the place where 
stood the house of Simon the tanner, where 
Peter saw the wonderful vision related in the 
Bible. We can now go from Jaffa to Jerusalem 
by railroad. Among the beautiful flowers by 
the roadside is the “Rose of Sharon.” Soon 
is reached a high plateau on which stands the 
most famous city of the world — Jerusalem. 
Since the time of Abraham there has been a 
city on this spot. Here Solomon built the 
great temple. Here is the center of the life 
and teachings of Jesus Christ, and just outside 
the city wall he was crucified. Here we may 


THE OLDEST CONTINENT\ 


27 


find many market stalls where everything is 
sold as related in “Ben-Hur.” Here we can 
purchase a pin or a pistol, a cucumber or a 
camel, a dove or a donkey, a man or a melon, a 
house or a horse. Near the hotel is the “ Pool 
of Hezekiah ” by which we pass on our way to 
the temple. Near by is the Via Dolorosa, the 
road to Calvary. Near the city is the Mount 
of Olives on the eastern slope of which is nestled 
the village of Bethany. 

Going to the north of Palestine we find the 
little town of Nazareth , the home of Christ. 
Here is the same public fountain from which 
he drank in his boyhood. 

Among other interesting portions of Asia is 
bleak Siberia of which travelers have told us 
so much. Through this barren country passes 
the Great Siberian Railway. Siberia is an im¬ 
mensely large country. It would contain all 
of the United States and then leave room for 
all the European countries except Russia. 

Mention should also be made of the Hermit 
Kingdom of Korea , desired by Russia, China, 
and Japan; of Indo-China, with its Burmese 
and Karens. At Rangoon, the principal city, 
are immense lumber yards where the work of 


handling logs is done chiefly Dy elephants. 
Rangoon is also the largest rice port of the 
whole world. In Burmah , it is said, the sweet¬ 
est toned bells are manufactured. They do 
not as a rule have iron tongues, but are struck 
with a curiously shaped wooden hammer. 
Siam which adjoins Burmah is the most im¬ 
portant country of Indo-China. It is extremely 
progressive and advanced, having in its 
chief city, Bangkok, all modern improvements 
found in American cities. 

Enough has been said to indicate the great 
extent, rich history, and various peoples of 
Asia, and to show to us that in the much 
despised Orient was first begun the onward 
march of civilization that is rapidly filling the 
whole earth. Think only of the beginning of 
the sciences of mathematics, astronomy, chem¬ 
istry, and physics, and you will have an idea of 
the great learning of its people in the earliest 
times. The many portions of the country now 
regarded as benighted in early times conserved 
all learning which has become our heritage 
and has made life in our own country at the 
dawn of this twentieth century so well worth 
living, so full of joy and comfort. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE DARK CONTINENT. 


Africa differs so much from the other con¬ 
tinents of the world, and so much concerning 
it remains unknown that it is called the “ Dark 
Continent.” We are constantly learning 
something new about this great triangle of 
land and its peculiar peoples, so that it is 
really the most interesting of all the conti¬ 
nents. 

It is at the same time the oldest and the 
newest of countries. The people of Egypt are 
the oldest of which we have any record as a 
nation. When Abraham , the patriarch of 
earliest Bible times, came into Egypt from the 
land of Canaan , he found a settled people 
under a well-established form of government; 
people skilled in the rudimentary arts; people 
who kept records of the interesting facts in 
their country’s history by means of picture 
writing. At one time Egypt supplied all the 
paper used in the ancient world, but now the 
papyrus, the plant from which the first paper 
was made, is almost extinct. Many of the 
plants first known to history as valuable for 
food and useful for man, such as barley, leeks, 
onions, beans, and flax, seem to have originated, 
[ 28 ] 


and certainly were first cultivated in Egypt. 
To these plants in modern times have been 
added the cotton plant, tobacco, and sugar¬ 
cane. As to animals, camels were known in 
the earliest times. Horses have always been 
used, and the Egyptian oxen were celebrated 
for their utility in transporting great loads. 

So ancient are the Egyptian arts that no one 
attempts to tell of the time when pottery mak¬ 
ing and the mixing of colors for decorative 
purposes, as well as the art of tanning leather, 
were first known to the Egyptians. The pyra¬ 
mids show great engineering and architectural 
skill, and the method used for preserving the 
dead by means of embalming cause the people 
of to-day to marvel at their success. 

No object in Egypt is of greater interest 
than the Sphinx. The Sphinx was hewn out 
of the solid rock and has a human head on the 
body of a lion. It is in a recumbent posture 
with the forepaws stretched forward, and the 
head-dress resembles an old-fashioned wig. 
The largest sphinx is that near the group of 
pyramids at Gizeh. The body is monolithic, 
but the paws, which are thrown out fifty feet 



THE HARK CONTINENT. 


29 


in front, are constructed of masonry. In 
its commanding expression, its strength and 
dignity, the whole face pervaded with calm¬ 
ness and power, the eyes and deep intelligence, 
and with lips smiling recognition to the brill¬ 
iance of the rising sun, this mighty “watch- 
tower,” as it name signifies, impersonated 
light after darkness, fertility on guard against 
the sterility of the desert. 

The employments of carpentry, boat-build¬ 
ing, working in leather , and glass-blowing, as 
well as pottery-making, originated in Egypt, 
and were famous among the nations of the 
ancient world as early as 1820 B. C. They 
introduced the process of gold beating, work¬ 
ing in iron, using the bellows, and weaning. 

To understand Egypt it is necessary to know 
the Nile, not only the most famous, but the 
most marvelous of rivers of the globe. The 
following Egyptian inscription is frequently 
found: “All things created by Heaven, given 
by earth, brought by the Nile from its mys¬ 
terious source.” The Egyptians made the 
15th of September their New Year’s Day 
because it was the time of the highest flood in 
the Nile. It has been said of the Nile that 
everything depends upon the river; the soil, 
the produce of the soil, the species of the ani¬ 
mals which it bears, the birds which it feeds; 
and that for this reason the Egyptians placed 
the river among their gods, giving it the face 
of a man with regular features and a vigorous 
portly body, such as befits a man of high 
lineage. 

Passing from Egypt we go through the 
sparsely populated country of Tripoli, ruled 
over by Turkey, and soon reach Tunis , whose 
people are chiefly engaged in raising fine 
camels and bees, and in securing the coral 
that abounds in its coast waters. Ancient 
Carthage, the famous city of history, is located 
on the north coast of Tunis. 

Still further to the west lies the mountain¬ 


ous country of Algeria , which is now owned by 
the French. Since 1871 it has been used ex¬ 
tensively to supply homes to the people of 
Alsace and Lorraine , who wish to preserve their 
French nationality instead of becoming Ger¬ 
man subjects. Morocco is the extreme north¬ 
western state of Africa and is the interesting 
home of the ancient race of Moors, an intel¬ 
lectual and handsome race of people, but 
renowned for their cruelty, revengefulness, 
and bloodthirstiness. They still practice their 
much-dreaded piracy to a limited extent. An 
interesting feature in traveling through Mo¬ 
rocco is the great number of birds, and every 
town has its colonies of storks. The profusion 
of insect life is a pest to the traveler. Along 
the coast many of the people are engaged in 
mackerel and lobster fishing. Morocco has 
few roads and bridges, no postal system, and no 
stable form of government, so that its com¬ 
mercial interests have never been developed, 
as they might be under good control. Be¬ 
cause of this backward condition as com¬ 
pared with other states on the coast of the 
Mediterranean, Morocco is called the “China 
of the West.” 

Abyssinia , to the south of Egypt, is one of 
the oldest monarchies of the world, and has 
been governed from ancient times by an em¬ 
peror. In traveling through Abyssinia we 
find that the people belong to several races, 
but the majority of them have the well-formed, 
straight, regular and handsome features of 
the Caucasian race, but they are almost black 
in color. They are in fact members of this 
race, and thus we can see the error of speak¬ 
ing of the “ Caucasian or white race,” as is so 
frequently done in school books. The people 
of Abyssinia are engaged in almost continual 
warfare and are rude and barbarous. 

Two other independent states occupied a 
part of South Africa until the late war be¬ 
tween the British and the Boers, which broke 


30 


O UIBEPOS T8. 


out in October, 1899,—The South African Re¬ 
public (also known as the Transvaal because 
it lies across the Yaal River), and the Orange 
Free State. These two countries were an¬ 
nexed to the British Empire in 1900, under the 
names, respectively, of Yaal River Colony and 
Orange River Colony. Orange Free State was 
founded in 1835 by Dutch settlers from Cape 
Colony, and became independent about twenty 
years later. In the meantime a portion of the 
Boers went still farther north, crossing the 
Yaal River, where they founded the city of 
Pretoria. In 1877 the Boers called upon the 
British to help them repel the native Africans 
with whom they were almost constantly at war. 
The British helped the Boers, but claimed the 
country as pay for their trouble. The Boers 
rebelled in 1880 and defeated the British at 
Majuba Hill. Four years later they were 
declared independent, but the British claimed 
suzerainty over them. This led to the recent 
war. 

The discovery of the Congo River led to the 
foundation of an independent state in the cen¬ 
ter of the great continent. The obvious 
advantages of this splendid water way in the 
opening up of the interior districts led to the 
formation at Brussels in 1878 of a “Society 
for the Exploration of the Upper Congo,” un¬ 
der the patronage of the Emperor of Belgium, 
Leopold II. Under the auspices of this society 
Stanley returned to Africa in 1879 to open up 
the river and form a free state under Euro¬ 
pean auspices. This state is known to-day as 
the Congo Free State. 

Excepting the few small states in the cen¬ 
tral Sudan there are no other independent 
states in Africa except the one which was 
founded as a home for American slaves and 
their descendants long before the Emancipa¬ 
tion Proclamation abolishing slavery in the 
United States was enacted. It is called Liberia. 
At first the slaves were taken there in large 


numbers, so that there are now in the country 
about 18,000 descendants of American negroes, 
with 1,050,000 aboriginal inhabitants. 

We have said that Africa is at the same 
time the oldest and the newest of Countries, 
and we have seen that it embraced the oldest 
historical nation. On the other hand, the 
forests in the heart of Africa are still so new 
and unbroken that in many cases we know 
very little about the people who inhabit them 
except from the accounts furnished by the ex¬ 
plorer Stanley , who conducted an expedition in¬ 
to this region. Though Stanley marched for at 
least six months in the very heart of Africa we 
must remember that the country in parts was 
almost impenetrable and his rate of travel at 
first was only from two to ten miles a day. 
The people inhabiting this interior forest 
country opposed his advance, and he was espe¬ 
cially obstructed by the terrible attacks of a 
diminutive, dwarf-like people known as Pyg¬ 
mies, who fought with small but deadly poi¬ 
soned arrows. 

While the great interior districts have been 
explored only to a limited extent, still the ter¬ 
ritory is claimed as part of the possessions of 
the great European nations either as direct 
colonial possessions or as protectorates. The 
principal countries having possessions in Africa 
are Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, 
Portugal, Italy, and Turkey. 

The ancient state of Egypt is tributary to 
the Sultan of Turkey, as are also Tripoli, Fez- 
zan, and Barca. Great Britain claims as her 
share the interesting colony at the southern 
end of the continent, known as the Cape Col¬ 
ony, also a portion of Central Africa and East 
Africa including Uganda , and a strip of terri¬ 
tory on the western coast, known as the Niger 
Territories and the West African colonies. 

The French own the ancient states of Al¬ 
geria and Tunis, and the region known as 
French Congo and Gaboon on the right bank 


THE DARK CONTINENT. 


31 


of the Congo River. The little state of Daho¬ 
mey is under the protection of France, and the 
state of Senegal and a strip of land on the 
coast known as Ivory Coast, east of Liberia. 
On the opposite side of the continent lies the 
protectorate of the Obock and Somali Coast, 
just east of Abyssinia. 

The German sphere of influence extends 
over Cameroon on the Bight of Biafra, while 
farther to the south is her possession known as 
German Southwest Africa. In the eastern 
part of the continent Germany disputes with 
Great Britain for the possession of a large tract 
of territory to the east of Lake Victoria Ny- 
anza. 

The Spanish possessions in Africa are lim¬ 
ited to the coast region opposite the Canary 
Inlands. 

Italy, which until recently claimed a pro¬ 
tectorate over Abyssinia, is limited to the 
Somali Coast in the extreme eastern part of 
the continent. 

Portugal owns the territory lying between 
the Congo Free State on the north and Ger¬ 
man Southwest Africa on the south, known as 
Angola , also a small state on the coast of Sene¬ 
gal, and a narrow strip of territory on the 
eastern coast opposite the Island of Madagas¬ 
car. 

Thus we see that while Africa is called the 
Dark Continent and many thousand square 
miles of its territory has never felt the influ. 
ence of civilization, yet enough of the great 
natural boundaries of the continent have been 
discovered and located by Livingstone , Stan¬ 
ley , and others, to make it possible for the 
various countries to define with a considerable 
degree of accuracy their respective spheres of 
influence, and where the maps of ten years 
ago had printed upon them the word “unex¬ 
plored” in a dozen different places we find 
now the name of some European nation 
attached to the aboriginal or given name 


of the various regions. All this is due to the 
work of practically two men, and we cannot 
better close this brief chapter on the “Dark 
Continent ” than by giving a short sketch of 
the work they did. As Egypt had her heroes 
whose names they carved on monuments of 
stone or handed them down in tradition, so 
modern Africa has her heroes, and the names 
of Livingstone and Stanley are graven on the 
hearts of all civilized peoples for their heroic 
efforts in opening to the world the heart of 
the great fertile region of Africa. 

David Livingstone, who was born in Eng¬ 
land in 1813, was sent out as missionary to 
South Africa at the age of twenty-seven. For 
nine years he remained among the natives, 
often in danger of losing both life and health. 
He heard that a large lake lay to the north of 
Kalahari Desert , and he set out to explore 
that region. This was the first of a series of 
journeys he carried on under the greatest 
of difficulties and hardships. After various 
journeys about Lake Nyanza and the Zambesi 
region, Livingstone set forth in 1865 to settle 
the much disputed question of the Nile 
sources. When three years had passed without 
any word from him the New York “ Herald ” 
sent out Henry M. Stanley to find out and re¬ 
lieve, if necessary, the intrepid traveler. 
Stanley found him in 1871 at Lake Tangan¬ 
yika, his ardor in no wise subdued by his long 
absence from civilization. The two parted in 
1872, and a year later Livingstone died. His 
body was buried in Westminster Abbey, hav¬ 
ing been brought to the coast, preserved in 
salt, by his faithful followers. 

Stanley has lived a life of adventure. He 
was born in Wales in 1840, and at the age of 
three was placed in the poorhouse, but when 
only fifteen he shipped as cabin boy to New Or¬ 
leans. Here he was adopted by a man whose 
name he assumed, discarding his own name 
of John Rowlands. After his foster father’s 


32 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


death he entered the Confederate army and 
was taken prisoner. When discharged he en¬ 
listed in the United States navy as a volunteer 
and became ensign on the “ Ticonderoga.” 
At the close of the war he became a news¬ 
paper correspondent. In 1869, while travel¬ 
ing in Spain he was asked by the New York 
“Herald” to go and find Livingstone. Jour¬ 
neying by way of the Crimea, Palestine, 
and India, he entered Africa through Zanzi¬ 
bar in 1871. He visited the continent again 
»in 1873 and 1874, still as correspondent, and 
undertook an exploring expedition to the 
Equatorial Lake region of that continent and 


for the first time traced the Congo River to its 
mouth. His next trip was in behalf of the 
“ Society for the Exploration of the Upper 
Congo.” In 1887 he organized an expedition 
to relieve Emin Pasha, who had been shut up 
in the lake region with his Egyptian followers 
as a result of the Mahdist uprising. After a 
series of extraordinary marches through a 
forest, often occupied by hostile natives, he 
met Emin Pasha and succeeded in bringing 
him and his company away safely, in January, 
1890. His achievements have won for him a 
title from the Queen, and better still the 
gratitude of the whole civilized world. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE “OLOGIES.” 


In the Middle Ages, the circle of sciences 
was divided into two main divisions—the triv- 
ium and the quadrivium. The trivium com¬ 
prised the three liberal arts of grammar, 
rhetoric, and logic; the quadrivium comprised 
four—arithmetic, music, geometry, and as¬ 
tronomy. 

The word “science ’* originally meant sim¬ 
ply knowledge, and it is not certain that it 
had any distinct meaning as opposed either to 
literature or to art. By the sixteenth century, 
however,nthe word “science” denoted con¬ 
nected and demonstrated knowledge. 

The great teachers of to-day contend that 
science is only highly organized knowledge, 
differing in nothing from common knowledge 
save its accuracy and constant testing and 
verification. 

Professor Huxley once said: “The mode of 
investigation which yields such wonderful re¬ 
sults to the scientific investigator is in no wise 
different in kind from that which is employed 
for the commonest purposes of every-day ex¬ 
istence. Common sense is science exactly in 
so far as it fulfills the ideal of common sense: 
that is, sees facts as they are, or at any rate, 


without the distortion of prejudice, and rea¬ 
sons from them in accordance with the dicta¬ 
tion of sound judgment.” 

Science to-day is divided into several 
branches and each branch has a special name. 
Thus astronomy makes a study of the earth, 
sun, moon, and stars in their relation to the 
universe as a whole. Geology considers the 
structure of the earth, and how it came to be 
as it is. Biology is a study of life, and this 
branch of science is divided into several 
branches, as zoology, or the study of animaJ 
life; botany, the study of plant life, etc. 

There is nothing more interesting than the 
study of the various works of nature, but 
many a boy and girl is often frightened away 
from such subjects on account of the long 
technical name, or else for the same reason 
they do not know where such interesting read¬ 
ing can be found. As an eminent divine once 
said: ‘ ‘ God made flowers and man made botany. 
God made stones and man made geology. God 
made the stars and man made astronomy. I 
like flowers and stones and stars better than I 
do botany, geology, and astronomy.” 

Scientists usually take a foreign word for 

33 



34 


GTJ1DEP0STS. 


the na ^ of a thing, and to this they attach 
the su B.i “ology” (from the Greek word 
“logos ' meaning a discourse). It is not 
strange lhat the “ologies” have become a 
bugbear to the casual reader. Merely the 
long names have been the means of turning 
away many a reader from some of the most 
interesting and useful knowledge extant. 

To the mind of the average reader, the word 
Geology conveys nothing attractive. But 
suppose that under this head the reader 
knew iihat he could find out that the horse 
once hid five toes, and that the horse’s leg 
from the knee down is merely the middle toe ! 
All the others have in the course of time dis¬ 
appeared. But even to-day we occasionally 
see a small foot growing on the lower part of a 
horse’s leg. All these things geologists have 
discovered down deep in the rocks. In this 
way the men who have been studying the 
earth and its various formations have thrown 
much light upon the science of life, or Biology. 
Biologists take the early forms of life, and fol¬ 
low them up through one age and another, 
and thus prove that species of animals and 
plants actually change in form and size. 

The study of life is carried on under two 
main heads, Zoology , or the study of animals, 
and Botany , or the study of plants. 

Everybody has seen the picture of a giraffe, 
and noticed the long neck. The study of ani¬ 
mals led men to seek the reason for differ¬ 
ent species. Animals which, in a state of 
nature, are distinguished by form, size, color, 
and kind, constitute a species. It has been 
observed that the differences between many 
species are very small, and men have reasoned 
that all the species were derived from one 
species. They argue that the changes are the 
results of different kinds of food, different cli¬ 
mate, and other conditions. For example, 
consider the giraffe. As soon as the pasture 
dries up he has to get his food from the trees. 


The lower leaves can be reached very com¬ 
fortably ; but the more he eats, the farther he 
has to reach, and he has kept up this practise 
through a long period of years, the conse¬ 
quence being that his neck has grown very 
long. 

In the above fact we have a touch of Dar¬ 
winism. Comparatively few people even know 
what is meant by this word, yet at the basis 
of all this great philosophy lie only four sim¬ 
ple principles, which need only to be men¬ 
tioned to be familiar to the experience and 
observation of all. First, Heredity — the off¬ 
spring always resembles the parents. Second, 
Variation — no two animals are exactly alike. 
Third, Struggle for existence—only a small 
number of those born ever reach maturity. 
Fourth, Survival of the fittest — those that do 
reach maturity are the ones best fitted to sur¬ 
vive. The corner stone of the Darwinian 
theory is the second principle, variation. 

In the study of plants every one is inter¬ 
ested to a greater or less degree. What is 
more fascinating than to study the parts of a 
flower, and to find the various methods by 
which the seeds are carried from one place to 
another? It was in the study of an “ology ” 
that the elements of sugar were found in the 
beet, and the great beet-sugar industry was es¬ 
tablished. Moreover, no one can afford to be 
ignorant of some forms of plant life. Bacteria 
belong to the plant kingdom, and it is neces¬ 
sary that one have a general knowledge of 
them in self-defense. 

In ancient times, the Chaldeans made a 
study of the motions of the heavenly bodies 
and their supposed influence on human and 
terrestrial affairs. This science was called 
Astrology. The study of the stars was a sec¬ 
ondary matter because the real purpose was 
the prediction of human events. This prac¬ 
tise was known by the Egyptians and the 
Hindus over 2,000 years before Christ. Dur- 


THE “ 0 LOGIES. 


35 


ing the Dark Ages it was very popular in 
Europe, and was practised even as late as 
the sixteenth century. Thus it was that 
the science which we know as Astronomy 
arose. 

Within the last few years the American 
public schools require the pupils to study the 
human body and how to take care of it. It 
is necessary to have a general knowledge of 
Anatomy and Physiology. Under the head of 
anatomy we may learn of the nervous system. 
Any boy or girl can learn a practical lesson in 
the nervous system in the following manner: 
Catch a frog and cut off its head. Tie a string 
around its neck and suspend it in the air. It 
is surprising to see how many things the frog 
can do with his head cut off. If a drop of 
acid be placed on one side of the frog’s belly, 
the leg on that side will come up and try to 
brush it off. If a drop be put on the other 
side, the leg on that side will come up. If a 
drop be put on one side and the leg on that 
side be held down, the leg on the other side 
will come over and brush off the acid. 

Several centuries ago there was a great effort 
made to discover some method of changing the 
baser metals into gold and silver. This was 
known as the science of Alchemy which was 


the forerunner of Chemistry just as astrology 
was the forerunner of astronomy. The al¬ 
chemists also tried to find some substance 
which would possess the power of removing 
all the seeds of disease from the human body 
and of renewing life. This substance was called 
the “philosopher’s stone.” It is easy to see 
that the object of this experimentation was not 
scientific. It was not without its good results, 
however, for it led men to experiment with 
various substances, with the result that the 
science of chemistry was established. 

In the realm of natural philosophy, one learns 
of mechanical power, light, heat, electricity, 
and magnetism. In this grand department of 
knowledge is conducted an investigation into 
what exists and why, a codification, so to 
speak, of the immutable laws of nature. 

And lastly we come to the study of man in 
his social relations, or Sociology. 

It is not our purpose to advocate the change 
of the names of any of the sciences. We can 
only say that it is unfortunate from the point of 
view of the casual reader that they have been 
so named. We desire simply to call attention 
to these interesting facts which can be found 
under such heads, and thus set up a guidepost 
directing the reader to them. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE HANDICRAFTS. 


The first implements of primitive man were 
picked up from the ground, ready-made. They 
were bits of stone, sticks, sharp flints, and 
water-worn sandstone which were used by 
the original craftsmen as tools and weapons. 

Little by little, experience and use suggested 
to the primitive workman that the club, torn 
from the tree, could be made more serviceable 
by having a stone fastened to one end. and 
thus the ax, or hatchet, probably the first tool 
made by man, was evolved. It is probable 
that primitive man used the sharp-edged flint, 
which he picked up from the ground, as a 
knife, before it occurred to him, or was in 
some way suggested to him, that his knife tied 
to the end of a stick, was increased in effi¬ 
ciency as a cutting-tool, and made a serviceable 
weapon as well. 

It appears from the fii ds of articles left as 
souvenirs by the first of the human race, that 
man, in the first days of the human family, 
chipped flints against each other to produce a. 
cutting-edge or a point, and this, probably, 
was the very beginning of what is now called 
skilled labor. The first mechanic was a stone- 
worker. He took a jagged piece of flint in 
each hand, and by smartly striking them to¬ 


gether, flaked the hard substances, and thus 
secured a roughened, serrated edge in each 
piece. 

The next step in the development of the 
cutting-tool, was to give a finish or shape to 
the flint after it had been roughly fashioned 
by the flaking process. This was done by 
rubbing the flint upon a sandstone. The 
rubbing wore away the rough edges, and gave 
the original mechanics smooth cutting-edges 
and a shapely article. Just how many cen¬ 
turies were required to bring the primitive 
craftsman up to the polishing stage in the 
evolution of the mechanic is a matter of con¬ 
jecture ; but it is not too much to believe 
that while the maker of tools and weapons 
was advancing with the world’s progress, the 
men and women who took the skins of animals 
and prepared them for clothing and covering 
discovered some 'method of curing th e skins, 
and thus the tanner was born. 

The wood-worker was one of the pioneers of 
the industrial world, and the fact that pots 
and cups made of clay have been found buried 
with flint spear-heads, flint knives, flint hatch¬ 
ets, bone needles, and bone fish-hooks, proves 
conclusively that the potter must be placed 



THE HANDICRAFTS. 


37 


among the trades that can trace their ancestry 
back to primitive days. 

Some wandering tribe in the days known 
as the Stone Age, discovered copper. The 
metal probably lay on the surface of the 
ground; the nomads thought it was a soft 
stone. Its toughness and malleability sug¬ 
gested its use in making tools, weapons, and 
utensils, and the Copper Age began. At first 
the copper was simply pounded, or hammered, 
into shape with the stone tools of the first metal 
worked, so that the copper-smith may rightly 
lay claim to having the longest trade pedigree 
of any metal worker. Just when it was dis¬ 
covered 'that an alloy of tin and copper pro¬ 
duced a harder metal, possessing at the same 
time the toughness required, is not known; 
but the fact remains, and is proved by the 
articles themselves left by the antediluvian 
craftsmen, that bronze tools, arrow-and-spear 
heads, utensils, and ornaments, were made 
long before iron was used or worked. 

Probably the first historical reference to the 
beginning of the Iron Age , which followed the 
Bronze Age, is found in the Holy Bible, Gen. 
4 : 22: “And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-Cain, 
an instructor of every artificer in brass and 
iron.’’ The first craftsman, however, men¬ 
tioned in writing was Cain. He was a hus¬ 
bandman, a farmer ; but he seems to have 
been more, for he built the first city, and he 
introduced the use of weights and measures. 
Tubal-Cain, who was born about 3700 years 
before Christ, and who, according to Holy 
Writ, was the first blacksmith, was contem¬ 
poraneous with Jubal, who invented wind and 
stringed musical instruments; with Jabal, 
who was the first to build a tent for habitation 
and to use cattle for draught purposes; and 
withNaamah, the first woman inventor, for she 
Introduced the art of spinning and weaving. 

Whatever the exact date of the beginning 
of the Iron Age was, it is certain that the Jews 


were among the first to work that most useful 
of all metals. Prior to the Iron Age, the car¬ 
penter, or hewer of wood, the tanner, the stone 
worker, the potter, and the husbandman were 
the industrial chieftains; but the blacksmith 
stepped into the world, and at once assumed 
first place among craftsmen. The iron worker 
gave stronger, sharper, better tools to his fel¬ 
lows, and the progress of the world was accel¬ 
erated when the art of working iron was 
discovered. From that time on, the craftsmen 
increased and multiplied. Each trade, as it 
was born, divided itself into specialties, and 
thus the craftsmen, mechanics, and skilled 
workmen of modern days came forth natu¬ 
rally and as part of the general plan of evolu¬ 
tion. Every trade, no matter how insignifi¬ 
cant it may be, can be traced back through 
the ages to those days when the first tool of 
mankind, a simple cutting edge on the side 
of a broken piece of flint, was picked up 
from the ground, and adapted to the use 
of man. 

The brickmaker was born 2247 b. c. and 
with him the hodcarrier and mortar mixer; 
for the tower of Babel was built of bucks 
which were held together with cement, a kind 
of asphaltum. Crockery was made by the 
Egyptians and Greeks 1500 b. c., and it is be¬ 
lieved that the original wagon and carriage 
maker lived about the same time; for in 
1486 b. c. the first chariot was built. 

History honors Dmdalus, an Athenian, as 
the inventor of the ax, the wedge, and masts 
and sails for ships. He lived 1240 b. c. so 
that the cutler and the sail-maker belong to 
an ancient trade family. Noah, however, 
was the original shipwright, so far as recorded 
history is concerned ; for he built the ark, the 
first vessel mentioned in writing. Noah, also 
was the father of the brewer, the distiller, and 
other makers of spirituous liquors, for in 2347 
b. c. he made wine from grapes. 


38 


G UIDEPOSTS. 


Watchmakers and clockmakers can trace 
their craft back to 562 b. c. when dials were 
invented, and their trade became fixed when 
Papirius Cursor erected the first sun-dial 
in Rome 293 b. c., and first divided time 
into the hours. Bookbinders will find their 
original in Attalus, king of Pergamus, who 
198 b. c. made books with leaves of vellum to 
be used in lieu of rolls. Paper was invented 
by the Chinese 170 b. c. It was made of silk 
fiber. Somewhere about the 8th century a. d. 
paper made with cotton fiber was introduced 
by the Spanish Moors, and this prepared the 
way for printing, the “art -preservative of 
arts.” 

The millwright became a craftsman some¬ 
time prior to 70 b. c., for in that year the first 
water-mill, which was built near a dwelling 
of Mithridates, was described. Twenty years 
later a second water-mill was built on the Tiber 
in Rome. Iron chain cables were used by the 
Veneti 55 b. c., indicating that the blacksmith 
was well advanced in his art long before the 
birth of Christ. 

Gunpowder, a composition of niter, char¬ 
coal, and sulphur, was in use, so far as records 
can show, in the early part of the 14th century, 
but occasional passages in the works of ancient 
writers hint that gunpowder was known back 
in the obscure ages. Berthold Schwarz, a 
German monk, seems to have combined the 
three ingredients that enter into the making of 
gunpowder , in 1320 a. d.; but gunpowder and 
its effects were described in writings centuries 
before. Whoever invented gunpowder placed 
the modern craftsmen under great obligations; 
for gunpowder brought the simple peasant and 
the armored knight to the same level, and in 
time changed social conditions to the better¬ 
ment of the artisan. 

It gave war a new character, a wider field, 
and thus opened up trade and craft secrets 
and developed new industries. The storming 


of Mentz scattered the first printers over the 
land and gave printing to the world. The 
looting of Greece in the early part of the 12th 
century brought the silkworm and the art of 
silk-weaving to France, Italy, Spain, and Eng¬ 
land. The invasion of Europe by the Saracens 
in the 11th century diffused the knowledge of 
gunpowder, the mariner’s compass, and the art 
of glazing pottery and earthenware, and the 
art of making felted fabrics came with the Tar¬ 
tars who swept into Europe in the 14th century. 

When John Gutenberg first printed a page 
from separate and movable type in Mentz, in 
1434 a. d., the whole range of compositors, 
proof-readers, pressmen, stereotypers, and 
printers’ devils was born, although the art 
of printing from blocks was known centuries 
before Gutenberg was born. The first print¬ 
ing-press was a common screw press, of which 
the modern copying press used in offices is 
an example. Blaeuw, an Amsterdam printer, 
improved this press in 1620. The first news¬ 
paper printed by machinery run by steam 
power was the London Times in 1814, and the 
press was made by Konig, a German. 

When steam was harnessed to the printing- 
press, two of the greatest of all inventions 
were brought together. 

Steam as a power was known in the time of 
Hero, the Greek, 150 years before the birth 
of Christ, and the first steam engine was a 
rotary engine, a globular boiler, which re¬ 
volved on centers by the recoil of the steam 
that rushed through opposing nozzles. But 
this first of all steam engineers went further, 
for he made a fountain in which the water 
was jetted high by steam pressure. A steam 
gun was made in 1500 a. d., and according 
to ancient writings water was elevated, not 
pumped, by steam pressure acting direct, 
in 1600 a. d. But the first engine, so far as 
records indicate, was invented and used by 
Dr. Papin, a French scientist, 1695 a. d. This 


THE HANDICRAFTS. 


39 


was an atmospheric engine, in which the 
piston was lifted by steam pressure, and re¬ 
turned by atmospheric pressure. Dr. Papin 
was a cautious man; for he invented a safety- 
valve to keep his boiler from blowing up. The 
boiler was divorced from the engine cylinder 
by Newcomen in 1705, and that engineer put a 
walking beam on his cumbersome machine in 
the same year. A lazy boy, hired to open and 
shut valves on Newcomen’s engine at the 
proper times, tied strings to the walking beam 
and valve levels, and the valve gear was in¬ 
vented in 1716. 

But it was Watt, the English engineer, who 
started the steam engine on its way as the 
greatest machine ever conceived by the brain 
of man, when he jacketed the cylinder, put a 
crank on his engine, used the expansive prop¬ 
erty of steam, invented the rotary ball gov¬ 
ernor, the D valve, steam gauge, indicator, 
and packed his piston rod with a lubricant 
instead of water, all between 1769 and 1784. 
The first locomotive engineer was Trevithick, 
the plucky Welshman who built the first high- 


pressure locomotive in 1802, but it remained for 
George Stephenson to improve the locomotive 
and build what is now regarded as the father 
of all locomotives, the “Rocket,” in 1829. 

When Dr. Gilbert, in the early part of the 
17th century, coined the word “electric,” he 
used it to describe his discovery of the power 
of electricity , and the difference between con¬ 
ductors and non-conductors. Until the pres¬ 
ent century gave the world the electric light, 
the dynamo, the oscillator, the telegraph, and 
all kindred devices which use electricity or 
magnetism for cause and effect, electricity 
and magnetism were the toys of scientists, the 
wonder of the ignorant, and the tools of the 
charlatan. But all crafts and trades, all skilled 
workmen, must go back to the woodchopper, 
the quarryman, the miner, the tanner, the 
smelter, and the farmer, for from them come 
the raw materials and the starting tools which 
make it possible for the craftsmen of whatso¬ 
ever trade to extend the ramifications and sub¬ 
divisions of the skilled labor which is the tri¬ 
umph of this age of steel and electricity. 


V M V 




CHAPTER VIII. 

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 


We may divide the history of inventions 
into three great periods. These divisions will 
necessarily be somewhat arbitrary, but on the 
whole not illogical. To be sure necessity has 
a* all times been the mother of invention ; but 
there have been great periods in the history of 
the world when, it seems, more things were 
necessary. At any rate we may clearly dis¬ 
tinguish certain periods when there were a 
great number of very important inventions 
which stand out very prominently in the 
economic progress of the world. 

The first period may include all the inven¬ 
tions up to the middle of the fifteenth century, 
when Gutenberg invented printing. The sec¬ 
ond period extends from this time down to the 
discovery of steam power by James Watt in 
1765. The third period would be the modern 
period with the millions of inventions in every 
department of human activity. 

The first invention of which we have any 
authentic record was that of the mariner’s 
compass. The Chinese claim to have invented 
this instrument as early as 2600 b. c. The 
loadstone was used by them to guide their cars 

and carriages when they could not see the sun 
40 


and the stars, and they used the magnetic 
needle in navigation centuries before the 
Christian era. 

With the invention of the compass and the 
consequent encouragement to navigation, we 
find men discovering new lands. In order to 
convey an idea of these discoveries to their 
fellow men, it was necessary to secure some 
lucid representation of what they saw, and 
about 600 b. c., Aniximander of Miletus in¬ 
vented maps. 

Men could now find places a second time, 
and trade soon sprang up between far distant 
countries. As early as 551 b. c., silk manu¬ 
facture was introduced into Europe from China, 
although it did not make any great progress 
until the reign of Augustus, 500 years later. 

About 332 b. c., the great schools and library 
were established at Alexandria, and here gath¬ 
ered learned scientists and philosophers from 
all over the known world. Here Archimedes 
invented the Archimedean screw, demonstrated 
the principle of the lever, and also invented 
the compound pulley. 

The increase in trade and the inter-com¬ 
munication between nations made it neces- 



INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 


41 


sary to invent some method of exchange, and 
as early as 600 b. c., banking was carried on in 
ancient Babylon. Here was conducted an im¬ 
portant advance, exchange, and general finan¬ 
cial business. The Greeks had some knowl¬ 
edge of banking, as did the Romans. The first 
bank established in Italy was by the Lombard 
Jews in 808 a. d. 

For centuries the medium of exchange was 
either bank paper or bullion. The gold or 
silver was weighed out, hence we have the 
term pound in English money. It was not 
until the beginning of the fourteenth century 
that there was any coinage of gold in Europe. 

It is a strange coincidence that the real 
invention of gunpowder occurred during the 
same year that the first gold was coined in 
Europe, 1320 A. d. It is thought that the 
Chinese, who, by the way, seem to have in¬ 
vented a great many important things, were 
the first to invent gunpowder. It was not 
used as a military agent until the seventh cen¬ 
tury b. c. when the Greeks used it in the form 
of rockets or liquid fire. A German monk, 
Berthold Schwarz, was the first to make any 
practical use of gunpowder. He discovered a 
method of thoroughly mixing the ingredients 
forming a meal. In less than a half-century 
gunpowder was used in improvised cannon in 
England and other European countries. 

One invention of great importance has been 
overlooked, that of glass. By some it is 
claimed that the Egyptians had a sort of 
opaque glass over 3000 years b. c. It was used 
as beads, vases, small figures, and for inlaying 
wood. Transparent glass, in the shape of hot- 
ties, was made by them in the seventh century 
b. c. For centuries Egypt was the home of 
the glass industry. The sand at Alexandria 
was the finest known for the purpose. Glass 
was exported from here into Greece and 
Rome. 

The Phoenicians also had a knowledge of 


glass-making and shared the industry with 
Egypt. Venice in the seventh century began 
the manufacture of glass, and thence it spread 
all over Europe. 

II 

“ How grateful is the search I with pride to 
trace 

Useful inventions, that exalt our race.” 

Emerging from the dark ages, the nations of 
Europe were put into communication with all 
the world through the instrumentality of the 
Crusades. Commerce received an unexam¬ 
pled impulse, and the literature and art of the 
various countries were scattered over the 
whole world. There was a great need for 
some method of conveying and preserving 
these things. True, indeed, the old methods 
of writing it all down by hand, or committing 
everything to memory, were known and prac¬ 
tised, but the volume of ancient literature and 
writings, on all conceivable subjects, which 
was brought from the store-rooms of the 
monks, could not be mastered in a life¬ 
time. 

To meet this great need a German, Johan¬ 
nes Gutenberg, in 1430 invented printing. 
He used movable type, and thus was able to 
spell any word he desired. A great number 
of men set up claims as the discoverers, but 
the best authority gives the honor to Guten¬ 
berg. The type used was large and coarsely 
made, and not many words could be printed 
on one sheet. The art of printing, both as to 
type and presses, was gradually developed and 
rapidly spread to all European countries. The 
first book printed in America was from a 
printing-press in Mexico (1536). 

We find that within a few years the art of 
printing was introduced into England. Here, 
too, gunpowder began to be used in all the 
wars, and muskets were invented in 1521. In 
the same century watches were manufactured. 
The great advance in printing created an 


42 


GTJIDEPOSTS. 


enormous demand for paper, and in 1558 pa¬ 
per manufacture was introduced into England. 

Increased interest in scientific research and 
the making of spectacles led two men, in 1608, 
to invent a telescope. About this time there 
were many improvements in the microscope 
and it became generally known. Many forms 
of animal life too small to be seen by the naked 
eye were readily discovered. Bacteria came to 
be known and the germ theory of disease owes 
its origin to the invention of the microscope. 

In the early part of the seventeenth century 
iron was brought into great use, and many im¬ 
provements were made in smelting. 

Perhaps the most important scientific dis¬ 
covery of the first half of the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury was that of the circulation of the blood 
by Dr. William Harvey, who was physician to 
King James I and King Charles I. 

During the last half of the seventeenth 
century a few inventions were made, as the 
hydraulic press, the air pump, and some rude 
attempts at steam engines. 

In the first half of the eighteenth century 
no inventions of any importance were made; 
but from 1746 to 1752 Benjamin Franklin car¬ 
ried on his famous investigations into the 
nature of lightning, and invented the light¬ 
ning-rod. 

Ill 

We have seen in the first and second periods 
that some of the most important inventions in 
the world were made. We look upon them to¬ 
day as the work of nature rather than that of 
man. Who stops to think as he reads his 
morning paper, that only 500 years ago no pa¬ 
pers or books existed except as they were writ¬ 
ten by hand. It would seem unnatural indeed 
for us to read to-day of nations going to war 
and fighting great battles with axes, spears, 
and arrows, without the use or even the 
knowledge of gunpowder. 

In the present era when hundreds of things 


are being invented yearly, we forget that these 
old things also were at one time unknown and 
had to be invented. 

The modern period of invention began when 
a young man sitting in his mother’s kitchen, 
saw the steam in the teakettle raise up the lid. 
He perceived that there must be some power 
in the steam. This young man was James 
Watt. By the time he was 25 years old he had 
constructed a steam engine. He continued to 
make improvements on it, and eight years later 
took out a patent. 

No one can say that any one invention has 
been the most important one; but we may 
make a list of inventions of first importance, 
and Watt’s invention would surely come in 
this class. 

Contemporaneously with Watt, and indeed 
before Watt had secured a patent upon his 
steam engine, a poor hand-spinner was work¬ 
ing away in his little home in England, try¬ 
ing in vain to spin several threads of cotton 
at one and the same time. Accidentally his 
little girl overturned his spinning-wheel, and 
as he saw the wheel revolving vertically, he 
resolved to construct a machine with several 
vertical wheels, which he did. This man was 
James Hargreaves, and his machine was 
the spinning-jenny. He kept his discovery a 
secret. His neighbors could not understand 
how he could produce so much yarn. They 
became jealous, broke into his house, and de¬ 
stroyed the machine. Hargreaves could not 
secure a patent for his machine and died in 
poverty. His invention, however, has made 
his native country, England, the leading cotton 
manufacturing nation in the world. 

It was during this same decade, too, that 
Arkwright invented the spinning frame. He 
also was refused a patent by the English 
Government. 

In 1776 a Frenchman named De Jouffroy 
constructed a small steamboat which he exhib- 


INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 


43 


ited on the Seine River. The attempt was 
only partially successful. It remained for a 
young Pennsylvanian, who was visiting in 
England, to bring to New York a large Watt 
steam engine and to construct and launch 
the first really successful steamboat. Robert 
Fulton in 1807 built this boat and called it 
the “Clermont.” 

While these numerous experiments were 
being made in steam navigation, Oalvani, an 
Italian, discovered in 1786 dynamic electricity , 
and the small storage batteries of to-day are 
known as Galvanic batteries. 

In 1793 a young man who went South to 
study law, saw the slow and tedious process of 
separating the seed from the cotton which 
grew there abundantly. He set about to dis¬ 
cover some new method of doing this work, 
with the result that the cotton-gin was in¬ 
vented. Eli "Whitney was the young man. His 
machine could do the work of hundreds of 
hands. 

The year following the construction of Ful¬ 
ton’s steamboat, some men were experimenting 
with electric currents in clay with the result 
that aluminium was discovered. 

In 1818 the attention of the British Govern¬ 
ment was called to the condition of the roads 
in the kingdom. John Macadam, a Scotchman, 
was appointed road commissioner and intro¬ 
duced the method of making roads which has 
ever since borne his name. 

Louis Daguerre, a French scene-painter at 
Paris, made a famous diorama or scenic repre¬ 
sentation in 1822, and his experiments along 
this line eventually led to the discovery of the 
Daguerreotype process. The discovery was 
not announced until 1838. Although this 
process is now almost obsolete, it was really 
the first which was of any practical value. 

From the earliest time we have seen that 
the great strife has been to get the various 
parts of the world into closer communication. 


The mariner’s compass was invented, maps 
were made, gunpowder was used to enable peo¬ 
ple to protect themselves in going to and from 
countries, printing helped men to communi¬ 
cate by messengers, steamboats reduced the dis¬ 
tance between countries from months to days. 

In 1830 the first steam locomotive in Amer¬ 
ica was constructed by Peter Cooper, after his 
own designs, and placed on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad. Previous to this time the cars 
had been drawn by horses. 

For a long time men had been trying to get 
up some means of telegraphic communication. 
Samuel F. B. Morse was the first to make it 
possible to put people who were hundreds of 
miles apart, into instantaneous communica¬ 
tion. In 1832, while on the way home from 
England, he conceived the idea of the telegraph. 
He made drawings of the recording telegraph 
and in the twelve years following he worked 
out the system successfully, and in 1844 the 
first public telegraph line was established be¬ 
tween Washington and Baltimore, a distance 
of 40 miles. Morse immediately passed from 
abject poverty to immense wealth. He was 
honored at home and abroad. Napoleon pre¬ 
sented him with 400,000 francs. 

One year after the telegraph was patented, 
Elias Howe , of Boston, brought out his new 
sewing-machine and took out a patent for it 
the following year, 1846. 

This was soon followed by many improve¬ 
ments by Isaac M. Singer; but with all the new 
sewing-machine patents they are all like Howe’s 
old machine in at least one respect, namely, 
all have the eye in the point of the needle. 

About this time Cyrus W. Field began his 
labors of connecting Europe and America by 
submarine telegraph lines. He obtained the 
exclusive right of landing cables in Newfound¬ 
land and organized a company to construct the 
lines. After four attempts he succeeded in 
1866 in completing the first Atlantic telegraph. 


44 


GUIBEP08T8. 


Before the first successful Atlantic cable had 
been laid, Professor Reis, a German, con¬ 
structed an instrument which conducted the 
voice and sent a series of clicks along an elec¬ 
tric wire to a receiver at the other end. This 
instrument was made of a coil of wire, a knit¬ 
ting-needle, the skin of a German sausage, the 
bung of a beer barrel, and a strip of platinum. 
Edison and Gray took up the idea and Alexan¬ 
der Graham Bell in 1876 exhibited a practical 
telephone. 

Thomas A. Edison , who started in life as a 
newsboy, began some experiments with the 
telegraph. In 1872 he invented the duplex 
system of telegraphy and a little later the 


printing-telegraph for stock quotations. Ill 
less than five years he took out over fifty 
patents, among which was the phonograph . 
He successfully instituted the deetric light 
in 1879. 

The Roentgen or X-ray was discovered -by 
Professor Roentgen in 1895. The rays possess 
the property of penetrating substances opaque 
to light, such as five hundred leaves of paper, 
a thick block of wood, the human hand, or any 
similar object. Objects can be photographed 
while under these rays of light, and thus we 
may have a picture of the bones of the hand, 
or the skeleton of a rat, etc. This is the latest 
invention of any great importance; 





CHAPTER IX. 

SUCCESS OR FAILURE. 

>' . \ 


Real success is never reached in a single 
bound, yet Benjamin Franklin said that “the 
road to success is as easy as the road to ruin.” 
Many an American has arisen from the bare¬ 
foot boy on the farm to the wealthy merchant, 
the eminent statesman, or the honored inventor. 

It is not our purpose in this short chapter to 
give advice, nor can we hope to state things 
which will please everybody. Yet we may 
point out a few facts concerning the elements 
of success as seen not only in the successful 
men of the past but also as seen in the daily 
operation of any large business concern. 

It is essential that every young man and 
young woman have some definite aim in life. 
Each one should mark out for himself a course 
and then bend every effort to follow that 
course. The current of mere circumstances 
is treacherous and unsafe. It is not surprising 
that those who aim at nothing accomplish 
nothing in life. Any one can drift but it takes 
pluck to stem an unfavorable current. 

Once the occupation is chosen, concentra¬ 
tion is essential. A man may have the most 
dazzling talents, but if his energies are scat¬ 
tered he will accomplish nothing. 


The young man in the store will earn his 
salary, perhaps, by working the required num¬ 
ber of hours in the day, but if he does not 
give his work a thought after he has quit for 
the night, he will never make any great ad¬ 
vancement in his calling. 

The young man, on the other hand, who is 
reading up the history of his business, looking 
up facts concerning the manufacture of goods, 
if he be in the employ of a dry-goods mer¬ 
chant, will pass his listless fellows every time. 

Such a young man becomes self-reliant. He 
can easily decide many important things con¬ 
cerning the business for himself. Garfield 
once said: “The man who dares not follow 
his own independent judgment, but runs per¬ 
petually to others for advice, becomes at last a 
moral weakling, and an intellectual dwarf.” 

To give an example: Take the dry-goods 
salesman, who knows the history and process 
of silk manufacture, or who is well posted 
on the cotton industries. It is impossible that 
he will not attract the attention of his em¬ 
ployer. Will not the clerk who knows the 
process of printing calico, for example, stand 
a better chance of promotion than the clerk 


45 




46 


GUIDE POSTS. 


who is ignorant of everything except what his 
daily routine compels him to know? 

Given a successful business, and there can 
always be some one found connected with it 
who is giving it more than the eight or ten 
hours per day absolutely required. The great¬ 
est fortunes ever accumulated were the fruit 
of great exertion. 

Look at Alexander T. Stewart, who landed 
in this country a poor Irish boy of sixteen, 
friendless, homeless, and almost penniless, yet 
he became the dry-goods prince of the world! 
John Wanamaker began life by working be¬ 
fore and after school hours, turning bricks in 
his father’s brickyard. In fact, seventy-three 
per cent, of the men who have risen to wealth, 
honor, and distinction in America were once 
poor boys. 

Such men have realized the value of time 
and have economized. They have improved 
spare moments. The young man in business 
must have a good general knowledge, not only 
of the various features of his own business, 
but also of banking and exchange in general. 
He must be posted on the tariff and the money 
question. In the spare moments he must learn 
of railroads and their operation, and of methods 
of doing business. He must know how goods 
are handled, ordered, shipped, billed, etc. 

Again, how many salesmen can tell how a 
hat is made? Is there one salesman in ten in 
a hardware store who can tell how a piece of 
iron is cast? It is only by constant application 
to one’s calling that any remarkable headway 
can be gained. 

Horace Greeley once said: “ If any man fan¬ 
cies that there is some easier way of gaining a 
dollar than by squarely earning it,he has lost 
the clew to his way through this mortal laby¬ 


rinth, and must henceforth wander as chance 
may dictate.” When a young man has de¬ 
cided to work with a will, he has made a long 
stride toward success. 

Many young men are anxious to start in 
business for themselves, but realize the im¬ 
possibility of so doing because of lack of capi¬ 
tal. If only chance would give them a few 
hundred dollars, they think their success would 
be assured. They forget that man’s true po¬ 
sition in the world is that which he himself 
attains. What comes by a chance will go by 
a chance. 

It is only necessary to contrast the thoughts 
and actions of many salesmen with those of 
successful merchants to understand how it is 
that so many of the former fail. Idleness, 
luxurious living, bad habits and divided ener¬ 
gies tell the tale. 

It is an old saying that “some men can 
tickle the earth with a hoe and it will laugh a 
crop.” Indeed some men seem to have almost 
supernatural success, but we attribute it only 
to their shrewd business principles, to their 
intimate knowledge of every aspect of their 
business, and the consequent ability to drive 
the best bargains. 

The merchant has read the lives of such 
men as John Jacob Astor and Stephen Girard. 
He has learned not only how they achieved 
success, but more important still, the princi¬ 
ples on which their success depended. The 
study of the life cf any successful man cannot 
but be the stimulus to action. 

Not all men can be successful or achieve a 
desired end. Circumstances, over which they 
have no control, may prevent. Remember, 
however, that 

“ Not failure, but low aim, is crime.” 


CHAPTER X. 


SPORTS AND PASTIMES. 


With wise forethought, the American par¬ 
ent invariably encourages a desire for manly 
sports and pastimes in the child. The result 
of too much study has passed into a proverb — 
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy ” 
— while a judicious admixture of bodily exer¬ 
cise preserves health and renders the mind 
capable of expansion. 

The youth of the present day is a thousand 
times more fortunate than the youth of fifty 
years ago. Invention, cheapness of produc¬ 
tion, and a score of other causes, have brought 
pastimes to his door which were then un¬ 
known, or possible only for rich men’s sons. 

Divisible into two great classes, outdoor 
sports and indoor pastimes, the former must 
necessarily vary somewhat according to lo¬ 
cality. Thus ice-boating is not probable as a 
sport for a Florida boy, nor much boat-sailing 
for a boy in Oklahoma. Sports necessarily 
vary with the natural features of each locality. 

Well worthy of attention and study is the 
old-time sport of archery. Thus man in olden 
times was wont to provide his food, and thus 
to defeat his enemies. The battles of Hast¬ 
ings and Agincourt were won by the profi¬ 


ciency of bowmen, and mighty archers were 
those semi-legendary heroes Robin Hood and 
William Tell. 

In athletics we touch a sport at once su¬ 
premely ancient and extremely modern. 
Greece and Rome, with the Olympic and the 
Isthmian games, bear testimony to the prow¬ 
ess of the runner, the strength of the wrestler, 
and the skill of the disk thrower. 

It was also a remarkable feature of a recent 
revival of the Olympic games in Greece, that an 
American athlete defeated the Greeks and the 
world in the purely Greek exercise of throwing 
the disk. 

The game of baseball , the national game, is 
one which few boys neglect to play and at 
which many become expert. It is a much 
older game than many suppose. The old Ro¬ 
mans in the time of Caesar played ball. 

Bicycling bids fair to become the most pop¬ 
ular American pastime. It has already proved 
to be a most potent factor in producing better 
roads and in causing bicycle paths to be built 
in the suburbs of great cities or leading to at¬ 
tractive scenery. The inventors of the orig¬ 
inal “boneshaker” and “high wheel ” little 

47 



4 $ 


GtriDEPosrs. 


thought of the final shape their ideas would 
take, or how intensely popular the sport would 
become. Thus a beneficial and most healthful 
exercise is open to many a toiler, and many a 
beautiful place on the earth’s surface is acces¬ 
sible'to his wheel. 

It may be said with certainty that there are 
few more useful accomplishments, and no more 
healthful and invigorating exercise than that 
of swimming. Many a hero has had occasion 
to utilize it in saving the lives of his less fortu¬ 
nate fellow men. The story of swimming and 
the feats of endurance accomplished by it are 
attractive, and should emulate all to learn. 

Boats figure largely in the history of man¬ 
kind. First came the tree trunk, hollowed out 
by the action of fire, in which the rude savage 
trusted himself to the watery deep. Then 
came the basket coracle, in which the early 
Briton fished. It is an interesting pursuit to 
trace the evolution of the boat from these 
primitive boats down to the graceful yacht, 
the naphtha launch, and the trim canoe of the 
present day. 

The art of sailing a yacht is especially inter¬ 
esting to Americans, who have been invariably 
the victors in every international yacht race. 

The English national game of cricket is 
rapidly growing in favor in this country, 
as it is visited nearly every year by English, 
Canadian, or Australian cricket teams. The 
game has an interesting history. 

There is also a kindred sport, football, usually 
played in the cooler season of the year. Tra¬ 
dition* has it that the origin of the game is 
founded on the brutal sport of some old-time 
Saxons, who kicked the head of a slaughtered 
Dane about the Roodee in the City of Chester. 
Be that as it may, the game has a great popu¬ 
larity at the present time, and, shorn of its 
roughness, which the rules are slowly but 
surely tending to eliminate, it bids fair to be 
a permanent national pastime. 


Bowling , or ten pins, may be almost classed 
as an indoor pastime, and is of sufficient pres¬ 
ent-day interest to be well worth a careful 
study. 

Then there is the manly art of self-defense, 
or boxing , which is harmless and healthful, 
and recognized as useful in teaching a man to 
defend himself from unjust and unprovoked 
attack. 

It may be that a vacation can well be spent 
camping out on the shores of some placid 
lake or historic stream, or by the margin of 
the sea, where, in the balmiest and most in¬ 
vigorating air, the tired system can recuper¬ 
ate from the effects of a city’s heat and noise. 

Fishing, the contemplative man’s recrea¬ 
tion, is also the recognized pastime of the 
small boy. The myriad waters of America 
stand open. for the exercise of the angler’s 
skill; but he fishes best and most securely 
who not only knows something of the fish he 
tries to catch, but also is acquainted with the 
laws and customs regulating angling. 

The Scotchman’s game of golf has recently 
made rapid strides in America. Peculiarly 
interesting are its history, customs, and 
quaint terms. 

Gymnastics open a wide field and one full 
of ancient history and modern interest. Hy¬ 
gienic to a degree, they are frequently in¬ 
cluded in the course of instruction given by 
schools. The limbs and muscles, strength¬ 
ened by such exercises, are better fitted to 
fulfil their daily tasks, while the entire hu¬ 
man system is permanently benefited by such 
stimulating exercises. 

Polo, Tennis, and Wrestling have each their 
place and devotees, and accounts of them can 
be perused with interest and profit. 

Trapping and hunting are subjects near 
akin, and from the time of Nimrod, the mighty 
hunter of antiquity, they have formed one of 
the occupations or recreations of men. Bj 


SPOUTS AND PASTIMES. 


40 


them alone can an exhaustive knowledge of 
the habits and life of the bird kingdom and 
animal world be obtained. It was the practise 
of hunting and trapping for their daily needs 
that made the minute men of the Revolution 
such sure shots, and such marksmen as the Ken¬ 
tucky trappers and hunters won the victory at 
New Orleans by their deadly aim at the red¬ 
coats’ hearts. 

Let us turn to the indoor pastimes and 
amusements which serve to make pleasant the 
hours after dark, when the bright fire glows at 
home, and the crisp frost crackles outside. 


Backgammon, checkers, chess , and cribbage 
are near akin, and of high intellectual order 
as recreations. Each has an interesting his¬ 
tory, and one well worthy of perusal and at¬ 
tention. 

The acting of charades and private theatric¬ 
als have made many an evening pleasant. 
Such pastimes induce self-confidence in speak¬ 
ing in public and also encourage the study of 
elocution. Dominoes are akin to the games 
which are enumerated above, and they have 
an ancient history of their own, which is 
quaint and interesting. 


CHAPTER XI. 


HOME INFLUENCE. 


The child enters life with characteristics 
handed down to him from his ancestors, but 
the character with which he will go through 
life very largely depends upon the training he 
receives. Any tendency well marked in the 
child should be taken notice of by the parent, 
and its leading followed in so far as it tends to 
no real wrong. 

What the child begins life with is his right¬ 
ful inheritance, and upon that should be built 
his future. 

If, like the little Benjamin West , he can show 
a very good reason why he should have an art 
education, the duty of his parents is clear. 
But few children indicate to their parents, as 
distinctly as did Mendelssohn or Clara Fisher, 
almost in babyhood, the talent they possess. 

Oftentimes it may be discovered only after 
careful and patient study. But the careful and 
patient study to discover the peculiarity of the 
child’s mind, if there is one — and there must 
always be some individual bent which distin¬ 
guishes one child from another — is the duty 
of every parent, so that his child may be 
helped to the fullest development of his 
powers. 

50 


One of the most direct influences in life is 
that exerted by books, especially those read in 
the impressionable period of childhood, say 
from four to fourteen years of age, and if the 
reading of a child be carefully directed much 
of his future may be shaped. 

No parent can make of a child merely what 
he wishes him to be. If that were possible, 
individuality would be stamped out entirely. 
But the parent may so dominate the growing 
tendencies as to warp and deform them. 

Only the children of remarkable genius, the 
Handels, the Joshua Reynoldses, and the 
Wordsworths, have risen above the barriers 
forged about them and gained their inherit¬ 
ance. 

And, in all probability there have been thou¬ 
sands of children whose genius, not of so 
forceful a type, succumbed to the stronger 
will and grew but to mediocrity, if allowed 
to bud at all. 

Many a man can recall with reproach the 
longings and possibilities for larger things he 
was never assisted to realize. Such a reproach 
is the bitterest a child can feel. It is a dis¬ 
regard of his divine right. 



HOME INFLUENCE. 


51 


Thus it is possible, on account of the great 
authority and guiding power vested in the 
parent, largely to make or mar a brilliant 
career for the child. 

The common error which busy fathers and 
mothers fall into in ignoring or rebuking the 
oft repeated questions of the children, is a 
frequent source of great wrong. 

The development of the reasoning faculties 
depends upon their activity; and checking 
the normal activity by discouraging question¬ 
ing results in dwarfed reasoning powers. The 
questions of a child may serve as a guide to 
the individual tastes and ability if taken note 
of, and always can be made the avenue of 
instruction. A natural and commonplace 
inquiry about a colored picture might be the 
excuse for telling a child the interesting story 
of Senefelder discovering lithography, or Gu¬ 
tenberg and the art of printing. 

In reading to a child one may carefully note 
what seems to arouse the most interest, what 
is asked for again, and by making a study of 
that which appeals most strongly to him, 
hints of his individual tastes and tendencies 
may be gained. 

A child with a strongly marked tendency 
for mechanics, often noticeable in early in¬ 
fancy in the passion for wheels, engines, or 
any kind of machinery, may be helped by the 
class of reading with which he is supplied and 
his interest sustained, to become a man of 
great mechanical ability. But if the hint 
were not followed, he would probably always 
retain the leaning in that direction while the 
power would never be put to practical use. 

The stories of the boyhood of John Smea- 
ton and his little contrivances, which fore¬ 
told the ability for his world-famous achieve¬ 
ment, would fire the imagination of such a boy 
and cultivate in him the ambition in line with 
his peculiar bent, so as to lead him to under¬ 
take and to do great things. For if a boy 


inherits a taste for mechanics, a mechanic he 
will be, though it rests much with his parents 
whether he tinker all his life or thoroughly 
master his career. 

The child is widely separated from the man 
in his views of life, and in order to understand 
what seems to the adult the odd or quaint 
thoughts and habits, one must study the 
things that interest the child, and endeavor to 
see life from the child’s point of view. If the 
parent is in sympathy with his child in hopes, 
ambitions, and interests, the matter of assist¬ 
ance in reading is comparatively simple. 

The child with a great love of music and 
delight in the harmony of sounds, with a par¬ 
ent in sympathy and understanding, leading 
him through his imagination to delight in the 
great operas and the themes of the master 
compositions, may be brought up to the great¬ 
est of the talents. 

John Sebastian Bach was the descendant of 
several essentially musical ancestors. His tend¬ 
ency toward music was natural and was en¬ 
couraged from the first. 

The boy with cleverness in his fingers’ ends 
and the constructive faculty evident in the 
handling of his toys or his choice of amuse¬ 
ments, his imagination assisted by the stories 
of the efforts of such men as Watt , Franklin, 
or Edison , and his interest in his own little 
efforts at invention, encouraged by the ambi¬ 
tion to emulate the men of whom he reads, 
may lead him to bring new ideas to the help 
of the world. 

The fondness for tools evinced by nearly 
every healthy, active child should be en¬ 
couraged. The principles of carpentry are 
extremely educative and give scope for much 
individuality. With simple carpenters’ tools, 
suitable material, and with some judicious 
help, a boy will work out many ideas which 
may lead him to serious undertakings. 

All reading, however, should not be of too 


52 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


seriously instructive a character; much should 
be chosen for the pure pleasure it gives. Un¬ 
bridled imagination reigns over childhood. 
Peculiar, and to be pitied, is the child whose 
life is not peopled with creatures of fancy far 
more entertaining and instructive than the 
commonplace human beings among whom he 
dwells. For that reason stories of fairies , 
dwarfs, and giants, or any folklore tales are 
the legitimate reading of the young. They 
are upon the child’s plane of development and 
a food suited to his capacity. He peoples 
rocks and caves with their mythical denizens 
and deities, and interprets the great phenom¬ 
ena of nature as did the early races in their 
mythology. Niagara Falls is not simply a great 
rock wall over which the water rushes, but 
the sporting ground of water sprites. The 
Mammoth Cave speaks not of limestone for¬ 
mations, but of fairy palaces and imprisoned 
princesses. The beautiful tracery of a mirage 
is a wonderful glimpse into cloudland rather 
than the refraction of light. 

The rushing volume of natural gas from the 
earth may mean a liberated spirit. Geology 
may be reached by such incipient stages, and 
is far better learned than in the abstract. 
The myth of Prometheus typifies the value 
of fire more forcibly than any enumeration of 
its uses. 

Education is a dry affair if bereft of fable 
and symbolism. A child can never be a 
Columbus if he is not allowed to dream of the 
impossible. 

The world’s heroes are always fascinating 
to a child — the element of hero-worship is 


strongest in the young —and there need be 
only a suggestion of interest in the struggles 
of Lincoln's boyhood, the success of Garfield , 
Andrew Johnson's unique education, the prow¬ 
ess of Grant , or the wonderful career of Fred¬ 
erick Douglass , to make a strong impression for 
the study of history. 

The child lives in the company of his 
friends of fiction, and, if they be well-bred 
people, he imitates their manners and marks 
of culture. Good manners may be taught a 
child more effectually through the agency of 
his book-friends than his human friends; 
they are to him a more inspiring reality, more 
worthy of emulation, and much easier to 
imitate. 

What the child reads, he becomes, for the 
time being at least, and it always leaves its 
impression upon him. When the florist dis¬ 
covers certain characteristics in the plant, he 
cultivates it for the development of that pe¬ 
culiarity and obtains a variety of new and 
individual interest, and the parent may make 
his child an individual variety with marked 
characteristics by much the same method 
as the florist cultivates the flower, or he may 
leave the child unmarked save for the general 
characteristics of the species. 

Let the parent look well to the reading of 
his child, make a thoughtful study of the 
path each child should tread, and endeavor 
to throw all the influences about his early 
life that will help him in that path, bear¬ 
ing in mind that in the books which his 
child reads are influences of weighty and 
lasting character. 


CHAPTER XII. 


BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS. 


“These words the Lord spake unto all your 
assembly in the mount out of the midst of the 
fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, 
with a great voice: and he added no more. 
And he wrote them in two tables of stone, 
and delivered them unto me.’’ 

This event took place about 1450 years b. c., 
and is undoubtedly the first account we have 
of a book. Moses brought this stone book 
down out of the mountain, but when he §aw 
that his people had sinned, he said : — 

“And I took the two tables, and cast them 
out of my two hands, and brake them before 
your eyes.’* 

It will be remembered, however, that the 
Lord wrote two more tables for Moses, and 
these were preserved. 

The Chinese claim to have literary monu¬ 
ments which date back to about 2000 years 
b. c., while the Sanskrit hymns of Veda may 
be traced to about the same date. 

The most ancient monuments of Hebrew 
literature are contained in the Bible. In the 
Euphrates valley records of the dynasties were 
made by a picture-writing system, and we 
have a record of one dynasty that began about 


2200 b. c. Later, characters made up entirely 
of wedges were used. There are hundreds of 
copies of inscriptions giving accounts of vari¬ 
ous campaigns, grammatical tablets, legal 
documents, chronological tables, accounts of 
eclipses, and other valuable records. The 
very bricks of which a palace was built were 
stamped with the name of the ruling monarch. 
All such records are known as cuneiform in¬ 
scriptions. 

After the Hebrew literature, which will 
always be preserved in the Old Testament, we 
have the Greek. The Greek belongs to a dif¬ 
ferent family of languages, the Indo-European, 
while the Hebrew is one of the Semitic lan¬ 
guages. 

Homer was the first Greek who wrote books. 
The Iliad and the Odyssey are his earliest pro¬ 
ductions. The first describes in a most musical 
flow of language the siege of Troy, and the 
second recounts the adventures of Odysseus 
on the return home from the siege. 

It seems very strange to us to-day that in 
the Greek and in all other literature, poetry 
was written long before prose, but such is 
the fact 


53 



54 


O UIDEPOS TS. 


The ancient Greek tragedy flourished in the 
fifth century b. c. 

The works of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Eu¬ 
ripides were produced at this time. 

Comedy arose from the Bacchic festivities. 
The first comedy flourished about 450 b. c., 
Aristophanes being the principal author. 

Herodotus, born about 484 b. c., wrote nine 
books of history in which he gives an account 
of the Persian wars. He also treats of nearly 
every known nation on the globe. Later his¬ 
torians are Thucydides and Xenophon . The 
latter wrote the Anabasis. 

Plato’s philosophical writings are the first 
that have been preserved, though two centuries 
preceding him were prolific of such writings. 
Socrates , though he wrote nothing, gave a 
direction to speculation which resulted in the 
establishment of several schools. Plato (429- 
347) founded the first at Athens. Euclid also 
founded a Socratic school. Aristotle was a 
pupil of Plato , though very unlike him. The 
range of his writings includes logic, ethics, 
politics, literature, rhetoric, psychology, zool¬ 
ogy, botany, mathematics, and‘physics. 

Demosthenes and Aristotle were born in the 
same year, and died in the same year (384- 
322). The former was perhaps the greatest 
orator of all times. Athens has been called 
the nursery of Grecian eloquence. iEschines 
was the ablest opponent of Demosthenes, and 
the contest on the Crown between these two 
orators gave occasion for their masterpieces. 

The Alexandrine period in Greek literature 
extends from 330-30 b. c. Alexandria and 
Athens were the two centers of literary activ¬ 
ity. Prose superseded poetry, and science 
was cultivated at the expense of literature. 
The Epicurean and Stoic schools of Philoso¬ 
phy flourished at Athens. Under the Ptole¬ 
mies, grammar was ardently pursued at Alex¬ 
andria. The famous libraries at Alexandria 
and Athens were collected and the Museum 
established. 


Astronomy, mathematics, and geography 
were studied with remarkable success at Alex¬ 
andria. Euclid and Archimedes were there 
at that time. 

The period from 30 b. c. to 330 a. d. is 
known as the Roman period. Rome became 
the literary center of the world. Plutarch , 
the biographer and essayist, and Flavius Jo¬ 
sephus, the Jewish historian, lived and wrote 
at this time. Ptolemy , the astronomer and 
geographer, is the chief name in physical sci¬ 
ence. The iEsopean fables by Babrius were 
produced during this period. 

Constantinople was the literary center from 
330-1453 a. d. During this period there was 
a brief renaissance in poetry and rhetoric, fol¬ 
lowed by a long decline. Learning grew less 
and less, and the ancient spark of good taste 
and originality died out. 

Latin literature is divided into three peri¬ 
ods: the Archaic, beginning240 b. c. ; the Cic¬ 
eronian and Augustan Age, beginning 83 
b. c. ; and the Imperial, beginning a. d. 14. 

The first Roman writer was Andronicus 
who translated Homer’s Odyssey into Latin. 
Plautus (254-184 b. c.), failing in business, 
started to write comedies. He proved success¬ 
ful, and he lived as a playwright until his death. 

Shortly before the death of Plautus a young 
slave was brought from Carthage to Rome by 
a Roman senator. He was so bright that his 
master gave him an education and set him 
free. This young man was Terence , who was 
a writer of favorite comedies. 

The next period is known as the Golden 
Age of Latin literature. Prose writings em¬ 
braced literature, eloquence, history, jurispru¬ 
dence, philosophy, and geography. 

Cicero , the interpreter and transplanter of 
Grecian culture and refinement, became the 
creator of a standard prose so refined that it 
was never surpassed. Cicero was a states¬ 
man and a lawyer, though his later writings 
include ethics, philosophy, and religion.' 


BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS. 


55 


During this period Julius Ccesar, historian, 
grammarian, statesman, and general, wrote 
his commentaries on the Gallic and civil 

wars. 

Vergil (70-19 b. c.) wrote his eclogues, 
georgics, which treat of agriculture, domestic 
animals, culture of trees and bees, and the 
JEneid. The last treats of the fate of JEneas, 
the founder of a second Ilium and indirectly of 
Rome, and the ancestor of the Julian family. 

One of the most important writers of the 
Augustan Age was Livy. He wrote a history 
of Rome from the foundation of the city. 

Horace, whose first attempts were in the 
line of satires, has always shared with Vergil 
the greatest popularity among all the Roman 
poets. He wrote odes, epistles, and satires. 

The Imperial Age, or the Silver Age of 
Roman literature, embraced such men as 
Seneca, a brilliant but erratic writer; the 
elder Pliny, a writer on natural history; 
Juvenal, who turned from the pursuits of 
oratory and war to poetry ; and Tacitus, the 
most eminent prose writer of his time. 

In the second century Suetonius wrote the 
lives of the twelve Caesars. 

This period, the period of decay, comes to 
a close about a. d. 500, or perhaps not until 
the middle of the sixth century, when Jus¬ 
tinian caused the great Corpus Jurus to be 
drawn up. 

From the Latin language sprang, among 
others, the Italian, Spanish, and French. 
About the twelfth century each of these 
branches began to develop a national litera¬ 
ture. 

The Italians present such names as Dante, 
Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The first produced 
one of the world’s classics, the Divine Comedy. 
Later, Tasso wrote Jerusalem and some minor 
poems. Galileo was the greatest Italian writer 
on physical science. He was compelled by an 
ecclesiastical tribunal to retract his astronom¬ 


ical theories. Considerable Italian history 
and some philosophy have been written ; but 
on the whole they are not especially re¬ 
markable. 

The Spanish literature begins properly with 
the twelfth century. The first works gave 
utterance to the fierce energy and heroism 
which animated the Spaniards in their long- 
continued struggle against the Moors. Songs 
and romances became the representations of 
the true national literature of Spain. The 
poem of the Cid, the lord champion of Spain, 
is the first important literary production. 

The illustrious dramatist, Lope de Vega, 
wrote many romances and sonnets in the 
seventeenth century. Calderon, his rival, 
especially exhibits the imposing grandeur of 
Spanish religious zeal. 

The best model of Spanish prose is the 
widely read Don Quixote, which was written 
in the first half of the seventeenth century 
by Cervantes. This author, of all Spanish 
authors, is the best known abroad. In modern 
times- the tendency of Spanish writers is to 
turn from the present condition of national 
decay, and write on themes connected with 
their former glory. 

The earliest poems of the French celebrated 
the illustrious deeds of noble warriors. They 
are grouped into three cycles, the first relating 
to Charlemagne, the second to King Arthur 
and the Round Table, the third to Alexander 
and the ancient heroes. During the twelfth, 
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries was the 
period of what is called Old French, which 
was intermediate between the Latin and the 
present French. Throughout this period va¬ 
rious works in allegorical and lyric poetry, 
history, and drama were written. The most 
flourishing period was in the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury. This literature, too, had a tremendous 
influence upon the literature of Spain, Italy, 
Germany, and England. 


56 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


Early in the Renaissance, Montaigne (1533-92) 
wrote his Essais and became the founder of a 
new branch of literature. 

Fifty years later Balzac , in his letters, gave 
a valuable expression of society. He was con¬ 
sidered the best prose writer of his time. He 
endeavored, and with success, to improve and 
refine his native language. 

Descartes is accorded the highest place 
among French philosophers; and Corneille , 
the father of modern tragedy, portrayed in 
elevated style the noblest elements of charac¬ 
ter. Contemporaneously with him was that 
master of a beautiful and elegant style, Racine. 
The poet and actor, Moli&re , wrote a great va¬ 
riety of plays and proved himself a master in 
comedy. 

The eighteenth century produced Voltaire. 
His influence was not confined to France alone 
but spread over all Europe. His works touch 
upon almost every department of literature. 

Religion and philosophy, the laws and cus¬ 
toms of society, were made the objects of the 
finest pleasantry in the letters of Montesquieu. 

Rousseau , the reformer, though advocating 
false theories and unsound philosophy, pos¬ 
sessed remarkable eloquence and brilliant 
style. 

The works of Victor Hugo, and Alexander 
Dumas of the present century need only be 
mentioned to be fresh In the minds of all. 
Lamartine and Beranger charmed the imagi¬ 
nation and delighted the senses. They reached 
the popular heart with delicate sentiment, 
wit, and patriotism. France has also pro¬ 
duced many writers in political science, criti¬ 
cism, philosophy, and religion. 

In history, such men as Guizot , Michelet , and 
Thiers have won distinction. 

Russian literature is a result of the efforts 
of Peter the Great to raise the standard of his 
people. For centuries this people had had a 
distinct language, but no literary works of 


value were produced. Men endeavored to 
copy after Latin, French, and Spanish models. 
During the nineteenth century some excellent 
works of a distinctly national character have 
been produced. 

Gogol (1809-52), a native of Little Russia, 
first wrote short tales, in which he displayed 
great pathos mingled with humor. His later 
works, the “Revizor” and “Dead Souls,” 
form the foundation for his fame. 

Count Alexis Tolstoi and Ivan Turgenieff 
have been read both at home and abroad. 
Tolstoi devoted himself to a very careful study 
of one of the most troublous periods of Rus¬ 
sian history. Tourguenieff stands in the front 
rank of Russian novelists. 

Of late much attention is being given to 
Russian history and mythology. Marked ad¬ 
vances have also been made in journalism and 
magazine literature. 

The beginnings of German literature were 
made at the time of the Reformation. Previ¬ 
ous to that time there was a church and court 
literature produced by sporadic efforts. Char¬ 
lemagne caused to be made a collection of 
popular songs and mythological lore of the 
German nations. 

When the Germans came into contact with 
the Spanish, French, and English knights in 
the Crusades, they learned the art of poetry. 
The lyrics of the Minnesingers and the Meis- 
tersingers were the result. 

Before the end of the Thirty Years’ war, 
literature began as the business of the edu¬ 
cated class. Martin Opitz, in 1624, laid the 
foundation by his book on the “Art of Ger¬ 
man Poetry.” 

Kasper von Lohenstein (1635-83) wrote 
many romances and dramas, full of frivolities 
and crudities, wild bombast, and violent re¬ 
verses of fortune. His-influence was enor¬ 
mous, and the theater made a step forward. 

Not until Kant and Lessing, however, was 


BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS. 


57 


the literature of Germany a complete mirror 
of civilized life. 

Goethe (1749-1832) marks the beginning of 
the Golden Age of German literature. This 
period was great in every respect. History, 
philology, theology, philosophy, and science 
were cultivated with success and with genius. 
Schiller is a strong figure in this romantic 
period. Politics and theology are mingled 
in the lyrical songs. Goethe and Schiller were 
intimate friends, and in their co-operation 
actually governed German literature through 
several years. Goethe’s Faust gave the in¬ 
spiration which developed into the Romantic 
school. 

In philosophy the period is represented by 
Hegel and Schelling, in history by Schlosser 
and Ranke, and in natural science by Von 
Humboldt. 

Very little was written which contained 
truly popular elements. It was the literature 
of the educated class. Arndt, Borne, and 
Heine have felt the need of a literature of the 
people, and have sought for a broad and truly 
popular principle. 

In Scandinavia a literature sprang up at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 
science, Linnaeus wrote valuable works, and 
Swedenborg contributed to literature proper. 
Later, Oxenstiern drew upon Swedish life and 
history, and wrote in a truly national strain. 

Bjornson , in Norway, has written many 
dramas, and Oehlenschlager's work in Denmark 
has been the key-note of the literature of that 
country for a century and a half. 

“Give me, of every language, first my vigor¬ 
ous English, 

Stored with imported wealth, rich in its 
natural mines, 

Grand in its rhythmical cadence, simple for 
household employment, 

Worthy the poet’s song, fit for the speech of 
man.” 


In the splendid galaxy of English and 
American literature there are many stars. Of 
these, we shall be able to mention only a few. 
We shall consider only those of the first rank ; 
those who represent epochs of literature and 
marked phases of style. We shall also treat 
first of the English and then of the American 
authors. 

The earliest representative of modern Eng¬ 
lish was written about 1305 a. d. “The Vis¬ 
ion of Piers Plowman” was written about 
1362. A little later John Wycliffe completed 
his translation of the Bible. This work en¬ 
riched English expression and idiom. 

Chaucer (died 1400), one of the greatest of 
English poets, marks the beginning of the lit¬ 
erature of importance. He was a member of 
Parliament, and a man of business as well as of 
books. His chief works are “The Canterbury 
Tales,” “Troilus and Cresseide,” and “The 
Flower and the Leaf. ” These works put the 
final touch to the various literary forms that 
had been developing. 

The next period in English literature takes 
us to the time of Edmund Spenser. For nearly 
200 years after the death of Chaucer, a dark¬ 
ness was upon the English mind. All free 
thought was violently oppressed by the 
Church, and the War of the Roses, which 
broke out in 1455, desolated England for a 
half century. 

Caxton , a translator and printer, introduced 
printing into England and published his first 
book on “ The Game and Playe of the Chesse,” 
in 1474. The first English prose writer of any 
merit after Chaucer was Thomas More, who 
wrote between 1515 and 1535. The next fifty 
years are marked by Gascoigne, Sackville, 
and Sir Walter Raleigh. Gascoigne and others 
wrote the first regular English tragedy, “Gor- 
boduc.” 

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599) has been called 
the poet’s poet. His great allegory, “The 


58 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


Faerie Queene,” will live through all time. 
This great poem is a tale of knight-errantry. 
The hero is King Arthur, and its pages are 
rich in adventures and figures of romance. 
Distressed ladies and their champions, com¬ 
bats with dragons and giants, enchanted 
castles, magic rings, charmed wells, forest 
hermitages, and the bower of bliss, are the 
implements of the allegory. Twelve moral 
virtues are represented, one in each of the 
twelve books. 

The Elizabethan Age began about 1580 and 
ended in 1670. Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, 
but the glow and splendor of the literature of 
her time was inherited by the poets of suc¬ 
ceeding reigns. Throughout this age the 
maiden queen is the central figure, and her 
praises sound through all the poetry. She is 
the lady of young England, the heroine in the 
struggle against Spain and the pope. 

Among the earliest writers of this period 
was “Kit” Marlowe, a dramatist of genius, 
though at times extravagant and bombastic 
in style, who wrote such dramas as Faustus, 
Edward II, etc. 

William Shakespeare left home when about 
twenty-one years of age and went to London 
as an adventurer. He began to write plays 
for a living. It soon developed that the secrets 
of nature and of man’s heart, the depths of 
wisdom and of philosophy were instinctive in 
this young man. Tragedy, philosophy, pathos, 
fancy, and humor were treated equally well 
by him. Besides the numerous plays, he wrote 
many sonnets and poems, as Venus and Adonis, 
and Lucrece. He retired to Stratford-on-Avon 
in the prime of life, where he died in 1616. 

Shakespeare’s contemporaries are many. 
Benjamin Jonson, on whose tomb in West¬ 
minster Abbey is the inscription “O rare Ben 
Jonson! ” was of a different school from 
Shakespeare. His writings were classical and 
not romantic, pure comedies with no admix¬ 


ture of tragic elements. His first play, Every 
Man in His Humor, was acted in 1598. 

No man was more conspicuous in the Eliza¬ 
bethan period than Lord Bacon. He is known 
as “the father of inductive philosophy.” The 
first edition of his essays was published in 
1597. Bacon was a great and successful lawyer 
and a splendid orator. He himself thought 
his works would be successful, because they 
“came home to men’s business and bosoms.” 
Dr. Johnson said that the wine of Bacon’s 
writings was a dry wine. 

Eight years before the death of Shakespeare, 
John Milton, the greatest Englishman, was 
born. The masters in the high arts are cer¬ 
tainly not to be compared generally. It is 
only when an individual reaches the front 
rank in more than one department of life that 
we can say he is greater or greatest. 

Milton attained to the front rank in several 
things. In politics, Milton was secretary of 
state under Cromwell’s ministry, the strongest 
England ever had. In controversy, he easily 
led in all Europe and thus brought England, 
hitherto a rather unnoticed nation, into the 
front rank of nations. In poetry, Milton was 
the greatest of his time, and marks an epoch 
in English literature. One of the foremost of 
English poems and the sublimest of all epics 
is his “Paradise Lost.” 

During the next hundred years prose takes 
precedence over poetry, and the characteristic 
literature is criticism, satire, and burlesque. 
However, it was during this time that Sir 
Isaac Newton made his scientific observations. 

Dryden was the first great English satirist, 
and also a master in controversy. He was the 
earliest writer, too, of modern literary prose. 
Robinson Crusoe was written in 1719 by Daniel 
De Foe. Addison began the issue of The Spec - 
tator in 1711. As an observer of life, of man¬ 
ners, and human character, Addison had no 
superiors. 


BOOKS ANT) THEIR AUTHORS. 


59 


Pope had amassed a small fortune by his 
pen before he was thirty years of age. Though 
not great in the poetry of nature or of passion, 
he was a great literary artist, and dominated 
English poetry for nearly a century. 

The characteristic poem of the middle of 
the eighteenth century was Gray’s Elegy writ¬ 
ten in a Country Churchyard. Samuel John¬ 
son, however, was the central figure of this 
period. He was the typical John Bull, rugged, 
eccentric, and self-developed. His social wit 
and power as a talker attracted such friends 
as Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke , the ora¬ 
tor and statesman, and David Garrick, the 
actor. 

We come next to a new era in English 
poetry — a revolution in literary taste. For 
nearly a hundred years poetry had dealt with 
the life and manners of towns. The theme 
changed to nature, with a lively sense for 
what is new and untried. The romantic artist 
seeks new subjects and insists on freedom in 
handling them. Man is considered as a uni¬ 
versal being and independent of place or cir¬ 
cumstances. Crabbe and Cowper were the 
first of importance to write in the new strain. 

Robert Burns was born in 1759, on the banks 
of the “bonny Doon ’’ not far from “ Alio way’s 
auld haunted kirk,’’ where Tam O’Shanter 
saw the witches’ dance. For the first time 
the Scottish vernacular poetry was heard be¬ 
yond the border. His accurate observation 
and first-hand description of flowers, land¬ 
scapes, and animals just about him, gave rise 
to a new spirit in the interpretation of nature. 
Passion, human personality, freedom, and hu¬ 
manity are basic elements in Burns’s poetry. 

Walter Scott, the poet of chivalry Und ro¬ 
mance, was born in 1771. His poetry as a whole 
is a set of romantic tales and a few ballads and 
lyrics. He was at ease in doing work, and 
also had excellent ability to see and tell 
what he saw in a plain manner. Wordsworth, 


Byron, Keats, and others also characterize this 
period. 

The literature of the next sixty or seventy 
years will occupy us for a few moments only, 
although, beyond a doubt, history will accord 
its authors as high a place as any that we have 
considered. 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was raised sud¬ 
denly to fame by the “Pickwick Papers.’’ 
His intimate knowledge of men and things of 
his time contributed materially to his success. 

Thackeray, when twenty-five years old, ap¬ 
plied to Dickens for the position as illustrator 
of “Pickwick Papers,’’ but was refused. 
Dickens little thought that this young man 
would some day be the author of “ Vanity 
Fair.” 

Macaulay (1800-1859), as a writer on histor¬ 
ical and biographical subjects, had no superior. 
He also wrote many essays and was prominent 
in public life. 

In 1830 Alfred Tennyson published his first 
volume of poems. Gradually the scope of his 
work was broadened, and he treated romantic 
and classic subjects. He acquired an express¬ 
ive treatment of landscapes as is shown in 
the lotus land, “in which it seemed always 
afternoon.” His most intellectual and indi¬ 
vidual work was “In Memoriam,” an elegy on 
his friend, Hallam. 

Without mentioning any of the English 
authors who are alive to-day, nor indeed 
other prominent ones of the past, let us turn 
to those who are the products of the American 
continent. 

In thp early colonial times the people looked 
to the mother country for intellectual nutri¬ 
ment as well as for political authority. More¬ 
over the young communities were unfavorable 
to original literary production. The wants of 
the hour and the exigencies of practical re¬ 
sponsibility wholly engaged the mind. But 
with the progress of the country, and the in* 


60 


G HID EPOS TS. 


creased leisure and means of education, the 
literary spirit developed. The names of Jona¬ 
than Edwards and Benjamin Franklin were 
echoed abroad. A characteristic vein, an in¬ 
dividuality of thought, and a local signifi¬ 
cance, began to supplant the imitative pro¬ 
ductions. 

The intellect of the country first developed 
in a theological form. The clergy were the 
best educated and most influential class. 

They had a controlling voice in political and 
social as well as religious affairs. Besides 
Jonathan Edwards there were Roger Williams, 
Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, and John 
Eliot. 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the first gen¬ 
eral writer of any special note, began active 
life as a printer. He took naturally to books, 
and at the age of seventeen ran away from 
home and went to Philadelphia. From here 
he went to London on an errand, and lived 
there for a year and a half. On his return he 
organized a social and literary club which 
afterward developed into the American Philo¬ 
sophical Society. In 1732 Franklin began the 
publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” 
This work was published annually for a quar¬ 
ter of a century. In 1758 he published “ The 
Way to Wealth”—a collection of the maxims 
of temperance, health, and good fortune, pre¬ 
viously printed in the Almanac. Franklin 
also wrote an autobiography. 

American eloquence, although not unknown 
in the professional spheres of colonial life, de¬ 
veloped with originality and richness at the 
epoch of the Revolution. It has been said 
that “oratory is eminently the literature of 
republics.” Patrick Henry and Daniel Webster 
are typical American orators. 

In history, Washington Irving and George 
Bancroft have glorified their native country. 
The former, a popular and capable writer, was 
clear and animated in narration, and graphic 


in descriptive episodes. The latter reduced 
the chaotic but rich materials of Amer¬ 
ican history to order, beauty, and moral sig¬ 
nificance. 

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) wrote much 
of his best poetry before he was thirty years 
of age. His accurate interpretation of the 
subtlest moods of nature and his loftiness of 
imagination are alone sufficient to place him 
in the front rank of American poets. 

Boston became the literary "center of the 
country in 1840 and remained so until the war 
for the Union. Here Ralph Waldo Emerson 
lent his personal influence and inspiration. 
After the publication of his Essays (1841-1844) 
his home at Concord became the cynosure of 
many literary pilgrims. Emerson’s prose is 
much more important than his poetry. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne surpassed all his con¬ 
temporaries in the field of prose fiction. Al¬ 
though an office-holder and a man of affairs, 
he pictures life in “the moonlight of ro¬ 
mance.” His “Scarlet Letter” (1850) will be 
read in all time to come. 

The poet who awakened a love of beauty 
and a taste for pure art was Longfellow. For 
his themes he goes into the past, and presents 
very little of the life of his own day. Some¬ 
what in contrast to Longfellow is James Russell 
Lowell. He goes deeply into the great prob¬ 
lems of his time — especially the great struggle 
with slavery. He gives a first-hand observa¬ 
tion of things, and his works are free from a 
bookish tone. 

Whittier has been called the “poet-laureate 
of abolitionism.” His greatest characteristic is 
his lyric and idyllic poetry. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes , Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman 
belonged to this noted group of American 
writers. These, with Emerson, Hawthorne, 
Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell, were all 
born within a period of sixteen years. They 
have done not only a service in their own 


BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS. & 

time, but have also created monuments in are they confined to any one particular field 
the field of literature which will be as endur- or style. Many of these writers are well 
ing as time. known in every country in the world where 

We are sorely tempted to mention a few of the English language is spoken. Let no 
the writers of the present day. There are American fear for the literary progress of 
many distinctive writers of great ability, nor his country ! 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE ARTS. 


It is our purpose to review not those arts 
which are intended to produce material re¬ 
sults, known as the useful arts, but rather 
those intended to produce aesthetic results. 
Artisans and mechanics will find interesting 
material in the chapter on Handicrafts. 

Aside from the arts of the races of Egypt 
and the East, the history of the manual arts 
of sculpture, painting, and architecture fall 
naturally into four periods. 

Sculpture was a favorite art with the Egyp¬ 
tians. As Bunsen says: “Egypt is the monu¬ 
mental land of the earth.” The art of that 
country arose chiefly out of the latter part of 
religion. The preservation of the body or the 
likeness of the dead was essential in the esti¬ 
mation of every Egyptian. Hence arose mum¬ 
mification and also portrait sculpture for 
burial, and monumental sculpture for display. 
We may find many incidents of every-day life 
depicted on the walls of Egyptian tombs. 

The monumental architecture of Egypt was 
likewise encouraged by the same desire for 
permanence. The nature of the art of this 
country was determined largely by the quan¬ 
tity of the harder rooks easily available. The 


Egyptians also took much pride in the carving 
in wood which they made in the mummy 
cases. 

The Chaldeans lived in a stoneless country 
and so they used clay for modeling. They in¬ 
vented the potter’s wheel at an early date and 
learned the process of enameling. They im¬ 
ported some stone for sculpturing. Their 
temples were solid staged towers of sun-dried 
brick, raised above the mists of the plains. 

They made the forms of winged men and 
animals to represent certain demons and 
spirits. The figures of angels also come to 
us from Chaldea. 

The arts of the Assyrians were borrowed 
from the Chaldeans. The Phoenicians bor¬ 
rowed their arts partly from Egypt and partly 
from Assyria. Though the Phoenicians were 
inartistic themselves, they spread the art of 
other nations throughout the countries border¬ 
ing on the Mediterranean, for their trading 
ships passed to every part of the known world. 

The Greeks were thus brought in touch with 
the works of art made by the Egyptians and 
the peoples of the East. 

At this time began the first of the four 


02 



THE ARTS . 


63 


periods mentioned above. We may call it the 
Greek and Roman period, from about 700 b.c. 
to 400 a.d. The other periods are the Chris¬ 
tian period, from 400 to 1260 in Italy, and 
about 1460 in Northern Europe; the Renais¬ 
sance period till about 1620; and the modern 
period. 

Previous to the Persian wars Greek sculp¬ 
ture was closely modeled after that of the 
countries of the East. Until that time it was 
merely a symbolical art. For a long time the 
influence of the priesthood cramped and fet¬ 
tered the efforts of Greek genius. In time, 
however, these fetters were burst asunder, and 
from that moment to the culminating point of 
Greek art in the age of Pericles, the onward 
and upward progress of sculpture was rapid 
and continuous. The perfection of sculpture 
was reached in Phidias and his contemporaries 
about 400 b.c. The next century saw Grecian 
supremacy pass from Athens to Sparta. This 
period is characterized by the less severe de¬ 
sign, more refined execution, and the more 
voluptuous forms of Praxitiles and his followers. 

This great revolution was followed by a 
period of decay in which slavish imitators 
and rash innovators held sway. Thus with 
the actual fall of Greece we see the decline of 
the art which was the true reflection of her 
national spirit. The story of her sculpture is 
but the history of Greece. In its enduring 
marbles were enshrined the deities worshiped 
by the ancients, the monarchs who conquered 
nations, and the fair women for whose affec¬ 
tions the heroes strove. 

The breaking up of the great empire founded 
by Alexander the Great was completed by the 
capture of Corinth in 146 b.c. Many of the 
noblest monuments of Greece were destroyed, 
and a vast number of the works of art were 
carried by their conquerors to Rome. There 
art was encouraged by the Caesars and many 
Greek artists were invited to locate in Rome. 


The reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the An 
tonines form the golden age of the art of Rome. 
After about 200 a.d., however, sculpture began 
to decline at Rome, and the removal of the im¬ 
perial court to Constantinople in 330 gave it a 
deathblow. 

The successive waves of barbarian invasion 
that rolled over Italy effectually prevented any 
revival of art. The long night of the Dark 
Ages in which the greater part of Europe was 
involved in darkness and ignorance, and a 
prey to brute force, seemed to have extin¬ 
guished not only arts, but learning and laws 
as well. 

Early in the thirteenth century art began to 
revive in Italy. In the cathedrals of Pisa, 
Siena, Orvieto, and Lucca this period is repre¬ 
sented by many works exhibiting rare quali¬ 
ties of beauty of expression. In the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries the great Italian school 
made marvelous progress. Among the most 
distinguished sculptors was Lorenzo Ghiberti , 
who won the prize offered for the best models 
for one of the bronze doors of the baptistry of 
San Giovanni, at Florence. Michael Angelo 
declared that, “They were worthy to be the 
gates of Paradise.” 

There were many noted contemporaries of 
Ghiberti, but the greatest name as a sculptor 
in the history of Italian and of modern art, 
justly belongs to Michael Angelo. This 'great 
sculptor is equally remarkable for his inventive 
power and for the striking character of his 
execution. He despised the use of the clay 
model and grappled at once with the marble 
block before him, shaping it in his imagina¬ 
tion, and hewing out with rapid chisel the 
fervid conceptions of his mind. 

With the death of Angelo began the decline 
both of sculpture and painting. Until the 
eighteenth century art had ceased alike to 
deserve and to receive public encouragement, 
and fell into a state of lethargy, from which 


64 G HID EPOS TS. 


it was aroused only by the taste and genius of 
Canova. The honor of restoring modern sculp¬ 
ture to truer principles and purer taste is also 
due in part to John Flaxman in England. 
Bartolini ranks next to Canova among modern 
Italian sculptors. 

In France, the influence of Benvenuto Cel¬ 
lini , who started the native school early in the 
sixteenth century, was long supreme. In 1886 
M. Bartholdi completed a very noble colossal 
figure of Liberty, which was presented to the 
United States and erected at the entrance of 
New York harbor. 

In Germany, Thorioaldsen , a contemporary 
of Canova, is most honored as a sculptor. 
John Gibson is one of the most distinguished 
English sculptors of modern times. 

Among the early American sculptors Hiram 
Powers and Thomas Crawford are the most dis¬ 
tinguished. Powers’s “Greek Slave” repre¬ 
sents a high type of beauty. Among the 
living sculptors of national repute are August 
St. Gaudens and Frederick Me Monnies. 

The impulse to decorate useful articles is 
one common to all mankind. Painting was 
not, in its origin, a distinctive art. It was 
employed in subservience to sculpture. Rude 
idols were colored in imitation of life, or rude 
outlines incised in wood or stone were filled up 
with spaces of color sharply separated and 
clearly distinguished. 

Thus we find that until modern times the 
history of painting follows very closely that of 
sculpture. The Egyptians are said to have 
known the art of painting in the thirty-fifth 
century b. c. They were acquainted with 
several colors and with them painted the tombs 
and other ancient monuments. 

The Assyrians,like the Egyptians, practised 
the art of painting as a matter of record and a 
decoration rather than an imitation of nature. 
They enlarged upon the Egyptian painting, 
and the Hebrews made it rich in material. 


The Greeks claim to have discovered paint¬ 
ing through the love-sick Kora, daughter of a 
porter of Sicyon, who traced on a wall the 
shadow of the face of her departing lover, 
about to set out on a long voyage. The essen¬ 
tial principles of the art were finally estab¬ 
lished by Polugnotos of Thasos. Form, ex¬ 
pression, and color were firmly fixed at that 
time. 

The artists of the Alexandrian period which 
followed, added more perfect imitation, more 
harmonious color, and more dramatic fidelity 
of composition. About a century after Polug¬ 
notos appeared Apollodoros, the Athenian. 

Pliny relates a story of the competition be¬ 
tween two great painters, Zeuxis and Parrhasios, 
of Ephesus. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes 
so natural in appearance, so juicy-like, and so 
inviting, that the birds came to peck at them. 
He then asked Parrhasios in his turn to raise 
the curtain covering his performance. But the 
supposed curtain was the picture itself. Zeuxis 
declared himself vanquished, saying, “ Zeuxis 
has deceived birds, but Parrhasios has deceived 
Zeuxis himself.” 

Of all the great painters of the Alexandrian 
period none outshone Apelles. It is said that 
a cobbler once picked out an error in the draw¬ 
ing of a shoe in one of his pictures and he cor¬ 
rected it. Then the cobbler took it upon him¬ 
self to criticise the leg, and received from the 
artist the famous reply, “ Let not the shoe¬ 
maker go beyond his shoe.” 

With the death of Apelles began the decline 
of art in Greece. Etruscan art was in the main 
borrowed from Greece. Pliny speaks of the 
perfection of Etruscan art and the brilliancy 
of the colors on the walls of ruined temples 
older than Rome itself. 

Rome never had in ancient times an art that 
was indigenous, nor did she have a painter 
worthy of note. With the conquest of Greece 
by Rome a great number of artists went to 


65 


TEE ARTS. 


Rome and thus arose the Roman art. The skill 
of Roman artists was in the decorations, in the 
use of colors, and perspective. Like sculpture, 
painting declined with the barbarian invasions 
from the north. 

With sculpture, painting declined and with 
it revived in the thirteenth century. The 
Crusades, and especially the Latin conquest 
of Constantinople, once more brought the 
Romans and Greeks into contact. 

Giovanni Cimabue , born at Florence in 1240, 
is generally regarded as the father of modern 
painting. One of the most famous of his 
pictures was carried in a procession with 
trumpets sounding and banners displayed, 
through the streets of Florence. Much of the 
artistic talent of that time was displayed in 
frescoes in churches and cathedrals. 

Giotto , a pupil of Cimabue, effected a mighty 
revolution in art, and the force of his example 
extended far beyond his own time. The whole 
of Italy, from Padua and Verona to Gaeta and 
Naples, is indebted to him for various works 
and for a new impulse in art. He was, like 
many of the great artists of the medieval 
period, sculptor and architect as well as 
painter. 

During the next hundred years there are 
several artists of note and the great work of 
the century is the Dominican frescoes. The 
latter half of the fifteenth century saw the 
birth of Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, 
Raphael, and Titian— the four greatest names 
in Italian art. They carried the art of paint¬ 
ing to a degree of excellence that has never 
since been equaled. It was the golden age of 
painting. Leonardo da Vinci, the son of a 
lawyer, was painter, architect, sculptor, mathe¬ 
matician, engineer, chemist, anatomist, poet, 
and musician. 

Michael Angelo was likewise a painter, 
sculptor, architect, anatomist, and poet, and 
excelled in all. 


Raphael, one of the greatest painters that 
ever lived, was born among the laurel woods 
of the Umbrian Mountains. He went to Flor¬ 
ence and entered the field of art at the time 
the works of Michael Angelo and Vinci were 
attracting the attention of all Italy. This 
wonderful artist died at the age of thirty-seven, 
but his success during the twenty years of his 
career as an artist has made his name a house¬ 
hold word among all lovers of art. 

Titian, or Tiziano Vecelli, the Venetian, be¬ 
came the most popular portrait painter in 
Italy. Popes, emperors, and princes contended 
for the honor of being immortalized by his 
magic pencil. Following Titian in the school 
of Venice were Correggio and Veronese. 

The period between 1452 and 1666 embraces 
nearly the whole of the great era of painting 
in Italy. All before is growth, all beyond is 
decay. 

In the north the central school of early 
Flemish painting was Bruges. From this 
school the improved method of oil painting 
was carried to Venice by AntoneUo, of Messina, 
before the time of Titian. The Flemish classi¬ 
cal school began with Rubens and Vandyck in 
the early part of the seventeenth century. Of 
Rubens, Sir Joshua Reynolds said: “Those 
who cannot see the extraordinary merit of this 
great painter, either have a narrow conception 
of the variety of art, or are led away by the 
affectation of approving nothing but what 
comes from the Italian school.” 

Rembrandt in Holland was the most eminent 
of the numerous painters of the seventeenth 
century. His great characteristic was the 
management of chiaroscuro. He carried this 
feature to the utmost point that has ever been 
attained. He admitted but little light, but 
gave to that little unrivaled brilliancy. Rem¬ 
brandt was also a celebrated etcher. 

Ingres, the leader of the classical French 
school, was a close follower of Raphael. Dur- 


66 


GTJTDEPOSTS. 


ing th iigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI art 
in Fra t s was in a most corrupt and degraded 
state a i J so it remained until it was raised by 
the vi< ii ous hand of Jacques Louis David in 
the eai ly part of the present century. He 
brought about a strong pseudo-classical re¬ 
action f hich lasted until about 1825 when the 
romant’o school superseded it. This modern 
school e mbraces such names as Paul Delaroche, 
the landscape and historical painter, and Jean 
Francois Millet , the peasant painter. Under 
these men modern French art has arisen to a 
great pitch of technical excellence. 

Previous to the time of Henry VIII, painting 
had made little progress in Great Britain. 
Artists were ranked with the menials of the 
court, and in fact they deserved little more. 
The young, learned, and gallant Henry VIII 
was ambitious to rival the continental courts 
in splendor and magnificence. Foreign artists 
were invited, and many continental art collec¬ 
tions were purchased outright. 

Native artists sprang up, but it was not un¬ 
til the eighteenth century that any extraor¬ 
dinary English art appeared. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds , the first president of the Royal 
Academy of London, did much to improve 
and elevate the art of painting in England. 
Other distinctly national British artists were 
Turner , the landscape painter, David Wilkie , 
and Sir Edward Landseer , the famous animal 
painter. Of the present day artists of Eng¬ 
land Millais and Leighton are the most popular. 

Benjamin West was the first American to 
gain an eminent position as a painter. His 
work was done principally in Rome and Eng¬ 
land. Rembrandt Peale was another artist of 
the early part of the nineteenth century. His 
great work was in portraits. 

Since 1868 there has been a rapid and vigor¬ 
ous art development in the United States. It 
is largely the product of French education and 
a large proportion of the paintings are French 


in style. Eastman Johnson has for his favorite 
subjects American rural life, though of late 
years he has devoted himself to portrait paint¬ 
ing. Bierstadt is noted for his pictures of the 
western mountains. Frederick E. Church and 
William H. Beard are also well known artists. 

The history of architecture may be said to 
begin with the construction of the Pyramids of 
Egypt about 5,000 years ago. About 2570 
b. c. a form of structure is found in Egypt 
which contains the germ of a style practised 
at a later age in Greece. 

Assyria comes next to Egypt for the age and 
importance of its buildings. The Persians 
borrowed the style of the Assyrians but erected 
their buildings in stone, while the Assyrians 
were obliged to use wood. 

Ancient Greek architecture is almost wholly 
represented by temples and theaters. The 
ruins show that the architecture was of a very 
refined character. The Grecian style embraces 
three orders, called the Doric , the Ionic, and 
the Corinthian. 

The Romans borrowed their early architec¬ 
ture from that of Greece and Etruria. In 
Egypt, Assyria, and Greece, architecture was 
confined to tombs, temples, palaces, and thea¬ 
ters, but the Romans extended it to baths, 
bridges, aqueducts, arches, and domestic build¬ 
ings. 

To the three orders of Grecian style the 
Romans added the Tuscan and Composite. In 
many of their buildings, such as the Colosseum , 
built about 80 a. d., the orders were piled over 
each other, dividing the great height of the 
external wall into several tiers or stories. 

Romanesque architecture is the general term 
applied to all the various round-arched styles 
which arose in Western Europe after the erup¬ 
tions of the barbarians. 

The Norman style, also called Romanesque, 
is very well known in England and Scotland, 
and many examples of it remain. Under the 


THE ARTS. 


67 


general term Gothic Architecture , the Norman 
style is sometimes included, but the name 
Gothic is understood to mean the pointed styles 
of architecture, which succeeded, the Roman¬ 
esque and Norman. 

Roman or classic architecture may be said to 
have never died out in Rome, and when in the 
fifteenth century, the revival of classic litera¬ 
ture and taste took place, the ancient classic 
style of architecture naturally revived along 
with it. This is called Renaissance architec¬ 
ture. 

The Arabian or Moorish style of architecture 
drew to some extent from the Persian and 
from the Roman Byzantine art. Several 
mosques and other buildings at Cairo, a pecul¬ 
iar class of houses in Algiers, and the Moorish 
palace of the Alhambra , as well as the mosque 
of Cordova, furnish striking illustrations of 
this kind of architecture. 

Modern architecture is essentially imitative. 


In the beginning of the nineteenth century 
the habit of imitating ancient styles had been 
established, and began to be applied to Gothic 
architecture. In France, the birthplace of 
Gothic, a modification of the Renaissance, 
known as the “French style,” is used. In 
Italy and Germany the purer classic examples 
have been more frequently followed. 

The architecture of America follows very 
much the same course as that of Europe. 
The churches are often Gothic, but the other 
great edifices are in the main Italian, such as 
the capitols of New York, Ohio, and the na¬ 
tional capitol at Washington. The last is a 
building of great size and picturesque outline 
and depends largely for its chief effect on the 
lavish use of porticoes and colonnades. In clos¬ 
ing it would not be proper to omit mention of 
those wonderful white palaces which decked 
the shores of Lake Michigan during the 
World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


CHRONOLOGY. 


PERIOD I. 

PRIOR TO B. C. 2348 — FROM THE CREATION 
TO THE FLOOD. 

According to Biblical chronology, the date 
of creation is about 4004 years b. c., while 
scientists place it all the way from 10,000 to 
30,000 years back, and some of them even 
millions of years. Prehistoric time has been 
classified by scientific authorities into four 
ages, namely, the Palaeolithic, or Early Stone 
Age, the Neolithic, or Polished Stone Age, 
the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Geological 
research has demonstrated the existence, dur- 
ing the prehistoric period, of huge winged liz¬ 
ards and other monsters belonging to a pe¬ 
riod distinct from the present. 

The first great event after the creation was 
the Flood. Scientists and theologians agree 
that a wide-spread deluge at some time oc¬ 
curred, and Scripture places the date at 2348 
b. c. Mythological traditions of Babylon, 
Greece, India, China, our own Indians, and 
other nations contain numerous references to 
a great flood. 


PERIOD II. 

b. c. 2348 to b. c. 1451 — from the flood to 

THE JEWISH ENTRY INTO CANAAN. 

There were eight survivors of the Flood, 
consisting of Noah and his family. The ark 
rested on Mount Ararat in Armenia, the local¬ 
ity of the recent Turkish atrocities. The hu¬ 
man race multiplied, and Scripture records 
that near the site of Babylon they attempted 
to build a tower which should reach to heaven, 
but which only resulted in a confusion of 
tongues and the consequent diversification of 
the forms of language and the types of race 
among men. The founding of Babylon by 
Nimrod and of Nineveh by Assur followed ; Se- 
miramis is said to have surrounded the former 
with the mighty walls which were the wonder 
of the ancient world. About this time Menes 
(the Misraim of Scripture) reigned in Egypt. 

What is known as “Abraham’s call” (to 
establish a new nation) occurred in 1921, and 
his grandson Joseph, who was sold into Egypt 
by his brethren in 1729, consummated the 
great commission. Moses, after the death of 



CHRONOLOGY. 


Joseph, led the exodus of the children of Israel 
from the land of Egypt, in 1491, although 
Joshua, upon the death of Moses, finally guided 
the Israelites into the “promised land/* 

The Scriptural accounts of this era are sus¬ 
tained by the hieroglyphics of Egypt. 

Athens and Troy were founded (the former 
in 1556, the date of the latter uncertain) and 
the glorious city of Corinth was built in 1350. 
About the same time the foundation of Thebes 
was laid by Cadmus. The Olympic Games 
were first celebrated in Greece in 1453. 

PERIOD III. 

B. C. 1451 to B. C. 776 — THE HEROIC AGES 
TO THE FIRST OLYMPIAD. 

The heroic ages followed, lighted by the 
genius of Minos, the lawgiver of Crete with its 
hundred cities. In 1263 the Argonauts sailed 
in search of the Golden Fleece ; Tyre was built 
in 1257; Latinus in 1239 began to reign in 
Italy; the Trojan war began by the rape of 
Helen in 1204; Lycurgus, the great lawgiver, 
flourished in the ninth century; Homer’s po¬ 
ems were brought from Asia to Greece in 884; 
Dido built Carthage in the same era ; and the 
triumph of Corcebus in the race of kings at 
Corinth, in 776, established the first authentic 
date in Greek history. 

About 1249 Gideon was a judge in Israel; 
Samson was born in 1155 ; Jephthah was a 
judge in Israel in 1099 ; in 1079 Saul began to 
reign as king of Israel; David succeeded him 
in 1055, and Solomon, his son, built the Temple 
at Jerusalem in 1012, the glory of the Jewish 
race declining with the closing of his reign, 
only to reappear for a time under Jeroboam. 

PERIOD IV. 

B. C. 776 to B. C. 4 — THE FOUNDING OF ROME 
TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 

Whatever there may be in the story of Rom¬ 
ulus and Remus and the Wolf, it is reason¬ 


69 

ably certain that Rome was founded about 
752. Four years later the legend of the abduc¬ 
tion of the Sabine women takes its date. In 
658 the Byzantine Empire was founded; in 
637 Draco, the stern lawmaker of Athens, 
flourished; in 504 Solon, the Athenian law¬ 
giver, came into power, and in 507 the 
Pythian games were established at Delphi, 
the seat of the famous oracle. Following not 
long upon this event reigned the fabulously 
rich king Croesus, and contemporaneously 
with him lived and taught the Chinese phi¬ 
losopher Confucius, and about the same time 
reigned Pisistraitus, tyrant of Athens. The 
lyric poet Pindar and the tragic poet JEschylus 
flourished. Tarquinius Superbus extended his 
conquests and his cruelties, and the armies of 
Darius, Cambyses, and Cyrus desolated the 
earth. In 496 was fought the notable battle 
of Lake Regillus ; in 490 occurred the decisive 
battle of Marathon ; Miltiades died in prison ; 
Xerxes ascended the throne of Persia ; Corio- 
lanus was banished from Rome, and Aristides 
the Just was ostracized. 

The battle of Thermopylae, where the he¬ 
roic Spartans defended the famous pass, and 
the naval battle of Salamis, won by the Greeks, 
were both fought in 480. In 471 Themisto- 
cles was banished and in 448 Virginia was sac¬ 
rificed by her father, and the decemvirs of 
Rome were abolished; Pericles flourished about 
430; the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks 
occurred in 400; the Romans drained the 
Alban Lake, and the Gauls under Brennus 
took Rome. 

This was the era of Philip of Macedon (born 
382, died 336) and of his son Alexander the 
Great (born 356, died 323), the latter of whom 
in thirty-three brief years developed into the 
conqueror of the world. 

The famous library of Alexandria was 
founded in 283 and the Achaean League began; 
silver money was first coined in Rome in 266 ; 


70 


O U1DEPOS TS. 


and the first Punic war began in 288. Han¬ 
nibal (born 247) won glory in his great cam¬ 
paigns; Fabius Maximus flourished; the 
battle of Cannae was fought; Judea was con¬ 
quered by Antiochus the Great; the elder 
Cato flourished; Jerusalem was destroyed. 
Carthage was overthrown ; the Gracchi flour¬ 
ished and fell; Jugurtha starved to death in 
Rome; Mithridates reigned and the Roman 
capitol was burned. 

Cicero (born 106) became famous as an ora¬ 
tor, and Caesar (born 100) gained glory by his 
campaigns, Pompey fought, and Catiline con¬ 
spired ; the battle of Pharsalia was fought 
and the Alexandrian Library burned b. c. 48. 

In the year 81 b. c. occurred the battle of 
Actium, and the year following Mark Antony 
and Cleopatra died. 

The Scriptural events of this period were: 
the captivity of the Israelites in 721, and the 
end of their rule at the hands of Salmanasar , 
the invasion of Judea by Sennacherib, king 
of Assyria; the prophesying of Habakkuk; 
the killing of Holofernes by Judith ; the unit¬ 
ing of the kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria 
by Esarhaddon; and Nebuchadnezzar’s cap¬ 
ture of Jerusalem and the beginning of the 
Jewish captivity. 

PERIOD V. 

3. C. 4 TO A. D. 1096 — THE BIRTH OP CHRIST 
TO THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

Jesus Christ was crucified under the reign 
of Tiberius Caesar and the governorship of 
Pontius Pilate. The year 25 a. d. marked 
the end of the Olympiads, and in this year 
John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, 
telling of the near approach of the reign of 
the Messiah. Christ appeared and was bap¬ 
tized by John, after which he began preach¬ 
ing and performing deeds of beneficence and 
miracles in Judea. After three years of such 


work he was crucified, and the third day he 
rose again according to the Scripture. The 
record of his life and deeds is embodied in 
the several books of the New Testament. 

Caligula, Claudius, and Nero ruled suc¬ 
cessively over pagan Rome. Boadicea was 
scourged; Seneca and Lucan were put to 
death. Titus took Jerusalem amid a scene of 
horror such as the world has never known, 
among which were mothers eating their own 
children and men hanging crucified along the 
highways by the hundreds of thousands. 

Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, and Titus 
successively ruled in Rome. The persecution 
of Christians began, and, forbidden to assem¬ 
ble, they dug subterranean retreats, called 
catacombs, where they gathered and sub¬ 
sisted by thousands. 

The Roman legions, in their conquering 
progress northward, Invaded Britain, building 
walls, forts, and military roads. 

The power of Rome was on the wane. The 
Saracen race appeared on the ‘theater of 
European affairs. The Temple of Diana at 
Ephesus was burned in the year 260. Dio¬ 
cletian persecuted the Christians. 

Constantine the Great, who ushered in a new 
era for the Christians, issued in 313 his famous 
Edict of Milan, embracing a policy of tol¬ 
eration toward them. The same monarch 
abolished combats by gladiators, called the 
Council of Nicea in 315 ; established Sunday ; 
and was baptized into the Christian faith just 
before his death. 

The Goths, Huns, and Vandals now began t<r 
make incursions into Roman territory, and 
finally took and sacked Rome itself. Attila — 
“ the Scourge of God ”— marched over Europe 
and spread terror in his path. The Franks 
under Clovis embraced Christianity, and the 
Saxons began to ravage the coasts of Britain. 

Mohammed (born in 571) became a marvel¬ 
ous force in the then civilized world. The 


CHRONOLOGY. 


71 


Persians took Jerusalem in 616, and the Sara¬ 
cens in 636. The latter held it for over 450 
years, their possession eventually resulting in 
the Crusades. The Mohammedans or Sara¬ 
cens gained control of Spain and a part of 
Gaul. They would have completely overrun 
Europe but for the terrible defeat they en¬ 
countered at Tours in 732, at the hands of 
Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charle¬ 
magne. The latter was born in 742, and in¬ 
herited from his father, Pepin the Short, the 
Frankish throne, the power of which, in his 
hands, extended over all Europe. 

In 778 occurred the battle of Roncesvalles, 
told in history and sung in legendary song, in 
which Roland, the paladin of Charlemagne, 
fell at the hands of the Moors. 

The Saxon Heptarchy in England began in 
827, and the West Saxons gradually gained the 
. ascendency until 871, when Alfred, the West 
Saxon king, became monarch of all England, 
winning by his wise and benignant rule the 
title of Alfred the Great. With him begins 
the reliable record of modern English history. 
The Danes had been for years making preda¬ 
tory raids with their war-ships on the coasts 
of England, and in 1016 they succeeded in 
placing their king, Canute, on the English 
throne. 

The Normans, under Duke William of 
Normandy, at the battle of Hastings in 1066, 
made the conquest of England, and William 
became its king, and initiated an era of glory 
for the realm. He introduced the feudal 
system and compiled the Domesday Book. 

In the year 1094 Peter the Hermit began to 
preach the first crusade, in which the chivalry 
of Europe enlisted with an ardor unknown 
in the history of civilization. France, Ger¬ 
many, Spain, England, and the Italian states 
all sent forth their best blood to rescue the 
tomb of the Saviour from the hands of the 
Saracen. 


The Turcomans, a tribe of Tartars, made in 
760 their first incursion into Armenia from 
their mountain fastnesses in Central Asia, 
and obtained possession of a part of Armenian 
territory, of which they completed the con¬ 
quest in the thirteenth century, and which 
they have held uninterruptedly with a bloody 
and iron grip until the present day of terrible 
disaster for its devoted inhabitants. 

PERIOD VI. 

A. D. 1097 TO A. D. 1400 — CHIVALRY AND THE 
CRUSADES. 

Iii 1098 the Crusaders took Antioch ; Henry 
I, son of the Conqueror, became king of Eng¬ 
land in 1100; in 1118 the powerful order of 
Knights Templar was instituted; in 1135 
Stephen succeeded Henry on the English 
throne; David I of Scotland lost in 1138 the 
“ Battle of the Standard; ” the Bank of Venice 
was founded in 1157, and became a great com¬ 
mercial power. 

Thomas & Becket was foully assassinated 
in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, for which 
deed Henry II did royal penance; the con¬ 
quest of Ireland was begun by Henry II in 
1172, lasting through weary centuries; and 
the Sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem in 
1187. 

Richard of the Lion Heart left the throne of 
England in 1190 to join the vast crusading 
hosts ; in 1192 the superb Saladin was defeated 
in the battle of Ascalon; the chivalrous 
Baldwin, count of Flanders, in 1203 took Con¬ 
stantinople, and the next year achieved the 
glory of being crowned Emperor of the East; 
and the very next year after this triumph of 
enlightened chivalry, the dark inquisition 
was established in Italy. 

In 1206 Genghis Khan burst like a storm- 
cloud on the eastern horizon and overran the 
Saracens with his Tartar hordes; and King 


72 


Q TJIDEPOSTS. 


John of England, as inglorious a monarch as 
his brother Richard was glorious, was forced 
by the Barons at Runnymede in 1215 to sign 
the Magna Charta, England’s first step to¬ 
ward a constitution. 

The year 1245 was marked by the important 
movement of the organization of the Han¬ 
seatic League of German Free Cities, consti¬ 
tuting the germs of the present commercial 
power of Germany and Holland. 

Dante, the great Italian poet, died at 
Florence in 1265 ; and the brave and unsullied 
Louis IX of France, toward the close of the 
last crusade, in which he had taken a noble 
part, sealed his sublime faith by his death in 
Tunis in 1270. 

The year 1280 was the period when Othman 
(or Osman) took the Turkish scepter and built 
up a great nation; and in 1282 occurred the 
horror of the “Sicilian Vespers,” the massacre 
of the French in Sicily. 

In 1298 William Wallace was defeated at 
Falkirk; the heroic Robert Bruce became 
king of Scotland in 1306; and the next year, 
a year of heroism, the Swiss cantons, having 
five years previously thrown off the Austrian 
yoke, organized a confederation of republics. 

There was fought in 1314 the memorable 
battle of Bannockburn; the mariner’s com¬ 
pass, which had been in use for ages in China, 
was introduced about this time into Naples; 
cannon were first used by the English in 1327; 
two years afterward Tamerlane, the great 
conqueror, began his ravages in Khorassan; 
and the monk Schwarz invented gunpowder 
in 1320. 

Edward III and the Black Prince made 
1346 a red-letter year in English history by 
winning undying honors at the hotly con¬ 
tested battle of Crecy; ten years later the 
French King John, called “the Good,” was 
captured by the Black Prince at Poitiers and 
taken, a royal captive, to England and held 


for ransom; and the same year Amurath I 
ascended the Ottoman throne. 

Wycliffe caused the year 1380 to be remem¬ 
bered by the lovers of the Bible by translating 
it into English; Bajazet, the wisest ruler of 
the Turks, ascended their throne in 1389; and 
a year before the close of the century Henry 
IV was crowned king of England. 

PERIOD VII. 

1400 A. D. TO 1500 A. D.— THE INVENTION OP 

PRINTING AND THE DISCOVERY OP AMERICA. 

Tamerlane, renowned in story and song, 
died in 1405; the battle of Agincourt, in which 
Henry V, the chivalrous “Prince Hal,” won 
such a mighty victory over the great French 
army as to throw all France into the hands 
of England, was fought in the memorable year 
1415; John Huss of Bohemia and Jerome of 
Prague paid, in 1415 and 1416 respectively, the 
penalty at the stake for their boldness in the 
utterance of their faith. 

Paper was first made from linen rags in 
1417; the Portuguese, never tiring of making 
new quests on the sea, discovered in 1420 the 
island of Madeira; in that darkened year for 
France, 1429, when she seemed ready to fall 
a helpless victim to English greed of conquest, 
Joan of Arc, the virgin heroine, inspired 
Charles the Seventh of France to gain such a 
victory at the siege of Orleans as to entitle 
him to be called “the Victorious.” The 
Medici family in 1434 entered upon that ca¬ 
reer of genius and ambition which made them 
leaders in the world of art, letters, and diplo¬ 
macy for over three hundred years. 

The French were made happy in 1436 by 
seeing Paris freed from English occupation, 
and new life breathed into the nation. About 
four years thereafter the art of printing was 
invented by John Gutenberg, and thereby a 
new realm opened for thought and ambition, 
and a new stimulus given to civilization. 


CHRONOLOGY. 


73 


The Cape Verd Islands were discovered in 
144G; the years that immediately followed 
were noted by other valuable discoveries by 
the world’s busy navigators. The year 1453 
was marked by the signal event of the fall of 
the Eastern Empire of the Romans; Con¬ 
stantinople was taken by the Turks in the 
same year; three years prior the invention of 
engraving on copper had appeared. In 1455 
began the Wars of the Roses, which during 
thirty years saturated England’s soil with the 
best blood of her sons. A grand year for Spain 
was that of 1469, when the marriage of Ferdi¬ 
nand and Isabella united the crowns of Ara¬ 
gon and Castile, and gave Spanish arms a 
magnificent prestige among the nations. This 
was the age of the cultured and luxurious 
Moors, typified in the unapproachable Alham¬ 
bra. The English throne was blighted for 
two years by the reign of Richard III, by 
whose death on Bosworth field in 1485 the 
glorious reign of the Tudors was ushered in. 

The siege of Granada ended disastrously 
for the Moors in 1492, practically closing their 
rule in Spain; and the same year the over¬ 
shadowing event of modern civilization, the 
discovery of America, took its place in history; 
the West Indies were explored, and Europe 
was fired witha fever of colonization; Columbus 
soon after touched the mainland of the Ameri¬ 
can continent. 

It was only five years later (in 1497) when 
Vasco da Gama, doubling the Cape of Good 
Hope, sailed to the East Indies ; and the same 
year Sebastian Cabot landed in North America. 
The first book of Algebra was printed in Eu¬ 
rope in 1494, two years after the discovery of 
America ; and Savonarola’s martyrdom lighted 
up, in 1498, the closing years of a century pro¬ 
lific in great events. 


PERIOD VIII. 

A. D. 1500 TO A. D. 1600 — THE AGE OF 
DISCOVERY AND ADVANCEMENT. 

The Portuguese followed close on the heels 
of the Spanish in the realm of discovery, and 
opened the sixteenth century with achieve¬ 
ments only secondary in importance to those 
of Columbus. They still believed that there 
was a larger West than he had brought to 
light; nor were English navigators or those of 
other lands idle. The Portuguese discovered 
Brazil in 1500, while Gosnold, of England, and 
others made great progress in exploring the 
coasts of North America; and six years later 
the Portuguese discovered thfe island of Mada¬ 
gascar. 

It was in 1511 that Spain completed the re¬ 
duction of the luckless “ Gem of the Antilles,” 
by a policy of cruelty which recalls that pur¬ 
sued by her to-day; the following year the 
French, by the battle of Ravenna, lost their 
hold on Italy; and the next year the French 
were defeated at the “Battle of the Spurs,” 
and also at Terouenne; later in the same 
bloody year ten thousand bonnie Scots laid 
down their lives on Flodden Field. 

The year 1517 was a turning-point in relig¬ 
ious history, for Luther then began the work 
of the Reformation, “building wiser than he 
knew; ” the Turks shocked the world by the 
massacre of the Mamelukes in Egypt in the 
same year; in 1520 Magellan explored the 
Southern seas and discovered the straits which 
bear his name; the succeeding year Cortez 
completed the conquest of Mexico; and the 
next year thereafter one of the ships of the 
tireless navigator Magellan sailed round the 
world. 

Gustavus Vasa, about whom every intelli¬ 
gent youth loves to read, became in 1523 king 
of the triumphant monarchy of Sweden ; and 
Pizarro and Almagro began about the same 


74 


GUIDEPOSTS . 


period the conquest of Peru, which ended in 
eight years with the complete subjection of 
the opulent land of the Incas, and consum¬ 
mated a long series of achievements on land 
and sea, peaceful and warlike, that brought 
the glory of Spain to its apex. 

A notable period for England was the year 
1534, the Reformation reaching England and 
embracing among its incidents Henry VIII’s 
quarrel with -Luther and his breaking with 
the Pope, which resulted in the establishment 
of the Church of England; Ignatius Loyola 
founded the Jesuit order in 1540, and about 
the same time the monasteries were gener¬ 
ally dissolved in England; Mary Queen of 
Scots assumed the Scottish throne in 1542. 

The long and notable eighteen-year session 
of the Council of Trent was begun in 1545, 
settling many profound questions for the 
faithful; in 1547 Henry YIII’s son, Edward, 
was crowned; in 1553, his daughter Mary. 
In the second year of Mary’s reign, Lady Jane 
Grey was beheaded ; and in 1558 Queen Eliza¬ 
beth came to the throne, and began a reign 
which raised England to the position of leader 
among the Old World’s powers. 

The same year the French took Calais, and 
two years later broke out in France the civil 
war between the Condfcs and Guises; in 1560 
stern old John Knox completed the Reforma¬ 
tion in Scotland. The Protestants of France 
were defeated at Jarnac and Moncontour in 
1569, and the Moors were mercilessly perse¬ 
cuted by the bigoted rulers of once proud and 
generous Spain. 

The civilized world was thrilled with horror 
in 1572 at the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
The year 1580 was notable for the fact that 
England’s great naval commander, Sir Francis 
Drake, circumnavigated the globe ; two years 
later Gregory XIII introduced the “new 
style” of chronology, adding ten days to the 
calendar on the fifth day of October; and in 


1584 one of the most dastardly deeds in his¬ 
tory was done in the murder at Delft of Will¬ 
iam the Silent, Prince of Orange. 

Virginia was discovered in 1584 by Sir Wal* 
ter Raleigh; three years after this event the 
luckless Queen of Scots was beheaded, and 
thereby the remainder of Queen Elizabeth’s 
life clouded. A year later Spain received the 
death-blow to her hopes of conquest by the 
destruction to her “ invincible Armada;” in 
1590 the University of Dublin began its power¬ 
ful influence, held ever since, in the world of 
letters; Henry IV won glory the same year in 
the battle of Ivry. 

The great bank of England was incorpo¬ 
rated in 1594 ; four years later, “Henry of Na¬ 
varre ” issued the ever-memorable Edict ol 
Nantes, the charter of toleration; the century 
closed by Tyrone’s rebellion in Ireland. 

PERIOD IX. 

A. D. 1600 TO A. D. 1700 — THE ERA OP 
COLONIZATION. 

The colonization spirit in Europe, which 
had begun to manifest itself in connection 
with the sixteenth-century era of discovery, 
flourished with vigor in the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury. In the last year of the preceding cen¬ 
tury that greatest of all incorporations, the 
East India Company, was organized. 

Queen Elizabeth opened the new century 
by giving her reluctant consent to the execu¬ 
tion of the Earl of Essex; in 1602 decimal 
reckoning was invented at Bruges; the year 
following, the proud Elizabeth ended her 
earthly glory upon a death-bed of remorse, 
and poetic justice placed upon the throne as 
her successor James I, the son of the Queen 
of Scots. In the second year of James’s reign, 
the gunpowder plot of Guy Fawkes gave Eng¬ 
land the greatest scare in all her annals. 


CHRONOLOGY. 


75 


The London Company sent a colony to 
Jamestown, Va., in 1607. 

In 1609 Hendrik Hudson explored the noble 
river which bears his name ; Galileo the next 
year discovered the Satellites of Jupiter; the 
brave Henry IV was assassinated by the fa¬ 
natic Ravaillac ; “ the last sigh of the Moor ” 
was heard in Spain; and logarithms were 
invented by Napier of Marchistoun. 

The matchless William Shakspeare died in 
1616 in his native Stratford-on-Avon; and in 
the years from 1619 to 1628 William Harvey 
established the theory of the circulation of the 
blood, which it is claimed had been discov¬ 
ered in the previous century by the religious 
martyr Servetus. 

The Pilgrims, landing at Plymouth, made 
the year 1620 an initial one in American his¬ 
tory, and opened a new era in civilization; 
Manhattan Island was settled three years sub¬ 
sequently by the sturdy and stolid Dutch, 
who later on built up the great Empire State. 

Two years later Charles I came to the Eng¬ 
lish throne under glad auspices, contrasting 
strongly with his tragic end; the same year 
marked the English settlement of the Bar- 
badoes; in 1632 the Christian hero of the 
North, Gustavus Adolphus, fell at the battle 
of Lutzen. 

Maryland was colonized by Lord Baltimore 
under liberal and tolerant laws in 1634, and 
within two years thereafter the martyr-like 
Roger Williams with his devoted followers 
settled Rhode Island ; the next year the great 
Richelieu established the French Academy; 
in 1638 was signed the Scottish “Solemn 
League and Covenant;” two years afterward 
the English colonized Madras; and one year 
later occurred the Irish rebellion and the exe¬ 
cution of the Earl of Stafford. 

The year 1642 was another initial one in 
English history, as the battle of Edgehill, 
which was fought that year, precipitated the 


great civil war, with its terrible and long-en¬ 
during consequences. Within three years the 
head of Archbishop Laud was brought to 
the block, and simultaneously the Royalists 
felt the power of Cromwell at Naseby. In 
1648 the civil war of the Fronde broke out at 
Paris. 

The year 1649 was darkened by a royal 
tragedy, for in that year the head of Charles I 
fell on the scaffold, and the English Common¬ 
wealth took its place among the organized 
powers of the world ; and the year after Crom¬ 
well gained a great victory with his Ironsides 
at Dunbar over the Scotch Covenanters. 

Hostilities began between the English and 
Dutch, under the firm hand of Cromwell, two 
years later. Inspired by his success, Crom¬ 
well then laid the foundations of the English 
navy. 

Within a twelvemonth from this time the 
Commonwealth came to an end, and Cromwell 
was made Lord Protector. Admiral Palm in 
1655 captured Jamaica. 

After having ruled as Protector with a firm 
hand for five years, Oliver Cromwell died 
in 1658, and his weak son Richard succeeded 
him. Within two years England, tired of un¬ 
stable government, restored the Stuart Mon¬ 
archy in the person of Charles II. The Caro- 
linas were colonized in 1663, and the English 
took New York the following year. 

England’s two great afflictions, the plague 
and the fire of London, occurred, the one in 
1664 to 1666, and the other in 1666. By the 
peace of Breda in 1667, England obtained pos¬ 
session of the territory embracing the states of 
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey; 
the habeas corpus act, second only to the 
Magna Charta in importance as a constitu¬ 
tional movement, was passed in England two 
years subsequently; and Monmouth defeated 
the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge in the 
same year. 


76 


0 UIDEPOS TS. 


Peter the Great became partial sovereign of 
Russia in 1682, and sole monarch in 1689; the 
wise and good William Penn settled Pennsyl¬ 
vania in 1682 ; three years after this the vacil¬ 
lating James II came to the English throne; 
and the same year witnessed the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, whose long train of cruel 
consequences darkened France for many a 
day; the same year occurred the rebellion 
under Monmouth, the battle of Sedgmoor, and 
Monmouth’s humiliating death on the scaffold. 

Then marched grandly forward the crowning 
event of the period, the English revolution in 
1688, the landing of William of Orange from 
Holland, the battle of the Boyne, the ignomin¬ 
ious flight of the deposed James II, and the 
crowning of William and Mary. 

The year 1692 was memorable for two events 
of military glory, and one of civil infamy : the 
great naval battle off La Hague, the infamous 
massacre of Glencoe, and the battle of Steen- 
kirk (or Enghien). 

The peace of Ryswick, concluded in 1697, 
marked a new era in diplomacy; and two 
years from that time witnessed the abortive 
attempt to found a Scotch colony on the Isth¬ 
mus of Darien. 

PERIOD X. 

A. D. 1700 TO A. D. 1750 — CIVIL LIBERTY AND 
INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS. 

Yale College was founded in 1701; James II 
died in ignoble exile in France the same year; 
within a twelvemonth his daughter Anne suc¬ 
ceeded William III on the English throne ; the 
same year began the French colonization of 
the Mississippi Valley, and the English wrested 
from Spain the stronghold of Gibraltar; the 
great Marlborough, the ruling spirit of the 
day, won the victories of Blenheim (1704), 
Ramillies (1706), Malplaquet (1709), and others; 
Queen Anne died in 1714, occasioning the in¬ 
stallation of the Hanoverian dynasty. 


The y ear 1715 was distinguished by the Jac¬ 
obite rebellion in Scotland and the battle of 
Sheriffmuir, immortalized by Burns; and in 
that notable year of financial excitement, 1720, 
burst the “ South Sea Bubble, ” and John Law’s 
Mississippi scheme, whereby rich and poor 
alike were fleeced of their money. Within the 
period of a dozen years or more, the world was 
enriched by the birth of such geniuses as Lin¬ 
naeus the naturalist (b. 1707), Fielding the nov¬ 
elist (b. 1707), Samuel Johnson the lexicogra¬ 
pher (b. 1709), Hume the historian (b. 1711), 
Rousseau the social philosopher (b. 1712), Sterne 
the novelist (b. 1713), Garrick the actor (b. 1716), 
Gray the poet (b. 1716), and Smollett the histo¬ 
rian (b. 1721). 

Fahrenheit invented the thermometer in 
1726; one year previous Peter the Great had 
died and left as a vast civilized empire what 
he found as a crippled, embarrassed, barba¬ 
rous kingdom ; Clive, the great conqueror of 
India, first breathed British air the same year; 
George II was crowned king of England in 
1727; North and South Carolina were sepa¬ 
rated; the year 1729 gave to the world the 
names of Burke, the statesman, and Suwaroff, 
the great field-marshal. Wedgwood the artist 
was born in 1730, and the poet Cowper the 
year following. 

1732 was our own red-letter year of the birth 
of the peerless Washington, also that of the 
great composer Haydn, and of the hero of 
England’s greatest trial, Warren Hastings. 
The following year Gen. Oglethorpe colonized 
Georgia; the same year Mesmer was born, 
who gave the science of mesmerism to the 
world. In 1736 Hull succeeded in inventing 
a steam-engine, and James Watt was born. 

Gibbon thegifted historian first sawthe light 
in 1737, and the same year Galvini, the elec¬ 
trician, was born; also, Herschel the wonder¬ 
fully endowed astronomer, and West the great 
portrait painter, were born the following 


CHRONOLOGY. 


year; about the same period Siber-Kuhn in¬ 
vented the solar microscope; the “unspeak¬ 
able Turk” besieged Belgrade in 1739, the 
beneficent London foundling hospital was es¬ 
tablished, and the master of pulpit eloquence, 
Whitefield, began preaching in the streets and 
fields. 

That over-mastering genius, Frederick the 
Great, came to the Prussian throne in 1740; 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts were di¬ 
vided the next year; the physiognomist La- 
vater was born and the great historian Rollin 
died in 1741; in 1743 was fought the battle of 
Dettingen in Bavaria, and the same year 
America gave birth to that grand statesman, 
Thomas Jefferson. 

What was known as “King George’s War” 
occurred in the year 1744; the same year 
“the Young Pretender” made an attempt at 
revolution in England ; the battles of Falkirk 
and Culloden were fought, where many a Scot 
bit the dust; and the Duke of Cumberland’s 
cruelties drove thousands of Scotchmen to 
America and other countries. 

The year 1747 saw Balmerino, Kelmarnock 
and Lord Lovat go bravely to the block; the 
previous year marked the birth of the nobly 
endowed Swiss educator, Pestalozzi, and the 
naval engagement off Cape Finisterre de¬ 
stroyed one of France’s finest fleets the same 
year. Jeremy Bentham, the political philoso¬ 
pher, was born in 1748; and in 1749 there also 
came into the world Mirabeau the French 
revolutionist, Alfieri the Italian poet, Laplace 
the astronomer, Goethe the poet and philoso¬ 
pher, Charles James Fox the statesman, Tip- 
poo-Sahib the barbarous Indian sultan; and 
Edward Jenner the illustrious anatomist. 
PERIOD XL 

A. D. 1750 TO A. D. 1800 — THE EVOLUTION OF 

THE REPUBLIC. 

Already events were culminating toward 
the formation of a new nation out of the ele¬ 


77 

ments of liberty which had been gathering 
strength for over a century in the new world. 
The Puritans of New England, the Dutch of 
New York, the cavaliers of Virginia, the 
Catholics of Maryland, the Huguenots of the 
Carolinas, were all verging toward one focal 
point, the achievement of independence and 
the stirring events of the old world but added 
inspiration to the rising spirit of the new. 

Clive was conquering for England a mighty 
empire in the East; the great British Mu¬ 
seum was founded in 1753; Franklin discov¬ 
ered electricity; the French and Indian war 
was in progress ; Braddock suffered his signal 
defeat; and Washington had risen from a 
country surveyor to a colonelcy in the British 
army. 

The tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta 
appalled the world in the year 1756 ; the Seven 
Years’ war between Prussia and the Austro- 
French alliance was begun; and that melodious 
soul, Mozart, was born; in the following year 
the signal victory at Plassy was won by Clive ; 
and Washington’s and America’s loyal and 
chivalrous friend, Lafayette, was born; Robes¬ 
pierre, the revolutionist, and Horatio Nelson 
came into the world the next year. 

Humanity lost a bright exemplar when, in 

1759, the hero Wolfe fell on the plains of Abra¬ 
ham, and England conquered Canada; and 
the same year gave to the world Pitt the 
statesman, Wilberforce the philanthropist, 
Danton, a figure in the French revolution, 
an.d Burns and Schiller the poets. The long 
reign of sixty years of George III began in 

1760, and the Eddystone Lighthouse was 
built. 

The mutterings of the coming storm of rev¬ 
olution now began to be heard in the old thir¬ 
teen colonies, the obnoxious “writs of assist¬ 
ance” being issued in Massachusetts in 1761. 
The year 1763 was marked by the conclusion 
of the Peace of Paris; Black’s discovery of 


78 


0 UID EPOS TS. 


latent heat was made known; and Jean Paul 
Richter, the Damascus blade of German liter¬ 
ature, was born. 

The British Parliament passed the odious 
Stamp Act in 1765; the Colonial Congress con¬ 
vened in New York City, and the heroic spir¬ 
its of the day successfully resisted the Stamp 
Act and the following year it was re¬ 
pealed ; Pitt’s second administration took 
its place in the swift current of events; and 
this year Malthus, the author of the “ Malthu¬ 
sian theory ” of over-population, and Madame 
de Stael, the fascinating authoress of Cor - 
inne , were born. 

Watt patented the steam-engine in the year 
1769, and the following galaxy of geniuses came 
upon the world’s stage of action : Napoleon 
Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, Alexander 
Humboldt, Marshal Ney, Cuvier the natural¬ 
ist, Castlereagh the statesman, the elder 
Brund the engineer, Sir Thomas Lawrence 
the artist, and Mehemet Ali. The “Boston 
Massacre,” which occurred in 1770, thrilled all 
the land with indignation, and provoked the 
demand for the withdrawal of the British 
troops. 

In 1771 were born that prince of all wits, 
Sidney Smith, Lingard, Sir Walter Scott, and 
Prince Murat; the Encyclopedia Britannica 
appeared; the indomitable Warren Hastings 
became governor of Bengal; the royal marriage 
act was passed in England, and that singularly 
clear intellect, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was 
born. 

The never-to-be-forgotten “Boston Tea 
Party” threw overboard in 1773, with the 
rich cargoes of tea, all hopes of reconciliation 
between the patriots and the parent govern¬ 
ment; the Jesuits were that year suppressed 
by the Pope, and the intrepid Captain Cook 
made his second and principal voyage of dis¬ 
covery. 

The next year the Continental Congress 


assembled in Philadelphia ; the arbitrary “Bos¬ 
ton Port bill” was passed ; and Gage usurped 
the governorship of Massachusetts. Oxygen 
was discovered by Priestley and Schule; and 
Southey and Mezzofanti was born. 

The conflict with the oppressing power at 
last came in the colonies. The battle of Lex¬ 
ington was fought, where the shot was fired 
that “echoed round the world;” the struggles 
at Concord and Bunker Hill followed ; George 
Washington was chosen by the devoted patriots 
to command their hastily gathered forces. In 
the year 1775 were born Charles Lamb (the 
gentle “Elia”), J. M. W. Turner (the painter 
whom Ruskin has immortalized), Jane Austen 
the romancist, and Daniel O’Connell. 

The Declaration of Independence was issued 
in 1776 by the Congress in Independence 
Hall, Philadelphia, whose historic bell tolled 
forth the fact to all peoples; the British evacu¬ 
ated Boston, but still occupied New York ; the 
battles of Long Island and Trenton were 
fought; the brave Nathan Hale was hanged 
as a spy, expressing with his dying breath the 
regret that he had but one life to offer up for 
his country. 

The battles of Brandywine, Philadelphia, 
Germantown, and Saratoga were fought in 1777 
and won by the American revolutionists, the 
last-named being mentioned by Creasy as one 
of the fifteen decisive battles of the world. 

The next year France recognized the inde¬ 
pendence of the new American nation, Vol¬ 
taire and the elder Pitt closed their illustrious 
careers in death, the battle of Savannah was 
fought, Sir Humphrey Davy was born, and 
the brave Captain Cook was mercilessly slaugh¬ 
tered by savages the year following. 

Two years later, Charleston, S. C., surren¬ 
dered to the patriots, the hotly contested bat¬ 
tle of King’s Mountain occurred, the base trea¬ 
son of Arnold was discovered, Washington had 
to perform the painful duty of ordering the 


CHRONOLOGY. 


79 


execution of the gallant Major Andre as a 
British spy, the French fleet appeared off 
Newport, and the beneficent discovery of vac¬ 
cination was made by Jenner. 

The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 
1781, virtually closed the long struggle of the 
Revolution; in this year Herschel discovered 
the great Uranus, Robert Raikes originated 
the blessing of Sunday-schools, and George 
Stephenson, the English engineer, and Chant- 
rey, the sculptor, were born. 

The preliminaries of peace between America 
and England were settled the year following, 
and all the land was made glad by the final 
wacuation of the British troops at New York; 

Washington patriotically and cheerfully 
rendered up his commission to his government; 
Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, 
was born; and Mongolfier made his noted ex¬ 
periments in ballooning. 

Washington retired to Mt. Vernon in 1784; 
Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer, died; the 
Bramah lock was patented ; and the next year 
Ambassador John Adams was presented at the 
English court. 

In the notable year 1786, the eloquent Ed¬ 
mund Burke, on behalf of the people of Eng¬ 
land, “in the great hall of William Rufus,” 
impeached Warren Hastings of “high crimes 
and misdemeanors,” of which, eight years 
later, he was declared innocent; Massachusetts 
adopted a decimal currency; Cornwallis, who 
had been so soundly whipped by Washington, 
was appointed Governor-General of India; 
Shay’s Rebellion, in Massachusetts, broke out 
and was signally suppressed; and Great Brit¬ 
ain lost one of her best naval commanders, 
Admiral Keppel. 

The Constitution of the United States was 
framed, in 1787, by a National Convention 
comprising the leading patriots of the war; 
and the same year a great step in the aid of 
humanity was taken by the organization of 


the society for the suppression of the slave 
trade. 

The London Times was established the fol¬ 
lowing year by Walter, whose family own it 
to-day; Charles Stuart, the young pretender, 
died ; the never strong-brained George III was 
declared insane ; eight states ratified the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States; and General 
Washington was elected the first president of 
the new republic. 

In the year succeeding the culmination of 
our efforts to create a nation, the French 
Revolution burst in fury upon the world ; the 
Bastile, noted for wrong and cruelty, fell at 
the hands of a Paris mob ; and Herschel com¬ 
pleted the construction of his wonderful tele¬ 
scope. The year 1791 was marked by the deaths 
of John Wesley the Evangelist, Mirabeau the 
Revolutionist, and Potemkin the soldier; 
Galvani published his discovery of electricity; 
and Louis XVI made his notable flight to 
Varennes. 

In the year that followed, the French Revo¬ 
lution was in full blast; and the same year 
the first use was made of illuminating gas. 

The darkest blot in all the eras of civiliza¬ 
tion, the French reign of terror, occurred in 
the next year; Washington, elected the pre¬ 
vious year, was reinaugurated president of 
the United States; and young Napoleon first 
distinguished himself at the siege of Toulon. 

The serious whisky rebellion occurred in 
Pennsylvania in 1794; Kosciusko’s influence 
was supreme in Poland ; the execution of the 
wretch Robespierre ended the reign of terror; 
“Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated the Amer¬ 
ican Indians; and Claude Chappe invented 
the French telegraph. 

Warren Hastings was acquitted in the year 
1795, after England had tired of the trial; 
Jay’s treaty with England was negotiated; 
and the French Institute and the Polytechnic 
school were founded. 


80 


GUIDE POSTS. 


Napoleon Bonaparte had by 1796 become a 
power in Europe, strangely contrasting in char¬ 
acter with Washington, who that year retired 
from public life, asking no crown nor guerdon. 
Napoleon fought the famous battles of Lodi 
and Areola, and these and other triumphs 
thrilled the French heart. In the same year 
John Adams was elected president of the 
United States. 

One of the brightest names of literature,. 
Robert Burns, was sealed in death in 1796, and 
that of Edmund Burke the year following. 
The leading warlike event was the battle of 
Camperdown in Holland, where the British 
gained a notable victory over the Dutch. 

In the succeeding year Napoleon initiated 
his Italian 'campaign, capturing Rome and 
taking Malta, and afterward occupying Egypt, 
where he fought the noted battle of the Pyra¬ 
mids ; Nelson gained his great victory at the 
battle of the Nile; Senefelder invented lith¬ 
ography ; and the musical world was delighted 
by the production of Haydn’s immortal orato¬ 
rio of the “Creation.” 

Napoleon’s forces the next year entered Na¬ 
ples; later on they captured the fortress of 
Ehrenbreitstein; after which they overran 
Syria and besieged Acre. In this year the 
first coalition of European powers against 
Napoleon was formed; Napoleon was chosen 
first consul of France ; and Washington closed 
his noble career by a peaceful death at Mt. 
Vernon. 

PERIOD NIL 

A. D. 1800 TO 1850 — THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE NEW NATION. 

Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 
1800; Napoleon crossed the Alps, and fought 
the battle of Marengo; the English captured 
Malta and Mysore ; the Austrians were beaten 
by the French and Bavarians at the battle of 
Hohenlinden ; and science was enriched by the 
invention of the Voltaic pile. 


Admiral Nelson signalized the opening cen¬ 
tury by his great victory at Copenhagen ; the 
French evacuated Egypt; and the first census 
of Great Britain was taken. 

Ohio joined the American Union in 1802; 
and the next year the United States effected 
the purchase of Louisiana, constituting the 
chief glory of Jefferson’s administration ; an 
American naval expedition was fitted out 
against Tripoli, and a rebellion broke out in 
Ireland. 

Alexander Hamilton fell in a duel with 
Aaron Burr in 1804; Thomas Jefferson was 
re-elected president; the “Code Napoleon” 
was promulgated by the victorious French 
emperor, then in the height of his glory; the 
Due d’ Enghien was entrapped on foreign soil 
and summarily executed by Napoleon’s orders ; 
the British and Foreign Bible Society began 
its great work, and Savings Banks became 
permanent organizations. 

Two great victories were gained in 1805 by 
two great men: Horatio Nelson coupled a 
glorious victory with a glorious death at the 
battle of Trafalgar; and Napoleon won per¬ 
haps his most signal triumph on the field of 
Austerlitz. The next year was brought to 
light the conspiracy of America’s Catiline, 
Aaron Burr ; and in the old world the increas¬ 
ing conquests of Napoleon excluded all other 
events from the public mind. 

The year 1807 was notable for several events 
of vast importance, among which were the 
battle of Eylau, the first forcing of the Straits 
of Dardanelles; the Milan decree; and the 
first trip of Fulton’s steamboat on the Hudson 
River. 

The election of James Madison as president 
occurred the next year; also the siege of Sara¬ 
gossa; the French suffered reverses at Baylen, 
Vimiera, and Corunna, and the same year 
were fought the battles of Wagram and Tela- 
vera; the year after were founded the Uni- 


CHRONOLOGY. 


81 


versity of Berlin and the sect of Primitive 
Methodists. 

Napoleon’s Mamelukes were massacred in 
1811 by the Turks; the popular cry of “Free 
Trade and Sailors’ Rights” heralded the sec¬ 
ond war between America and England; the 
battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana was fought, 
and the Indian chief Tecumseh killed; and 
the great comet made its appearance. 

1812 was a year of some important events 
and some great calamities. Louisiana en¬ 
tered the Union; the terrible massacre of 
the garrison of Fort Dearborn, Chicago, oc¬ 
curred ; James Madison was re-elected presi¬ 
dent ; Napoleon declared war against Russia, 
and, marching confidently forth to effect her 
overthrow, met with the colossal disaster of 
the burning of Moscow, followed by the hor¬ 
rors of the retreat of his grand army. 

The next year occurred the celebrated naval 
battle between the Shannon and the Chesa¬ 
peake ; Wellington gained victory after vic¬ 
tory over the French in the Peninsular war; 
and Davy discovered the electric light. 

The war with Great Britain was still on 
in 1814; Canada was invaded by American 
troops, and the British, sailing up the Poto¬ 
mac, seized and burned the city of Washing¬ 
ton ; the Hartford convention, pervaded by 
an odor of treason, met and uttered murmurs 
against the war; England fitted out an expe¬ 
dition against New Orleans; and Napoleon 
suffered the humiliation of abdication and 
banishment to Elba. 

General Jackson fought the battle of New 
Orleans in the year 1815, and overwhelmingly 
defeated the confident British invaders; Na¬ 
poleon, effecting his escape from Elba, began 
the “war of the hundred days,” leading up to 
the grand historic event of Waterloo, from 
which the great Captain who had terrorized 
Europe fled in the shadows of the night, to be 
eventually captured and exiled on the storm- 


beaten rock of St. Helena; the brave Marshal 
Ney was most unjustly executed; and Hum¬ 
phrey Davy invented the safety lamp. 

The next year Indiana came into the 
Union; James Monroe, author of the Monroe 
doctrine, was elected president; and Ronalds 
invented the electric telegraph. The year 
following Mississippi was admitted into the 
Union; Curran, the eloquent Irish orator, 
and Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, died; and 
Brewster invented the kaleidoscope. 

Illinois was admitted into the Union in the 
year 1818; and Laennec invented the stetho¬ 
scope; in 1819 Florida was ceded to the United 
States by Spain; Alabama came into the 
Union; Macadam’s system of road-making 
was introduced, and Oersted discovered mag¬ 
netism. 

The year following Maine was admitted 
into the Union; Monroe was re-elected presi¬ 
dent, and George IY began a ten years’ weak 
reign. 

A year afterward Missouri came into the 
Union as the result of the historic Missouri com¬ 
promise ; Brazil achieved her independence ; 
and death claimed the rich-souled poet, John 
Keats, and the fallen hero, Napoleon Bona¬ 
parte. 

Once again in 1822 the Greeks declared 
against Turkish rule, and, asserting their in¬ 
dependence, took possession of Athens ; the 
Caledonian canal was completed; and Bab¬ 
bage invented his calculating machine. 

The following year Joseph Smith pretended 
to have found the golden book of Mormon, and 
founded the sect of Mormonism. In 1824 La¬ 
fayette re-visited the United States; the pre¬ 
tender, Iturbide, was shot in Mexico, and Lord 
Byron closed his restless life at Missolonghi in 
Greece. 

John Quincy Adams, having failed in ob¬ 
taining a majority in the electoral college, 
was in 1825 chosen president or' the United 


82 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


States by the House of Representatives; the 
lime light was invented by Drummond ; and 
the first voyage from England to India by 
steamboat was made. 

In 1826 Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, 
former presidents of the United States, both 
died on the fourth of July. Flaxman, the 
illustrious sculptor, also died this year. 

The year 1827 was marked by the battle of 
Navarino ; Dreyse invented the terrible needle 
gun; the omnibus was first introduced into 
Paris; and death removed Pestalozzi the ed¬ 
ucator, Canning the statesman, and Foscolo 
the poet. 

That embodiment of firmness, Andrew Jack- 
son, famous for his utterance “The Union! 
By the Eternal it shall be preserved ! ” was the 
next year elected president of the United 
States. 

In 1830 William IY succeeded the last of 
the Georges on the English throne; Belgium 
achieved her independence of Holland; and 
the patriot Bolivar died. 

Andrew Jackson was re-elected president two 
years later ; the leading event in the industrial 
world was the invention by Heathcote of the 
steam plow; and death closed the records of 
those three great geniuses, Goethe, Cuvier, and 
Walter Scott. 

Slavery was finally abolished in the British 
West India possessions in 1833; Santa Anna 
was elected president of Mexico ; and Edmund 
Keene, Hannah Moore, and the philanthropist 
Wilberforce died. 

Lafayette died in 1834; in 1835 Texas as¬ 
serted her independence of Mexico, Colt’s re¬ 
volver was invented, and war broke out with 
the Seminole Indians. 

Martin Yan Buren was elected president in 
1836; in 1837 Yictoria, daughter of the Duke 
of Kent, came to the throne of England; the 
philanthropist Father Mathew began his 
grandly successful temperance crusade; and 


cholera prevailed to an a/arming extent in 
Europe. 

The year after, Papineau’s Rebellion was 
suppressed in Canada, and Daguerre, by his 
wonderful invention, paved the way for the 
grand developments of photography. The 
next year was an eventful one in the far 
Pacific. New Zealand was settled, and gold 
discovered in Australia; both of which coun¬ 
tries have since astonished the world by their 
progress. 

General Harrison was elected president of 
the United States in 1840; Queen Victoria 
was married to “Albert the Good ; ” the Penny 
Post was established; and Schonbein discov¬ 
ered ozone. 

The Dorr Rebellion broke out in Rhode Is¬ 
land in the succeeding year; the Mormon 
temple at Nauvoo was founded, and the Lon¬ 
don Punch made its appearance. 

In 1842 was signed the Webster-Ashburton 
treaty between the United States and Great 
Britain; and the steam hammer was patented 
by Nasmith. The next year Natal was an¬ 
nexed to Cape Colony, in South Africa ; Botta 
discovered the site of Nineveh; and the poet 
Southey died. 

James K. Polk was elected president of the 
United States in the year 1844 ; the first tele¬ 
graph line was erected in the United States; 
Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was 
killed by a mob, and was succeeded by Brig¬ 
ham Young ; and the Mormon war in Illinois 
occurred. 

Florida and Texas were admitted into the 
Union the next year, during which hostilities 
began on the Texas border, which led to the 
Mexican war ; gun cotton was invented; and 
England suffered a railway panic. 

The Mexican war was in full blast through 
the year 1846, and the American volunteers 
gained victories at Palo Alto, Resaca de la 
Palma, and Monterey; the Sikh war broke out; 


CHRONOLOGY. 


83 


famine prevailed in Ireland; and the planet 
Neptune was discovered. 

The next year the Americans were again 
victorious over the Mexicans, winning the bat¬ 
tles of Buena Yista, Vera Cruz, Jalapa, and 
Chapultepec; the Mormons founded Salt Lake 
City; Barnum brought Jennie Lind to Amer¬ 
ica ; Sir John Franklin and the composer Men¬ 
delssohn died. 

In 1848 General Zachary Taylor was elected 
president; gold was discovered in California, 
followed by a tremendous exodus of the citi¬ 
zens of the States across the continent; and 
Louis Napoleon was elected president of the 
French republic. 

In 1849 Livingston discovered Lake N’gami; 
and Edgar A. Poe and Mehemet Ali died. 

PERIOD XIII. 

A. D. 1850 TO DATE — THE PROGKESS OP THE 
NATION. 

California, the fruit of the Mexican war, 
joined the Union in 1850; the Fugitive Slave 
law was passed this year and became one of 
the irritating elements in the agitation which 
brought on the rebellion; McClure discovered 
the Northwest Passage; a submarine tele¬ 
graph was laid between France and England; 
the statesman Peel, the poet Wordsworth, and 
the novelist Balzac died. 

In 1851 death robbed American literature of 
Cooper, the delightful novelist, and American 
science of Audubon, the gifted ornithologist; 
Louis Napoleon, by his noted coup d'etat over¬ 
threw the republic and became emperor of 
France. 

The subsequent year Franklin Pierce was 
elected president of the United States; a revo¬ 
lution occurred in Mexico; and death claimed 
those four great names, Henry Clay, Daniel 
Webster, the Duke of Wellington, and the 
poet Thomas Moore. 


Kansas and Nebraska were torn by civil 
dissensions during the succeeding two or 
three years over the effort to establish slavery 
within their borders; Commodore Perry made 
his first expedition to Japan, which was pro¬ 
ductive of such beneficial results, commercial 
and diplomatic, to our country; Armstrong 
invented his rifled cannon; and the Crimean 
war was in fierce progress. 

The first Niagara suspension bridge was 
completed in the year 1855; and Bessemer 
gave to the world the benefit of the invention 
of his steel process. 

The next year James Buchanan was elected 
president of the United States; the allies 
evacuated the Crimea; the gifted geologist, 
Hugh Miller, went out of life into a suicide’s 
darkened death; and Heinrich Heine the 
poet, and Schumann the composer, died. 

The Dred Scott decision created, a year la¬ 
ter, a revolution in political thought; the Mor¬ 
mon Rebellion broke out; the first attempt was 
made to lay the Atlantic cable; the East In¬ 
dian mutiny occurred, with all the horrors of 
Cawnpore; and the Mont Cenis tunnel was 
begun. 

Minnesota was admitted into the Union in 
1858 ; the Atlantic cable was successfully laid, 
under the inspiration of Cyrus W. Field ; the 
charter of the East India Company was trans¬ 
ferred to the English Crown; Donati’s comet 
was discovered; and the intrepid Captain 
Speake discovered Lake Victoria Nyanza. 

John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, which 
greatly helped to bring on the Civil War, and 
his death on the scaffold at Charlestown, mak¬ 
ing him the colored man’s saint, were the 
salient events in America in 1859 ; Oregon was 
admitted into the Union. 

During this year death claimed many gen¬ 
iuses in various ranks of intellectual effort, 
among them Hallam, Prescott, Macaulay, and 
Irving, the historians, Alexander von Hum- 


84 


OUIDEPOSTS. 


boldt the philosopher and explorer, Prince 
Metternich the statesman, Leigh Hunt, the 
poet, and De Quincy the English opium eater ; 
and the gigantic Victoria bridge was opened 
at Montreal. 

Abraham Lincoln was elected president of 
the United States in 1860, and his success be¬ 
came the signal for the inception of the great 
Rebellion ; South Carolina took the advance 
in seceding from the Union ; the marvelous 
phenomena of the spectrum analysis were 
given to the world ; the discovery of oil wells 
in Pennsylvania added one more to America’s 
great industries; Garibaldi assisted in re¬ 
deeming and resuscitating Italy ; and the elo¬ 
quent preacher Theodore Parker, the philoso¬ 
pher Schopenhauer, and the great navigator 
Cochran, died. 

The next year came the concerted move¬ 
ment of secession ; the firing on the stars and 
stripes at Fort Sumter, and Anderson’s brave 
defense. Jefferson Davis was elected presi¬ 
dent of the Southern Confederacy; the Con¬ 
federate Congress met first' in Montgomery 
and afterward in Richmond; the United 
States suspended specie payment; and the 
first work of the signal service began. 

In 1862 Ericsson’s pride, the Monitor, tri¬ 
umphed over the Merrimac ; the federal forces 
captured New Orleans; the battles of Bull 
Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fred¬ 
ericksburg were fought; the Alabama was 
fitted out as a privateer by the Confederates; 
the French fought to sustain Maximilian on 
the Mexican throne ; Ex-president Martin Van 
Buren died ; and the Lancashire cotton fam¬ 
ine occurred. 

President Lincoln made the year 1863 his¬ 
torically memorable by issuing his immortal 
Emancipation Proclamation; Pemberton sur¬ 
rendered to Grant at Vicksburg ; the battle of 
Gettysburg was fought; Fort Hudson and Chat¬ 
tanooga were occupied by the federal troops; 


‘ ‘Stonewall ’ ’ Jackson was killed at Chancellors* 
ville ; West Virginia became a separate state ; 
a great Fenian convention met at Chicago ; 
and the ill-starred Maximilian became the 
short-lived emperor of Mexico. 

The war of the Rebellion continued through 
1864, during which Sherman made his historic 
march from Atlanta to the sea; the federal 
Kearsarge sank the confederate Alabama; Gar¬ 
ibaldi made his noted visit to England, which 
he was, with diplomatic politeness, invited to 
cut short; the beneficent Red Cross association 
was organized for the relief of the wounded in 
war; Nobel effected his invention of dynamite; 
and death took away the composer Meyerbeer, 
the novelist Hawthorne, and the poet Landor. 

President Lincoln in 1865 entered upon the 
second term of office to which he had been 
triumphantly elected the year previous; Grant 
took Richmond; and General Lee, after a des¬ 
perate struggle of four years, surrendered at 
Appomattox, and the overthrow of the confed¬ 
eracy was assured; Johnson surrendered his 
confederate army to General Sherman. 

The spring of the same year John Wilkes 
Booth perpetrated the worst crime of the age 
in the assassination of President Lincoln; Jef¬ 
ferson Davis was taken prisoner, and the great 
Rebellion closed. The Fenian agitation broke 
out anew in England; and the death list was 
augmented by the names of Proudhon, Rich¬ 
ard Cobden, Professor Aytoun and Lord Palm¬ 
erston. 

The Fenian raid into Canada was made in 
1866; the brief but decisive campaign of the 
Austro-Prussian war was fought; and Whewell 
the philosopher and Keble the divine died. 

In 1867 the purchase of Alaska from Russia 
by the United States was effected; Mexico was 
evacuated by the French; and, with “Poor Car- 
lotta” upon his lips, Mexico’s foreign emperor, 
Maximilian, fell perforated with republican 
bullets; that great engineering feat, the Suez 


CHRONOLOGY. 


85 


Canal, was completed; England fitted out an ex¬ 
pedition against King Theodore of Abyssinia, 
and equipped another expedition to search 
for Dr. Livingston; and Faraday and Victor 
Cousin died. 

The year following President Johnson was 
tried on impeachment and acquitted; U. S. 
Grant was elected president of the United 
States; the Carlists revolted in Spain ; Ex¬ 
president James Buchanan, Brewster the 
Scotch physicist, and Narvaez the Spanish 
statesman, died. 

The completion of the Pacific railway 
marked the year 1869; the Irish church was 
disestablished; and Lamartine, Saint-Beuve 
the great critic, and the Earl of Derby died. 

Gen. R. E. Lee, Lopez of Paraguay, Charles 
Dickens, and Marshal Prim died the next 
year; a Vatican decree promulgated the doc¬ 
trine of the infallibility of the Pope; the 
Franco-Prussian war was begun; the Ger¬ 
mans won at Sedan, Metz, and Tours, and 
gained other noted victories, and invested the 
city of Paris, which endured the horrors of 
the Commune and the barbarous slaughters of 
the hostages. 

In 1871 the city of Chicago was partially 
destroyed by fire; the Alabama commission 
met; the victorious Germans entered Paris, 
and at Versailles crowned King William em¬ 
peror of Germany ; the Mont Cenis tunnel was 
opened; and the noted Tichborne case was 
brought to a close. 

President Grant was re-elected the next 
year ; Boston was visited by a great fire ; Eng¬ 
land obtained from the Dutch the malarial 
gold coast; an extensive eruption of Mt. 
Vesuvius occurred; and the Ballot Act ef¬ 
fected material election reforms in England. 
The treacherous murder of Gen. Canby by the 
Modoc Indians occurred in 1873; Mac Mahon 
became president of the French Republic; 
and the Shah of Persia visited England. 


The next year England paid the Alabama 
award to the United States ; Bazaine was tried 
and condemned for surrendering Metz; and 
the Germans finally evacuated French terri¬ 
tory. 

The year succeeding, Colorado came into the 
Union ; the ships Alert and Discovery entered 
upon the Arctic exploration; and the Prince 
of Wales visited India. 

Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president 
of the United States in 1876; the Centennial 
Exposition was held at Philadelphia ; and the 
terrible massacre of Gen. Custer with the 7th 
Cavalry took place. 

The great railroad strike occurred the subse¬ 
quent year ; Turkey held its first Parliament; 
Diaz was elected president of Mexico; the 
Nihilist agitation increased in Russia ; and Ex¬ 
president Thiers of France died. 

Gold stood at par on. Wall street in New 
York in 1878 ; the Paris International Exposi¬ 
tion was opened ; and those two great Italians, 
Victor Emmanuel and Pope Pius IX, closed in 
death their irreconcilable personal enmity. 

The United States resumed specie payment 
the next year; the Jeannette Arctic relief ex¬ 
pedition sailed; the gallant young prince, 
Napoleon, son of Napoleon III, fell in the war 
between the English troops and the Zulus; 
and a passing train crushed the great Tay 
Bridge in Scotland, causing scores of deaths. 

James A. Garfield was elected President of 
the United States in 1880; the St. Gothard 
tunnel was opened ; the Cologne cathedral was 
completed; and the railroad up Mt. Vesuvius 
was constructed. 

The year 1881 was darkly shadowed by the 
assassination of President Garfield and Czar 
Alexander of Russia; the United States cele¬ 
brated the centennial of Yorktown; and the 
English Government suppressed the Irish 
Land League. 

The Irish cause was damaged by the terrible 


86 


OUIDEPOSTS. 


Phoenix Park murders which occurred in 
1882; and, as a result of the war between Eng¬ 
land and Egypt, Arabi Pasha was defeated 
and banished. 

In 1883 the United States celebrated the cen¬ 
tenary of the British evacuation of New 
York ; the great Brooklyn Bridge was opened ; 
and two more Atlantic cables were projected. 

The Washington Monument was completed 
in 1884; Grover Cleveland was elected presi¬ 
dent of the United States; Gen. Greeley and 
his fellow survivors of the Arctic expedition 
were rescued in a perishing condition; the 
war in Soudan was prosecuted; and financial 
panics prevailed in the United States. 

Gen. Grant met the following year a lin¬ 
gering death bravely and cheerfully; the 
grim Conqueror also claimed Victor Hugo, 
Vice-President Hendricks, Gen. Geo. B. Mc¬ 
Clellan, and King Alphonso of Spain. 

The Volunteer won the international yacht 
race in 1886, the Irish agitation acquired in¬ 
creased intensity, and Samuel J. Tilden and 
Gen. Winfield S. Hancock died. 

In 1887 the jubilee of Queen Victoria’s 
reign was celebrated throughout the British 
Empire. Henry Ward Beecher and Jennie 
Lind, died. 

Benjamin Harrison was elected president of 
the United States in 1888; England celebrated 
the tercentenary of the repulse of the Spanish 
Armada, and Russia the 900th anniversary of 
the introduction of Christianity into that em¬ 
pire; and Gen. Sheridan, the Emperor of 
Germany, Matthew Arnold, Roscoe Conkling, 
the French General Bazaine, and the astrono¬ 
mer R. A. Proctor, joined the silent majority. 

The Pan-American Congress, held in Wash¬ 
ington, was the leading civil event of 1889; 
the Johnstown flood spread death and destruc¬ 
tion in the Conemaugh Valley of Pennsylvania; 
Brazil became a republic; and a terrible and 
fatal hurricane occurred in the Samoan Islands. 


The inventor, Ericson, died in 1889. 

The deaths of that great master of dialectics, 
Cardinal Newman, Dr. Doellinger, and the 
writer John Boyle O’Reiley, were the most 
signal events of 1890. The year that followed 
saw the hero of the march to the sea, Gen. W. 
T. Sherman, King Kalakaua of the Sandwich 
Islands, Charles Stuart Parnell, the Irish 
leader, and Dom Pedro, Ex-Emperor of Brazil, 
added to the list of the mighty dead. 

Grover Cleveland was again elected presi¬ 
dent of the United States in 1892. On this 
anniversary of the discovery of America by 
Christopher Columbus, was dedicated the 
beautiful White City at Chicago, for the 
World’s Columbian Exposition, which opened 
the next year. 

In 1893 was settled the Behring Sea dispute 
between the United States and Great Britain, 
a grand triumph for arbitration ; a revolution 
occurred in Hawaii, and a republic was formed; 
Blaine’s policy of reciprocity was put into 
practise by a treaty with Brazil; the Ameri¬ 
can ministers to England, France, Germany, 
and Italy were raised to the rank of ambassa¬ 
dors ; Rome annexed Bokhara; and the dis¬ 
pute concerning the Pamirs was settled. 

The American Congress passed a stringent 
act regulating the immigration of aliens; 
the Navy was strengthened by the construc¬ 
tion of the great ships Monterey, Indiana, 
Maine, Texas, and Minneapolis; prominent 
railroad and industrial strikes were termi¬ 
nated ; and the World’s Columbian Exposition 
was opened, proving the grandest display of 
industrial, scientific, and artistic resources and 
achievements of all the eras of civilization. 

More or less civil disturbances occurred in 
Hayti, Honduras, Nicaragua, San Salvador, 
Costa Rica, Colombia, and Brazil; the Home 
Rule bill for Ireland failed in the English 
Parliament; anarchists committed serious 
outrages in Barcelona and Rome ; the cholera 


CHRONOLOGY. 


87 


ravaged Asia and portions of Europe ; in Ger¬ 
many a malignant Anti-Semitic agitation oc¬ 
curred ; the massacres of Armenians began 
anew in Turkey ; the marvelous telautograph 
was invented by Professor Gray; and Peary, 
Nansen, and Jackson fitted out Arctic explor¬ 
ing expeditions. 

A financial crisis occurred in the United 
States, and Congress suspended the purchase 
of silver bullion under the Sherman act; 
minor wars prevailed and some bloody con¬ 
flicts occurred in northern Africa between the 
natives and European powers ; and some diplo¬ 
matic complications arose from the exclusion 
of Chinese laborers under the Geary act. 

Governor Altgeld of Illinois pardoned the 
Chicago anarchists; the collapse of Ford’s 
Theater at Washington, the scene of the 
assassination of President Lincoln, caused the 
death of scores of persons; a magnificent 
Columbian Naval Review took place in the 
Harbor of New York. 

The United States Government paid the 
highest honors to the deceased naval engineer, 
John Ericsson, the inventor and constructor 
of the noted Monitor, by conveying his remains 
to his native land of Sweden on board a man-of- 
war; Jefferson Davis, the Confederate leader, 
was buried in Richmond ; the World’s Parlia¬ 
ment of Religions, with representatives pres¬ 
ent from all the principal faiths of the 
ancient East, was successful beyond expecta¬ 
tion as an adjunct of the World’s Columbian 
Exposition; the Exposition, after six months 
of great and unvarying success, closed its doors 
amidst universal regret; the American yacht 
Vigilant, in her triumphant contest with the 
British yacht Valkyrie, demonstrated the su¬ 
periority of American yachtsmen and yacht- 
builders; Wm. McKinley, afterward president, 
was elected governor of Ohio; and Congress 
passed the Wilson bill regulating the tariff. 

Canada received a new Governor-General in 


the Earl of Aberdeen; Cuba began the insur¬ 
rection which resulted in her freedom from 
Spanish rule; the South American republics, 
which had enjoyed an unusually long term of 
peace, had this year many incipient insurrec¬ 
tions, and Brazil was enduring a chronic in¬ 
surrection. Peary sailed from America and 
Nansen from Scandinavia on Arctic exploring 
expeditions; Sweden celebrated her tercen¬ 
tenary of religious freedom. 

In Parliament Irish home rule met another 
defeat; hundreds of British homes were placed 
in mourning by the loss, through a colossal 
blunder, of the battle-ship Victoria with nearly 
400 souls, off the cost of Tripoli; the appear¬ 
ance of the cholera spread alarm through the 
old world; the sleepy old Spanish monarchy 
was awakened by the agitations of the an¬ 
archists, and Vienna had the same alarm ; an 
insurrection of the never quiet Matabeles oc¬ 
curred in South Africa, but ended with the 
capture of Buluwayo and the defeat of Logen- 
bula, while it brought to the surface Dr. L. S. 
Jameson, the leader of the raid made later 
into the country of the Boers, and also exposed 
the designs of the millionaire-premier, Cecil J. 
Rhodes. The great Manchester ship canal, 
having cost $30,000,000 in its construction, 
was opened ; the cause of imperial federation 
gained strength in Australia; and photograph¬ 
ing in colors took its place among great modern 
inventions. 

America’s distinguished dead for this year 
embraced the great statesman James G. 
Blaine ; Bishop Phillips Brooks, the most elo¬ 
quent man in his own church, if not in the 
American pulpit; Ex-President Rutherford B. 
Hayes; General Benjamin F. Butler; Su¬ 
preme Court Justice L. Q. C. Lamar; United 
States Senator Leland Stanford, the founder 
of California’s great university; A. J. Drexel, 
the philanthropist and financier; Edwin 
Booth, the great actor; General P. T. Beau- 


88 


G UIDFPOS TS. 


regard, of Confederate fame ; Gen. Rufus In¬ 
galls, of the regular army ; Francis Parkman, 
the historian; ex-Governor and second Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture Jeremiah Rusk; and Lucy 
Larcom, the popular romancist. 

The death-roll for the year in other lands 
includes Jules Ferry, the illustrious French 
statesman; H. A. Taine, the versatile Frepch 
historian; Guy de Maupassant, the French 
author; Emin Pasha, the indomitable Afri¬ 
can explorer; Sir Samuel Baker, explorer of 
the Nile; C. F. Gounod, the famous com¬ 
poser ; Field-marshal Mac Mahon; and Pro¬ 
fessor John Tyndall, the philosopher. 

1894. This year an extensive railroad strike 
broke out in the West; terrible forest fires 
devastated Wisconsin and Minnesota; the 
Lexow investigating committee unearthed 
gigantic municipal corruption in New York; 
the historic Kearsarge was wrecked on Ron- 
cador reef; an army of tramps and idlers 
under Gen. Coxey, a man of local repute, 
marched from Ohio to Washington ; a finan¬ 
cial panic agitated New Foundland; Hawaii 
was proclaimed a republic and the queen de¬ 
throned ; the war in Honduras was closed, 
and Prudente Moraes was elected president 
of Brazil. 

In the old world the leading event of the 
year was the resignation by William E. Glad¬ 
stone of the premiership of Great Britain. 
He retired to private life after sixty years of 
public service. The next event in importance 
abroad was the foul assassination, by an an¬ 
archist, of the universally popular President 
Carnot of France. Casimir-Perier was chosen 
president in his place. Dissensions of a seri¬ 
ous nature occurred between the new Khedive 
of Egypt and his British advisers ; the dispute 
over the Pamirs, “ the roof of the world,” was 
settled between England and Russia; an 
attack was made on the life of Premier 
Crispi of Italy; the brief but bloody war be¬ 


tween China and Japan; the massacres of 
Armenians by the remorseless Turks began; 
Nicholas II was proclaimed emperor of Russia; 
and earthquakes were unusually frequent in 
different parts of the earth. 

America lost in death, this year, many 
great names, among which may be mentioned 
those of Prof. William D. Whitney, the 
learned philologist; David Dudley Field, 
the profound jurist; Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
the genial poet; Ex-President McCosh of 
Princeton University; Prof. David Swing, 
the popular preacher; Gen. Jubal Early, the 
Confederate commander; and Madame Al- 
bani, the opera singer. 

In the European nations the death-list was 
headed by Alexander III, Emperor of Russia; 
Chief Justice Coleridge, of England ; Count de 
Lesseps, originator and constructor of the Suez 
Canal; J. A. Froude, the English historian; 
Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot; Rob¬ 
ert Louis Stevenson, the English novelist; 
Austin Layard, the discoverer of Nineveh; 
Rubinstein and Yon Bulow, the pianists; Sir 
John Thompson, the Canadian statesman; and 
Yon Helmholtz, the distinguished anatomist. 

1895. No very striking events marked this 
year’s record in our own land. The increas¬ 
ing out-flow of gold to Europe impelled Presi¬ 
dent Cleveland to order another issue of bonds 
to replenish the requisite treasury balance; ne¬ 
gotiations for the settlement of the Behring 
Sea question made good progress; and the dis¬ 
closures of municipal corruption in New 
York made by Rev. C. H. Parkhurst assumed 
almost national importance. 

The United States Supreme Court declared 
the recently adopted income tax unconstitu¬ 
tional; Atlanta, Georgia, held a very successful 
Cotton Exposition; and President Cleveland 
issued a sharp message on the Venezuela 
boundary question, which had assumed a seri¬ 
ous aspect. 


CHRONOLOGY. 


89 


The Alaska boundary dispute was revived; 
Gen. Nelson A. Miles was given the chief 
command of the army; the yacht Defender in¬ 
flicted another defeat on the Yalkyire III; the 
Chickamauga and Chattanooga battle-fields 
were dedicated to the public as memorial parks; 
Lieut. Peary returned from his Arctic ex¬ 
ploring expedition; an extensive strike of trol¬ 
ley railway employees occurred in Brooklyn. 

To the south of us in Central and South 
America, stirring events filled the year. The 
Cuban insurrection increased in extent, with 
varying results, but mainly adverse to the 
Spanish authorities ; the insurgents organized 
a provisional government, and asked recogni¬ 
tion from the American Government; the 
American mail-steamer Alliance was fired on 
by the Spanish officials, the act calling forth a 
sharp rebuke from our government; and Gen. 
Campos came from Spain to act as captain- 
general. 

The British temporarily occupied Corinto, 
Nicaragua, in reparation for the insult to Brit¬ 
ish Vice-Consul Hatch at Bluefields; the 
boundary dispute between British Guiana and 
Venezuela assumed a serious aspect; Salva¬ 
dor, Honduras, and Nicaragua completed a 
scheme of federation; and Brazil protested 
strongly against England’s occupation of the 
island of Trinidad. 

In the old world the British Government 
had a ministerial crisis, and the tories came 
into power with the Marquis of Salisbury as 
premier; the colossal swindler, Jabez Balfour, 
who robbed the British people of over thirty 
million dollars, was tried and given a long 
term of penal servitude; Felix Faure was 
elected president of France; the Turkish 
atrocities against the Armenians increased in 
number and barbarity; Macedonia revolted 
against Turkish oppression ; and in India mil¬ 
itary expeditions successfully operated against 
Chitral and Waziristan. 


The war between China and Japan, or the 
“Yellow War,” was now all one way, the Jap¬ 
anese carrying everything before them. The 
battle of Wei-hai-wai and the capture of Port 
Arthur signaled the final defeat of China, and 
by a treaty of peace the island of Formosa 
was ceded to Japan, and China was compelled 
to pay an enormous indemnity. Subsequently 
Japan made important commercial treaties 
with the United States and Russia. 

The Italians prosecuted a most disastrous 
and blunder-filled campaign in Abyssinia; 
and the British fitted out an expedition to 
punish the Coomassie government for its bar¬ 
barities to British troops and other subjects; 
Dr. Jameson made his most disastrous raid 
into the Transvaal against the Boers; and 
France had a ministerial crisis, and a new 
cabinet was formed with M. Bourgeois at the 
head. 

General Wolseley was promoted to the chief 
command of the British army ; the son of the 
Ameer of Afghanistan was given a grand ova¬ 
tion on his visit to England; outrages upon 
and murders of Christian missionaries in 
China were atoned for by the punishment by 
death of the perpetrators ; and the Emperor of 
Germany, amid naval and civic displays of the 
most imposing character, opened the Kaiser 
Wilhelm canal between the North Sea and 
the Baltic. 

The cholera spread extensively, this year, in 
Asia and Eastern Europe; England’s dispute 
with Russia concerning the Pamirs was satis¬ 
factorily adjusted ; and the imprisonment of 
the former United States Consul Waller jn 
Madagascar, after a healthy agitation and firm 
protest by our government, was terminated by 
his release. 

The long-continued fraud of the Tichborne 
case was finally settled for good, as it virtually 
had been in most observant minds, by the con¬ 
fession of the fraudulent claimant, Arthur 


90 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


Orton; Prof. Ramsey and Lord Raleigh dis¬ 
covered in England the new element, argon ; 
and an international peace conference was 
held at Brussels. 

Germany yielded up the military dictator¬ 
ship which she had held over Alsace and Lo- 
raine since their cession to her by France at 
the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war, 
and granted those provinces a partial degree 
of home rule in representation at the imperial 
parliament. There was an unsuccessful at¬ 
tempt at insurrection in Hawaii in favor of 
the deposed queen. 

During this year death claimed a varied 
list from among Americans of merit and dis¬ 
tinction. Of our statesmen we yielded up the 
“Old Roman,” Ex-Senator Allen G. Thurman, 
of Ohio; Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of 
State under President Cleveland ; and Gen. 
William Mahone, of Virginia; of our men of 
letters, Prof. James D. Dana, the illustrious 
geologist; Eugene Field, the gifted poet; Gen. 
Adam Badeau, the biographer of Gen. Grant; 
Dr. S. F. Smith, the author of our national 
hymn, “America.” W. W. Story and Leonard 
Volk, world-renowned sculptors; Frederick 
Douglass, the colored orator ; H. O. Houghton, 
the widely famed publisher, and R. M. Hunt, 
the architect. 

Across the ocean the roll of the year’s dead 
embraced Lord Randolph Churchill, the rising 
and brilliant British statesman; Professor 
H. C. Rawlinson, who had well earned the 
title of the father of Assyriology; Prof. Hux¬ 
ley, the great scientist; George Augustus Sala, 
the novelist; Seeley, the English historian ; 
John Stuart Blackie, the Scotch author; 
Emily Faithfull, the philanthropist; Alexan¬ 
dre Dumas the younger; Bartholemy St. Hi¬ 
laire, the French statesman; Marshal Canro- 
bert, the great soldier; Zorilla, the Spanish 
revolutionist; De Giers, the Russian diplomat; 
Sergius Stepniak, the Russian exile; Count 


Taafe, the Austrian statesman; Stambuloff, 
ex-premier of Bulgaria, who bravely died de¬ 
fending himself against a gang of subsidized 
assassins ; Ismail Pasha, ex-khedive of Egypt; 
and Baron Tauchnitz, the famous publisher. 
To these should be added President Peixotto 
of Brazil. 

1896. The year 1896 will constitute a land¬ 
mark in diplomacy, in view of the appoint¬ 
ment of an American commission to inves¬ 
tigate Venezuela’s boundary dispute with 
England. 

The unsettled finances of the country ne¬ 
cessitated another issuance of $100,000,000 
bonds to cover a deficit in the cash balance in 
the treasury; Li Hung Chang, the viceroy of 
China, was warmly welcomed on the occasion 
of his passage through the United States. 
St. Louis was visited by a terrible cyclone in 
the very heart of the city, which caused over 
400 deaths and the destruction $10,000,000 
worth of property; and Porfirio Diaz was once 
more elected president of Mexico. 

Gen. Weyler came over from Spain to take 
charge of the Spanish forces and “make a 
prompt end” of the Cuban insurrection, 
which the close of the year, notwithstanding 
his energetic policy of cruelty, found stronger 
than when he touched the shores of Cuba; 
and Gen Lee, our consul, carefully guarded 
the interests of American citizens in the 
island. 

A cyclone, with serious damage, occurred 
in Iowa; a cloudburst in Denver, Colo., 
destroyed thirty lives; a presidential order 
enabled 30,000 persons to be given places un¬ 
der the civil service law. Immense fires, with 
great loss of life and property, occurred in the 
Ontonogon mining district of Michigan and in 
the lumber regions of Wisconsin ; and a large 
portion of the mining town of Cripple Creek, 
Colo., was destroyed by fire. 

In the old world, France took possession of 


CHRONOLOGY. 


91 


Madagascar ; the British troops made a disas¬ 
trous advance into Ashanteeland. The Ital¬ 
ians suffered fresh reverses in Abyssinia; the 
British advanced up the Nile and captured 
Dongola; and the British fleet bombarded 
Zanzibar. The Shah of Persia was assassi¬ 
nated by a fanatic. China entered the Inter¬ 
national Postal Union. 

The coronation of the Czar of Russia was 
an occasion of grand display, unusual 
even in Russia; but the event was terribly 
overshadowed by the crushing to death of 
some twelve hundred persons in the fearful 
rush to receive gifts from the czar. 

A French expedition to the Niger was routed 
by the natives, many of the French soldiers 
being killed by poisoned arrows; the German 
gunboat litis sank in the Yellow Sea, and 75 
lives were lost; and the Philippine Islands 
arose in revolt against Spain. 

In various prominent places in Spain, such 
as Madrid, Barcelona, Balboa, and others, 
there were serious outbreaks of popular feel¬ 
ing among students and other classes against 
the United States, and the American consu¬ 
lates were in two or three instances stoned, 
and only saved from further injury by the 
strenuous exertions of the Spanish police. 

The persecutions of the Armenians by the 
Turks were somewhat modified, but still occa¬ 
sionally broke forth in savage fury. Ameri¬ 
can athletes won brilliant triumphs at the 
revival of the Olympic games of classic Greece, 
the Greek king delivering the prizes in person. 

Dr. L. S. Jameson, favored by Cecil Rhodes, 
made a raid into the Transvaal, ostensibly for 
the purpose of making reparation for outrages 
jupon the Uitlanders by the Boer government, 
but he met with an overwhelming defeat, and 
afterward submitted himself for trial, on ac¬ 
count of his conduct, by a court in England. 

The Japanese government thanked the 
United States for their attitude during its 


war with China ; the British steamer Drum¬ 
mond Castle foundered off the French coast, 
and out of 247 on board only three escaped * 
an explosion of dynamite killed 160 persons 
in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

An earthquake in the northern provinces of 
Japan destroyed thousands of lives and mil¬ 
lions of dollars’ worth of property. 

Dr. Fridthiof Nansen returned from his 
Arctic exploration, having reached the far¬ 
thest point touched by any explorer, 86° 14' 
north latitude, and became the hero of the 
hour in Europe. A bimetallic conference at 
Brussels was participated in by representa¬ 
tives from Germany, the United States, 
France, Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Bel¬ 
gium, Denmark, and Holland. 

The list of dead of 1896 in our own land 
included by no means as many prominent 
names as that of the year previous. Among 
the distinguished departed were Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, the gifted novelist; Rev. 
Austin Abbott, D. D., the great Biblical critic 
and Hebrew scholar; Charles F. Crisp, Ex- 
Speaker of the national House of Representa¬ 
tives ; the promising young statesman of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, Ex-Gov. William E. Russell; and 
Henry E. Abbey, the noted opera manager. 

Abroad, death claimed such names as George 
Du Maurier, a great artist and the author of 
Trilby; Baron Hirsch, the Hebrew philanthro¬ 
pist; Ars&ne Houssaye, the French historian; 
Millais and Lord Leighton, noted artists; 
Leon Say, the French statesman; Thomas 
Hughes, the immortal author of Tom Brown at 
Rugby; William Morris, the poet of progress; 
and Crouch, the author of Kathleen Mavour- 
neen. 

1897. Congress assembled after the holiday 
vacation, and among other acts passed one for 
the representation of the United States at 
the International Monetary Conference, and 
another for the restriction of foreign immigra- 


92 


G UIDEPOS TS. 


tion; adopted pointed resolutions with refer¬ 
ence to the death of Dr. Ruiz, an American 
citizen, in Cuba. The Senate ratified the 
treaty between the United States and Japan, 
and also the extradition treaties with the Or¬ 
ange Free State and the Argentine Republic. 

The general arbitration treaty contracted 
between Secretary of State Olney and the 
British Ambassador Pauncefote, having been 
discussed in Congress at great length, was 
finally defeated. Congress appropriated $200,- 
000 for the relief of the sufferers by the unprece¬ 
dented floods in the lower Mississippi. 

William McKinley was inaugurated Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and selected the 
veteran John Sherman of Ohio as Secretary of 
State. The Dawes Indian Commission con¬ 
cluded a treaty with the Choctaw Indians for 
the allotment of lands in severalty, together 
with their abandonment of tribal government 
within eight years. 

The President sent William J. Calhoun, of 
Illinois, as a special commissioner to investi¬ 
gate the condition of affairs in Cuba, especial 
ly with reference to the treatment of Ameri¬ 
can citizens resident there. Congress appro¬ 
priated $50,000 for the relief of famishing 
families on that island. A delegation consist¬ 
ing of over sixty citizens of the Central and 
South American republics visited the United 
States for the purpose of promoting commer¬ 
cial intercourse between the two great sections 
of the American continent. A crisis occurred 
in the Spanish Cabinet, and Sagasta was called 
to the premiership. Weyler was immediately 
recalled from Cuba, and Senor Ramon Blanco 
was sent as Governor-General. 

The tomb of Gen. U. S. Grant was dedicated 
in New York City with imposing ceremonies. 
The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opened 
under favorable auspices, and proved a signal 
success. Several earthquakes occurred in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country, one extending 


through nearly the whole of the state of New 
York. 

Gen. Fitzhugh Lee resumed his duties as 
United States Consul-General at Havana. 
President McKinley formally recognized the 
new Greater Republic of Central America. 
British warships were ordered to Crete, and 
they were joined by those of the other great 
powers, but their presence did not prevent the 
outbreak of hostilities between Greece and 
Turkey. After a hot contest on land and 
sea, which lasted only a few weeks, the Greeks, 
being overwhelmingly outnumbered, were 
obliged to capitulate. 

The plague made its appearance in India, 
and became alarmingly fatal. Many Chris¬ 
tians were killed in Crete by Mussulmans; 
Spanish troops killed large numbers of insur¬ 
gents in the Philippine Islands. 

Lord Salisbury consented to the naming by 
Venezuela of one of the members of the board 
of arbitration between Great Britain and Ven¬ 
ezuela, the member thus named to be an 
American. Judge Robert A. Van Wyck was 
elected the first mayor of Greater New York 
in November, and took his seat on the first of 
January, 1898, when the charter of the city 
was formally installed. Great Britain refused 
to be a party to the seal-fisheries conference if 
Russia and Japan were invited to participate. 

The strike of coal miners in Pennsylvania 
was marked by a tragedy near Hazleton, Sep- 
September 10. Twenty-one striking miners 
were killed and forty wounded, some of them 
fatally, by a sheriff’s posse. It seems that a 
band of marching miners, mostly Slavs, had 
been previously driven away from the Hazle¬ 
ton workings, after a sharp conflict, and were 
intercepted as they were on their way to the 
Lattimer breaker. The posse was under the 
command of Sheriff Martin. He and his dep¬ 
uties were tried for murder, but were ac¬ 
quitted. 


CHRONOLOGY. 


03 


As a result of an attack made by some China¬ 
men upon German missionaries in China, Ger¬ 
many landed troops at Kiao-Chau, China, and 
took possession of four Chinese forts. Ger¬ 
many still holds the port, and from all indica¬ 
tions intends to make it a permanent German 
port on the Pacific. 

The death-roll of the year includes the fol¬ 
lowing well-known names: Ex-Congressman 
Wm. H. Hatch, a veteran member from Mis¬ 
souri; Gen. Francis A. Walker, the economist, 
and president of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology; Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher; 
William T. Adams, better known by his pen- 
name, “Oliver Optic”; ex-Senator Angus 
Cameron of Wisconsin; ex-Senator Daniel W. 
Voorhees; and the oldest member of Congress, 
Wm. S. Holman of Indiana; Alvah G. Clark, 
celebrated maker of telescopic lenses; Charles 
A. Dana, chief proprietor of the N. Y. Sun; 
Neal Dow, the “apostle of prohibition” ; the 
celebrated actress, Mrs. John Drew; Henry 
George, the economist; ex-Senator John R. 
McPherson of New Jersey; Justin Winsor, 
librarian of Harvard University. 

In foreign countries: Barney Barnato, large 
operator in South African gold mines, com¬ 
mitted suicide while en route from Cape Town 
to England; Charles Blondin, the celebrated 
tight-rope walker; Capt. C. C. Boycott, whose 
name was the*>rigin of the term “ boycott ” ; 
Senor Canovas del Castillo, the Spanish pre¬ 
mier; Prof. Henry Drummond, writer on 
Christian ethics; Mrs. Margaret H. Hungerford, 
the novelist, better known as “ The Duchess”; 
Jean Ingelow, the novelist and poet; Mrs. 
Margaret Oliphant, celebrated English novel¬ 
ist; Francis T. Palgrave, British poet and es¬ 
sayist; Sir Travers Twiss, author. 

1898. Congress reassembled after the holi¬ 
day recess. The Senate decided to debate the 
Hawaiian annexation treaty in executive ses¬ 
sion. The city government of Greater New 


York was inaugurated. Marcus A. Hanna 
was elected senator from Ohio for the long 
and short terms after one of the most notable 
fights in the history of the country. In Cuba 
the provisional government was inaugurated. 
Li Hung Chang was recalled to power at 
Peking. General Billot, French Minister of 
War, made a formal complaint against Zola, 
the novelist, for his utterances in behalf of 
Dreyfus. Later Zola was found guilty of 
libeling the Esterhazy court-martial, and sen¬ 
tenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine 
of 3,000 francs, the maximum penalty. China 
sought a loan of $80,000,000 in London, and of¬ 
fered concessions to the British government. 
China and Germany came to an agreement on 
the terms of the cession of Kiao-Chau. Presi¬ 
dent Dole, of Hawaii, arrived in the United 
States and was entertained by President 
McKinley. Attorney-General McKenna was 
nominated by the President to an associate 
justiceship of the Supreme Court, and John 
W. Griggs, of New Jersey, was appointed to be 
attorney-general. In the Senate, Mr. Morgan, 
of Alabama, introduced a resolution providing 
for the annexation of Hawaii. The publication 
of a letter written by Senor Dupuy de Lome, 
Spanish minister to the United States, speaking 
insultingly of President McKinley, led to the 
minister’s resignation of his post. On the 14th 
of February resolutions calling for informa¬ 
tion on Cuba were passed in both houses of 
Congress. The day following occurred the 
destruction of the United States battle-ship 
Maine in the harbor of Havana. It was 
blown up by a submarine mine. Two officers 
and over 250 men were killed; 104 survived, 
but most of them were injured, some fatally. 
The ship and all her contents were completely 
destroyed. 

The British minister to China protested un¬ 
successfully against the cession of Port Arthur 
to Russia, on the ground that it would destroy 


94 


GUIDEPOSTS. 


the balance of power in China. Senor Polo y 
Bernabe, the new Spanish minister to the 
United States, presents his credentials to this 
government. The Court of Inquiry, appointed 
to ascertain the cause of the blowing up of 
the Maine, found that the explosion was due 
to a submarine mine. The court was unable 
to attach blame to anybody. Captain-Gen¬ 
eral Blanco issued a decree abrogating the re¬ 
concentration edict of General Weyler in the 
western provinces of Cuba. The legislatures 
of various states appropriated large sums of 
money for war funds. Pope Leo XIII. offered 
to mediate between Spain and the Cubans, 
and urged Spain to suspend hostilities. On 
the 5th of April Consul-General Lee was or¬ 
dered to return from Havana. Two days 
later the Spanish foreign minister stated to 
the European powers that Spain had reached 
the “limit of international policy in the di¬ 
rection of conceding the demands and allow¬ 
ing the pretensions of the United States.” 
Orders were issued to concentrate nearly all 
the regular army of the United States at the 
gulf ports of New Orleans, Mobile, Tampa, and 
Chickamauga Park. On the 20th of April 
President McKinley signed the resolutions of 
Congress, recognizing the independence of the 
people of Cuba, and instructing the President 
to take immediate steps to expel Spain from 
the island. An ultimatum was sent to Spain 
the same day demanding that her land and 
naval forces withdraw from Cuba and requir¬ 
ing an answer before noon of April 23. The 
Spanish minister at Washington requested 
and received his passports. On the day fol¬ 
lowing the United States minister to Spain, 
General Woodford, was presented with his pass¬ 
ports before he had the opportunity to present 
the ultimatum to the Spanish government. 
The United States declared the ports of Cuba 
blockaded, and on Monday a formal declara¬ 
tion was made by Congress and signed by the 
President. 


John Sherman resigned as Secretary of State, 
and Judge William R. Day was appointed to 
succeed him. The Spanish-American War 
was under way by the first of May, and upon 
that day Commodore Dewey, commander of 
the United States naval forces in the Pacific, 
won a signal victory over the Spanish in Ma¬ 
nila Bay. On the 8th of May Miss Helen 
Gould, of New York, sent her check for $100,- 
000 to the Treasury Department, with instruc¬ 
tions to use the same for war purposes. Com¬ 
modore Dewey was promoted to be rear-ad¬ 
miral and also was given the thanks of Con¬ 
gress. On May 11th the first fatality in the 
American war occurred at Cardenas, where 
the vessels, Wilmington, Hudson, and Wins¬ 
low were attacked by the Spanish gunboats 
and shore batteries. Ensign Bagley and four 
sailors were killed and others were wounded. 
On the following day Admiral Sampson bom¬ 
barded San Juan, Puerto Rico, and on the 13th 
the Flying Squadron under Commodore Schley 
sailed from Hampton Roads. Then began the 
search for the Spanish squadron, recently 
arrived in American waters, which resulted 
in the shutting up of Admiral Cervera’s fleet 
in the harbor of Santiago. On the 18th of 
May the cruiser “Charleston” set sail for the 
Philippines to reinforce Admiral Dewey, 
and later in the month several thousand 
troops left San Francisco for Manila. Noth¬ 
ing else of special note, except a few bombard¬ 
ments of shore batteries, occurred during the 
month of May. Foreign events of importance 
during the month were the signing of the proto¬ 
col by Russia and Japan, which recognizes 
the independence of Korea. The second Zola 
trial was begun in Paris; Great Britain took 
possession of the Port of Wei-Hai-Wei, China, 
and on the last day of the month the reci¬ 
procity treaty between France and the United 
States was announced. 

On June 1st Admiral Sampson joined Com¬ 
modore Schley at Santiago and took command 


CHRONOLOGY. 


95 


of the united American fleets. Two days 
later Lieutenant Hobson made his daring en¬ 
trance into the harbor of Santiago, sinking the 
collier “ Merrimac ” in the channel. On the 
7th of June the cruiser “St. Louis” cut the 
cable off the Port of Caimanera, Three days 
later the first landing of American troops on 
the Island of Cuba occurred near the entrance 
of Guantanamo harbor. Six hundred Amer¬ 
ican marines formed a camp, which they 
called Camp McCalla. The next day this 
camp was attacked by Spanish forces and four 
Americans were killed. The fighting was con¬ 
tinued the following day. On the 13th a por¬ 
tion of the first military expedition left 
Tampa, Fla., for Santiago harbor, Major-Gen¬ 
eral Shatter being in command of the expedi¬ 
tion. The fleet off Santiago continued to 
bombard the ports and batteries. On the 20th 
of June the United States troopships reached 
Santiago, and General Shafter, Admiral Samp¬ 
son, and General Garcia, commander of the 
Cuban forces, held a conference at Aserradero. 
The following day the troops began landing at 
Baiquiri. On the 25th of June the monitor 
“ Monadnock” sailed for Manila to reinforce 
Admiral Dewey. The following day the Rough 
Riders were ambushed and several killed. 
On the 27th of June the third Manila expedi¬ 
tion sailed from San Francisco with troops. 
On the 29th Major-General Merritt sailed from 
San Francisco for the Philippines, and on the 
same day 8,000 men under General Snyder 
sailed from Tampa to reinforce General Shat¬ 
ter at Santiago. Domestic affairs for the 
month of June included the collapse of the 
great Leiter wheat corner in Chicago on the 
13th. The United States paid $473,151 to 
Great Britain, this being the amount of the 
Bering Sea award. Foreign events of im¬ 
portance included the defeat of the Australian 
Federation on account of the refuoal of New 
South Wales to join the other colonies. Joseph 


Chamberlain declared in a speech in the 
House of Commons that his address advocat¬ 
ing a British-American alliance had the sanc¬ 
tion of Lord Salisbury. A British expedition 
into Sierra Leone punished the natives for out¬ 
rages to American missionaries. 

The month of July was the most interesting 
in the history of the Spanish-American war, 
and the events of this month brought the war 
to a close. On the first day of the month 
the heights of El Caney and San Juan, over¬ 
looking Santiago, were taken by American 
troops. At the latter place the Rough Riders 
and the 1st and 10th regulars carried the hill 
by storm. The following day the Spanish at¬ 
tempted to retake San Juan Hill, but were 
repulsed. The 3rd of July was most disas¬ 
trous for the Spaniards because of the com¬ 
plete destruction of their fleet of war vessels 
which attempted to escape from the harbor of 
Santiago. On the same day General Shafter 
notified General Toral, commanding the Span¬ 
ish forces at Santiago, to remove from the 
city all non-combatants, as he was about 
to shell the city. On the 4th of July a 
truce was established between the two armies. 
This was finally extended in order to permit 
the Spanish general in command to communi¬ 
cate with Madrid in regard to capitulation. 
On the 9th General Toral offered to surrender 
the city of Santiago if his troops were allowed 
to walk out with their arms. This proposal 
was declined. On the 14th General Toral sur¬ 
rendered on the basis that Spanish troops be 
returned to Spain. The territory to be surren¬ 
dered included all the eastern part of Cuba 
with the Spanish forces located therein. On 
the 15th of July four Manila expeditions sailed 
from San Francisco under command of Gen¬ 
eral Otis, and two days later the city of San¬ 
tiago was formally surrendered to General 
Shafter, and the United States flag was hoisted 
over the palace. On the 20th General Miles 


96 


QUID EPO STS. 


sailed from Santiago, where he had recently 
arrived to confer with General Shafter, to 
Puerto Rico. On the 25th this expedition 
effected a landing on the south coast of the 
island. For the most part the conquest of 
Puerto Rico was more like a holiday excur¬ 
sion than a military expedition, the inhabit¬ 
ants welcoming the troops with joy. On the 
25th of July the French ambassador, M. Jules 
Cambon, on behalf of the government of 
Spain, presented to the President a message 
designed to inaugurate negotiations for peace. 
During the latter part of the month the troops 
in the Philippines began to close in upon the 
city of Manila, and several skirmishes between 
the Spanish and Americans took place. The 
4th of July was celebrated with more spirit 
throughout the country than at any time 
since the beginning of the Civil War. The 
second session of the 55th Congress adjourned. 
In China a rebellion was reported in some of 
the western districts. In France the trial of 
Zola was finished and he was sentenced to a 
year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. 
The Earl of Minto was appointed governor- 
general of Canada to succeed Lord Aberdeen. 

Early in August five volunteer regiments of 
immunes were ordered to Santiago for garri¬ 
son duty. On the 7th of August Admiral 
Dewey and General Merritt demanded the 
surrender of Manila, which was refused. On 
the same day Spain’s reply to the president’s 
statement of the terms of peace was sent to 
Paris for transmission to Washington. On 
the 10th Secretary Day and M. Cambon agreed 
on the terms of a peace protocol to be trans¬ 
mitted to Spain for approval. This protocol, 
suspending hostilities, was signed the follow¬ 
ing day at Washington. On the 13th the 
troops under General Merritt and the fleet un¬ 
der Admiral Dewey made a simultaneous 
attack upon Manila and after six hours’ fight¬ 
ing the Spanish surrendered the city with 


about 7,000 prisoners. John Hay, ambassador 
to Great Britain, accepted the secretaryship 
of state to succeed William R. Day, who was 
appointed to represent the United States in 
the peace negotiations with Spain. On the 
20th a naval parade of Admiral Sampson’s 
fleet took place in the harbor of New York. 
In foreign countries the following events of 
interest took place: George N. Curzon was ap¬ 
pointed to succeed the Earl of Elgin as gov¬ 
ernor-general of India. The residents of the 
Island of Jamaica prepared an appeal to the 
British Parliament in favor of annexation to 
the United States. On the 28th of August the 
Czar of Russia issued his address to the powers 
seeking the disarmament of all Europe. Wil- 
helmina, on the last day of August, was pro¬ 
claimed Queen of the Netherlands. 

On September 9 the President appointed as 
peace commissioners, William R. Day, of 
Ohio, and Senators Frye, of Maine, Davis, of 
Minnesota, Gray, of Delaware, and Mr. White- 
law Reid, of New York. On the 20th, the 
evacuation of Puerto Rico began. On the 24th 
the commission appointed by the president to 
investigate the conduct of the war met at 
Washington. The grand total of deaths from 
all causes during the war from May 1 to Sep¬ 
tember 30 was 2,910. The number of wounded 
was 1,577. The leading domestic events of 
the month included the removal of the re¬ 
striction from Spanish vessels; the awarding 
of contracts for building three new warships; 
resignation of Secretary of State Day to accept 
the chairmanship of the American Peace 
Commission; and the arrival of Agoncillo and 
Lopez, representing Aguinaldo, in the interest 
of securing the recognition of the independ¬ 
ence of the Philippines. In Egypt the battle 
of Omdurman occurred on the 4th of Septem¬ 
ber between the Anglo-Egyptian forces in the 
Sudan and the Dervishes. In this battle the 
latter were severely defeated and lost over 


CHRONOLOGY. 


97 


10,000 men. Two days later war broke out 
between the Christians and Mussulmans at 
Candia, Crete. Li Hung Chang was dismissed 
from the foreign office of the Chinese Empire 
by the emperor on the 10th of September, and 
on the same day the Empress Elizabeth of 
Austria was assassinated at Geneva, Switzer¬ 
land, by an Italian anarchist. On the 22d of 
the month the Emperor of China resigned his 
authority to his mother as regent. 

On the first of October the American and 
Spanish Peace Commissioners held their first 
joint meeting in Paris. Two days later Sena¬ 
tor Quay, of Pennsylvania, gave bail to appear 
for examination on the charge of conspiring 
for the misuse of the funds of the Peoples 
Bank of Philadelphia. On the 17th of October 
the degree of LL. D. was conferred on Presi¬ 
dent McKinley by the University of Chicago. 
The following day the United States flag was 
hoisted over the ports and public buildings of 
Puerto Rico. On the 28th an expedition of 
78 officers and 778 men sailed from San Fran¬ 
cisco for Manila. The cost of the Spanish 
war from the beginning to the 31st of October 
amounted to $164,932,228. Early in October 
proceedings for the re-opening of the Dreyfus 
trial began in Paris, and the ultimatum signed 
by Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, de¬ 
manding the Turkish evacuation of Crete was 
presented to the Sultan. On the 12th of Octo¬ 
ber the German emperor started on his jour¬ 
ney tc Palestine, and on the 29th he entered 
Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate. 

On the 28th of November the Spanish Peace 
Commissioners accepted the terms demanded 
by the United States. During the same month 
the Earl of Minto arrived in Canada to suc¬ 
ceed Lord Aberdeen as governor-general. The 
effort to establish a government, to be known 
as the United States of Central America, by 
Nicaraugua, Honduras, and San Salvador, 
failed on the first day of the month after a few 
days’ trial. 


On the 10th of December Gen. Fitzhugh 
Lee embarked at Savannah with his staff for 
Havana. On the following day the ashes of 
Columbus were removed from the Havana ca¬ 
thedral to a Spanish warship for transportation 
to Spain. During the same month the Mexican 
mission in the United States was raised to an 
embassy. On the 12th of December Major- 
General Ludlow was appointed first military 
and civil governor of Havana, and the day 
following Major-General Brooke was appointed 
military and civil governor of Cuba, and on 
the same day Gen. Fitzhugh Lee arrived at 
Havana. On the 8th of December, Joseph 
Chamberlain, secretary of state for the British 
colonies, in a speech advocated an alliance 
with Germany, Russia, and the United States. 

1899. On the first day of the year formal 
cession of Spanish sovereignty in Cuba was 
made to the United States at Havana. Seven 
days later Aguinaldo, leader of the Philippine 
insurgents, issued a proclamation in Manila 
protesting against American occupation of 
the Philippines, alleging that American prom¬ 
ises of independence had been violated, de¬ 
nouncing President McKinley’s' instructions 
to General Otis, and calling on the Filipinos 
to continue the struggle for liberty. Later in 
the same month prominent Cubans were ap¬ 
pointed to office in Havana by General Lud¬ 
low. Capt. Richard P. Leary was assigned to 
duty as military governor of the Island of 
Guam and commander of the U. S. naval 
station to be established there. In the senate 
the treaty with Spain was favorably reported. 

Joseph Choate, of New York, was appointed 
ambassador to Great Britain. In foreign lands 
the following events of importance occurred 
during the month of January: An uprising 
took place in the Samoan Islands for the pos¬ 
session of the crown. The convention between 
Great Britain and Egypt, as to the govern¬ 
ment of the re-conquered provinces in the 
Sudan, was signed at Cairo. 


98 


GUIDE POST8. 


In the early part of February the Filipinos 
made an attack upon the American lines near 
Manila and were driven back with great loss. 
Their positions were stormed the next day and 
it was reported on the 7th of February that 
the rebels were in full retreat. Throughout 
the month the American forces continued to 
pursue the insurgents, taking town after town. 
The war department provided for the muster¬ 
ing out of about 15,000 volunteer soldiers. An 
army court of inquiry was appointed to in¬ 
vestigate the charges of General Miles in refer- 
erence to the beef supply. In France street 
riots, arising from the Dreyfus agitation, took 
place in Marseilles. The Spanish Cabinet 
voted to abolish the office of minister of 
the colonies. On the 18th of February M- 
Emile Loubet was elected president of the 
French Republic to succeed M. Felix Faure. 

On the 1st of March the Sagasta ministry in 
Spain resigned office on the question of ceding 
the Philippines, and Senor Silvela was asked 
to form a new cabinet. The American troops 
continued to repulse the Philippine insurgents. 
On the 15th of the month the Spanish cabinet 
decided to ratify the peace treaty, and two 
days later the queen regent signed it. The 
American troops attacked the Filipinos nearly 
every day throughout the month, always with 
favorable results. On the 3rd of the month 
Rear-Admiral Dewey was made Admiral of 
the Navy under an act of Congress, and Gen¬ 
eral Otis was promoted to be a major-general 
by brevet. On the 17th of March the Wind¬ 
sor Hotel in New York city was destroyed by 
fire with terrible loss of life. 

On the 4th of April the American commis¬ 
sioners to the Philippines issued a proclama¬ 
tion stating the intention of their government 
in dealing with the islands. The government 
at Washington decided to send 14,000 regular 
troops to reinforce the army in the Philippines. 
The Cuban Assembly voted to disband the 


army and to dissolve. Mayor Carter H. Har¬ 
rison was re-elected in Chicago, and theMazet 
Investigation Committee of New York began 
its inquiry into the Tammany legislation of 
New York city. Hon. Thomas B. Reed an¬ 
nounced his retirement from public life. In 
Paris the managers of the; “Figaro” were 
fined for publishing testimony in the Dreyfus 
case. A force of British and Americans were 
ambushed by a band of Samoans on a German 
plantation near Apia, Samoa. On the 11th of 
April ratifications of the treaty of peace 
between Spain and the United States were 
exchanged at Washington, and the president 
issued a proclamation declaring war at an end. 
Marconi’s system of wireless telegraphy was 
successfully tested across the English Chan¬ 
nel during a storm. On the 26th Col. Fred¬ 
erick Funston of the Twentieth Kansas with 
volunteers from his regiment crossed the Bag- 
bag River by crawling along the iron girders 
of the bridge and dispersed the Filipinos at 
that point. The following day Colonel Fun¬ 
ston with 120 men of the same regiment swam 
across the river under a galling fire from the 
insurgents and drove back their forces. On 
the 28th the Filipinos asked for a cessation of 
hostilities until their congress could act on 
terms of peace. General Otis declined to rec¬ 
ognize the Filipino government, demanding 
Unconditional surrender. His action was com¬ 
mended by the President. 

Early in May a general forward movement 
in the Philippines was begun and the Fili¬ 
pinos retreated from town to town, removing 
their so-called capital with them. On the 
20th of May Admiral Dewey sailed from Ma¬ 
nila on his return voyage to the United States. 
The government of Morocco settled the claim 
of the United States upon the demand of the 
cruiser “ Chicago ” at Tangiers. On the 18th 
of May the peace conference called by the 
Czar of Russia assembled at The Hague. Its 


CHRONOLOGY. 


99 


deliberations continued for more than two 
months, and resulted in establishing an inter¬ 
national court of arbitration. Captain Drey¬ 
fus was brought back from Devil’s Island and 
tried before a court-martial at Rennes, France, 
but was again convicted and sentenced to ten 
years’ imprisonment. The government, how¬ 
ever, set him free. Spain sold the Marianne 
Islands to Germany. The Czar of Russia 
named his brother, the Grand Duke Michael, 
as heir to the throne. In August the Yaqui 
Indians in Northwestern Mexico rose in re¬ 
volt on account of encroachments on their 
lands. A revolution was started in Venezuela 
by the professional revolutionist, General Her¬ 
nandez. War broke out between the Boers of 
the South African Republic and Orange Free 
State and the British. The Boers at first met 
with considerable success. The U. S. War 
Department took the census of Cuba and 
Porto Rico. 

1900.—The last year of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury was one of the most eventful in the his¬ 
tory of the world. At the beginning of the 
year the war in South Africa between the 
Boers and the British was stubbornly con¬ 
tested; the U. S. was conducting an active 
campaign against the insurgents in the Philip¬ 
pines; Venezuela and Colombia each had a revo¬ 
lution on its hands, and Mexico was fighting a 
band of her Indians. The world was far from 
peaceful. 

In the U. S. the chief events of the year 
were as follows: The treaty for the'partition 
of the Samoan Islands was ratified by the 
U. S. senate early in January. A spirited 
contest for the governorship of Kentucky re¬ 
sulted in the shooting and death of Wm. Goe¬ 
bel, the Democratic contestant. Wm. S. 
Taylor, the Republican, who had been in¬ 
stalled as governor, was ousted and the Demo¬ 
cratic lieutenant-governor assumed the office 
of governor. President McKinley appointed 


a new commission to the Philippine Islands, 
with Judge W. H. Taft, of Ohio, as president, 
whose instructions were to organize and estab¬ 
lish civil government in those islands. A 
serious street-car strike in St. Louis resulted 
in several fatalities. The Republican conven¬ 
tion at Philadelphia nominated Wm. McKin¬ 
ley for president and Theodore Roosevelt for 
vice-president. The Democratic convention 
at Kansas City nominated Wm. J. Bryan for 
president and Adlai E. Stevenson for vice- 
president. The Prohibition convention in Chi¬ 
cago nominated John G. Woolley for president 
and Henry B. Metcalf for vice-president. The 
People’s Party nominated Wharton Barker for 
president and Ignatius Donnelly for vice-presi¬ 
dent. Eugene V. Debs was the presidential 
candidate of the Social Democracy and Job 
Harriman the candidate for vice-president. 
The Socialist Labor Party nominated Joseph 
F. Maloney for president and Valentine Rem- 
mel for vice-president. On the last day of 
June three pjers of the North German Lloyd 
Steamship Co. at Hoboken, N. J., caught fire 
and three ocean liners, which were at the pier, 
were burned, entailing a loss of over $8,000,- 
000 and about 300 lives. On the 8th of Sep¬ 
tember the city of Galveston, Texas, was 
visited by the severest hurricane in the storm 
annals of the western hemisphere. Every build¬ 
ing of the city was either destroyed or dam¬ 
aged, and over 6,000 lives and $20,000,000 
worth of property were lost. A tidal wave 
flooded the island of Galveston adding greatly 
to the damage of the wind. The 12th census 
of the U. S. was taken and showed a total 
population in the U. S. of 76,299,047, an in¬ 
crease since 1890 of over 21 per cent. The 
presidential election resulted in the choice of 
McKinley and Roosevelt, the Republican can¬ 
didates, who received a plurality of 862,762, 
and a majority over all other candidates of 
480,148. The vote in the electoral college 


100 


QUID EPO STS . 


was, McKinley, 292, Bryan, 155. A plan of 
civil government was adopted for Porto Rico 
to replace the military government in operation 
after the close of the Spanish-American war, 
and Charles H. Allen, of Massachusetts, was 
chosen to be the first governor of the island. 
The foreign commerce of the U. S. for the 
fiscal year 1900 exceeded that of any preced¬ 
ing year, the grand total of imports and ex¬ 
ports passing the two billion dollar mark. 
The commission appointed to investigate the 
trans-isthmian canal project reported in favor 
of the Nicaraguan route. The death list in¬ 
cluded such prominent names as Gen. John 
Bidwell, candidate for president on the Prohi¬ 
bition ticket in 1892; Francis B. Carpenter, 
the portrait painter; Stephen Crane, the au¬ 
thor and war correspondent; Marcus Daly, the 
copper king; Senator Cushman K. Davis of 
Minnesota; Wm, C. Endicott, secretary of 
war in President Cleveland’s first cabinet; 
Rev. John D. Hennessey, Roman Catholic 
Archbishop; Chas. H. Hoyt, the playwright; 
John James Ingals, the famous Kansas sena¬ 
tor; Col. Emerson H. Liscum of the U. S. 
army; Gen. John C. McNulta, the soldier and 
financier; Edward J. Phelps, the lawyer and 
diplomat; Rear-Admiral John W. Philip of 
the U. S. navy; John Clark Ridpath, thenoted 
historian; Martin J. Russell, the veteran 
newspaper man; Philetus Sawyer, the “lum¬ 
ber king” of Wisconsin; John Sherman; Rear- 
Admiral Montgomery Sicardof theU. S. navy; 
ex-Mayor Wm. L. Strong of New York; 
Richard W. Thompson, secretary of the navy 
in President Hayes’ cabinet; Charles Dudley 
Warner, the famous writer, and Wm. L. Wil¬ 
son, postmaster-general in President Cleve¬ 
land’s second cabinet. 

The leading events in foreign countries 
were as follows: The war in South Africa, in 
which the British succeeded in scattering the 
forces of the Boer republics and annexing the 


Orange Free State and the South African Re¬ 
public to the British Empire under the names, 
respectively, of the Orange River Colony and 
the Yaal River Colony. The federation of 
the several colonies of Australia and the 
island of Tasmania was completed after nearly 
a half century of negotiations. In France the 
great event of the year was the Paris Exposi¬ 
tion, which was a most pronounced success. 
The most important event of the year was the 
Boxer uprising in China and the international 
expeditions to supprsss it, and the relief of the 
foreign legations besieged in the Chinese capi¬ 
tal. In India the plague and famine wrought 
terrible havoc, causing the loss of hundreds of 
thousands of lives. The Duke of Abruzzi 
succeeded in reaching a point nearer the north 
pole than any explorer had yet attained. In 
South America the republics of Colombia and 
Venezuela were the scenes of revolution. In 
Cuba serious postal frauds were discovered 
and the dishonest officials brought to justice. 
A constitutional convention was convened in 
November for the purpose of forming and 
adopting a constitution for Cuba aud formu¬ 
lating relations' between Cuba and the United 
States. Count Zeppelin succeeded in con¬ 
structing an air ship, which was given a sup- 
cessful trial on Lake Constance early in July. 
Italy had a change of rulers, as the result of 
the assassination of King Humbert, July 29th. 
The year and the nineteenth century came to 
a close with the war in South Africa still un¬ 
finished, and the powers negotiating terms of 
peace with China. 

The death roll in foreign countries for the 
year included the names of the Duke of Ar- 
gyle (George Douglass Campbell), head of the 
great Campbell family in Scotland; Richard 
D. Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone; Mar¬ 
shal Arsenio Martinez de Campos, the famous 
Spanish general; Baron von Ketteler, the Ger¬ 
man minister to China, who was murdered in 


CHRONOLOGY. 


101 


the streets of Peking; Archibald Forbes, the 
famous English war correspondent; Humbert I, 
king of Italy, assasinated at Monza; Prince de 
Joinville, son of King Louis Phillippe of 
France; Gen. Petrus Jacobus Joubert, com¬ 
mander of the Boer armies; Baron Henry 
Brougham Loch, British diplomat; James 
Martineau, D. D., LL.D., the English theo¬ 
logian; Rt. Hon. Friedrich Max-Muller, the 
celebrated philologist; St. George Mivart, the 
distinguished scientist; Count Michael Mura- 
vieff, the Russian minister of foreign affairs; 
Mihaly Munkacsy, the famous Hungarian pain¬ 
ter; Osman Nubar Pasha, the great Turkish 
general and hero of Plevna; John Ruskin, the 
famous art critic; Baron Russell, of Killowen, 
the Lord Chief Justice of England; George 
Warrington Steevens, the war correspondent; 
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, the famous 
English composer and the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton (Henry Wellesley). 

1901.—The leading events of the opening 
months of the twentieth century in America 
were as follows: Congress passed an army re¬ 
organization bill, increasing the size of the 
standing army from 25,000 to 100,000 men, 
with 58,000 as the minimum. The president 
is empowered to raise it to 100,000 in case of 
necessity. The Hay-Paunceforte treaty re¬ 
garding the Nicaragua canal was amended 


and passed by the senate, but was rejected by 
Great Britain. President McKinley was in¬ 
augurated March 4 with Theodore Roosevelt 
as vice-president. In the Philippines the cap¬ 
ture of Aguinaldo by General Funston was of 
the greatest importance. Ex-President Ben¬ 
jamin Harrison died March 13th. In Kansas 
Mrs. Carrie Nation started on a crusade 
against saloons, smashing the fixtures of sev¬ 
eral with a hatchet. Early in May President 
McKinley started on a 15,000 mile tour of the 
United States. 

In foreign countries the leading events in¬ 
cluded the death of Queen Victoria of England 
and the accession of Albert Edward as Edward 
VII. The Anglo-Boer war in South Africa 
consisted chiefly in the attempts of the Eng¬ 
lish to capture Gen. Christian De Wet. The 
powers interested in the Chinese trouble suc¬ 
ceeded in agreeing upon the punisnment of 
the officials responsible for the atrocities, and 
also upon the indemnity to be paid by the 
Chinese government. In Russia there was 
another outbreak of the periodic student 
riots in the university towns of St. Petersburg 
and Moscow in the north, and Kiev, Kharkov 
and Odessa in the south. In Holland Queen 
Wilhelmina and Duke Henry of Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin were married. 






K 

























:/ 




t 








\ 



4 - 





A 


Aalborg 

A, the first letter in almost all alphabets. 
Most modern languages, as French, Italian, 
German, have only one sound for a , namely, 
the sound which is heard in father pronounced 
short or long; in English this letter is made to 
represent seven sounds, as in the words father, 
mat, mate, mare , many, ball , what, besides being 
used in such digraphs as ea in heat, oa in boat. 
A, in music, is the sixth note in the diatonic 
scale of C, and stands when in perfect tune to 
the latter note in the ratio of | to 1. The 
second string of the violin is tuned to this note. 

A i, a symbol attached to vessels of the 
highest class in Lloyd’s register of shipping, 
A referring to the hull of the vessel, while 1 
intimates the sufficiency of the rigging and 
whole equipment. Iron vessels are classed A 1 
with a numeral prefixed, as 100 A 1, 90 A 1, 
the numeral denoting that they are built re¬ 
spectively according to certain specifications. 

Aalborg (eel-town), a seaport of Denmark, 
with considerable trade, shipbuilding, fishing, 
etc. It is the capital of a province of the same 
name. Pop. 20,000. 

Aali Pasha (1815-1871), a distinguished Turk¬ 
ish statesman, b. at Constantinople. At the 
early age of fifteen he became a clerk in the 
foreign office, and rose steadily from one diplo¬ 
matic post to another, at home, Vienna, and 
elsewhere, till in 1844 he became ambassador 
at London. This varied experience left on his 
acute mind a profound impression of the abso¬ 
lute necessity of extensive reforms in the gov¬ 
ernment of the Ottoman Empire; and with 
these reforms, under the sultans Abdul Medjid 
and Abdul Aziz, the name of Aali Pasha is 
identified. He presided at the Commission 
which passed the famous reforming decree of 
1856, the Hatti-Humayun. At the Congress 
of Paris he represented the porte, and main¬ 
tained its cause with zeal and skill. He was 
grand-vizier more than once; and from 1861 
till his death, held alternately with the like- 
minded Fuad Pasha th« most influential posts 
in the Turkish service. He was active in sup¬ 
pressing the Cretan rebellion in 1867-68, and in 
repressing Egyptian efforts to shake off the 
supremacy of the porte. 

Aard=vark (Dutch “earth hog”) (or Cape 
Ant-eater), one of the Edentata, and the only 
ant-eater with teeth. It has seven molars on 
each side above, and six on each side below; 
with neither incisors nor canine teeth. It is a 
stout animal, with long, pig-like snout, tubular 
mouth, the usual termite-catching tongue, 
large ears, fleshy tail, and short, bristly hair. 
The limbs are short and very muscular; on the 
fore feet are four, on the hind five powerful 
claws, used in burrowing and in excavating 
the hills of the white ants on which it feeds. 
It is nocturnal in its habits, and is very in¬ 
offensive and timid. When pursued, it can 


Abbotsford 

burrow itself out of sight in a few minutes, 
working inward with such rapidity as’to make 
it almost impossible to dig it out. Its total 
length is about five feet, of which the tail is 1 
ft. 9 in. Its dwelling is a burrow at a little 
distance from the surface, and thence it may 
be observed creeping at dusk. Three species 
are known—one in South Africa, another in 
Senegal, and a third in South Nubia. The 
flesh is considered a delicacy. 

Aard=wolf (“earth-wolf”) {Proteles Lalan- 
dii ), a South African carnivore, belonging to a 
sub-family of Hyaenidm. It is fox-like in size 
and habit, but has longer ears and a less bushy 
tail. It resembles a hyena in its sloping back, 
in its color, markings, and dorsal mane, but 
has five toes on the fore feet, and the head is 
much more pointed and civet-like. The back 
teeth are small and simple, and there is no car- 
nassial or special cutting-tooth. The strong, 
blunt claws are, as usual, non-retractile. It 
feeds on carrion, white ants, larvae, etc., but 
not on living vertebrates. It is timid and 
nocturnal in its habits, social but quarrelsome 
in its life, and tolerably swift in its pace, 
though usually trusting rather to burrowing 
than to flight. Like the hyenas, the aard- 
wolves habitually fight among themselves. 

Abancay, a town of Peru, in the department 
of Cuzco. Sugar, hemp, and silver mining are 
the principal industries. Pop. 21,000. 

Abattoir (slaughterhouse), in general use 
since the establishment of the celebrated abat¬ 
toirs of Paris, instituted by Napoleon in 1807, 
and brought to completion in 1818. The im¬ 
mense packing houses of Chicago, Cincinnati, 
Kansas City, St. Joseph, and other American 
cities, represent the largest and best equipped 
abattoirs in the world. See Packing. 

Abbey, Cleveland (1838-1896), American 
astronomer and meteorologist; educated in 
New York and at Ann Arbor; served four 
years on the U. S. coast survey, studied in 
Russia, was made director of the Cincinnati 
Observatory, and in 1871 organized the present 
weather bureau. The general accuracy of his 
meteorological predictions obtained for hfm 
the familiar name of “Old Probabilities.” 

Abbot, Ezra (1819-1884), studied at Phillips 
Exeter academy, graduated at Bowdoin 1840, 
and in 1856 became assistant librarian at Har¬ 
vard. He was LL.D. (Yale, 1869). He left 
his main library of 5,000 volumes to Harvard, 
the remainder to the Divinity School of the 
University. His works include New Discus¬ 
sions of the Trinity , Literature of the Doctrine of 
a Future Life, and The Authorship of the Fourth 
Gospel. 

Ab'botsford, the former country seat of Sir 
Walter Scott, on the south bank of the Tweed, 
in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in the midst of 
picturesque scenery, forming an extensive 


Abbott 


Abelard 


and irregular pile in the Scottish baronial 
style of architecture. 

Ab'bott, Jacob (1803-1S79), a popular and 
prolific American writer, especially of enter¬ 
taining and instructive books for the young ; 
was teacher and subsequently clergyman. 

Abbott, JonN S. C. (1805-1877), author, was 
a Congregational minister in Massachusetts. 
Among .the historical works written by him 
are The History of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon 
at St. Helena , The History of Napoleon III, and 
a History of the Civil War in America. He was 
a brother of the above. 

Abbott, Lyman (1835—), clergyman, born in 
Massachusetts, son of Jacob Abbott, graduated 
at the university of New York in 1853, and was 
admitted to the bar in 185G. He took up theol¬ 
ogy and was ordained in the Congregational 
Church in 1860. For five years he preached 
in Terre Haute, Ind. He became pastor of 
the New England church in New York City, 
but resigned in 1869. He edited the “ Literary 
Record ” of Harper's Magazine, and the Illus¬ 
trated Christian Weekly. He was associated 
with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on the 
Christian Union, and afterward became the 
editor in chief. Mr. Abbott has written a 
Life of Henry Ward Beecher (1883), and has ed¬ 
ited Beecher’s sermons. In 1889 he became 
pastor of Plymouth church, Brooklyn, where 
he remained until 1S99. 

Abd=el=Ka=der (1807-1873), a famous Arab 
chief, of a lofty, intrepid, and tenacious char¬ 
acter. He distinguished himself by his deter¬ 
mined resistance to the French arms in N. 
Africa. The Turkish power being broken by 
the French conquest of Algiers (1829), the 
Arab tribes of Oran made A. their emir, and he 
was soon at the head of 10,000 cavalry. Two 
battles, 1833 and 1834, obliged General Desmi- 
chels to conclude a treaty with him, and his 
power was acknowledged in Oran and Tit&ri. 
In 1835 he was strong enough to inflict a sig¬ 
nal defeat on Gen. Tretzel. But the French 
gradually obtained the mastery, and in De¬ 
cember, 1847, he had himself to surrender. 
Abd-el-Kader was sent to Toulon, and was lib¬ 
erated by Louis Napoleon in 1852. 

Abdication, properly the voluntary, but 
sometimes also the involuntary resignation of 
an office or dignity, and more especially that 
of sovereign power. The more important ab¬ 
dications of the present century are:- — 


Charles Emmanuel TV of Sardinia, June 4,1802. 


Charles IV of Spain, 

Joseph Bonaparte of Naples, 
Gustavus IV of Sweden, 

Louis Bonaparte of Holland, . 

Napoleon of Prance, . 

Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, 
Charles X of France, . 

William I of Holland, 

Louis Philippe of France, . 
Ferdinand of Austria, 

Charles Albert of Sardinia, 
Isabella II of Spain, . 
Amadeus I of Spain, . 

Abdul Aziz of Turkey, 


March 19,1808. 

J une 6, 1808. 
March 29,1809. 
July 2, 1810. 
j April 14, 1814. 

| June 22,1815. 
March 13, 1821. 
August 2, 1830. 
October 7,1840. 
February 24, 1848. 
December 2, 1848. 
March 23, 1849. 
June 25,1870. 
February 11,1873. 
May 30,1876. 


Abdo'men, in man, the belly, or lower cav¬ 
ity of the trunk, separated from the upper cav¬ 
ity or thorax by the diaphragm and bounded 


below by the bones of the pelvis. It contains 
the viscera belonging to the digestive and 
urinary systems. See Anatomy. 

Ab'duI=Az'iz, thirty-second Sultan of Tur¬ 
key, brother to Abdul-Medjid, whom he suc¬ 
ceeded in June, 1861. He concluded treaties of 
commerce with France and England, both of 
which countries he visited in 1867. Deposed 
in May, 1876, he committed suicide, or more 
probably was assassinated, in June, the same 
year. He was succeeded by his son Murad Y. 

Ab'dul=Ham'id, thirty-fourth Sultan of Tur¬ 
key, younger son of Abdul-Medjid, born in 
1842, succeeded his brother Murad V, who 
was deposed on proof of his insanity in 1876. 
He was a Turk, a Mussulman of the old 
school, and opposed to European interference. 
His reign was marked by massacres of Chris¬ 
tians in Armenia, and by many internal dis¬ 
turbances. 

Ab'dul=riedj'id, thirty-first Sultan of Tur¬ 
key (1822-1861). He succeeded his father, 
Mahmud II in 1839. Abdul-Medjid was desir¬ 
ous of carrying out reforms, but most of them 
remained inoperative, or caused bloody insur¬ 
rections where attempts were made to carry 
them out. His reign was marked by the Cri¬ 
mean war, and his resolute conduct in refusing 
to surrender the refugee Kossuth. 

a Becket, Thomas, born in London 1117 or 
1119, assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral 
Dec. 29, 1170. He was educated at Oxford 
and Paris and studied civil law at Bologna in 
Italy, and on his return made Archdeacon of 
Canterbury and Provost of Beverly. In 1158 
Henry II appointed him high-chancellor and 
preceptor to his son, Prince Henry. At this 
period he was a complete courtier, conforming 
in every respect to the humor of the king. 
He was the king’s prime companion, and 
courted popular applause. In 1162 he was con¬ 
secrated archbishop, and appeared as a zeal¬ 
ous champion of the church against the 
aggressions of the king, whose policy was to 
have the clergy in subordination to the civil 
power. He was forced to assent to the “Con¬ 
stitutions of Clarendon,” but a series of bitter 
conflicts with the king followed, ending in 
a Becket’s flight to France, when he ap¬ 
pealed to the pope by whom he was supported. 
A reconciliation took, place in 1170, and 
Becket returned to England, resumed his 
office, and renewed his defiance of the royal 
authority. A rash hint from the king induced 
four barons, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de 
Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto, 
to go to Canterbury and murder the arch¬ 
bishop while at vespers in the cathedral. He 
was canonized in 1172, and the splendid shrine 
erected at Canterbury for his remains was a 
favorite place of pilgrimage. 

Abel, Karl Friedrich (1726-1787), a noted 
German musician, famous also as a performer 
on the viola de gamba. 

Abel, Niels Henrik (1802-1829), a famous 
Norwegian mathematician. 

Abelard, Pierre (1079-1142), an illustrious 
French scholastic philosopher and theologian. 
He went to Paris at the age of twenty, and 


Abencerrages 

became first a disciple and soon after a rival 
of Guillaume de Champeaux. A. next estab¬ 
lished himself as a philosophical lecturer in 
1113, at Paris, where he obtained the chair 
of his former master. At this moment his 
reputation was immense. From Rome, Eng¬ 
land, and Germany, students hastened to lis¬ 
ten to his eloquent logic. Poet and musician, 
as well as philosopher, he wrote songs in 
French for his students. He secretly married 
Heloi'se, the beautiful niece of Fulbert, canon 
of Notre Dame, who in revenge put an end to 
their union. A council held at Soissons in 
1121 condemned his opinions on the Trinity 
as heretical, and soon after he withdrew to 
Nogent-on-the-Seine, where he built an ora¬ 
tory, and named it the Paraclete, or Comforter. 
In 1140 the pope condemned him as a heretic 
to perpetual silence. Two years after (1142) 
A. died in the abbey of St. Marcel, near Chal- 
ons-sur-Marne. A. had a great respect for 
the human intellect. He was a superb dia¬ 
lectician, and the most brilliant orator of the 
schools in his own age. 

Abencerrages (ab-en-ser'a-jez), a distin¬ 
guished Moorish family of Granada,.the chief 
members of which, thirty-six in number, are 
Said to have been massacred in the Alhambra 
by the king Abu-Hassan (latter half of the 
fifteenth century) on account of the attach¬ 
ment of his sister to one of them. 

Ab'en Ezra (1090-1168), a celebrated Jewish 
rabbi. He particularly distinguished him¬ 
self as a commentator on Scripture. 

Abercrombie, James (1706-1781), British 
soldier. He commanded the British forces in 
America in 1758, and was defeated at Ticon- 
deroga and superseded the next year. His son 
James was killed at Bunker Hill. 

Aberdare (dfir'), a town of South Wales, in 
Glamorganshire, with extensive coal and iron 
mines in the vicinity. Pop. 38,513. 

Aberdeen', a royal burgh of Scotland, in 
the county of the same name. It is one of 
the oldest towns in Scotland. The shipping 
trade is extensive. Among the industries 
are woolen, cotton, jute, and linen factories; 
large comb works, soap and candle works, pro¬ 
vision-curing works, chemical-works, paper¬ 
works, ship-building yards, and establish¬ 
ments for preparing granite for all sorts of 
useful and ornamental work. Pop. 126,000. 
The county of Aberdeen forms the northeast¬ 
ern portion of Scotland. Area, 1,251,451 acres. 
It is generally hilly, there being in the south¬ 
west some of the highest mountains in Scot¬ 
land, as Ben Macdhui (4,295 feet), Cairntoul 
(4,245), Cairngorm (4,090), Lochnagar, etc. Its 
most valuable mineral is granite, large quan¬ 
tities of which are exported. Cereals (except 
wheat) and other crops succeed well. On the 
banks of the upper Dee is situated Balmoral, 
a favorite residence of Queen Victoria. Pop. 
281,331. The University of Aberdeen was 
formed by the union and incorporation, in 1860, 
by Act of Parliament, of the University 
and King’s College of Aberdeen, founded in 
Old Aberdeen, in 1494, by William Elphin- 
stone, Bishop of Aberdeen, under the au- 


Abiogenesis 

thority of a Papal bull obtained by James IV, 
and of the Marischal College and University 
of Aberdeen, founded in New Aberdeen, in 
1593, by George Keith, Earl Marischal, by a 
charter ratified by Act of Parliament. The 
library numbers over 80,000 volumes. 

Aberdeen, Earls of, a noble family of Scot- 
land, notable for two of its members: (1) George 
Hamilton Gordon, 4th earl (1784-1860), “the 
traveled thane, Athenian Aberdeen ” of Rob¬ 
ert Burns’s eulogy. His management of the 
Crimean war provoked much dissatisfaction. 
(2) John Campbell Hamilton Gordon, 7th earl. b. 
1847. In 1876 he forsook the conservative 
party and cast his lot with W. E. Gladstone, 
who, in 1886, appointed him Lord Lieutenant 
of Ireland. In May, 1893, he was appointed 
governor-general of Canada, where he was 
very popular. His successor, the Earl of 
Minto, was appointed July 25, 1898, and ar¬ 
rived in Canada November 12. 

Aberdeen, Brown co., S. Dak., 300 mi. w. of 
Minneapolis. Railroads, C. M. & St. P.; C. & 
N. W., and Great Northern. Industries, large 
flouring-mill. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. The town was first settled in 1880, and 
became a city in 1882. Population, 1900, 
4,087. 

Abernethy, John (1764-1831). He was an 
eminent English surgeon, a pupil of the cele¬ 
brated John Hunter. In 1787 he became 
assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s hos¬ 
pital, and lecturer on anatomy and surgery. 
In 1815 he was elected principal surgeon. He 
published several medical works. 

Aberra'tion, in astronomy, the difference 
between the true and the observed position of 
a heavenly body, the result of the combined 
effect of the motion of light and the motion of 
the eye of the observer caused by the annual 
or diurnal motion of the earth ; or of the mo¬ 
tion of light and that of the body from which 
the light proceeds. It was discovered by Dr. 
Bradley. 

Aberystwith (ab-er-ist'with), a seaport and 
fashionable watering-place of Wales, county 
of Cardigan. 

Abigail, the beautiful wife of Nabal, the rich 
churl of Carmel (1 Samuel 25), and afterward 
wife of David. From her speech to David the 
name, in modern days, has been applied gen¬ 
erally to a female servant. 

Abilene, Dickenson co., Kan., near Smoky 
Hill River, 163 miles from Kansas City. Rail¬ 
roads, U. P., C. R. I. & P., and A. T. & S. F. 
Industries, two cotton-mills, three flouring- 
mills, cigar factory, carriage shops, etc. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural and large dairy 
interests. The town was first settled in 1860, 
became a city in 1880. From 1867 to 1873 it 
was the northern end of the Texas cattle trail. 
Pop.. 1900, 3,507. 

Abingdon, Va., noted as a tobacco market 
and as the scene of important operations in 
the Civil War. Pop. 1900, 1.306. 

Abington, a town of Massachusetts, 20 miles 
s. e. of Boston. It has manufactures of boots, 
shoes, and nails. Pop. 4,489. 

Abiogenesis (a-bi-o-jen'e-sis), the doctrine 


Abkasia 

or hypothesis that living matter may be pro¬ 
duced from non-living; spontaneous genera¬ 
tion. 

Abka'sia, a Russian district, at the western 
extremity and south of the Caucasus, between 
the mountains and the Black Sea. The Abka- 
sians form a race distinguished from their 
neighbors in various respects. At one time 
they were Christians, but latterly adopted Mo¬ 
hammedanism. Pop. about 200,000. 

Abo (o'bo), a port in Russian Finland, the 
capital of Finland till 1819, when it was sup¬ 
planted by Helsingfors. Pop. 23,000. 

Abolitionists, a name given to the people 
who opposed slavery previous to the Civil War. 

Abo'mey, the capital of the kingdom of 
Dahomey, in West Africa, in a fertile plain, 
near the coast of Guinea. Pop. 30,000. 

Aboukir (a-bo-ker') (ancient Canopus ), a 
small village on the Egyptian coast, 10 miles 
east of Alexandria. In Aboukir Bay took 
place the naval battle in which Nelson anni¬ 
hilated a French fleet in 1798, thus totally de¬ 
stroying the naval power of France in the 
Mediterranean. Near this place on July 25, 
1799, Napoleon defeated the Turks under Mus- 
tapha. 

About (a-bo), Edmond Francis Valentin 
(1828-1885), a French novelist. He wrote in a 
bright, humorous, and interesting style, and 
his novels have been very popular. 

Abracadabra, a meaningless word once sup¬ 
posed to have a magical efficacy as an antidote 
against agues and fevers. 

A'braham, originally Abram, the greatest 
of the Hebrew patriarchs, was born at Ur in 
Chaldea in 2153 b. c. according to Hales, in 
199G b. c. according to Ussher, while Bunsen 
says he lived 2850 b. c. His two sons, Isaac 
and Ishmael, were the progenitors of the He¬ 
brews and Arabs respectively. 

Abruzzi, a division of Italy comprising 
three provinces. The interior is rugged and 
mountainous, being traversed throughout by 
the Apennines. The lower parts consist of 
fertile plains and valleys, yielding corn, wine, 
oil, almonds, saffron, etc.; area, 6,677 sq. mi.; 
pop, 1,386,817. The Duke of Abruzzi estab¬ 
lished a new “ farthest north ” record in 1900, 
going to lat. 86® 33', or within 241 mi. of the 
north pole. 

Absalom, the third son of David, king of 
Israel. His rebellion, death, and David’s 
touching lamentation for his son, are to be 
found in 2 Samuel. 

Ab'sinth, French absinthe, a liquor consist¬ 
ing of an alcoholic solution strongly flavored 
with an extract of several sorts of wormwood, 
oil of anise, etc. When taken habitually, or 
in excess, its effects are very pernicious. It is 
a favorite drink of the Parisians. 

Absolution, remission of a penitent’s sins 
in the name of God. The passages of Scrip¬ 
ture on which the Roman Catholic Church 
founds in laying down its doctrine of absolu¬ 
tion are such as Matt. 16:19; 18:18; John 
20:23. 

Absorb'ents, the system of minute vessels 
by which the nutritive elements of food and 


Abyssinia 

other matters are carried into the circulation 
of vertebrate animals. The vessels consist of 
two different sets, called respectively lacteals 
and lymphatics. 

Absorp'tion, in physiology, one of the vital 
functions by which the materials of nutrition 
and growth are absorbed and conveyed to the 
organs of plants and animals. 

Abu=Bekr, or Father of tiie Virgin, the 
father-in-law and first successor of Mohammed. 
His right to the succession was unsuccessfully 
contested by Ali, Mohammed’s son-in-law, and 
a schism took place, which divided the Mo¬ 
hammedans into the two great sects of Sun¬ 
nites and Shiites. 

Abu Klea, a group of wells, surrounded by 
mountains, about 120 miles from Khartoum, 
in the Soudan. 

Abu'tilon, a troublesome weed in the Middle 
U. S.; has been recommended for cultivation, 
and is called American jute, and sometimes 
Indian mallows. 

Aby'dos, (1) an ancient city of Asia Minor, 
on the Hellespont, at the narrowest part of the 
strait, opposite Sestos. Leander, say ancient 
writers, swam nightly from Abydos to Sestos 
to see his loved Hero — a feat in swimming 
accomplished also by Lord Byron. (2) an 
ancient city of Upper Egypt, about 6 miles 
west of the Nile, now represented only by 
ruins of temples, tombs, etc. It was celebrated 
as the burying-place of the god Osiris. Here, 
in 1818, was discovered the famous Abydos 
Tablet , containing a list of the predecessors of 
Ilameses the Great. 

Abyssinia, a country of Eastern Africa; 
area, about 120,000 sq. mi. ; chief divisions 
Tigre, Amhara, and Shoa; principal towns, 
Gondar and Debra Tabor. The more marked 



Abyssinian — Galla boy. 


physical features are a vast series of table¬ 
lands, and numerous ranges of mountains. 
These rise to 12,000 and 13,000 feet, while some 
of the peaks are always covered with snow. 
The principal rivers belong to the Nile basin. 
According to elevation there are several zones 
of vegetation. Within the lowest belt, which 
reaches an elevation of 4,800 feet, cotton, wild 
indigo, acacias, ebony, baobabs, sugar-canes, 



Abyssinia 

coffee-trees, date-palms, etc., flourish, while 
the larger animals are lions, panthers, ele¬ 
phants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, jackals, 
hyenas, bears, numerous antelopes, monkeys, 
and crocodiles. The middle zone, rising to 
9,000 feet, produces the grains, grasses, and 
fruits of southern Europe, the orange, vine, 
peach, apricot, the bamboo, sycamore-tree, 
etc. The principal grains are millet, barley, 
wheat, maize, and teff, the latter a small seed, 
a favorite bread-stuff of the Abyssinians. 
Two, and in some places three, crops are ob¬ 
tained in one year. All the domestic animals 
of Europe, except swine, are known. The 
highest zone, reaching to 14,000 feet, has but 
little wood, and generally scanty vegetation, 
the hardier corn-plants only being grown; 
but oxen, goats and long-wooled sheep find 
abundant pasture. The climate is as various 
as the surface; but as a whole is temperate 
and agreeable. The chief mineral products 
are sulphur, iron, copper, coal, and salt, the 
latter serving to some extent as money. There 
has been a great intermixture of races in 
Abyssinia. What may be considered the Abys¬ 
sinians proper, seem to have a blood-relation¬ 
ship with the Bedouin Arabs. They belong 
to the Semitic race. The complexion varies 
from very dark through different shades of 
brown and copper to olive. The figure is 
usually symmetrical. Other races are the 
black Gallas from the south; the Falashas, 
who claim descent from Abraham, and retain 
many Jewish characteristics ; the Agows, Gon- 
gas, etc. The great majority of the people 
profess Christianity, but their religion con¬ 
sists chiefly in the performance of empty cere¬ 
monies, and gross superstition as well as 
ignorance prevails. The chief spoken lan¬ 
guage is the Amharic. Mohammedanism ap¬ 
pears to be gaining ground in Abyssinia, and 
in respect of morality the Moslems stand 
higher than the Christians. A corrupt form of 
Judaism is professed by the Falashas. The 
bulk of the people are devoted to agriculture 
and cattle-breeding. The trade and manufac¬ 
tures are of small importance. The Abys¬ 
sinians were converted to Christianity in the 
fourth century, by some missionaries from 
Alexandria. Ethiopia, as the country was 
then called, saw its golden age in the sixth 
century. Since that period it has been har¬ 
assed by Arab invasions and disturbed by in¬ 
ternal revolutions. An attempt to revive the 
power of the ancient kingdom was com¬ 
menced about the middle of the present cen¬ 
tury by King Theodore. He introduced 
European artisans, but his tyranny counter¬ 
acted his politic measures. In consequence of 
the imprisonment of Consul Cameron and a 
number of other British subjects, in 1863, an 
army of nearly 12,000 men was despatched 
from Bombay in 1867. The force came within 
sight of the hill-fortress of Magdala in April, 
1868. After being defeated in a battle Theo¬ 
dore delivered up the captives and shut him¬ 
self up in Magdala, which was taken by 
storm on April 13, Theodore being found 
among the slain. Then internal dissensions 


Academy 

ended in the accession of Johannes, who was 
succeeded by Menelik, king of Shoa, who 
claims descent from Solomon and the Queen 
of Sheba. The Abyssinians have been at emnity 
with the Egyptians since 1860. In 1875 the Khe¬ 
dive of Egypt sent a small force against them, 
but they fell into an ambuscade and were all 
massacred. In the same year a second expe¬ 
dition of 1,600 men was sent against the Abys¬ 
sinians and a short sanguinary campaign fol¬ 
lowed in which both parties lost so heavily 
that each was compelled to retire and the 
difficulties continued until the Sudan was 
evacuated by Egypt in 1882. In 1885 the 
Italians occupied Massowah, but they did not 
succeed in establishing friendly relations with 
the Abyssinians. On the 26th of July, 1887, 
three companies of Italian soldiers were at¬ 
tacked by the Abyssinians, and all were 
ruthlessly slaughtered, with the exception of 
ninety wounded. Menelek II, king of Shoa, 
became the supreme ruler of Abyssinia in 
1889. By the treaty of Uchali, May 12, 1889, 
as interpreted by the Italians, Abyssinia be¬ 
came an Italian protectorate. King Menelek 
denounced this treaty in 1893, and by the con¬ 
vention of Adis Abeba, October 26, 1896, the 
independence of Abyssinia was unreservedly 
recognized. 

Acadia, a genus of plants, consistingof trees 
or shrubs with compound pinnate leaves 
and small leaflets, growing in Africa, Arabia, 
the East Indies, Australia, etc. The flowers 
are arranged in spikes or globular heads at the 
axils of the leaves near the extremity of the 
branches. The corolla is bell-shaped; stamens 
are numerous; the fruit is a dry unjointed 
pod. Several of the species yield gum-arabic 
and other gums; some have astringent barks 
and pods, used in tanning. An Indian species 
yields the valuable astringent called catechu; 
the wattle-tree of Australia, from 15 to 30 
feet in height, is the most beautiful and use¬ 
ful of the species found there. Its bark con¬ 
tains a large percentage of tannin, and is 
hence exported. Some species yield valuable 
timber; some are cultivated for the beauty of 
their flowers. 

Acad'emy, an association for the promo¬ 
tion of literature, science, or art; established 
sometimes by government, sometimes by the 
voluntary union of private individuals. The 
name Academy was first applied to the philo¬ 
sophical school of Plato, from the place where 
he used to teach, a grove or garden at Athens 
which was said to have belonged originally 
to the hero Academus, The Americap Philo¬ 
sophical Society, the oldest scientific institu¬ 
tion in America, was organized in *174^, in 
Philadelphia. The Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia was organized in 
1812. The American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, incorporated in 1780, is located at 
Boston, as also the Society of Natural History. 
The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sci¬ 
ences was organized at New Haven in 1799. 
The New York Academy of Sciences was 
incorporated as the Lyceum of Natural His¬ 
tory in 1818. The Peabody Academy of Sci- 


Acadia 


Acetylene 


ences, Salem, Mass., was endowed by George 
Peabody in 1807. The Smithsonian Institu¬ 
tion, Washington, D. C., was founded by James 
Smithson, an English scientist, incorporated 
by Congress in 1846. Its publications have 
given it prominent standing among scientists. 
In the great West there are active Academies 
in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Davenport, 
San Francisco, Cal., and New Orleans. The 
most celebrated institutions bearing the name 
of academies, and designed for the encourage¬ 
ment of science, antiquities, and language 
respectively, are the French Academie des 
Sciences (founded by Colbert in 1006), Acade¬ 
mie des Inscriptions (founded by Colbert in 
1003), and Academie Fran 9 aise (founded by 
Richelieu in 1635), all of which are now 
merged in the National Institute. The oldest 
of the academies instituted for the improve¬ 
ment of language is the Italian Accademia 
della Crusca (now the Florentine Academy), 
formed in 1583, and celebrated for the com¬ 
pilation of a dictionary of the Italian lan¬ 
guage, and for the publication of several 
editions of ancient Italian poets. In Britain 
the name of academy is confined almost 
exclusively to institutions for the promotion 
of the fine arts, such as the Royal Academy of 
Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy. 

Ac'adia, the name formerly given to Nova 
Scotia. It received its first colonists from 
France in 1604, being then a possession of that 
country, but it passed to Britain, by the Peace 
of Utrecht, in 1713. In 1756, 18,000 of the 
French inhabitants were forcibly removed 
from their homes by the British, an incident 
on which is based Longfellow’s Evangeline. 

Acan'thus, a genus of plants or shrubs, 
mostly tropical, two species of which are 
characterized by large white flowers and 


Acanthus natural. Acanthus of Corinthian 

Capital. 

deeply indented shining leaves. They are 
favorite ornamental plants in gardens. In 
architecture the name is given to a kind of 
foliage decoration, and much employed in 
Roman and later styles. 

Acapul'co, a seaport of Mexico, on the 
Pacific, with a capacious, well-sheltered har¬ 
bor ; a coaling station for steamers, but with 
no great trade. Pop. 5,000. 

Acarna'nia, the most westerly portion of 
Northern Greece, pop. 138,444. The Acarna- 
nians of ancient times were behind the other 
Greeks in civilization, living by robbery and 
piracy. 

Acclimatiza'tion, the process of accustom¬ 
ing plants or animals to live and propagate in 
a climate different from that to which they 
are indigenous, or the change which the con¬ 
stitution of an animal or plant undergoes 


under new climatic conditions, in the direc¬ 
tion of adaptation to those conditions. The 
systematic study of acclimatization has only 
been entered upon in very recent times, and 
the little progress that has been made in it has 
been more in the direction of formulating an- 
ticipative, if not arbitrary hypotheses, than of 
actual discovery and acquisition of facts. The 
term is sometimes applied to the case of ani¬ 
mals or plants taking readily to a new country 
with a climate and other circumstances simi¬ 
lar to what they have left, such as European 
animals and plants in America and New Zea¬ 
land : but this is more properly naturalization 
than acclimatization. 

Accor'dion, a keyed musical wind-instru¬ 
ment similar to the concertina; being in the 
form of a small box, containing a number of 
metallic reeds fixed at one of their extremities, 
the sides of the box forming a folding appara¬ 
tus which acts as a bellows to supply the wind, 
and thus set the reeds in vibration, and pro¬ 
duce the notes both of melody and harmony. 

Ac'crah, a British settlement in Africa, on 
the Gold Coast, about 75 miles east of Cape 
Coast Castle. Exports gold-dust, ivory, gums, 
palm-oil; imports cottons, cutlery, firearms, 
etc. 

Ac'crington, a town of England, Lancashire, 
5 miles east of Blackburn, with large cotton 
factories, print-works, and bleach-fields, and 
coal-mines adjacent. Pop. 38,603. 

Accu'mulator, a name applied to a kind of 
electric battery by means of which electric 
energy can be stored and rendered portable. 
In the usual form each battery forms a cy¬ 
lindrical leaden vessel, containing alternate 
sheets of metallic lead and minium wrapped 
in felt and rolled into a spiral wetted with 
acidulated water. On being charged with 
electricity the energy may be preserved till 
required for use. See Electricity. 

Acetates, salts of acetic acid. The acetates 
of most commercial or manufacturing impor¬ 
tance are those of aluminium and iron, which 
are used in calico-printing; of copper, which 
as verdigris is used as a color; and of lead, 
best known as sugar of lead. The acetates of 
potassium, sodium, and ammonium, of iron, 
zinc, and lead, and the acetate of morphia, are 
employed in medicine. 

Acet'ic Acid, an acid produced by the oxi¬ 
dation of common alcohol, and of many other 
organic substances. Pure acetic acid has a 
very sour taste and pungent smell, burns the 
skin, and is poisonous. From freezing at 
ordinary temperatures (58° or 59°) it is known 
as glacial acetic acid. Vinegar is simply dilute 
acetic acid, and is prepared by subjecting 
wine or weak spirits to the action of the air; 
also from malt which has undergone vinous fer¬ 
mentation. Acetic acid, both concentrated 
and dilute, is largely used in the arts, in medi¬ 
cine, and for domestic purposes. See Vinegar. 

Acetylene, a pure hydro-carbon gas. It is 
clear, colorless, and heavy; has a distinct 
odor ; burns with a flame of intense brilliancy. 
It is present in ordinary illuminating gas only 
to the extent of from to H per cent. The 









Achceans 


Acid 


gas is poisonous to the same extent as ordinary 
gas, but its characteristic odor gives warning 
if there is any leak. There is no odor from 
the gas while burning, the flame being clear, 
white, and steady, without smoke, and with 
little heat. Acetylene gas is produced, com¬ 
mercially, by the action of water on calcic 
carbide, and the calcic carbide is the result of 
electrical fusion of coal dust and lime in the 
proportion of 1,130 pounds of coal dust to 1,750 
pounds of lime. The resultant is 2,000 pounds 
of calcic carbide. The coal dust and lime, 
ground together, and intimately but mechan¬ 
ically associated, is placed in an electric fur¬ 
nace. The intense heat fuses the materials, 
and produces a dark, gray, cinder-like sub¬ 
stance called calcium carbide , or calcic car¬ 
bide. The calcic carbide can be exposed to 
the most intense heat of a blast furnace with¬ 
out perceptible effect. The atmosphere does 
not act upon the calcic carbide to any appre¬ 
ciable extent, although exposure to the air, 
particularly if the air is moist, reduces the 
gas-producing power. The instant water is 
brought in contact with the carbide, acetylene 
gas is produced. A double decomposition 
takes place. The oxygen of water unites 
with the calcium of the calcic carbide, form¬ 
ing oxide of calcium, which falls to the bot¬ 
tom of the generator. The hydrogen of the 
water unites with the carbon of the calcic 
carbide, forming the acetylene, which rises 
and is used. 

For many years acetylene gas was known 
as a laboratory product too expensive for any¬ 
thing but experimental use. A possible 
method of producing this gas on a commercial 
basis was developed in the electric furnaces of 
the Willson Aluminium Company, Spray, 
N. C,, by T. L. Willson while experimenting 
with the production of aluminium , and the 
smelting of refractory substances under the 
direction of Major J. T. Morehead, president 
of the company, and a geologist of national 
reputation. In the course of the experiments, 
coke and lime were fused together in the elec¬ 
tric furnace, and the resulting products were 
thrown in a bucket of water. The violent 
bubbling, caused by the gas, directed atten¬ 
tion to it; a match was struck, and the gas 
burst into a clear flame. The development of 
the experiments resulted in large electric 
furnaces being built at Niagara Falls, and cal¬ 
cic or calcium carbide is now a commercial 
product. Portable generators for house use 
are made, and the carbide is sold directly to 
consumers, who thus make their own illumi¬ 
nating gas. 

Achaeans (a-ke'anz), one of the four main 
divisions of the ancient Greeks. They mi¬ 
grated from Thessaly to the Peloponnesus, 
which they ruled in the heroic period. From 
very early times a confederacy existed among 
the twelve towns of this region. After the 
death of Alexander the Great it was broken 
up, but was revived again, e. c. 280, and 
from this time grew in power till it spread 
over the whole Peloponnesus. It was finally 
dissolved by the Romans, b. c. 147, and after 


this the whole of Greece, except Thessaly, 
was called Achaia or Achsea. Achaia with 
Elis now forms a monarchy of the kingdom 
of Greece. Pop. 181,632. 

Achard (ak'art), Franz Karl (1753-1821), a 
German chemist, principally known by his 
invention (1789-1800) of a process for manu¬ 
facturing sugar from beet-robt. 

Achates (a-ka'tez), a companion of vEneas 
in his wanderings subsequent to his flight 
from Troy. He is always distinguished in 
Vergil’s iEneid by the epithet fidus, “faith¬ 
ful,” and has become typical of a faithful 
friend and companion. 

Acheen, or Atchin (a-chen'), a native state 
of Sumatra, with capital of same name, in the 
n. w. extremity of the island, now nominally 
under Dutch administration. Though largely 
mountainous, it has also undulating tracts 
and low fertile plains. By treaty with Brit¬ 
ain the Dutch were prevented from extending 
their territory in Sumatra by conquest; but 
this obstacle being removed, in 1871 they pro¬ 
ceeded to occupy Acheen. It was not till 1879, 
however, that they obtained a general recogni¬ 
tion of their authority. They were forced to 
evacuate part of the Acheenese territory in 
1885. In the seventeenth century Acheen was 
a powerful state, and carried on hostilities 
successfully against the Portuguese, but its in¬ 
fluence decreased with the increase of the 
Dutch power. The principal exports are rice 
and pepper. Area 19,000 sq. mi.; pop. 600,000. 

Achelous (ak-e-lo'-us), now Aspropotomo, the 
largest river of Greece, rising on Mount Pindus, 
separating iEtolia and Acarnania, and falling 
into the Ionian Sea. Achelous was the river- 
god of Greece. 

Acheron (ak' e-ron), the ancient name of 
several rivers in Greece and Italy, all of which 
were connected by legend with the lower world. 

Achill (ak' il), or Eagle Island, the largest is¬ 
land on the Irish coast. Area, 51,521 acres, 
mostly bog. The chief occupation of the 5,000 
inhabitants is fishing. 

Achilles (a-kil' ez), a Greek legendary hero, 
the chief character in Homer’s Iliad. He was 
the son of Peleus, and of the Nereid Thetis, was 
instructed in eloquence and the arts of war 
by Phoenix, and in medicine by the centaur 
Cheiron. He led the Myrmidons to Troy in 
fifty ships, and was there the great bulwark of 
the Greeks. Being deprived by Agamemnon 
of Brisei's, he ceased to take further part in y 
the war, and the fortunes of the Greeks became 
desperate. He reconciled himself to Agamem¬ 
non, attacked the Trojans, and slew their 
bravest warrior, Hector. A legend represents 
his mother as having dipped him in the Styx 
to render him invulnerable, in which she suc¬ 
ceeded with the exception of the ankles, by 
which she held him. 

Achilles* Tendon, Tendon of Achilles, the 
strong tendon which connects the muscles of 
the calf with the heel, and may be easily felt 
with the hand. The origin of name is from 
the myth of Achilles’ immersion in the river 
Styx. 

Acid (Latin, acidus, sour), a name popularly 


Acierage 


Acre 


applied to a number of compounds, solid, 
liquid, and gaseous, having more or less the 
qualities of vinegar (itself a diluted form of 
acetic acid), the general properties assigned to 
them being a tart, sour taste, the power of 
changing vegetable blues into reds, of decom¬ 
posing chalk and marble with effervescence, 
and of being in various degrees neutralized by 
alkalies. An acid has been defined as a sub¬ 
stance containing hydrogen, which hydrogen 
is in whole or in part replaceable by a metal 
when the metal is presented in the form of a 
hydrate; being monobasic , diebasic, or tribasic , 
according to the number of hydrogen atoms 
replaced. 

Acierage (3/ se- er-iij ), a process by which 
an engraved copper-plate or an electrotype 
from an engraved plate of steel or copper has 
a film of iron deposited over its surface by 
electricity in order to protect the engraving 
from wear in printing. By this means an elec¬ 
trotype of a fine engraving, which, if printed 
directly from the copper, would not yield 500 
good impressions, can be made to yield 3,000 
or more; and when the film of iron becomes so 
worn as to reveal any part of the copper, it 
may be removed and a fresh coating depos¬ 
ited so that 20,000 good impressions may begot. 

Aci Reale (ii' che-ra-a' la), a seaport of Sicily, 
with a trade in corn, wine, fruit, etc. Pop. 
24,100. 

Aclin'ic Line, the magnetic equator, an 
irregular curve in the neighborhood of the 
terrestrial equator, where the magnetic needle 
balances itself horizontally, having no dip. 

Aconcagua (a-kon-ka'gwa), a province, a 
river, and a mountain of Chile. The peak of 
Aconcagua, rising to the height of 22,860 feet, 
is one of the highest summits of the western 
hemisphere. Area of prow, 6,224 sq. mi. 
Pop. 133,830. Capital, San Felipe. 

Ac'onite, a genus of hardy herbaceous 
plants, repre¬ 
sented by the 
well-known 
wolf’s-bane or 
monk’s-hood, 
and remarkable 
for their poison¬ 
ous properties 
and medicinal 
qualities, being 
used internally 
as well as ex- 
t e r n a 11y in 
rheumatism, 
gout, neuralgia. 

Aconitine is an 
alkaloid ex¬ 
tracted from 
aconite, a viru¬ 
lent poison. 

Aconqui ja Monk’s Hood, a, fruit, b, root, 
(a-kon-ke ha), a 

range of mountains in the Argentine Repub¬ 
lic ; the name also of a single peak, 17,000 feet 
high. 

Acotyle'dons, plants not furnished with 
cotyledons or seed-lobes. They include ferns, 


mosses, sea-weeds, etc., and are also called 
flowerless plants. 

Acoustics(a-kou'stiks), the science of sound. 
It teaches the cause, nature, and phenomena 
of such vibrations of elastic bodies as affect the 
organ of hearing; the manner in which sound 
is produced, its transmission through air and 
other media, the doctrine of reflected sound or 
echoes, the properties and effects of different 
sounds, including musical sounds or notes, 
and the structure and action of the organ of 
hearing, etc. The propagation of sound is 
analogous to that of light, both being due to 
vibrations which produce successive waves, and 
Newton was the first to show that its propa¬ 
gation through any medium depended upon 
the elasticity of that medium. Regarding the 
intensity, reflection, and refraction of sound, 
much the same rules apply as in light. In or¬ 
dinary cases of hearing, the vibrating medium 
is air, but all substances capable of vibrating 
may be employed to propagate and convey 
sound. When a bell is struck its vibrations are 
communicated to the particles of air surround¬ 
ing it, and from these to particles outside them, 
until they reach the ear of the listener. The 
intensity of sound varies inversely as the square 
of the distance of the body sounding from the 



Aclinic Line. 


ear. Sound travels through the air at the rate 
of about 1,090 feet per second; through water 
at the rate of about 4,700 feet. Sounds may 
be musical or non-musical. A musical sound 
is caused by a regular series of exactly similar 
pulses succeeding each other at precisely equal 
intervals of time. If these conditions are not 
fulfilled the sound is a noise. Musical sounds 
are comparatively simple, and are combined 
to give pleasing sensations according to easy 
numerical relations. The loudness of a note 
depends upon the degree to which it affects the 
ear; the pitch of a note depends on the number 
of vibrations to the second which produce the 
note; the timbre , quality , or character of a note 
depends on the body or bodies whose vibrations 
produce the sound, and is due to the form of the 
paths of vibrating particles. The gamut is a se¬ 
ries of eight notes, which are called by the names 
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do. The proper¬ 
ties of sound were mathematically investigated 
by Bacon and Galileo, but it remained for New¬ 
ton, Lagrange, Euler,Laplace, Helmholtz, etc., 
to bring the science to its present state. 

Acre, a standard measure of land, used in 
the U. S. and England. The acre consists of 
4,840 square yards, divided into 4 roods. 

Acre (a'ker), a seaport of Syria, in northern 
Palestine, on the Bay of Acre, early a place of 








Acropolis 


Adams 


great strength and importance. Taken from 
the Saracens under Saladin in 1191 by Rich¬ 
ard I of England and Philip of France; 
bravely defended by the Turks assisted by Sir 
Sidney Smith in 1799 against Napoleon ; in 
1832, taken by Ibrahim Pasha; in 1840, bom¬ 
barded by a British, Austrian, and Turkish 
lieet, and restored to the sultan of Turkey. 
Pop. 10,000. 

Acrop'olis, the citadel or chief place of a 
Grecian city, usually on an eminence com¬ 
manding the town. That of Athens contained 
some of the finest buildings in the world, 
such as the Parthenon, Erechtheum, etc. 

Acros'tic, a poem of which the first or last, 
or certain other letters of the line, taken in 
order, form some name, motto, or sentence, 
A poem of which both first and last letters 
are thus arranged is called a double acrostic. 
In Hebrew poetry, the term is given to a 
poem, of which the initial letters of the lines 
or stanzas were made to run over the letters 
of the alphabet in their order, as in Psalm 
119. Acrostics have been much used in 
complimentary verses, the initial letters giv¬ 
ing the name of the person eulogized. 

Actae'on, in Greek mythology, a great 
hunter, turned into a stag by Artemis (Diana) 
for looking on her when she was bathing, and 
torn to pieces by his own dogs. 

Ac'tinism, the property of those rays of light 
which produce chemical changes, as in photog¬ 
raphy, in contradistinction to the light rays 
and heat rays. The actinic property or force 
begins among the green rays, is strongest in 
the violet rays, and extends a long way beyond 
the visible spectrum. 

Actinozo'a, a class of animals including sea- 
anemones, corals, etc., all having rayed tenta¬ 
cles round the mouth. 

Action, the mode of seeking redress at law 
for any wrong, injury, or deprivation. Actions 
are divided into civil and criminal, the former 
again being divided into real, personal, and 
mixed. 

Ac'tium, a promontory on the western coast 
of Northern Greece, memorable on account of 
the naval victory gained here by Octavianus 
(afterward - the Emperor Augustus) over An¬ 
tony and Cleopatra, Sept. 2, b. c. 31. Cleopa¬ 
tra fled with sixty Egyptian ships, and Antony 
fled with her to Egypt. The deserted fleet was 
overcome after a brave resistance. Antony’s 
land forces went over to the enemy. 

Acts of the Apostles, one of the books of 
the New Testament, written in Greek by St. 
Luke, probably in a. d. 63 or 64. It embraces 
a period of about thirty years, beginning im¬ 
mediately after the Resurrection, and extend¬ 
ing to the second year of the imprisonment of 
St. Paul in Rome. 

Acupress'ure, a means of arresting bleeding 
from a cut artery introduced by Sir James 
Simpson in 1859, and consisting in compress¬ 
ing the artery above the orifice, that is, on the 
side nearest the heart, with the middle of a 
needle introduced through the tissues. 

Acupunc'ture, a surgical operation, consist¬ 
ing in the insertion of needles into certain parts 


of the body for alleviating pain, or for the cure 
of different species of rheumatism, neuralgia, 
eye diseases, etc. It is easily performed, gives 
little pain, causes neither bleeding nor inflam¬ 
mation, and seems at times of surprising effi¬ 
cacy. 

Adal', a country in Africa, east of Abys¬ 
sinia, inhabited by a dark-brown race of same 
name, of nomadic habits, Mohammedans in 
religion ; towns Aussa and Tajurrah. Part 
of the coast here is held by the French. 

Ad'albert of Prague (955-997), called “the 
apostle of the Prussians,” son of a Bohemian 
nobleman, appointed bishop of Prague in 983, 
labored in vain among the heathenish Bohe¬ 
mians, resolved to convert the pagans of 
Prussia, but was murdered in the attempt. 

Adam, Robert (1728-1792), an eminent 
Scottish architect. He was employed by the 
English nobility and gentry in constructing 
modern and embellishing ancient mansions. 
Among his works are the Register House and 
the University buildings, Edinburgh, the royal 
Infirmary, Glasgow, and the Adelphi Build¬ 
ings, London. He was buried in Westmin¬ 
ster Abbey. 

Adam and Eve, the names given in Scrip¬ 
ture to our first parents, an account of whom 
and their immediate descendants is given in 
the early chapters of Genesis. 

Adam de la Hale (1240-1287), French writer 
and musician. His Jeu de Robin et de Ma 
rion may be regarded as the first comic opera 
ever written. 

Adama'wa, a region of Central Africa, also 
called Fumbina. Much of the surface is hilly 
or mountainous. A great part of the country 
is covered with thick forests. The inhabit¬ 
ants are industrious and intelligent. Slaves 
and ivory are the chief articles of trade. 
Chief town, Yola. 

Adams, Berks co., Mass., a prosperous 
manuf acturing village 20 miles from Pittsfield. 
Pop. 11,134. 

Adams, Charles Francis (1807-1886), 
American author and statesman, son of John 
Quincy Adams. His youthful years were spent 
in Europe,partly in England, but he finished his 
education at Harvard, and afterward studied 
law. After serving some years in the Massa¬ 
chusetts legislature w r as elected to Congress in 
1858. In 1861 he was sent to England as 
American minister, and here he remained for 
seven years, performing the arduous duties of 
his office with the utmost tact and ability. 
He has edited a complete edition of his grand¬ 
father’s works in ten volumes, with a life. He' 
was one of the arbitrators on the Alabama 
claims. 

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr., second son of 
the above, born in Boston, 1835, graduated ai 
Harvard, 1856, and admitted to the bar, 1858. 
He served in the Union army 1861-1865. He 
was appointed on the board of railroad com¬ 
missioners for Massachusetts, 1869, and in 
1884 president of the Union Pacific railway. 
He published Chapters of Erie and other 
Essays. 

Adams, Charles Kendall, b. 1835 at Derby, 


Adams 


Adams 


Vt. He graduated at the University of Mich¬ 
igan in 1861. He was made assistant professor 
there in 1863 and full professor in 1868. He 
became non-resident professor of history at 
Cornell University in 1881, and in 1885 suc¬ 
ceeded Andrew D. White as president. He is 
the author of Democracy and Monarchy in 
France (1874), and of A Manual of Histor¬ 
ical Literature (N. Y. 1882). He became 
president of the University of Wisconsin in 
1892. 

Adams, George Everett, b. 1840 at Keene, 
N. H., graduated at Harvard, 1860. He 
moved to Chicago and practised law ; elected 
state senator in 1880 ; elected to Congress from 
the fourth district in 1882 and re-elected three 
times. He is a Republican. 

Adams, Henry, b. 1838, was professor of 
history at Harvard 1870-1877. He has written 
several historical works. The youngest son of 
Charles Francis Adams. 

Adams, John (1735-1826), second president 
of the U. S., was born at Braintree (now 
Quincy), Massachusetts. He was educated 
at Harvard University, and adopted the law 
as a profession. His attention was directed 
to politics by the question as to the right 
of the English Parliament to tax the colo¬ 
nies, and in 1765 he published some essays 
strongly opposed to the claims of the mother 
country. As a member of the new American 
Congress in 1774, 1775, and 1776, he was 
strenuous in his opposition to the home gov¬ 
ernment, and in organizing the various de¬ 
partments of the colonial government. On 
13th May, 1776, he seconded the motion for a 
declaration of independence proposed by Lee 
of Virginia, and was appointed a member of 
committee to draw it up. The declaration 
was actually drawn up by Jefferson, but it was 
Adams who carried it through Congress. In 
1778 he went to France on a special mission, 
but soon came back and again returned, and 
for nine years resided abroad as representative 
of his country in France, Holland, and Eng¬ 
land. After taking part in the peace negotia¬ 
tions he was appointed, in 1785, the first am¬ 
bassador of the U. S. to the court of St. James. 
He was recalled in 1788, and in the same year 
elected vice-president of the republic under 
Washington. In 1792 he was re-elected vice- 
president, and at the following election in 1796 
was chosen president in succession to Wash¬ 
ington. The commonwealth was then divided 
into two parties, the federalists, who favored 
aristocratic, and were suspected of monarchic 
views, and the republicans or democrats. 
Adams adhered to the former party, with 
which his views of government had always 
been in accordance, but the real leader of the 
party was Hamilton, with whom Adams did 
not agree, and who tried to prevent his elec¬ 
tion. His term of office proved a stormy one, 
which broke up and dissolved the federalist 
party. His re-election in 1800 was again 
opposed by the efforts of Hamilton, which 
ended in effecting the return of the democratic 
candidate Jefferson. Thus Adams retired 
from office into the obscurity of private life. 


He had the consolation of living to see his son 
president. He died 4th July, 1826, the fiftieth 
anniversary of the declaration of independ¬ 
ence, and on the same day as Jefferson. His 
works have been ably edited by his grandson 
Charles Francis Adams. 

Adams, John Couch (1819-1892), an English 
astronomer. His investigations into the irregu¬ 
larities in the motion of the planet Uranus led 
him to the conclusion that they must be 
caused by another more distant planet. The 
French astronomer, Leverrier, had come to 
substantially the same results, which, being 
published in 1846, led to the actual discovery 
of the planet Neptune by Galle of Berlin. In 
1858 Adams was professor of astronomy and 
geometry at Cambridge. 

Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848), sixth 
president of the U. S., son of John Adams, 
second president. He accompanied his father 
to Europe and was educated there in part, but 
graduated at Harvard in 1788. He was ad¬ 
mitted to the bar in 1791. He began to take 
an active interest in politics, and some letters 
that he wrote having attracted general atten¬ 
tion, in 1794 Washington appointed him min¬ 
ister to the Hague. He afterward was sent 
to Portugal, and by his father to Berlin. In 
1798 he received a commission to negotiate a 
treaty of commerce with Sweden. On the 
accession of Jefferson to the presidency in 1801 
he was recalled. The federalist party (that of 
his father), which was now declining, had 
sufficient influence in Massachusetts to elect 
him to the senate in 1803. In 1809 he went as 
ambassador to Russia. He assisted in nego¬ 
tiating the peace of 1814 with England, and 
was afterward appointed resident minister at 
London. Under Monroe as president he was 
secretary of state, and at the expiration of 
Monroe’s double term of office he succeeded 
him in the presidency (1825). He was not 
very successful as president, and at the end of 
his term (1829) he was not re-elected. In 1831 
he was returned to Congress by Massachusetts, 
and continued to represent this state till his 
death, his efforts being now chiefly on behalf 
of the abolitionist party. 

Adams, John Quincy, b. 1833, was a mem¬ 
ber of the Massachusetts legislature, and con¬ 
tested the gubernatorial chair in 1867 and 1871. 
The oldest son of Charles F. Adams. D. 1894. 

Adams, Samuel (1722-1803), an American 
statesman, second cousin of President John 
Adams. He early devoted himself to politics, 
and in connection with the dispute between 
America and the mother country he showed 
himself one of the most unwearied, efficient, 
and disinterested assertors of American free¬ 
dom and independence. He was one of the 
signers of the declaration of 1776, which he 
labored most indefatigably to bring forward. 
He sat in Congress eight years, in 1789-94 was 
lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, in 1794- 
97 governor, when he retired from public 
life. 

Adams, William T. (1822-1897), born in 
Medway, Mass., better known by his pseu¬ 
donym “Oliver Optic,” a popular writer of 


Adam’s Bridge 

books for boys, was of the same family as the 
two presidents. Of his 36 volumes over half 
a million copies have been sold. 

Adam’s Bridge, a chain of reefs, sandbanks, 
and islands stretching between India and Cey¬ 
lon ; so called because the Mohammedans 
believe that when Adam was driven from 
paradise he had to pass by this way to Ceylon 
(where is also Adam’s Peak). 

Adam’s Peak, one of the highest mountains 
in Ceylon45 mi. e. s. e. of Colombo, conical, iso¬ 
lated, and 7,420 feet high. On the top, a rocky 
area of 64 ft. by 45, is a hollow in the rock 5 
feet long bearing a rude resemblance to a hu¬ 
man foot, which the Brahmans believe to be 
the footprint of Siva, the Buddhists that of 
Buddha, the Mohammedans that of Adam. 
Devotees of all creeds here meet and present 
their offerings (chiefly rhododendron flowers) 
to the sacred footprint. The ascent is very 
steep, and toward the summit is assisted by 
steps cut and iron chains riveted in the rock. 

Ad'dax, a species of antelope of the size of a 
large ass with much of its make. The horns 
of the male are about 4 feet long, beautifully 
twisted into a wide sweeping spiral of two 
turns and a half, with the points directed out¬ 
ward. It has tufts of hair on the forehead 
and throat, and large broad hoofs. It inhabits 
the sandy regions of Nubia and Kordofan, and 
is also found in Caffraria. 

Add ison, Joseph (1672-1719), the most 
exquisite of English essayists, the founder of 
periodical literature, and poet, was the son of 
Rev. L. Addison, Dean of Lichfield, and was 
born at Milston, in Wiltshire. As a boy he 
made the acquaintance of Steele, afterward his 
coadjutor on the Tattler and Spectator. He 
graduated from Oxford M. A. in 1693. He 
traveled in Italy for two years, returning to Eng¬ 
land in 1703. While in Italy he penned his poet¬ 
ical Letter to Lord Halifax. In 1704 he wrote 
The Campaign, a poem addressed to the Duke 
of Marlborough, became member of Parliament 
in 1708, and in 1717 he was appointed secretary 
of state. He died at Holland House. A. com¬ 
menced to write for the Tattler in 1709, and for its 
successor, the Spectator, in 1711. His tragedy of 
Cato, produced in 1713, met with unbounded 
success. Of his poetry one or two sacred 
pieces will endure as long as the language; but 
it is as an essayist that he is best known. For 
humor and poetic grace; for satire and for moral 
influence the essays of the Spectator remain un¬ 
surpassed. 

Address, Forms of. The following are the 
principal modes of formally addressing titled 
personages or persons holding official rank in 
Great Britain and the U. S.: — 

The King or Queen. — Address in writing : To 
the King’s (Queen’s) most excellent Majesty. 
Say : Sire or Madam, Your Majesty. 

The Royal Family. — His Royal Highness 
(H. R. H.) the Prince of Wales, His Royal 
Highness the Duke of C—, His Royal High¬ 
ness Prince A—. 

Duke and Ducal Family. — His Grace the 

Duke of-; My Lord Duke, Your Grace. 

The duke’s eldest son takes a secondary title 


Adenanthera 

of his father, and is addressed as if he held it 
by right. A younger son is addressed, The 
Right Honorable Lord J— B—. 

Marquis. — The Most Honorable the Marquis 
of-, My Lord Marquis, My Lord. 

Earl. — The Right Honorable Earl of-; 

My Lord, Your Lordship. The Right Honor¬ 
able the Countess of-; Madam, Your Lady¬ 

ship. 

Viscount. — The Right Honorable Lord Vis¬ 
count -; My Lord, Your Lordship. The 

Right Honorable the Viscountess-; Madam. 

Your Ladyship. 

Baron .— The Right Honorable Lord -; 

My Lord, Your Lordship. 

Knight. — Sir C— D—. Ft,, or K. G., K. C. B., 
R. G. C. B., etc., according to rank. The wives 
of baronets and knights are styled Lady-. 

Archbishop. — His Grace the Lord Archbishop 
of-; My Lord Archbishop ; Your Grace. 

Bishop .— The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of 
-; My Lord. 

Dean. —The Very Reverend; Sir; Mr. Dean. 

Members of the Privy Council, the Speaker 
of the House of Commons, the Lord Chancel¬ 
lor, Lord Advocate, are called Right Honor¬ 
able ; members of Parliament, Honorable. 

The Lord Mayors of London, York, and 
Dublin are styled Right Honorable. 

In the U. S. persons holding official rank are 
similarly addressed; thus the President is 
styled His Excellency, as are also governors of 
states and foreign ministers; the vice-presi¬ 
dent, lieutenant-governors, senators, repre¬ 
sentatives, judges, and mayors are styled Hon¬ 
orable. 

Adelaide (ad'e-lad), the capital of South 
Australia, founded in 1837, and named after 
the queen of William IV. The public build¬ 
ings comprise the government house, court 
houses, the houses of legislature, the Uni¬ 
versity, South Australian Institute, etc. Ade¬ 
laide is connected by railway with Melbourne, 
and is the terminus of the overland telegraph 
to Port Darwin. Pop. 147,616. 

Adelung (ad'e-lung), Johann Christoph 
(1732-1806), a German philologist. In 1759 he 
was appointed professor in the Protestant 
academy at Erfurt, and two years after re¬ 
moved to Leipzig, where he applied himself 
to his German dictionary (Leipzig, 1774-86), 
and his Mithridates, a work on general phi¬ 
lology. In 1787 he was appointed librarian of 
the public library in Dresden.— Friedrich yon 
Adelung (1768-1843), nephew of the above, 
also distinguished himself as a philologist. 
He became president of the Academy of Sci¬ 
ences at St. Petersburg. 

A'den, a seaport town and territory on the 
southwest coast of Arabia. Occupying an 
important military position, Aden is strongly 
fortified and permanently garrisoned. Pop. 
35,165. 

Adenanthe'ra, a genus of trees and shrubs, 
natives of the East Indies and Ceylon. It in¬ 
cludes one of the largest and handsomest trees 
of India, which yields hard solid timber called 
red sandal-wood. The bright scarlet seeds, 



Adhesion 

from their equality in weight (eacli=4 grains), 
are used by goldsmiths in the East as weights, 

Adhesion, the tendency of two bodies to 
stick together when put in close contact, or 
the mutual attraction of their surfaces; dis¬ 
tinguished from cohesion, which denotes the 
mutual attraction between the particles of a 
homogeneous body. Adhesion may exist be¬ 
tween two solids, between a solid and a fluid, 
or between two fluids. A plate of glass or of 
polished metal laid on the surface of water 
and attached to one arm of a balance will sup¬ 
port much more than its own weight in the 
opposite scale from the force of adhesion be¬ 
tween the water and the plate. From the 
same force arises the tendency of most liquids, 
when gently poured from a jar, to run down 
the exterior of a vessel or along any other sur¬ 
face they meet. 

Adige (a'de-ja), (German, Etsch), a river of 
Northern Italy, which rises in the Rhaetian 
Alps, and after a south and east course of 
about 180 miles, during which it passes Verona 
and Legnago, falls into the Adriatic, forming 
a delta connected with that of the Po. 

Adirondack riountains, a group belonging 
to the Appalachian chain, extending from the 
n. e. corner of the state of New York to near 
its center. The scenery is wild and grand, 
diversified by numerous beautiful lakes, and 
the whole region is a favorite resort of sports¬ 
men and tourists. The district has been pre¬ 
served in its natural beauty by state legisla¬ 
tion constituting it a public park. 

Adjutant=bird, a large wading bird of the 
stork family, native of the warmer parts of 
India. It stands about five feet high, has an 
enormous bill, and a pouch hanging from the 
under part of 
the neck. It is 
one of the most 
voracious car¬ 
nivorous birds 
known, and in 
India, from its 
devouring a 11 
sorts of carrion 
and noxious 
animals, is pro¬ 
tected by law. 

From under¬ 
neath the wings 
are obtained 
those light 
downy feathers 
known as mara- 
b o u feathers, 
from the name 
of an allied 
species of bird 
in Western Adjutant-bird. 

Africa, and also 
producing them. 

Adler, Felix, b. 1851, in Germany. He grad¬ 
uated at Columbia college in 1870, and studied 
at Berlin and Heidelberg. He was Professor 
of Hebrew and Oriental literature at Cornell 
1874-76, and is at the head of the Society of 
JSthical Culture, New York City. 


Adrar 

Adme'tus, in Greek mythology, king of 
Pherae, in Thessaly, and husband of Alcestis, 
who gave signal proof of her attachment by 
consenting to die in order to prolong her hus¬ 
band’s life. 

Admiralty Charts. These useful aids to 
navigation are issued by the U. S. Coast 
Survey, as well as by the English, Russian, 
and French governments. The superintendent 
of the U. S. Coast Survey issues an annual 
report, showing the progress of the survey, 
and containing much valuable information. 

Admiralty Island, an island belonging to 
the U. S. off the n. w. coast of N. A., 80 or 90 
miles long and about 20 broad, covered with 
fine timber and inhabited by Sitka Indians. 

Admiralty Islands, a cluster of islands, north 
of New Guinea, belonging to Germany. The 
largest is about 60 miles in length. They pos¬ 
sess dense groves of cocoa-nut trees. The is¬ 
landers are of a tawny color, have no metal (ex¬ 
cept what is imported), but use tools of stone 
and shell. 

Adobe (a-do' ba), the Spanish name for a brick 
made of loamy earth, containing about two 
thirds fine sand and one third clay dust, sun 
dried ; in common use for building in Mexico, 
Texas, and Centra). America. 

Ado'ni, a town and district in Madras, In¬ 
dia ; population of former 22,732, of latter 179,- 
448. Well known for excellent silk and cotton 
fabrics. 

Adonis, a mythological personage, origi¬ 
nally a deity of the Phoenicians, but borrowed 
into Greek mythology. See Mythology. 

Ado'nis, a genus of plants. In the corn- 
adonis or pheasant’s eye the petals are bright 
scarlet like the blood of Adonis, from which 
the plant is fabled to have sprung. 

Adour (a-dor), a river of France, rising in the 
Pyrenees, and falling into the sea a little below 
Bayonne; length about 200 miles; partly navi¬ 
gable. 

Ado'wa, a town "of Abyssinia in Tigre, at 
an elevation of 6,270 feet; the chief commer¬ 
cial depot on the caravan route from Massowa 
to Gondar. Pop. about 6,000. 

Adra (a' 
dra), a seaport 
of southern 
Spain, in An¬ 
dalusia, near 
the mouth of 
the Adra, on 
the Mediter¬ 
ranean; with 
marble quar¬ 
ries and lead 
works. Pop. 

11,320. 

Adrar', a 
district in the 
western Saha¬ 
ra of Africa, 
peopled by 
Berbers pos¬ 
sessing cam¬ 
els, sheep, and 

oxen, and cui- Berber Woman. 














Adria 


tivating dates, wheat, barley, and melons. 
Chief towns, Wadan, and Shingit, which has 
inexhaustible beds of rocksalt. 

Adria (a'dri-a), a cathedral city of northern 
Italy, province of Rovigo, between the Po and 
the Adige, on the site of the ancient town of 
same name, whence the Adriatic derives its 
appellation. Owing to alluvial deposits, the 
sea is now 17 miles distant. Pop. 11,554. 

Adrian, the name of six popes of Rome. 
The first ruled from 772-795; a contemporary 
and friend of Charlemagne.— Adrian II was 
elected pope in 867, at the age of seventy-five 
years. He died in 872, in the midst of con¬ 
flicts with the Greek Church.— Adrian III, 
elected 884, was pope for one year and four 
months only.— Adrian IV, originally named 
Nicolas Breakspear, the only Englishman that 
ever occupied the papal chair, was born about 
1100, and died 1159. He studied in France, 
and became abbot of St. Rufus in Provence. 
He became pope in 1154. He issued the fa¬ 
mous bull (1158) granting the sovereignty of 
Ireland, on condition of the payment of Peter’s 
pence, to Henry II.— Adrian V, settled the 
dispute between King Henry III, of England 
and his nobles, in favor of the former; but 
died a month after his election to the papal 
chair (1276).— Adrian VI, born at Utrecht, in 
1459, was elected to the papal chair, 1522. He 
opposed the zeal of Luther with reproaches 
and threats, and even attempted to excite 
Erasmus and Zwinglius against him. Died 
1523. 

Adrian, Lenawee co., Mich., 70 miles w. s. 
w. of Detroit. Its extensive water-power is 
employed in works of various kinds. Pop. 
1900, 9,654. 

Adriano'ple, an important city of Turkey, 
about 135 miles w. n. w. from Constantinople. 
It has a great mosque, a palace, now in a state 
of decay, a grand aqueduct, and a splendid 
bazar; manufacturers of silk, woolen, and 
cotton stuffs, otto of roses, leather, etc., and 
an important trade. Adrianople was the resi¬ 
dence of the Turkish sovereigns till the con¬ 
quest of Constantinople in 1453. In 1829 it 
was taken by the Russians. The Russians 
occupied it also in 1878. Pop. 60,000. 

Adriatic Sea, or Gulf of Venice, an arm 
of the Mediterranean, stretching in a north¬ 
westerly direction from the Straits of Otranto, 
between Italy and the Turkish and Austrian 
dominions. Length, about 480 miles; aver¬ 
age breadth, about 100; area, about 60,000 
sq. mi. 

Aduliam, Cave of, a cave to which David 
fled when persecuted by Saul. 1 Sam. 22:1, 2. 

Adultera'tion, a term not only applied in 
its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture 
of articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, 
seeds, etc., with noxious or inferior ingre¬ 
dients, but also by magistrates and analysts 
to accidental impurity, and even in some 
cases to Actual substitution. The chief ob¬ 
jects of adulteration are to increase the 
weight or volume of the article, to give a 
color which either makes a good article 
more pleasing to the eye or else disguises 


^Egina 

an inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form 
of the article, or the same substance from 
which the strength has been extracted, or 
to give it a false strength. Among the adul¬ 
terations which are practised for the purpose 
of fraudulently increasing the weight or 
volume of an article are the following: — 
Bread is adulterated with alum or sulphate 
of copper which gives solidity to the gluten 
of inferior flour; with chalk or carbonate of 
soda to correct the acidity of such flour ; and 
with boiled rice or potatoes, which enables 
the bread to carry more water, and thus to 
produce a larger number of loaves from a 
given quantity of flour. Milk is usually adul¬ 
terated with water. The adulterations gen¬ 
erally present in butter consist of an undue 
proportion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and 
other fats. Genuine butter should not con¬ 
tain less than 80 per cent, of butter-fat. Tea 
is adulterated (chiefly in China) with sand, 
iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, China clay, ex¬ 
hausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the syca¬ 
more, while color and weight are added by 
black-lead, indigo, Prussian-blue, gum, tur¬ 
meric, soapstone, and other substances. Coffee 
is mingled with chicory, roasted wheat, roasted 
beans, acorns, rye-flour, and colored with 
burned sugar, and other materials. Chicory 
is adulterated with different flours, as rye, 
wheat, beans, etc., and colored with burned 
sugar, Venetian red, etc. 

Tobacco is mixed with sugar and treacle, 
aloes, liquorice, oil, alum, etc., and such leaves 
as rhubarb, chicory, cabbage, burdock, be¬ 
sides excess of salt and water. Confections 
are adulterated with flour and sulphate of 
lime. Pepper is adulterated with linseed- 
meal, flour, mustard husks, etc. Color is 
given to pickles by salt3 of copper, acetate of 
copper, etc. Brandy is diluted with water, 
and burned sugar is added to improve the color. 
Gin is mixed with excess of water, and flavor¬ 
ing matters are added. For champagne, goose¬ 
berry and other inferior wines are often sub¬ 
stituted. Medicines, such as jalap, opium, 
rhubarb, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc., are 
mixed with various foreign substances. Cas¬ 
tor-oil has been adulterated with other oils; 
and inferior oils are often mixed with cod- 
liver oil. The adulteration of seeds is largely 
practised. Thus turnip-seed is mixed with 
rape, wild mustard, or charlock. Clover is 
also much mixed with plantain and mere 
weeds. Laws against adulteration have been 
passed in various countries and at various 
times. 

/Egean Sea (e-je'an), that part of the Medi¬ 
terranean which washes the eastern shores of 
Greece, the southern coast of Turkey, and 
the western coast of Asia Minor. 

iEgina (e-jl'na), a Greek island ; area about 
32 sq. mi.; pop. 7,000. Except in the west, 
where the surface is more level, the island is 
mountainous and unproductive. The inhabit¬ 
ants are chiefly engaged in trade, seafaring, 
and agriculture, the chief crops being al¬ 
monds, olives, and grain. In 456 b. c. the island 
fell under the power of the Athenians, and in 


yEgis 


Aeronautics 


431 the iEginetans were expelled to make 
room for Athenian settlers, but were after¬ 
ward restored. On a hill are the remains of 
a splendid temple of Athena (Minerva). Here 
were found in 1811 a number of marble stat¬ 
ues (the JEginetan marbles), which are now at 
Munich. 

/Egis (e'jis), the shield of Zeus, according to 
Homer. In a figurative sense the woid is used 
to denote some shielding or protecting power. 

/Egospot'ami (“goat-river”), a place on the 
Hellespont, of some note in Greek history, the 
Athenian fleet being here completely defeated 
in 405 b. c. by the Spartan Lysander, thus 
ending the Peloponnesian war. 

>Ene'as, the hero of Vergil’s iEneid, a Tro¬ 
jan, who, according to 'Homer, was, next to 
Hector, the bravest of the warriors of Troy. 
See Vergil. 

/Eolian Harp, a musical instrument, gener¬ 
ally consisting of a box of thin fibrous wood, 
to which are attached from eight to fifteen 
fine catgut strings or wires, stretched on low 
bridges at each end, and tuned in unison. Its 
length is made to correspond with the size of 
the window or other aperture in which it is 
intended to be placed. When the wind blows 
athwart the strings, it produces very beautiful 
sounds, sweetly mingling all the harmonic 
tones, and swelling or diminishing according 
to the strength or weakness of the blast. It is 
said to have been invented by the German 
Jesuit, Athanasius Kerches (1002-1680). 

/E'olus, in Greek mythology the god of the 
winds, which he kept confined in a cave in the 
JEolian Islands, releasing them when he 
wished or was commanded by the superior 
gods. 

/Epyor'nis, a genus of gigantic birds whose 
remains have been found in Madagascar, where 
it is supposed to have lived perhaps not longer 
than 200 years ago. It had three toes, and is 
classed with the ostrich, etc. Its eggs meas¬ 
ured 14 inches in length, being about six times 
the bulk of those of the ostrich. 

A'erated Bread. — The raising of bread in 
baking is accomplished in two distinct ways. 
By the fermentation process carbonic acid gas 
is generated in the dough by induced alcoholic 
fermentation, but when the carbonic acid is 
developed from a foreign substance or intro¬ 
duced from without, aerated or unfermented 
bread is the result. The principal method of 
manufacturing A. B. is by a process patented 
by the late Dr. Danglish. It consists in mak¬ 
ing dough with water charged with carbonic 
acid under high pressure, which renders the 
mass uniformly spongiform throughout. The 
water for mixing is charged with carbonic acid 
in the same manner plain Aerated Water is pre¬ 
pared, and the mixing is accomplished in a 
strong cast-iron cylinder, in which a series of 
arms revolves by steam-power. The dough is 
expelled from the lower end of the cylinder 
into a box which is gauged to hold a two- 
pound loaf, and from the box it is removed 
into pans for firing without any portion of the 
material ever being handled. 

A'erated Waters, waters impregnated with 


carbonic acid gas, and forming effervescing 
beverages. Some mineral waters are natu¬ 
rally aerated, as Vichy, Apollinaris, Rosbach, 
etc.; others, especially such as are used for 
medicinal purposes, are frequently aerated to 
render them more palatable and exhilarating. 
Water simply aerated, or aerated and flavored 
with lemonade or fruit syrups, is largely used, 
especially in summer, as a refreshing beverage. 

A'erolite, a meteoric stone, meteorite, or 
shooting-star. See Meteor. 

Aeronau'tics, the art of sailing in or navi¬ 
gating the air. The first form in which the 
idea of aerial locomotion naturally suggested 
itself was that of providing men with wings 
by which they should be enabled to fly. It is 
now, however, the general opinion of scien¬ 
tific men that it is impossible for man by his 
muscular strength alone to give motion to 
wings of sufficient extent to keep him sus¬ 
pended in the air. But although the muscles 
of man may be of insufficient strength to en¬ 
able him to use such wings, there yet remains 
the possibility of making a flying car, elevated 
and propelled by machinery, or a boat to 
float in the air. The navigation of the air by 
means of the balloon dates only from nearly 
the close of the eighteenth century. In 1766 
Henry Cavendish showed that hydrogen gas 
was at least seven times lighter than ordinary 
air, and it at once occurred to Dr. Black of 
Edinburgh that a thin bag filled with this gas 
would rise in the air, but his experiments 
were for some reason unsuccessful. Some 
years afterward Tiberius Cavallo found that 
a bladder was too heavy and paper too porous, 
but in 1782 he succeeded in elevating soap- 
bubbles by inflating them with hydrogen gas. 
In this and the following year two French¬ 
men, the brothers Stephen and Joseph Mont¬ 
golfier, "acting on the observation of the sus¬ 
pension of clouds in the atmosphere and the 
ascent of smoke, were able to cause several 
bags to ascend by rarefying the air within 
them by means of a fire below. These experi¬ 
ments roused much attention at Paris; and 
soon after a balloon was constructed under 
the superintendence of Professor Charles, 
which being inflated with hydrogen gas rose 
over 3,000 feet in two minutes, disappeared in 
the clouds, and fell after three quarters of an 
hour about 15 miles from Paris. These Mont¬ 
golfier and Charles balloons already repre¬ 
sented the two distinct principles in respect 
to the source of elevating power, the one be¬ 
ing inflated with common air rarefied by heat, 
requiring a fire to keep up the rarefaction, 
the other being filled with gas lighter at a 
common temperature than air, and thus ren¬ 
dered permanently buoyant. Both forms 
were used for a considerable time, but the 
greater safety and convenience of the gaseous 
inflation finally prevailed. After the use of 
coal-gas had been introduced it superseded 
hydrogen gas, as being much less expensive, 
though having a far less elevating power. 
The first person who made an ascent in a bal¬ 
loon was Pilatre de Rozier, who ascended 50 
feet at Paris in 1783 in one of Montgolfier’s. 


Aerostatic Press 


^sculapius 


A short time afterward M. Charles and M. 
Robert ascended in a balloon inflated with hy¬ 
drogen gas, and traveled a distance of 27 
miles from the Tuileries; M. Charles by him¬ 
self also ascended to a height of about 2 miles. 
Blanchard with the American Dr. Jeffries, 
first crossed the Channel from Dover to Calais, 
in ^785; Garnerin, who first descended by a 
parachute from a balloon in October, 1797; 
and Gay-Lussac, who reached the height of 
23,000 feet in September, 1804. In 1836 a bal¬ 
loon carrying Messrs. Green, Holland, and 
Mason traversed the 500 miles between Lon¬ 
don and Weilburg in Nassau in eighteen 
hours. In 1859 Mr. J. Wise, the chief of 
American aeronauts, accompanied by several 
others, rose from New York, and landed, after 
a flight of 1,150 miles, in twenty hours. In 
September, 1862, the renowned aeronaut, Mr. 
Glaisher, accompanied by Mr. Coxwell, made 
an ascent from Wolverhampton, and reached 
the elevation of 37,000 feet, or 7 miles, which 
far exceeds the height hitherto attained by 
any other aerial voyagers. But the daring ex¬ 
cursionists were for a time in great peril, Mr. 
Glaisher having been insensible for seven 
minutes, and Mr. Coxwell having his hands so 
severely frozen that he was unable to pull the 
valve for descent with them, and was com¬ 
pelled to use his teeth.—All the features of 
the balloon as now used are more or less 
due to Professor Charles, already mentioned. 
The balloon is a large pear-shaped bag, made 
of pliable silk cloth, covered with a varnish 
of caoutchouc dissolved in oil of turpentine 
to render it air-tight. The ordinary size of 
the bag ranges from 20 to 30 feet in equatorial 
diameter, with a proportionate height, but a 
balloon of 100 feet in diameter and 130 feet in 
height has been constructed. A car, gener¬ 
ally of wicker-work, supported by a network 
which extends over the balloon, contains the 
aeronaut; and a valve, usually placed at the 
top, to which is attached a string reaching 
the car, gives him the power of allowing the 
gas to escape, whereby the balloon is lowered 
at pleasure. The problem of how to steer or 
propel a balloon in a desired horizontal direc¬ 
tion can scarcely be said to have been satis¬ 
factorily solved. Balloons of a fish or cigar 
shape, floated by gas, propelled by a screw 
driven by a dynamo-electric machine, and 
steered by a large rudder, made several as¬ 
cents in Paris in 1884 and 1885, and it is 
claimed for them that they have settled the 
question of the practicability of aerial naviga¬ 
tion. Balloons have been used for taking 
both meteorological and military observations 
with considerable success. During the siege 
of Paris in 1870-71 over sixty persons (includ¬ 
ing Gambetta) and innumerable letters left 
the city in balloons. Recent experiments 
have been directed to flying machines, and to 
dirigible kites by Lieut. Wise of the U. S. 
army. See Flying Machines. 

Aerostatic Press, a simple contrivance for 
rendering the pressure of the atmosphere 
available for extracting the coloring matter 
from dye-woods, and similar purposes. A 
2 


horizontal partition divides the machine into 
two parts. The lower part is connected with 
an air-pump, by means of which the air can 
be withdrawn from it. The matter from 
which the substance is to be extracted is laid 
upon the partition, which is perforated, and a 
perforated cover is placed over it. Upon this 
the liquid intended to form the extract is 
poured, and, the pump being worked, the air 
is extracted from the lower vessel, and by the 
pressure of the atmosphere the liquid is forced 
through the intervening mass, carrying the 
color or other soluble matter with it. 

/Eschines (es'ki-nez), (390-314 b. c.) a cele¬ 
brated Athenian orator, the rival and opponent 
of Demosthenes. He headed the Macedonian 
party in Greece, or those in favor of an 
alliance with Philip, while Demosthenes took 
the opposite side. Having failed in b. c. 330 
in a prosecution against Ctesiphon for propos¬ 
ing to bestow a crown of gold upon Demos¬ 
thenes for his services to the state (whence 
the oration of Demosthenes On the Crown) he 
withdrew from Athens. Latterly he estab¬ 
lished a school of eloquence at Rhodes. 

/Eschylus (524-456 b. c.), the earliest of 
the three great writers of Greek tragedy.— 
He was of noble family, and probably a de¬ 
scendant of Codrus, the last king of Athens. 
His father was probably connected with the 
worship of Ceres, and JEschylus himself was 
early familiar with the Eleusinian Mysteries, 
strange religious rites into which he was after¬ 
ward initiated. JEschylus’s life was active, 
not only in the field of dramatic poetry, but 
on the battle-field in defence of Athens 
against the invaders. For distinguished valor 
at Marathon (490) he, with his two brothers, 
received public honors. At Salamis (480) 
iEschylus also fought. iEschylus began his 
career as a poet at the age of 25. In 471 he 
gained the prize for a trilogy. In the latter 
part of his life he was defeated by Simonides 
in the contest for a prize offered for the best 
elegy on those who fell at Marathon. iEschy- 
lus spent most, and perhaps all, of his remain¬ 
ing years in Sicily, where he was well received, 
and died there.— Of iEschylus’s 70 dramas but 
seven are preserved, in addition to a few 
fragments. Of these the Prometheus is 
perhaps the best known to English readers 
through Mrs. Browning’s poetical version. 
iEschylus has given an original portrayal 
to the story, making Prometheus’s awful fate 
appear as the just result of his wilful self- 
assertion. In the Agamemnon is beauti¬ 
fully told the story of Clytemnestra’s crime. 
He caused the first stage to be erected, and 
was the first to provide appropriate scenery 
and costumes. In style, the tragedies of AEs- 
chylus are grand and somber, and in their 
intensity they sometimes surpass even Shakes¬ 
peare. Like this poet iEschylus drew his 
material largely from myths and legends. 
Some are historical in character. The Per - 
see tells of the defeat of Xerxes and his host. 

/Escula'pius, the god of medicine among the 
Greeks and latterly adopted by the Romans, 
usually said to have been a son of Apollo. 


i4Esop 


/Etna 


He is often represented with a large beard, 
holding a knotty staff, round which is en¬ 
twined a serpent, the serpent being specially 
his symbol. 

/E'sop, the Greek fabulist, is said to have 
been a contemporary of Croesus and Solon, 
and thus probably lived about the middle of 
the sixth century b. c. He visited the court 
of Croesus, and is also said to have visited Pi- 
sistratus at Athens. Finally he was sent by 
Croesus to Delphi to distribute a sum of money 
to each of the citizens. For some reason he 
refused to distribute the money, whereupon 
the Delphians, enraged, threw him from a 
precipice, and killed him. In modern times 
several collections purporting to be iEsop’s 
fables have been published. 

/Esthetics, the philosophy of the beautiful; 
the name given to the branch of philosophy or 
of science which is concerned with that class 
of emotions, or with those attributes, real or 
apparent, of objects generally comprehended 
under the term beauty, and other related ex¬ 
pressions. Baumgarten (1714-1762), a German 
philosopher, was the first modern writer to 
treat systematically on the subject. Socrates, 
according to Xenophon, regarded the beauti¬ 
ful as coincident with the good, and both as 
resolvable into the useful. Plato, in accord¬ 
ance with his idealistic theory, held the exist¬ 
ence of an absolute beauty, which is the ground 
of beauty in all things. He also asserted the 
intimate union of the good, the beautiful, and 
the true. In his treatises on Poetry and Rhet¬ 
oric Aristotle lays down a theory of art, and 
establishes principles of beauty. His philo¬ 
sophical views were in many respects opposed 
to those of Plato. He does not admit an abso¬ 
lute conception of the beautiful; but he dis¬ 
tinguishes beauty from the good, the useful, 
the fit, and the necessary. A distinction of 
beauty, according to him, is the absence of 
lust or desire in the pleasure it excites. Beauty 
has no utilitarian or ethical object; the aim of 
art is merely to give immediate pleasure ; its 
essence is imitation. Plotinus agrees with 
Plato, and disagrees with Aristotle, in holding 
that beauty may subsist in single and simple 
objects, and consequently in restoring the ab¬ 
solute conception of beauty. He differs from 
Plato and Aristotle in raising art above nature. 
Baumgarten’s treatment of aesthetics is essen¬ 
tially Platonic. He made the division of phi¬ 
losophy into logic, ethics, and aesthetics ; the 
first dealing with knowledge, the second with 
action (will and desire), the third with beauty. 
He limits aesthetics to the conceptions derived 
from the senses, and makes them consist in 
confused or obscured conceptions, in contra¬ 
distinction to logical knowledge, which con¬ 
sists in clear conceptions. Kant defines beauty 
in reference to his four categories — quantity, 
quality, relation, and modality. In accordance 
with the subjective character of his system, he 
denies an absolute conception of beauty, but 
his detailed treatment of the subject is incon¬ 
sistent with the denial. Thus he attributes 
a beauty to single colors and tones, not on any 
plea of complexity, but on the ground of pu¬ 


rity. He holds also that the highest meaning 
of beauty is to symbolize moral good, and ar¬ 
bitrarily attaches moral character to the seven 
primary colors. The value of art is mediate, 
and the beauty of art is inferior to that of na¬ 
ture. The treatment of beauty in the systems 
of Schelling and Hegel could with difficulty 
be made comprehensible without a detailed 
reference to the principles of these remarkable 
speculations. English writers on beauty are 
numerous, but they rarely ascend to the heights 
of German speculation. Shaftesbury adopted 
the notion that beauty is perceived by a spe¬ 
cial internal sense ; in which he was followed 
by Hutcheson, who held that beauty existed 
only in the perceiving mind, and not in the 
object. Numerous English writers, among 
whom the principal are Alison and Jeffrey, 
have supported the theory that the source of 
beauty is to be found in association — a theory 
analogous to that which places morality in 
sympathy. Dugald Stewart attempted to show 
that there is no common quality in the beauti¬ 
ful beyond that of producing a certain refined 
pleasure ; and Bain agrees with this criticism, 
but endeavors to restrict the beautiful within 
a group of emotions chiefly excited by associa¬ 
tion or combination of simpler elementary 
feelings. Herbert Spencer has a theory of 
beauty which is subservient to the theory of 
evolution. He makes beauty consist in the 
play of the higher powers of perception and 
emotion, defined as an activity not directly 
subservient to any processes conducive to life, 
but being gratifications sought for themselves 
alone. He classifies aesthetic pleasures accord¬ 
ing to the complexity of the emotions excited, 
or4he number of powers duly exercised ; and 
he attributes the depth and apparent vague¬ 
ness of musical emotions to associations with 
vocal tones built up during vast ages. Among 
numerous writers who have made valuable 
contributions to the scientific discussion of 
aesthetics may be mentioned Winckelmann, 
Lessing, Richter,the Schlegels,Gervinus,Helm¬ 
holtz, and Ruskin. 

/Etna, (or Etna) Mount, the greatest volcano 
in Europe, in the province of Catania in 
Sicily; height, 10,874 feet. It rises immedi¬ 
ately from the sea, has a circumference of 
more than 100 miles, and dominates the whole 
northeast part of Sicily, having a number of 
towns on its lower slopes. The top is covered 
with perpetual snow; midway down is the 
woody or forest region ; at the foot is a region 
of orchards, vineyards, olive groves, etc. /Etna 
thus presents the variety of climates common 
to high mountains in lower latitudes, oranges 
and lemons and other fruits growing at the 
foot, the vine rather higher up, then oaks, 
chestnuts, beeches, and pines, while on the 
loftiest or desert region vegetation is of quite 
a stunted character. A more or less distinct 
margin of cliff separates the mountain proper 
from the surrounding plain ; and the whole 
mass seems formed of a series of superimposed 
mountains, the terminal volcano being sur¬ 
rounded by a number of cones, all of volcanic 
origin, and nearly 100 of which are of consid- 


/Etolia 


Afghanistan 


erable size. The different aspects of the 
mountain present an astonishing variety of 
features — woods, forests, pastures, cultivated 
fields, bare rocky precipices, streams of lava, 
masses of ashes and scoriae, as also picturesque 
towns and villages. From the summit the 
view presents a splendid panorama, embrac¬ 
ing the whole of Sicily, the Lipari Islands, 
Malta, and Calabria. The eruptions of iEtna 
have been numerous, and many of them de¬ 
structive. That of 1169 overwhelmed Catania 
and buried 15,000 persons in the ruins. In 
1669 the lava spread over the country for 
forty days, and 10,000 persons are estimated 
to have perished. In 1693 there was an earth¬ 
quake during the eruption, when over 60,000 
lives were lost. One eruption was in 1755, 
the year of the Lisbon earthquake. Among 
more recent eruptions are those of 1832, 1865, 
1874, 1879. An eruption is ordinarily pre¬ 
ceded by premonitory symptoms of longer or 
shorter duration. The population of the dis¬ 
trict of iEtna is about 300,000. 

/Eto'lia, a western division of northern 
Greece. The inhabitants are little heard of 
in Greek history till the Peloponnesian war, 
at which time they were notorious among the 
Greeks for the rudeness of their manners. 

Affida'vit, a written statement of facts upon 
oath or affirmation. Affidavits are generally 
made use of when evidence is to be laid be¬ 
fore a judge or a court, while evidence brought 
before a jury is delivered orally. The person 
making the affidavit signs his name at the 
bottom of it, and swears that the statements 
contained in it are true. The affidavit may 
be sworn to in open court, or before a magis¬ 
trate or other duly qualified person. 

Affinity, in chemistry, the force by which 
unlike kinds of matter combine so intimately 
that the properties of the constituents are 
lost, and a compound with new properties is 
produced. The usual effect of increase of 
temperature is to diminish affinity and ulti¬ 
mately to cause the separation of a compound 
into its constituents. Where two elements 
combine to form a compound, heat is almost 
always evolved, and the amount evolved 
serves as a measure of the affinity. In order 
that chemical affinity may come into play it 
is necessary that the substances should be in 
contact, and usually one of them at least is a 
fluid or a gas. Color, taste, and smell are 
changed, destroyed, or created ; harmless con ¬ 
stituents produce strong poisons; strong poi¬ 
sons produce harmless compounds. 

AffirTity, the relationship, imputed by 
reason of marriage, between the husband or 
wife and the kindred by blood of the other. 
Thus the wife’s kindred bear the same relation 
by affinity to the husband that they bear to 
her by consanguinity. Affinity also exists be¬ 
tween the husband and one who is connected 
by marriage with the blood relations of the 
wife, as in the case of two men who were 
married to sisters. It constitutes a disqualifi¬ 
cation of judges or jurors equally with consan¬ 
guinity. In England, under the statute 32 
Henry VIII, it was held that affinity was an 


impediment to marriage to the same extent as 
consanguinity; and hence arose the rule of 
the English law that a man may not marry 
his deceased wife’s sister. 

Afghanistan (af-giin'i-stan), a country in 
Asia. In part the boundaries are not well de¬ 
fined, but recently that from the Oxus to the 
Persian frontier has been surveyed and marked 
by boundary stones by a joint Russian and 
British commission. The area may be set 
down at about 280,000 sq. mi. The population 
is estimated at between 5,000,000 and 6,000,- 
000. ‘Afghanistan consists chiefly of lofty, bare, 
uninhabited tablelands, sandy, barren plains, 
ranges of snow-covered mountains, offsets of 
the Hindu Kush or the Himalayas, and deep 
ravines and valleys. Many of the last are 
well watered and very fertile, but about four 
fifths of the whole surface is rocky, mountain¬ 
ous, and unproductive. The surface on the 
northeast is covered with lofty ranges belong¬ 
ing to the Hindu Kush, whose heights are 
often 18,000 and sometimes reach perhaps 25,- 
000 feet. The northeastern portion of the 
country has a general elevation of over 6,000 
feet; but toward the southwest, the gen¬ 
eral elevation declines to about 1,600 feet. 
The interior mountains reach the height of 
15,000 feet. Great part of the frontier toward 
India consists of the Suleiman range, 12,000 
feet high. There are numerous avenues of com¬ 
munication between Afghanistan and India, 
such as the Khyber Pass, the Gomul Pass, 
and the Bolan Pass, The largest river is the 
Helmund, 400 miles long. The climate is ex¬ 
tremely cold in the higher, and intensely hot 
in the lower regions. The most common trees 
are pines, oaks, birch, and walnut. In the 
valleys fruits in the greatest variety and abun¬ 
dance, grow wild. The principal crops are 
wheat, barley, rice, maize, tobacco, sugar¬ 
cane, and cotton. The chief domestic animals 
are the dromedary, the horse, ass, and mule, 
the ox, sheep, and goat; of wild animals, 
there are the tiger, bears, leopards, wolves, 
jackal, hyena, foxes, etc. The chief towns 
are Cabul (the capital), Kandahar, Ghuzni, and 
Herat. The Afghans proper form the great 
mass of the people. They are allied in blood 
to the Persians, and are divided into a num¬ 
ber of tribes, among which the Duranis and 
Ghiljis are the most important. The Afghans 
are bold, hardy, and warlike, of a restless, 
turbulent temper, and much given to plunder. 
Tribal dissensions are constantly in existence. 
Their language is distinct from the Persian, 
though it contains a great number of Persian 
words, and is written with the Arabic char¬ 
acters. In religion they are Mohammedans 
of the Sunnite sect. 

The history of Afghanistan belongs almost 
to modern times. In 1738 the country was 
conquered by the Persians. About 1825 Dost 
Mohammed, the ruler of Cabul, acquired a 
preponderating influence in the country. In 
1839, a British army entered Afghanistan, 
occupied Cabul, and placed Shah Shuja, a 
former ruler, on the throne. The Afghans 
organized a widespread insurrection in 1841, 


Africa 


Africa 


when a number of British officers, women, and 
children were murdered. In January, 1842, 
the British left Cabul. In a few months Gen. 
Pollock, with a fresh army from India, retook 
Cabul and soon finished the war. Shah Shuja 
having been assassinated, Dost Mohammed 
again obtained the throne of Cabul, and ac¬ 
quired extensive power in Afghanistan. He 
died in 1863, having nominated his son Shere 
Ali his successor. Shere Ali entered into 
friendly relations with the British, but in 
1878 war was declared against him, and the 
British troops entered Afghanistan. The 
ameer fled to Turkestan, where he soon after 
died; and his son Yakoob Khan, having suc¬ 
ceeded him, concluded a treaty with the Brit¬ 
ish in 1879, in which extension of the British' 
frontier, the control by Britain of the foreign 
policy, and the residence of a British envoy in 
Cabul, were the chief stipulations. In 1880 
Abdur-Rahman, a grandson of Dost Moham¬ 
med, was recognized by Britain as emir of the 
country, and has since been on friendly terms 
with the British, by whom he is subsidized. 
Recent encroachments by the Russians on 
territory claimed by Afghanistan almost 
brought about a rupture between Britain and 
Russia in 1885, and has led to the delimitation 
of the frontier of Afghanistan on the side next 
the territory now occupied by Russia. 

Africa, the second in size of the great di¬ 
visions of the globe, lies in the eastern hemi¬ 
sphere. Its greatest length is about 5,000 
miles, its greatest breadth 4,700, its area is 
11,525,810 sq. mi., and its coast-line 15,000 
miles. A. is shaped like an irregular triangle, 
having its vertex to the south, and is bounded 
n. by the Mediterranean, e. by the Red Sea 
and Indian Ocean, and w. by the Atlantic 
Ocean. It is joined to Asia by a narrow neck 
of land, which, however, has been cut through 
by t K e Suez Canal. There are few large gulfs 
and bays; the most important are the gulfs of 
Sidra and Kabes (the greater and lesser Syrtes) 
on the n.; Suez, Aden, and Delagoa Bay on 
the e.; Algoa Bay on the s.; and the Gulf of 
Guinea on the w. The principal capes are 
Bon on the n.; Guardafui on the e.; Good 
Hope on the s.; and Verd on the w. The 
islands belonging to Africa are not numerous, 
and except Madagascar, none of them are 
large. They include Madeira, the Canaries, 
Cape Verd Islands, Fernando Po, Prince’s 
Island, St. Thomas, Ascension, St. Helena, 
Mauritius, Bourbon, the Comoros, Socotra, etc. 

Political Divisions .—The political map of 
Africa, during the past few years, has under¬ 
gone considerable modifications, due partly to 
wars and revolts in the extreme south and 
northeast, but mainly to the rapid progress of 
explorations, which has reawakened the in¬ 
terest of European nations in this continent. 
A fresh stimulus was thus given to the desire 
of appropriating the territory still unoccupied 
in this region, with the result that at present 
nearly three-fourths of Africa is under the 
direct or indirect control of seven European 
states—Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, 
Germany, Italy, and Turkey. The rest is 


either comprised in more or less clearly defined 
independent empires and kingdoms, and held 
by unruly hordes, or by savage people still in 
the tribal state. 

The principal political divisions of Africa 
are as follows: 

Independent and quasi-independent states: 
Morocco, Abyssinia, Wadai, Fulah, including 
the empire of Sokoto, with Adamawa, and the 
kingdoms of Ganda, Messina, Dahomey, and 
the sultanate of Zanzibar, Uganda, Urna, 
U-Landa, the two Bandu states in the central 
region between the Congo and Zambesi basins, 
Matabele; Congo Free State, and Liberia. 

The following are the possessions held by 
European nations: 

Great Britain— Basutoland, Bechuanaland 
(protectorate), Cape of Good Hope, British 
Central Africa (Northern Rhodesia), British 
Central Africa (protectorate), British East 
Africa (including the East Africa Protectorate 
and the Uganda Protectorate), together with 
the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, self-gov¬ 
erned through their Arab sovereign; Natal, 
Niger Coast Protectorate, the Niger Territo¬ 
ries, British South Africa (Southern Rhodesia), 
West African Colonies (the Gold Coast, Gam¬ 
bia, Lagos, and Sierra Leone); The Vaal River 
Colony (Transvaal); and Orange River Colony 
(Orange Free State). 

The Niger territories are governed by the 
Royal Niger Company under a charter issued 
in July, 1886. The territory is held for Great 
Britain and was obtained by about 500 treaties 
with native states and tribes, including the 
territories of Sokoto and Borgu. Arrange¬ 
ments have been made whereby all these ter¬ 
ritories are now administered directly under 
the British colonial office. 

France—Algeria, French Sudan, French 
Congo, and Gaboon, Oblock and Somali Coast 
(protectorate), Dahomey, Senegal, Guinea, 
Ivory Coast, and Tunis (protectorate). 

Germany—Cameroon, East Africa, South¬ 
west Africa, Togoland. 

Portugal—Angola, Guinea, East Africa. 

Italy—Somaliland. 

Spain—Rio de Oro and Adrar. 

Turkey—Egypt, Tripoli, Fezzan, and Barca. 

Surface, Divers, and Lakes .— The most strik¬ 
ing feature of northern Africa is the immense 
tract known as the Sahara, or Great Desert, 
which is inclosed on the north by the Atlas 
Mountains (greatest height, 12,000 to 13,000 
feet), the plateau of Barbary and that of 
Barca, on the east by the mountains along the 
west coast of the Red Sea, on the west by the 
Atlantic Ocean, and on the south by the Sou¬ 
dan. The Sahara is by no means the sea of 
sand it has sometimes been represented: it 
contains elevated plateaux and even moun¬ 
tains radiating-in all directions, with habit¬ 
able valleys between. A considerable nomadic 
population is scattered over the habitable 
parts, and in the more favored regions there 
are settled communities. The Soudan, which 
lies to the south of the Sahara, and separates 
it from the more elevated plateau of Southern 
Africa, forms a belt of pastoral country across 








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TYPKS OF AFRICAN RACKS, i. Ashanti. 2. Negress of Koango. 3. Kamerunian. 4. Baluban with 
10. Akka 11. Zulu. 12. Massai. 13. Wanganda (Ugandai). 14. Darfur-Negro. 15. Haussanian 16, 17. Bushman, I 













mental scars. 5. Somali, Kissa-Somali. 6. Abyssinian Woman. 7. Howa. 8. Herorian Woman. 9. Ovambo. 
nd and Wife. 18. Namaqua. 19^ Niamniam. 20 . Dinka, 






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Africa 


Africa 


Africa, and includes the countries on the 
Niger, around Lake Tchad (or Chad), and 
eastward to the elevated region of Abyssinia. 
Southern Africa as a whole is much more fer¬ 
tile and well watered than Northern Africa, 
though it also has a desert tract of consider¬ 
able extent (the Kalahari Desert). The moun¬ 
tains which inclose Southern Africa are 
mostly much higher on the east than on the 
west, the most northerly of the former being 
those of Abyssinia, with heights of 10,000 to 
14,000 or 10,000 feet, while the eastern edge of 
the Abyssinian plateau presents a steep un¬ 
broken line of 7,000 feet in height for many 
hundred miles. Farther south, and between 
the great lakes and the Indian Ocean, we find 
Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro (19,500 feet), 
the loftiest in Africa, covered with perpetual 
snow. Of the continuation of this mountain 
boundary we shall only mention the Draken- 
berg Mountains, which stretch to the southern 
extremity of the continent, reaching in Cath- 
kin Peak, Natal, the height of over 10,000 
feet. Of the mountains that form the western 
border the highest are the Cameroon Moun¬ 
tains, which rise to a height of 13,000 feet, at 
the inner angle of the Gulf of Guinea. The 
average elevation of the southern plateau is 
probably from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. 

In respect to the river systems of Africa 
there is a certain symmetry. The two great 
southern basins of the Congo and Zambezi 
balance those of the Nile and Niger on the 
north, and the Orange and Limpopo in the ex¬ 
treme south correspond with the Senegal and 
Draa of the northwest. The Zambezi, Lim¬ 
popo, Rovuma, Juba, and a few other coast 
streams flow into the Indian Ocean. The Congo, 
Nile, Niger, Orange, Cuncne, Koamza, Ogo- 
way, Volta, Cambaia, Tensife, Muluya, and 
Majerdah flow into the Atlantic directly or 
through the Mediterranean. Nearly all of 
these rivers have falls or rapids such as the 
Victoria Falls in the Zambezi, the Yellala and 
Isangulla and Stanley Falls on the Congo, the 
so-called six cataracts, the Ripon, the Mer- 
chison and others on the Nile, the Hundred 
Falls on the Middle Orange. The principal 
lakes of Africa are Nyassa, Tanganyika, Alex¬ 
andria Nyanza, Victoria Nyanza, Mwutan 
Nzige, Albert Nyanza, Victoria (next to Lake 
Superior the largest fresh water basin on the 
globe). In the equatorial lake region are Lake 
Psad, Ngani, Tana. 

Geology .—In its geological constitution, Af¬ 
rica gives the appearance of great stability 
and antiquity. The seaboard is subject to 
scarcely any movements of upheaval or sub¬ 
sidence, except on the n. e. coast between the 
Nile delta and the Gulf of Sidra, and parts of 
the Moroccan and Red Sea coasts. Earth¬ 
quakes are confined mainly to the Atlas, and 
igneous disturbances are restricted on the 
west side to the Bight of Biafra. On the east 
side, the volcanic system is much more highly 
developed, stretching from the Comoro Islands 
through Masai Land (Kilima-Njaro, Kenia, 
Elgon, etc.), northward to the D> nsikil coun¬ 
try, and the volcanic islets in tfra Red Sea. 


The lava-fields of the Masai plateau present 
signs of recent activity. The old plutonic 
and recent eruptive rocks appear to be gen¬ 
erally intermingled, and largely associated 
with semi-crystalline and metamorphic forms, 
such as the schists, gneisses, graywackes, and 
hornblendes, about Kilima-Njaro and many 
other places. Shales and flaggy sandstones 
form the geological basis of the East African 
carboniferous series, which extends in a nar¬ 
row, strip from near the equator continuously 
to the Cape. Hard granite forms the bed of 
the Orange River, and asbestos, soapstone, 
coal, iron, and copper were among the speci¬ 
mens collected by Farini in the Kalahari 
steppe. Metamorphic rocks, again, prevail in 
the Congo basin, where iron and copper ores 
also abound. Syenite, and other granites, 
with old sandstones, are the characteristic 
features of Upper Egypt and the Nubian 
steppe, while Abyssinia has also a granite 
base underlying dolerites, trachytes, and crys¬ 
talline slates. A great diluvial plain stretches 
from this region through Senaar southward 
to the crystalline slates, associated with mag¬ 
netic iron ores of the Baginze slopes, about 
the source of the Welle. The Sahara is char¬ 
acterized by the absence of late sedimen¬ 
tary rocks and marine fossils, and by the 
prevalence of old sandstones, quartz, and car¬ 
boniferous limestones. It also abounds in rich 
saline deposits, forming a chief article of 
trade with the neighboring Soudan, which is 
distinguished by the almost total absence of 
salt, the prevailing formations here being 
crystalline rocks, granites, diorites, slates, 
gneiss, again associated with sandstones in the 
higher ranges. In the Kong uplands, the 
sandstones overlie the granites, which in the 
Teggele group (Kordofan) pass over to por¬ 
phyries and syenites, with gneiss interspersed 
with extensive diorite and auriferous quartz 
veins. Gold, mined by the ancient Egyptians 
at Mount Elba, Red Sea coast, occurs also in 
many other places, as in Upper Guinea, the 
Lower Zambezi, and Transvaal; and gold dust 
has at all times formed a chief article of ex¬ 
port. But iron and copper are the character¬ 
istic metals, iron ores abounding almost every¬ 
where, and copper in Namaqualand, the Congo 
basin, Dar-Fertit, and many other places. The 
basin of the Vaal is one of the richest dia- 
montiferous regions on the globe. In this 
southern region granites and crystalline slates 
form the substratum of a great series of fos- 
siliferous rocks. 

Climate* — The climate of Africa is mainly 
influenced by the fact that it lies almost en¬ 
tirely within the tropics. In the equatorial 
belt, both north and south, rain is abundant 
and vegetation very luxuriant, dense tropical 
forests prevailing for about 10° on either side 
of the line. To the north and south of the 
equatorial belt fhe rainfall diminishes, and the 
forest region is succeeded by an open pastoral 
and agricultural country. This is followed by 
the rainless regions of the Sahara on the north 
and the Kalahari Desert on the south, extend¬ 
ing beyond the tropics, and bordering on the 
























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RELIEF MAP OF AFRICA. 














































































































































































































































































































































































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Africa 


Africa 


agricultural and pastoral countries of the 
north and south coasts, which lie entirely in 
the temperate zone. The low coast regions of 
Africa are almost everywhere unhealthy, the 
Atlantic coast within the tropics being the 
most fatal region to Europeans. 

Vegetation .—About 41 per cent, of the sur¬ 
face of Africa is either desert, or under scrub, 
or otherwise absolutely waste, and 35 per cent, 
steppe, or nearly treeless grass-grown savannah, 
leaving only 24 per cent, for forest and arable 
lands. The continuous forest growths are con¬ 
fined mainly to the vast equatorial region be¬ 
tween the Upper Zambezi and Soudan, and to 
some isolated tracts about the Abyssinian pla¬ 
teau, in the Moroccan Atlas, all along the 
Guinea coast, about the Middle Limpopo and 
Zambezi, and in parts of Masai Land and the 
Upper Nile basin. From Sierra Leone to the 
river Ogoway, along the coast, the one prevail¬ 
ing landscape is that of endless forest. This 
is, in fact, part of the forest region—the forest 
belt, which has a distinctive fauna and flora, 
and which extends eastward, near the equa¬ 
tor, more than half way across Africa to 
Lake Victoria Nyanza and the western shores 
of Tanganyika. In the extreme north of 
Africa are found the olive, date, several kinds 
of oak, eucalyptus, halfa (exported for paper 
making) papyrus,lotus, and there have recently 
been introduced cereals, cotton and tobacco. 
In the Soudan and Guinea are the forest re¬ 
gions containing a magnificent baobab, the 
banana, butter-tree, ebony, oil palm, musanga, 
mangrove, ground nut, dragon tree, acacias, 
mimosas. In the cape region the vegeta¬ 
tion consists mostly of shrubs, grasses, ferns, 
heathers. 

Zoology .—Africa is the home of the largest 
members of the animal kingdom, and owing 
to the absence of great central mountain bar¬ 
riers they may be found in all regions without 
special modification of type. Among the car- 
niverous animals, the lion, the panther, hyena, 
leopard, fox, and jackal. The herbivorous ani¬ 
mals are the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, 
giraffe, ostrich, hippopotamus, and crocodile. 
Several species of antelopes are also found. 
The monkey family is spread over the whole 
continent represented by numerous types such 
as the Babbaray variety, the dog-faced baboon, 
the Gallago lemur, the colobus, and the anthro¬ 
poid chimpanzee and gorilla. Animals re¬ 
sembling the horse are the zebra, quagma, the 
pigmy Mauritanian ass, and the camel. Of 
the mammals there are about 500 species pe¬ 
culiar to this continent, of which about 50 are 
the antelope family. The birds found in Africa 
are the ostrich, secretary, ibis, guinea fowl, 
weaver bird, roller bird, love bird, wax bill, 
whydah, sun bird, parrot, quail, and others. 
The reptiles and insects are the huge python, 
many poisonous snakes, termites, locusts, the 
destructive Tsetse fly, and the donderobo. 

Population .—The population of A. is esti¬ 
mated at about 200,000.000. N. of the Soudan, 
the Berber race prevails from the Atlas Mount¬ 
ains to Libya; the Nubians are partly of Arab 
and partly of Negro origin, while the Copts of 


Egypt belong probably to the Semitic family, 
but the frequent conquests and colonizations 
of the n. African seaboard both in early and 
later times have complicated the question of 
race. Turks are numerous in Tunis, Tripoli, 
and Egypt. The middle of A. is peopled 
almost entirely by the Ethiopian or Negro 
family, and the s. is occupied by the Hotten¬ 
tots and Kaffirs—members probably of the 
same great family. There are about 1,110,000 
Europeans (immigrants or descendants of im¬ 
migrants); 448,000 in northern Africa, 040,000 
in southern Africa, and 22,000 within the 
Tropics. Nearly one-half of the population 
of Africa are Mohammedans. Christianity is 
found among the Europeans, and, in a corrupt 
form, in Abyssinia. It embraces about 9,000,- 
000 people. There are about 1,000,000 Jews. 
The remaining portions are heathen, follow¬ 
ing varieties of fetichism, etc. 

Commerce .—The trade of A. is in a great 
measure carried on by barter. The internal 
trade is in the hands of the Arabs, and (in 
Soudan) the Mandingoes and Fulahs. It is 
conducted by caravans crossing the interior, 
especially the deserts of the n. The coast 
trade is chiefly in the hands of Europeans. 
The principal exports are coffee, sugar, rice, 
dates, palm-oil, gum, cotton, ivory, spices, 
ground-nut, timber, hides, ostrich-feathers, 
musk, wax, and gold-dust. The traffic in 
slaves has been a great blot on African com¬ 
merce, the slaves being brought from the in¬ 
terior to the coasts. In 1873 Great Britain 
made a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, 
by which he agreed to abolish slavery in his 
dominions; and Sir Samuel Baker returned in 
the same year from a successful expedition up 
the Nile, organized by the Khedive of Egypt, 
ostensibly for the purpose of putting down the 
slave traffic. Until the slave trade is extinct, 
the legitimate commerce of A. cannot be fully 
developed. The total trade of Africa is esti¬ 
mated at 47 millions sterling worth of imports, 
and the same of exports. Of these imports, 
19 millions are classed as British, and 14 mil¬ 
lions as French; while 18 millions and 12 mil¬ 
lions are the values of the British and French 
exports. 

In nearly all of the important states railway 
systems are being built from the coast cities in¬ 
land. Already Egypt has a railway system oper¬ 
ating 1,200 miles of railway, and a railway is un¬ 
der construction on the left bank of the Lower 
Congo by the Belgian Government, and in Cape 
Colony a railway connects Grahamstown with 
Port Elizabeth. Since 1888 the South African 
railways have been developed along the lines 
of the common continental system. This sys¬ 
tem already extends to Pretoria, capital of the 
Vaal River Colony, and Johannesburg in 
the same state, and it is intended to extend tin- 
system to Zambezi, and thence on to Buluwayo 
and Salisbury. Cape Colony has about 8,000 
miles of roads, and government railways of 
2,300 miles in total length. Many railways 
have been projected which are only on paper 
or just begun. One of the principal roads 
under consideration is a line about 650 miles 





i. Pipe-bowl. 


13. Wooden Drinking Cup. 


3, Form of Copper Money. 


ii. Tobacco Box 


7 - Fetich Idol. 

L____ 


12. Covers, for Baskets and Dishes. 


2. Musical Instrument 


5. Bow 
Holder. 


8. Horn used 
as Fife. 


4. Dagger with Blade. 


6. Fetich Stick 
with two 
Female Figures 
on the top. 


9. Form of Iron 
Money 


















































Wicker Basket 
with Cover 


5 Carved r 
Drinking Cup, 


Fetich Mask of Wood, with 
Beard Grass. 


2 Grass Matting 


6. Pipe-bowl 
of Clay 


8. Carved 
Jewelry Box of 
the Bakubas. 


i Large Drum Carved out 
of Wood. 


7 Iron Missile as Weapons, 


ii Round Leather Pillow 


9. Headwear of the Bakuba 


io. Fetich Figure Carved out of Wood 
Plated with Brass arid Iron. 


*2 Iron Spearheads of the 
Niam-Niam. 


14. Dirk with Blade 
(Skin of the Warthog) 


15. Sandats (made out of Kano) 


Long Leather Pillow-Case 


a 

S' 

i 

i 

1 


M 









































Africa 


Africa 


long from the coast at Mombasa to Lake Victo¬ 
ria Nyanza, Mombasa is connected with the 
coast by telegraph lines, and with Zanzibar by 
submarine cable. 

Histoi'y .— The Phoenicians are known to 
have formed establishments on the northern 
coast of A., probably not less than 3,000 years 
ago; and the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses 
dates as far back as the year b. c. 525. The 
coasts of Egypt, of the Red Sea, and of the Med¬ 
iterranean, were well known to the ancient Asi¬ 
atics, who were constantly passing the narrow 
isthmus which divided their country from Af¬ 
rica. But whether they were acquainted with 
the western coast, and the eastern eoast 
washed by the Indian Ocean, has not yet been 
satisfactorily answered. Egypt, under the 
Ptolemies, possessing the advantage of the only 
great river which falls from the continent into 
the Mediterranean, made no progress beyond 
its ancient boundaries. The Romans, who 
subsequently possessed Egypt, extended their 
discoveries no further than Fezzan and the 
region of the Upper Nile. The Arabs, by 
means of the camel, were able to penetrate 
across the great desert to the very center of 
the continent, and along the two coasts as far 
as the Senegal and the Gambia on the west, 
and to Sofala on the east. On this latter coast 
they planted colonies at Sofala, Mombasa, Me¬ 
linda, and at various other places. 

The 15th century produced a new era in 
maritime discovery. The voyages of the 
Portuguese were the first to give anything like 
an accurate outline of the coasts, and to com¬ 
plete the circumnavigation of Africa. 

With Mungo Park, strictly speaking, com¬ 
mences the era of unceasing endeavors to ex¬ 
plore the interior. He proceeded in 1795 from 
the river Gambia on the west coast, to the Ni¬ 
ger, traced this river as far as the town of 
Silla, determined the southern confines of the 
Sahara, and returned in 1797. In 1805 he em¬ 
barked on a second journey in the same 
regions, which cost him his life. In 1798 Dr. 
Lacerda, a scientific Portuguese traveler, made 
the first great journey in southeastern Africa, 
inland from Mozambique, and reached the 
capital of the African king, known as the Ca- 
zembe, in whose country he died. In 1849 
James Richardson, an experienced African 
traveler, commanded an expedition which 
started from Tripoli, penetrated to Mourzouk, 
then passed over the Sahara. This party gave 
to the world its first accurate knowledge of the 
Soudan. From 1802 onward, many French 
travelers and soldiers have done much to solve 
the geographical problems of northwestern 
Africa, and in 1880 two Frenchmen, MM. 
Moustier and Ziveifel, discovered the source 
of the Niger. 

Between 1847 and 1852 Doctors Krapf and 
Rebmari* traveled 100 leagues inland from the 
eastern coast, and discovered Kilima-Njaro 
and Mount Kenia, and heard of great lakes 
lying 'beyond. The London Geographical So¬ 
ciety sent an expedition in that direction, 
under the command of Captains Burton and 
Speke. The result of their expedition was 


the discovery of Lake Tanganyka and the 
Victoria Nyanza. 

The news ol these discoveries awakened 
great interest throughout Europe, and African 
travel was thenceforth undertaken with ardor. 
In every direction travelers pierced the conti¬ 
nent. Between 1869 and 1873 Sir Samuel 
Baker, under the auspices of the khedive, 
made a second expedition up the Nile for the 
purpose of suppressing the slave traffic. On 
this expedition he completed the survey of 
Albert Nyanza. 

David Livingstone’s explorations began sub¬ 
stantially in 1840, when he first went out to 
south Africa as a missionary; but it was not 
until 1849 that he crossed the great southern 
plateau, and discovered Lake N’gami. Be¬ 
tween 1851 and 1854 he ascended the Zam¬ 
bezi River for several hundred miles, and cros¬ 
sing the interior westward, reached Loanda 
on the Atlantic'coast. On this journey he dis¬ 
covered Victoria Falls: Returning to the Cape 
he made preparations for his last journey. He 
reached the Chambezi River, south of Tan¬ 
ganyka, in 1868. Livingstone traced this river 
through three lakes, and it was his belief 
that it was the true source of the Nile. We 
know it now to be the head waters of the 
Congo. In 1871 Henry M. Stanley, then a re¬ 
porter on the New York Herald, was sent by 
his employer, James Gordon Bennett, to find 
Livingstone. He reached Zanzibar in Janu¬ 
ary, 1871, organized a caravan, and started for 
Lake Tanganyka. In the following November 
he reached his destination and delivered sup¬ 
plies to Livingstone. Stanley remained with 
Livingstone four months, discovering the River 
Rusizi flowing into the north end of the lake. 
Stanley returned home, and Livingstone con¬ 
tinued his explorations until May, 1873, when 
he died. In 1873 the Geographical Society of 
London resolved to continue Livingstone’s ex¬ 
plorations, and sent out Lieut. Cameron. His 
orders were to find Livingstone, if living, and 
place himself under his command. At Zanzi¬ 
bar he organized an expedition, marched west¬ 
ward, and reached Tabora, or Kazeh, where he 
heard of Livingstone’s death. He found Liv¬ 
ingstone’s last journals and papers, and sent 
them home. In his further explorations he 
came to the conclusion, which subsequently 
was proved to be correct, that Tanganyka and 
the Lualaba did not belong to the Nile system, 
but to the Congo. In 1874 Henry M. Stanley 
was sent, at the expense of the New York 
Herald and the London Telegraph, to continue 
Livingstone’s explorations. Organizing at 
Zanzibar, Stanley visited the mountains that 
separate the basin of the Indian Ocean from 
Tanganyka and the Nile. He discovered the 
most southern source of the Nile, and ex¬ 
plored the rivers Livumba and Shimiyu. In 
the spring of 1875 he completely circum¬ 
navigated Victoria Nyanza, and surveyed its 
shores. Going south he discovered another 
large lake, the Muta Nzige, now known as 
Albert Edward Nyanza, and arrived at Ujiji 
on Lake Tanganyka. The river swept to the 
north, but following the stream, he descended 


Africa 


Agaric Mineral 


to thk Atlantic, thus proving the Lualaba and 
the Congo to be identical. His travels had 
lasted three years. In 1879 Stanley was again 
sent out to Africa under the auspices of the 
International Association, at the head of 
which was the King of Belgium, for the pur¬ 
pose of founding the Congo Free State. 
Stations were established along the Congo 
River. Roads were built, and many of the 
affluents of the river were explored. The 
whole country is now being rapidly opened to 
trade. De Brazza, a French naval officer, 
made several expeditions in the equatorial 
region and on the Congo between 1878 and 
1880. A Portuguese explorer, Maj. Serpa 
Pinto, crossed the continent from Benguela to 
the Zambezi in 1877 and 1878. In 1880 Joseph 
Thompson explored the region between Nyassa 
and Tanganyka, and in 1884 made a journey 
from Mombasa, by Kilima-Njaro and Mount 
Kenia, across Masai Land to Victoria Nyanza. 
In 1881-82 De Pogge and Lieut. Wissmann 
crossed the continent from west to east in 
twenty-three months. Other travelers in the 
various quarters of the Congo region were Dr. 
Junker, Mr. Grenfell, Capello and Ivens, and 
Dr. Oscar Wolf. 

The reports of the wonderful fertility and 
resources of the great lake region of the 
Upper Nile stimulated the Khedive of Egypt 
to add all those provinces to his own. Gen. 
Gordon was appointed to rule over them. After 
the death of Gordon the Mahdists began to 
threaten Emin Bey, governor of Equatoria, 
or Emin Pasha, as he was then known, 
and he fell back from Lado south to 
Wadelai on the branch of the Nile which 
issues from Albert Nyanza. For months and 
months he heard nothing from Egypt, though 
he knew the Soudan was in rebellion, and that 
his own safety was threatened. In December, 
1886, a relief expedition was organized, and the 
command of the expedition given to Henry M. 
Stanley. Recruiting a force at Zanzibar, 
Stanley carried it by steamer around the Cape 
to the Congo, and thence up that river to its 
junction with the Aruwimi, and then up the 
Aruwimi to Yambuya, 1,800 miles from the sea. 
This point was reached June 15, 1887. Divid¬ 
ing his command, he left the rear guard, 
under the command of Maj. Edmund Barttelot, 
and on June 28, with 389 men, plunged into 
the great African forest. The objective point 
was Kavalli, a village at the southern extremity 
of Albert Nyanza, distant 880 geographical 
miles from Yambuya, estimated at 550 English 
miles. For 160 days Stanley marched forward 
with his men through jungle and bush and 
forest. From two to ten miles a day was the 
rate of travel, so difficult was it to make a road 
through the jungle. They passed through 
many villages of hostile tribes and had many 
skirmishes with them. In this great forest 
dwell the Pygmies, or Wambutti dwarfs. De¬ 
cember 5, they came out upon a beautiful 
grassy plain over which roamed buffaloes, 
antelopes, and other varieties of wild animals. 
Two miles to the east of where they emerged, 
a tall peak arose 4,000 feet above the sea, 


named by Stanley, Mount Pisgah. A range of 
mountains lay farther eastward, at the foot of 
which rolled the Albert Nyanza, the objective 
point of the expedition. The natives were 
hostile, and several battles took place. On 
December 14 he reached Kavalli, but he 
could learn no word of Emin, who was still a 
twenty-five days’ march off. On April 18,1888, 
Stanley received a letter from Emin. On April 
29 they met. After delivering a portion of 
supplies to Emin,’ Stanley turned back into 
the forest in quest of his rear guard. He found 
the remains of the rear guard at Yambuya in 
a terrible plight. Major Barttelot had been 
murdered, and all the European officers except 
Mr. Bonny, were gone. More than half of the 
force had deserted or were dead. Stanley led 
the remainder through the forest to Albert 
Nyanza. This great African forest stretches 
in unbroken density north and south 621 miles, 
with an average breadth of 517 miles. Innumer¬ 
able i nsects swarm everywhere. Birds of many 
varieties inhabit the trees, while wild animals, 
all manner of reptiles, lemurs, chimpanzees, 
and baboons make their homes in its dark 
recesses. Added to these are the various tribes 
of the forest, among them the dwarfs. 

In January, 1889, he succeeded in bringing 
his forces, or what remained of them, to 
Kavalli. Three months more were occupied 
in making preparations to escort Emin Pasha 
and his people to the sea-coast at Zanzibar. 
April 10 the caravan started from Albert 
Nyanza and, December 4 following, safely 
reached Bagamonya. This expedition of 
Stanley’s leaves little to be discovered in 
Africa that is now absolutely unknown. All 
that remains to be done is detail, in the way 
of accurate measurements and observations. 
The origin and meaning of the name of this 
continent has been a fertile subject for con¬ 
jecture. By the Greeks it was called Libya, 
and by the Romans, Africa. With respect to 
the word Africa, Suidas tells us that it was the 
proper name of that great city which the 
Romans called Carthage. For a full account 
of the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa, see 
Transvaal. 

Agamem'rson, son of Atreus, king of My¬ 
cenae and Argos, brother of Menelaus, and 
commander of the allied Greeks at the siege of 
Troy. Returning home after the fall of Troy, 
he was treacherously assassinated by his wife, 
Clytemnestra, and her paramour, ZEgisthus. 
He was the father of Orestes, Iphigenia, and 
Electra. 

Aganippe (nip'e), a fountain on Mount Heli¬ 
con, in Greece, sacred to the Muses, which had 
the property of inspiring with poetic fire who¬ 
ever drank of it. 

Agar'ic, a large and important genus of fungi- 
Over a thousand species are known, and are ar¬ 
ranged in five sections according as the color 
of their spores is white, pink, brown, purple, 
or black. Many of the species are edible, like 
the common mushroom, and supply a delicious 
article of food, while others are poisonous. 

Agaric riineral, or Mountain-Meal, one of 
the purest of the carbonates of lime, found 


Agave 


Agasias 

chiefly in the clefts of rocks and at the bottom 
of some lakes in a loose or semi-indurated form 
resembling a fungus. The name is also applied 
to a stone of loose consistence found in Tuscany, 
'ff which bricks may be made so light as to 
float in water, and of which the ancients are 
supposed to have made their floating bricks. 
It is a hydrated silicate of magnesium, mixed 
with lime, alumina, and a small quantity of 
iron. 

Agasias, a Greek sculptor of Ephesus, about 
400 b. c., whose celebrated statue, known as 
the Borghese Gladiator, representing a soldier 
contending with a horseman, is now in the 
Louvre, Paris. 

Agassiz (ag'as-e), Alexander (1835-), 

son of Louis Agassiz, was born in Neuchatel, 
Switzerland. He came to the U. S. in 1849, 
and graduated at Harvard in 1855. He 
was on the California Coast Survey, and 
was* with his father in the museum of 
zoology at Cambridge, Mass. From 1866 to 
1869, he was superintendent of the Calumet 
and Hecla copper mines, Lake Superior, and 
amassed a great fortune, of which he gave lib¬ 
erally to Harvard. He was curator of the 
museum in Cambridge from 1874 to 1885. 
Professor Agassiz is a member of the National 
Academy of Sciences and other scientific 
societies in this country and Europe. He is 
one of the great authorities on marine zoology. 

Agassiz, Louis John Rudolph (1807-1873), 
an eminent naturalist, son of a Swiss Prot¬ 
estant clergyman. He completed his educa¬ 
tion at Lausanne, and early developed a love 
of the natural sciences. He studied medi¬ 
cine at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. 
His attention was first specially directed to 
ichthyology by being called on to describe the 
Brazilian fishes brought to Europe from Brazil 
by Martius and Spix. Directing his attention 
to fossil ichthyology, five volumes of his ap¬ 
peared between 1834 and 1844. His researches 
led him to propose a new classification of fishes 
which he divided into four classes, distin¬ 
guished by the characters of the skin. His 
system has not been generally adopted, but 
the names of his classes have been used. In 
1836 he began the study of glaciers. From 
1838 he had been professor of natural history 
at Neuchatel, when in 1846 pressing solicita¬ 
tions and attractive offers induced him to 
settle in America, where he was connected as 
a teacher first with Harvard University, Cam¬ 
bridge, and latterly with Cornell University as 
well as Harvard. After his arrival in America 
he engaged in various investigations and ex¬ 
plorations, and published numerous works. 
In 1865-66 he made zoological excursions and 
investigations in Brazil, which were produc¬ 
tive of most valuable results. Agassiz held 
views on many important points in science 
different from those which prevailed among 
the scientific men of the day, and in particular 
he strongly opposed the theory of evolution. 

Agassiz, Mount, an extinct volcano in Ari¬ 
zona, 10,000 feet in height; a place of summer 
resort, near the Great Canon of the Colorado. 


Ag'ate, a siliceous, semi-pellucid compound 
mineral, consisting of bands or layers of vari¬ 
ous colors blended together; the base generally 
being chalcedony, and this mixed with vari¬ 
able proportions of jasper, amethyst, quartz, 
opal, heliotrope, and carnelian. The varying 
manner in which these materials are arranged 
causes the agate when polished to assume 
some characteristic appearances, and thus 
certain varieties are distinguished, as the rib¬ 
bon agate, the fortification agate, the zone 
agate, the star agate, the moss agate, the 
clouded agate, etc. In Scotland they are cut 
and polished under the name of Scottish peb¬ 
bles. Agates are found at Agate Bay, Lake 
Superior, and in Colorado. In Apache co., 
Ariz., is a wonderful petrified forest where 
the ground is covered with immense tree 
trunks turned to agate and jasper. Agatized 
wood is found also in Utah, New Mexico, and 
California. 

Agathar'chus, a Greek painter, native of 
Samos, the first to apply the rules of perspec¬ 
tive to theatrical scene-painting; flourished 
about 480 b. c. 

Agathocles (361?-289, b. c.), Tyrant of 
Syracuse. He was the son of a Sicilian potter. 
After working a while at his father’s trade he 
became a leader of banditti. He afterward 
.became a soldier under Damas, and on the 
latter’s death married his widow, thus acquir¬ 
ing immense wealth and laying the foundation 
of his political fortunes. He became autocrat 
of Syracuse in 317 b. c. He declared all debts 
canceled, confiscated the property of the rich 
and divided it among the poor. His next plan 
was to drive the Carthaginians out of Sicily 
and bring the whole island under the govern¬ 
ment of Syracuse. He was defeated by Ha- 
milcar, the Carthaginian governor. In 310 
Agathocles attacked the Carthaginian posses¬ 
sions and was at first successful, but in 307 a 
decisive battle was fought with the Cartha¬ 
ginians, who ut¬ 
terly defeated the 
invaders. Agatho¬ 
cles returned to 
Sicily, having 
made terms with 
the Carthaginians. 

He next made an 
attack on a people 
of southern Italy, 
made the Lipari 
Islands tributary, 
and seized the 
power in Crotona 
on the mainland. 

Soon afterward he 
died. During the 
despotism of Aga¬ 
thocles the naval 
power of Syracuse 
was raised to a 
place of consider¬ 
able importance. 

Agave (a-ga've), 
a genus of plants, 
popularly known Agave. 




Age 


Agnostics 


ti3 American aloes. They are generally large, 
and have a massive tuft of fleshy leaves with 
a spiny apex. They live for many years — ten 
to seventy according to treatment — before 
flowering. When this takes place the tall 
.lowering stem springs from the center of the 
tuft of leaves, and grows very rapidly until it 
reaches a height of 15, 20, or even 40 feet, bear¬ 
ing toward the end a large number of flowers. 
The best known species is the common Amer¬ 
ican aloe now extensively grown in the warmer 
parts of Europe and Asia. The sap when fer¬ 
mented yields a beverage resembling cider, 
called by the Mexicans “pulque” The leaves 
are used for feeding cattle; the fibers of the 
leaves are formed into thread, cord, and ropes ; 
an extract from the leaves is used as a substi¬ 
tute for soap; slices of the withered flower- 
stem are used as razor-strops. 

Age, a period of time representing the 
whole or a part of the duration of any individ¬ 
ual thing or being, but used more specifically 
in a variety of senses. In law age is applied 
to the periods of life when men and women 
are enabled to do that which before, for want 
of years and consequently of judgment, they 
could not legally do. Full age in male or 
female is twenty-one years, which age is com¬ 
pleted on the day preceding the anniversary 
of a person’s birth, who till that time is an 
infant in law. 

The term is also applied to designate the 
successive epochs or stages of civilization in 
history or mythology. Hesiod speaks of five 
distinct ages: 1. The Golden or Saturnian 
Age, a patriarchal and peaceful age. 2. The 
Silver Age, licentious and wicked. 3. The Brazen 
Age, violent, savage, and warlike. 4. The 
Heroic Age, which seemed an approximation to 
a better state, of things. 5. The Iron Age, 
when justice and honor had left the earth. 
The term is also used in such expressions as 
the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan 
Age, etc. 

The Archaeological Ages or Periods are three — 
the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron 
Age, these names being given in accordance 
with the materials chiefly employed for weap¬ 
ons, implements, etc., during the particular 
period. The Stone Age of Europe has been 
subdivided into two — the Paleolithic or 
earlier, and the Neolithic or later. The word 
age in this sense has no reference to the lapse 
of time, but simply denotes the stage at 
which a people has arrived in its progress 
toward civilization. See Archceology. 

Agent, in law, a person employed to act 
for another, called the principal, the relation 
between them being called agency. With ref¬ 
erence to the authority conferred upon him, 
an agent may be general or special, and may 
be appointed expressly or by implication. 
No particular form of appointment is re¬ 
quired, with a few qualifications, as that an 
instrument under seal is necessary to confer 
authority to do an act in the name of the 
principal under seal. Attorneys, auctioneers, 
brokers, factors, and shipmasters are among 
the ordinary classes of agents. The agent may 


bind his principal by acts within the scope of 
his authority. He is personally liable to third 
persons on contracts made as the agent of 
an undisclosed principal, but not on those 
in behalf of a disclosed principal, unless he 
exceed his authority. Public agents are not 
usually themselves liable upon contracts made 
in their official capacity. As to torts the gen¬ 
eral rule is that the principal is liable to third 
persons for the tortious acts of the agent com¬ 
mitted when acting within the scope of his 
agency ; but this does not relieve the agent 
of personal liability himself. As against the 
principal, an agent is entitled to compensa¬ 
tion for his services, and reimbursement for 
the expenses of his agency, and for personal 
loss or damage in properly transacting the 
business thereof. As a means of enforcing 
these rights, the law gives him a lien upon 
the property of the principal in his hands. 

Agesila'us (442-3G0 b. c.), a king of Sparta. 
He acquired renown by his exploits against the 
Persians, Thebans, and Athenians. Though 
a vigorous ruler, and almost adored by his 
soldiers, he was of small stature and lame 
from his birth. He died in Egypt. Xeno¬ 
phon, Plutarch, and Cornelius Nepos are 
among his biographers. 

Agglu'tinate Languages, languages in 
which the modifying suffixes are, as it were, 
glued on to the root, both it and the suf¬ 
fixes retaining a kind of .distinctive inde¬ 
pendence and individuality, as in the Turk¬ 
ish and other Turanian languages, and the 
Basque language. 

Agincourt (a-zhan-kor), a village of north¬ 
ern France, department Pas de Calais, fa¬ 
mous for the battle of Oct. 25, 1415, between 
the French and English. 

Agis (a'jis), the name of four Spartan kings, 
the most important of whom was Agis IV, 
who succeeded to the throne in b. c. 244, and 
reigned four years. He was entrapped and 
executed by his rival, Leonidas. 

Agnesi (a-nya'se), Maria Gaetana (1718- 
1799), a learned Italian lady, born at Milan. 
In her ninth year she was able to speak Latin, 
in her eleventh Greek; was a University pro¬ 
fessor. 

Agnew, D. Hayes, American surgeon (1818— 
1892). He was a specialist on diseases of the 
eye and of women. He was a profound anato¬ 
mist, and had wonderful skill and ease in op¬ 
erating. Sympathetic and gentle, he was an 
ideal physician and consultant. He was emer¬ 
itus professor of surgery, and honorary pro¬ 
fessor of clinical surgery, at University of 
Pennsylvania. He became widely known 
through his treatment of President Garfield’s 
wound. Doctor Agnew has written Practical 
Anatomy (1850), and The Principles and Prac¬ 
tises of Surgery (1878-83). 

Agnostics (ag-nos'tiks), a modern term ap¬ 
plied to those who disclaim any knowledge of 
God or of the origin of the universe, holding 
that the mind of man is limited to a knowl¬ 
edge of phenomena and of what is relative, 
and that, therefore, the Infinite, the absolute, 


Agnus Dei 


Agriculture 


and the unconditioned, being beyond all ex¬ 
perience, are consequently beyond its range. 

Agnus Dei (de'I), a term applied to Christ 
in John 1 :29, and in the Catholic liturgy a 
prayer beginning with the words “Agnus 
Dei,” generally sung before the communion. 
The term is also commonly given to a medal, 
or more frequently a cake of wax, consecrated 
by the pope, stamped with the figure of a 
lamb supporting the banner of the cross. 

Agouti (a-go'ti), the name of several rodent 
mammals, forming a family by themselves. 
There are eight or nine species, all belonging 
to S. America and the W. Indies. The com- 



Agouti. 


mon agouti, or yellow-rumped cavy, is of the 
size of a rabbit. It burrows in the ground or 
in hollow trees, lives on vegetables, doing 
much injury to the sugar-cane, is as voracious 
as a pig, and makes a similar grunting noise. 
Its flesh is white and agreeable. 

Agra (a'gra), a city of India, in the n. w. 
Provinces, 841 miles from Calcutta. It has 
interesting structures, among which are the 
imperial palace, the Motl Masjid, or Pearl 
Mosque; the mosque called the Jama Masjid 
(a cenotaph of white marble); and the Taj 
Mahal, a mausoleum of the seventeenth 
century, built by the emperor Shah Jehan to 
his favorite queen. Agra has a trade in grain, 
sugar, etc., and manufactures, including in¬ 
laid mosaics. It was founded in 1566 by the 
emperor Akbar, and was a residence of the 
emperors for over a century. Pop. 160,203. 
The Agra division has an area of 10,151 sq. 
mi., and a population of 4,834,064. 

Agram (og'rom), or Zagrab, a city in the 
Austrian Empire, capital of Croatia and 
Slavonia, contains the government buildings, 
cathedral, university, theater, etc.; carries on 
an active trade, and manufactures tobacco, 
leather, and linens. Pop. 28,360. 

Agra'phia. See Aphasia. 

Agrarian Laws, laws enacted in ancient 
Rome for the division of the public lands. 
The right to the use of the public land be¬ 
longed originally only to the ruling class; but 
latterly the claims of the plebeians on it were 
also admitted, though they were often un¬ 
fairly treated in the sharing of it. Hence 
arose much discontent among the plebeians, 
and various remedial laws were passed with 
more or less success. 

Agric'ola, Cneius Julius (a. d. 37-93), a 
Roman consul under the emperor Vespasian, 
reduced the greater part of Britain to the 

8 


dominion of Rome; distinguished as a states¬ 
man and general. His life, written by his 
son-in-law, Tacitus, gives the best extant 
account of Britain in the early part of the 
period of the Roman rule. He was the twelfth 
Roman general who had been in Britain, but 
was the only one who effectually subdued the 
southern portion of it and reconciled the 
Britons to the Roman yoke. He constructed 
the chain of forts between the Forth and the 
Clyde, and sailed round the island, discovering 
the Orkneys. 

Ag'ricuiture is the art of cultivating the 
ground, more especially with the plow and 
in large areas or fields, in order to raise grain 
and other crops for man and beast; including 
the art of preparing the soil, sowing and plant¬ 
ing seeds, removing the crops, and also the 
raising and feeding of cattle or other live 
stock. This art is the basis of all other arts, 
and in all countries coeval with the first dawn 
of civilization. At how remote a period it 
must have been successfully practised in 
Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China we have no 
means of knowing. Egypt was renowned as a 
corn country in the time of the Jewish patri¬ 
archs. Among the ancient Greeks the imple¬ 
ments of agriculture were very few and simple. 
Hesiod, in the eighth century b. c., mentions 
a plow consisting of three parts, the share- 
beam, the draught-pole, and the plow-tail. 
The ground received three plowings, one in 
autumn, another in spring, and a third imme¬ 
diately before sowing the seed. Manures were 
applied, and the advantage of mixing soils, as 
sand with clay, or clay with sand, was under¬ 
stood'. Seed was sown by hand, and covered 
with a rake. Grain was reaped with a sickle, 
bound in sheaves, thrashed, then winnowed 
by wind, laid in chests, bins, or granaries, and 
taken out as wanted by the family, to be 
ground. Agriculture was highly esteemed 
among the ancient Romans. Cato, the censor, 
derived his highest honors from having written 
a voluminous work on agriculture. In his 
Georgies Vergil has thought the subject of 
agriculture worthy of being treated in the 
most graceful and harmonious verse. The 
Romans used a great many different imple¬ 
ments of agriculture. 

The plow is repre¬ 
sented by Cato as of 
two kinds, one for 
strong, the other for 
light soils. V a r r o 
mentions one with 
two mold-boards. Ancient Egyptian 
Pliny mentions a plow Plowing, 

with one mold-board, and others with a coulter. 
Fallowing was a practise rarely deviated from 
by the Romans. Manure was collected from 
nearly or quite as many sources as have been 
resorted to by the moderns. Irrigation on a 
large scale was applied both to arable and 
grass lands. 

The Romans introduced their agricultural 
knowledge among the Britons, and during the 
most flourishing period of the Roman occupa¬ 
tion large quantities of corn were exported 




Agriculture 


Agriculture 


from Briton to the Continent. Swine formed 
a most important portion of the live stock. 
The feudal system introduced by the Normans 
operated powerfully against progress in agri¬ 
cultural improvements. War and the chase 
formed the most prominent occupations of the 
Norman princes and nobles. Thriving villages 
and smiling fields were converted into deer 





forests, vexatious imposts were laid on the 
farmers, and the serfs had no interest in the 
cultivation of the soil. But the monks of 
every monastery retained such lands as they 
could take charge of, and these they cultivated 
with great care under their own inspection, 
and frequently with their own hands. 

The first English treatise on husbandry was 
published in 1534. It is entitled the Book of 
Husbandry , and contains directions for drain¬ 
ing, clearing, and 
enclosing a farm, 
for enriching the 
soil, and rendering 
it fit for tillage. 

Lime, marl, and 
f a 11 o w i n g are 
strongly recom¬ 
mended. The sub¬ 
ject of agriculture 
attained some 
prominence during 
the reign of Eliza- Sowing-Ancient Egyptian. 

beth. Tusser's Fire Hundred Points of Good 
Husbandry (published in 1580) conveys much 
useful instruction in meter, but few works of 
this time contain much that is valuable. 
About 1645 the field cultivation of red clover 
was introduced into England. The Dutch 
had devoted much attention to the improve¬ 
ment of winter roots, and also to the cultiva¬ 
tion of clover and other artificial grasses, and 
the farmers and proprietors of England soon 
saw the advantages to be derived from their 



introduction. Potatoes had 




oats, barley, and rye; wheat being mostly 
grown in the middle and southern regions, 
such as France, Spain, part of Germany, 
Austria, Hungary, Italy, and southern Rus¬ 
sia, the others in the more northern portion, 
while maize is grown in the warmest parts. 
Turnips are comparatively little grown out 
of Britain, beet-root in some sense taking 
their place; potatoes, however, are 
largely cultivated, except in the 
south. In Canada large quantities of 
wheat are grown (chiefly in Ontario, 
now also in Manitoba); much is also 
now produced in the Australian 
colonies. 

The vast territory of the U. S. pre¬ 
sents every variety of soil and climate. Its agri¬ 
culture embraces all the products of European 
cultivation, together with some of the warmer 
countries, as cotton, sugar, and indigo. The 
U. S. exceeds all other nations in their wonder¬ 
ful adaptation of 
machinery for all 
purposes of cultiva¬ 
tion and harvesting 
of crops. The dis¬ 
position of the Ameri¬ 
can to experiment, to 
test alleged improve¬ 
ments, and adopt 
labor-saving expedients, gives a great impulse 
to the genius of inventors. This mental ac¬ 
tivity of the American farmer is owing in great 
part to his superior intelligence. 

The American reaper was invented by Mc¬ 
Cormick in 1834; by many improvements it 
has secured the European as well as the home 
market. In 1855 the first American agricultu¬ 
ral college was established. In 1862 the pas¬ 
sage of the Homestead law served to accelerate 
the occupation of the public lands. In the 
same year Congress granted to each state 30,- 
000 acres for each Senator and Representative 
in Congress in order to promote the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes. 
In 1867 the organization of the “Patrons of 
Husbandry,” commonly called Grangers, was 

_ w effected, to look 

/^~ . Ox after the interests 

of farmers, to re¬ 
duce the profits of 
middlemen, and to 
insist on fair treat¬ 
ment from the rail¬ 
roads. The dairy 
system, based on 
the principle of as- 


Egyptians Reaping. 



Threshing by the Norey. 


U - X- - VV/ M/ll 

dinary improvement in agriculture. In Eu¬ 
rope at large the principal cereals are wheat, 


sociation, has advanced rapidly. Agricultural 
societies, both state and county, are estab¬ 
lished in all parts of the U. S. The objects of 
these societies are such as the following: To 
encourage the introduction of improvements 
in agriculture; to encourage the improvement 
of agricultural implements and farm build¬ 
ings; the application of chemistry to agricul¬ 
ture; the destruction of insects injurious to 
vegetation; to promote the discovery and 
adoption of new varieties of grain, or other 
useful vegetables; to collect information re- 











































Agriculture 


Agufnaldo 



Syrian Comdrag. 


gardingthe management of woods, plantations, 
and fences; to improve the education of those 
supported by the cultivation of the soil; to 
improve the veterinary art; to improve the 
breeds of live stock, etc. Fairs are held, at 
which prizes are distributed for live stock, 
implements, and farm produce. 

Through the efforts of the above-mentioned 
and other societies, the investigations of scien¬ 
tific men, and the general diffusion of knowl¬ 
edge among all classes, over two hundred pe¬ 
riodicals being devoted to its interests, agri¬ 
culture has made great progress during the 
present century. ^ 

Among the chief 
improvements we 
may mention deep 
plowing and 
thorough drain¬ 
ing. By the in¬ 
troduction of new 
or improved implements the labor necessary 
to the carrying out of agricultural operations 
has been greatly diminished. Science, too, 
has been called in to act as the handmaid 
of art, and it is by the investigations of the 
chemist that agriculture has been put on a 
really scientific basis. The organization of 
plants, the primary elements of which they 
are composed, the food on which they live, 
and the constituents of soils, have all been in¬ 
vestigated, and most important results ob¬ 
tained, particularly in regard to manures and 
rotations. Artificial manures in great va¬ 
riety, to supply the elements wanted for plant 
growth, have come into common use, not 
only increasing the produce of lands previously 
cultivated, but extending the limits of cul¬ 
tivation itself. An improvement in all 
kinds of stock is becoming more and more 
general, feeding is conducted on more scien¬ 
tific principles, and improved varieties of 
plants used as field crops have been intro¬ 
duced. One of the valuable innovations in 
the U. S. is the introduction of the system of 
ensilage for preserving fodder in a green state, 
which gives valuable results. As a result of 
the new conditions, to be a thoroughly trained 



Modern Syrian Plow. 


and competent agriculturist requires a special 
education, partly theoretical, partly practical. 
In particular, no scientific cultivator can now 
be ignorant of agricultural chemistry, which 
teaches the constituents of the various plants 
grown as crops, their relation to the various 
soils, the nature and function of different ma¬ 
nures, etc. Nearly all the states have col¬ 
leges, or departments of colleges, devoted to 
the teaching of agriculture, and large allot¬ 


ments of public land have been made for their 
support. In Germany such institutions are 
numerous and highly efficient. For teaching 
agriculture practically model farms are com¬ 
monly established. In many countries, too, 
there is a ministry of agriculture as one of the 
chief departments of government. In the U. 
S. the Department of Agriculture was organ¬ 
ized in 1862, the secretary of which is now a 
cabinet officer. The chief crop in value grown 
in the U. S. is Indian corn, next to which 
comes wheat. Oats and potatoes are also im¬ 
portant crops. The grass crop exceeds in 
value any other, except wheat and corn. The 
other principal crops are, barley, rye, buck¬ 
wheat, beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and 
sorghum. Tobacco is a favorite crop in the 
southern states. In cotton the virtual monop¬ 
oly of the southern states has ceased; but the 
crop increases steadily in amount each year. 

It is only in very recent times that much 
progress has been made in perfecting imple¬ 
ments and machinery for cultivating the soil, 
sowing seed, drilling, rolling, hoeing, reaping, 
digging, etc. The first application of steam 
to plowing dates from 1770, when Richard L. 
Edgeworth took out a patent for a steam plow¬ 
ing machine, but it was 1852 before such ap¬ 
plication proved of any economic value. 

Agrigentum (-jen'tum), an ancient Greek 
city of Sicily, founded about 580 b. c., and long 
one of the most important places on the island. 
Extensive ruins of temples and public build¬ 
ings yet attest its ancient magnificence. 

Agrip'pa, Cornelius Henry (1486-1535), 
born at Cologne, was a man of talents, learning, 
and eccentricity. In his youth he was secre¬ 
tary to the Emperor Maximilian I; he subse¬ 
quently served seven years in Italy, and was 
knighted. On quitting the army he devoted 
himself to science, and became famous as a 
magician and alchemist, and was involved in 
disputes with the churchmen. 

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius (b. c. 63-12), 
a Roman statesman and general, the son-in- 
law of Augustus. He commanded the fleet of 
Augustus in the battle of Actium. To him 
Rome is indebted for three of her principal 
aqueducts, the Pantheon, and other works of 
public use and ornament. 

Aguinaldo, Emilio, the leader of the Fili¬ 
pino revolution against the authority of the 
United States was born about 1870. It is 
not known who his parents were, but he was 
brought up in the home of a learned Jesuit 
priest in the province of Cavite, where he is 
said to have received kind treatment and con¬ 
siderable elementary education. When about 
fifteen years of age he became a student in the 
medical department of the Pontifical univer¬ 
sity at Manila. Little is known of his college 
career. He attracted the attention of the 
Spanish authorities by joining the Masonic 
order, an act which in the Philippines was con¬ 
sidered an unpardonable sin. About 1888 he be¬ 
came involved with the authorities and went 
to Hongkong, where he came in contact with 
the British, and received considerable informa¬ 
tion about modern methods of warfare. He is 











Ahab 


Air 


said to have served some time also in the 
Chinese army and as a member of the crew of 
a Chinese warship, under European instruct¬ 
ors. He seems to have been on the Island of 
Luzon at the breaking out of the insurrection 
of 1896 and was on good terms with the Span¬ 
ish officials, but was violently opposed to the 
Franciscans or Dominicans. This insurrec¬ 
tion in brief was caused by the attempt of 
both the Church and State to raise taxes un¬ 
der an old law. The penalty for failure to 
pay these taxes amounted practically to slav¬ 
ery, and it was against these abuses that the 
natives rebelled. Aguinaldo leaped into prom¬ 
inence suddenly, and the revolution became 
so formidable that the Spanish officials at 
Manila offered certain terms to the revolu¬ 
tionary generals. Some were in favor of ac¬ 
cepting them; others rejecting them outright, 
while a third class, headed by Aguinaldo, ad¬ 
vocated the acceptance of the proposals upon 
the condition that the Spanish authorities 
should give some guarantee that their prom 
ises of reform would be fulfilled. The Manila 
authorities were to pay the leaders $1,000,000; 
the leaders to leave the country permanently. 
Aguinaldo is said to have received £300,000 of 
this money (all that was paid) and took up 
his residence in Hongkong, whence he re¬ 
turned to Manila in 1898 at the outbreak of 
the Spanish war. He came back to the Philip¬ 
pines and organized a force acting in conjunc¬ 
tion with the American forces investing Ma¬ 
nila, When it became evident that the 
islands would be annexed to the U. S. he or¬ 
ganized a provisional government and pro¬ 
claimed himself president in June, 1898. 
While the treaty with Spain was under con¬ 
sideration, he sent a representative to Paris to 
protest against any action of the peace com¬ 
missioners which did not recognize the inde¬ 
pendence of the Philippine Islands. His 
troops attacked the Americans in February, 
1899, and carried on severe but ineffective 
fighting throughout 1899 and 1900. He was cap¬ 
tured in March, 1901, by General Frederick 
Funston and taken to Manila where he was 
placed under guard. He issued a manifesto 
advising Filipinos to lay down their arms. It 
was learned theat he had declared himself 
dictator in January, 1901. He is treated as a 
prisoner of war. 

A'hab, the seventh king of Israel, succeeded 
his father Omri 928 b. c., and reigned twenty 
years. At the instigation of his wife Jezebel 
he erected a temple to Baal, and became a cruel 
persecutor of the true prophets. He was 
killed by an arrow at the siege of Ramoth- 
Gilead. 

Ahasue'rus, in scripture history, a king of 
Persia, probably the same as Xerxes, the hus¬ 
band of Esther, to whom the Scriptures ascribe 
a singular deliverance of the Jews from extir¬ 
pation. Ahasuerus is also a Scripture name 
for Cambyses, the son of Cyrus (Ezra 4 : 6), and 
for Astyages, king of the Medes (Dan. 9 :1). 

A'haz, the twelfth king of Judah, succeeded 
his father Jotham, 742 b. c. Forsaking the true 
religion he gave himself up to idolatry, and 


plundered the temple to obtain presents for 
Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. 

Ahazi'ah. —1. Son of Ahab and Jezebel, and 
eighth king of Israel, died from a fall through a 
lattice in his palace at Samaria after reigning 
two years (b. c. 896, 895).—2. Fifth king of 
Judah, and nephew of the above. He reigned 
but one year and was slain (b. c. 884) by Jehu. 

Aimard (a-mar), Gustave (1818-1883), French 
novelist. He lived for ten years among the 
Indians of North America, and wrote a num¬ 
ber of stories dealing with Indian life, which 
have been popular in English translations. 

Ain (an), a southeastern frontier depart¬ 
ment of France, mountainous in the east 
(ridges of the Jura), flat or undulating in the 
west, divided into two nearly equal parts by 
the river Ain, a tributary of the Rhone. Area, 
2,239 sq. mi. Capital, Bourg. Pop. 364,408. 

Ainmiller (in'mil-er), Max Emanuel (1807- 
1870), a German artist who may be regarded 
as the restorer of the art of glass-painting. As 
inspector of the state institute of glass-paint¬ 
ing at Munich he raised this art to a high de¬ 
gree of perfection by the new or improved proc¬ 
esses introduced by him. Under his super¬ 
vision this establishment produced a vast num¬ 
ber of painted windows for ecclesiastical and 
other buildings, among the principal being a 
series of forty windows, containing 100 his¬ 
torical and Scriptural pictures in Glasgow Ca¬ 
thedral. His son Heinrich, born 1837, followed 
in his father’s footsteps. 

Ainos (i'noz), the native name of an unciv¬ 
ilized race of people inhabiting the Japanese 
island of Yesso, as also Saghalien and the 
Kurile Islands, and believed by some to be the 
aboriginal inhabitants of Japan. They do not 
average over 5 feet in height, but are strong 
and active. They have matted beards 5 or 6 
inches in length, and black hair which they 
allow to grow till it falls over their shoulders. 
Their whole body is covered with thick hair. 
They are the hairiest and also the filthiest peo¬ 
ple on the globe. Their complexion is dark 
brown, approaching to black. They worship 
the sun and moon, and pay reverence to the 
bear. They support themselves by hunting 
and fishing. 

Ainsworth, William Harrison (1805-1882), 
an English novelist. He wrote Rookwood, Jack 
Sheppard, and about forty other novels, includ¬ 
ing Guy Faickes, Tower of London, Windsor Cas¬ 
tle, Lancashire Witches, Flitch of Bacon, etc. 

Ain=Tab (a-in-tab'), a town of northern 
Syria, 60 miles north of Aleppo; with manu¬ 
factures of cottons, woolens, leather, etc., and 
an extensive trade. There is here an Ameri¬ 
can Protestant mission. Pop. 20,000. 

Air, the gaseous substance of which our 
atmosphere consists, being a mechanical mix¬ 
ture of 79.19 per cent, by measure of nitrogen 
and 20.81 per cent, of oxygen. The latter is 
absolutely essential to animal life, while the 
purpose chiefly served by the nitrogen appears 
to be to dilute the oxygen. Oxygen is more 
soluble in water than nitrogen, and hence the 
air dissolved in water contains about 10 per 
cent, more oxygen than atmospheric air. The 


Air-cells 


Aix-la-Chapelle 


oxygen therefore available for those animals 
which breathe by gills is somewhat less diluted 
with nitrogen, but it is very much diluted with 
water. For the various properties and phenom¬ 
ena connected with air, see such articles as 
Atmosphere, Aeronautics, Air-pump, Barometer , 
Combustion, Respiration. 

Air-cells, cavities in the cellular tissue of 
the stems and leaves of plants which contain 
air only, the juices of the plants being con¬ 
tained in separate vessels. They are largest 
and most numerous in aquatic plants, as in 
the lily, the gigantic leaves of which are 
buoyed up on the surface of the water by 
their means.—The minute cells in the lungs 
of animals are also called air-cells. There are 
also air-cells in the bodies of birds. They are 
connected with the respiratory system, and are 
situated in the cavity of the thorax and abdo¬ 
men, and sometimes extend into the bones. 
They are most fully developed in birds of 
powerful and rapid flight, such as the alba¬ 
tross. 

Air-engine, an engine in which air heated, 
and so expanded, or compressed air, is used 
as the motive power. A great many engines 
of the former kind have been invented, some 
of which have been found to work pretty well 
where no great power is required. They may 
be said to be essentially similar in construc¬ 
tion to the steam-engine, though of course the 
expansibility of air by heat is small com¬ 
pared with the expansion that takes place 
when water is converted into steam. Engines 
working by compressed air have been found 
very useful in mining, tunneling, etc., and 
the compressed air may be conveyed to its 
destination by means of pipes. In such cases 
the waste air serves for ventilation and for 
reducing the oppressive heat. 

Air-gun, an instrument for the projection 
of bullets by means of condensed air, gen¬ 
erally either in the form of an ordinary gun, 
or of a stout walking-stick and about the same 
length. A quantity of air being compressed 
into the air-chamber by means of a condens¬ 
ing syringe, the bullet is put in its place in 
front of this chamber, and is propelled by the 
expansive force of a certain quantity of the 
compressed air, which is liberated on pressing 
the trigger. 

Air-plants (or Epiphytes), are plants that 
grow upon other plants or trees, apparently 
without receiving any nutriment otherwise 
than from the air. The name is restricted to 
flowering plants (mosses or lichens being ex¬ 
cluded) and is suitably applied to many species 
of orchids. The conditions necessary to the 
growth of such plants are excessive heat and 
moisture, and hence their chief localities are 
the damp and shady tropical forests of Africa, 
Asia, and America. They are particularly 
abundant in Java and tropical America. 

Air-pump, an apparatus by means of which 
air or other gas may be removed from an en¬ 
closed space; or for compressing air within an 
enclosed space. An ordinary suction-pump for 
water is on the same principle as the air- 
pump; indeed, before water reaches the top 


of the pipe the air has been pumped out by 
the same machinery which pumps the water. 
An ordinary suction-pump consists essentially 
of a cylinder, or barrel, having a valve opening 
from the pipe through which water is to rise 
and a valve opening into the outlet pipe, and 
a piston fitted to work in the cylinder (the 
outlet valve maybe in the piston). See Pump. 
The arrangement of parts in an air-pump is 
quite similar. The barrel of an air-pump fills 
with the air which expands from the receiver 
(that is, the vessel from which the air is being 
pumped), and consequently the quantity of air 
expelled at each stroke is less as the exhaus¬ 
tion proceeds, the air getting more and more 
rarefied. Many interesting experiments may 
be made with the air-pump. If an animal is 
placed beneath the receiver, and the air ex¬ 
hausted, it dies almost immediately; a lighted 
candle under the exhausted receiver immedi¬ 
ately goes out. Air is thus shown to be neces¬ 
sary to animal life and to combustion. A bell, 
suspended from a silken thread beneath the 
exhausted receiver, on being struck cannot be 
heard. If the bell be in one receiver from 
which the air is not exhausted, but which is 
within an exhausted receiver, it still cannot 
be heard. Air is therefore necessary to the 
production and to the transmission of sound. 
A shriveled apple placed beneath an ex¬ 
hausted receiver becomes as plump as if quite 
fresh, being thus shown to be full of elastic 
air. The air-pump was invented by Otto von 
Guericke, burgomaster of Magdeburg, about 
the year 1654. 

Airy, Sir George Biddell, a distinguished 
English astronomer, b. 1801. At Cambridge he 
was professor of mathematics, and subse¬ 
quently professor of astronomy and experi¬ 
mental philosophy, in the latter capacity 
having charge of the observatory. In 1835 he 
was appointed superintendent of the observa¬ 
tory at Greenwich. He has made numerous 
valuable investigations on subjects connected 
with astronomy, physics, and mathematics. 

Aisne (an), a department of France; area, 
2,838 sq. mi. It contains the important 
towns of St. Quentin, Laon (the capital), 
Soissons, and Chateau Thierry. Pop. 555,925. 

Aix (aks), a town of southern France, de¬ 
partment Bouches-du-Rhone. Aix was founded 
in 123 b. c. by the Roman consul Caius Sextius 
Calvinus, and from its mineral springs was 
called Aquce Sextice (Sextian Waters). Between 
this town and Arles, Marius gained his great 
victory over the Teutons, 102 b. c. In the 
Middle Ages the counts of Provence held their 
court here, to which the troubadours used to 
resort. Pop. 19,686. 

Aix=la=Chapelle (aks-la-sha-pel), a city of 
Rhenish Prussia, 38 miles west by south 
of Cologne. The most important build¬ 
ing is the cathedral, the oldest portion of 
which, often called the nave, was erected in 
the time of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) 
as the palace chapel, about 796. A gold coffin 
containing the remains of Charlemagne is to 
be seen in the cathedral at the present time. 
There are a number of warm sulphur springs 


Ajaccio 


Alabama 


here, and several chalybeate springs, with 
ample accommodation for strangers. It was 
the favorite residence of Charles the Great, 
who died here in 814. Thirty-seven German 
emperors and eleven empresses have been 
crowned in it, and the imperial insignia were 
preserved here till 1795, when they were 
carried to Vienna. Pop. 95,725 .—Congress of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, a congress held in 1818, by 
which the army of the allies in France was 
withdrawn after France had paid the contri¬ 
bution imposed at the peace of 1815, and inde¬ 
pendence restored to France.—A treaty of peace 
concluded at this city, May 2, 1668, as a result 
of the Triple Alliance, put an end to the war 
carried on against Spain by Louis XIV in 
1667, after the death of his father-in-law, 
Philip IV.—The second peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Oct. 18, 1748, terminated the Austrian war of 
succession. 

Ajaccio (a-yach' o), the capital of Corsica, the 
birthplace of Napoleon, and the seat of a 
bishop, with coral and sardine fisheries, and 
a considerable trade. Pop. 15,851. 

A'jax, the name of two Grecian chiefs who 
fought against Troy, the one being son of 
Oileus, the other, son of Telamon. The latter 
was from Salamis, and sailed with twelve 
ships to Troy, where he is represented by 
Homer as the boldest of the Greeks, after 
Achilles. On the death of Achilles, when his 
arms, which Ajax claimed, were awarded to 
Ulysses, he became insane and killed himself. 
This is the subject of Sophocles’s tragedy 
Ajax. 

Ajmeer' (Ajmir or Ajmer), a British com- 
missionership in India, Rajput4na, divided 
into the two districts of Ajmeer and Mair- 
wara. Area 2,711 sq. mi.; pop. 460,722.—Aj¬ 
meer, the capital, a favorite residence of the 
Mogul emperors, is 279 miles s. w. of Delhi. 
It is surrounded by a wall, and possesses a 
government college, as also Mayo College for 
Rajpoot nobles, a Scottish mission, a mosque 
that forms one of the finest specimens of early 
Mohammedan architecture extant, and an 
old palace of Akbar, now the treasury; trade 
in cotton, sugar, salt, etc. Pop. 34,763. 

Ak'bar (1542-1605), a Mogul emperor, the 
greatest Asiatic prince of modern times. He 
was born at Amerkote, in Sind, succeeded his 
father, Humayun, at the age of thirteen, and 
governed first under the guardianship of his 
minister, Beyram, but took the chief power 
into his own hands in 1560. His mausoleum 
at Secundra, near Agra, is a fine example of 
Mohammedan architecture. 

A Kempis, Thomas, See Thomas cl Kempis. 

Akermann', a seaport of southern Russia, in 
Bessarabia. The vicinity produces quantities 
of salt and also fine grapes, from which excel¬ 
lent wine is made. A treaty was signed here, 
Oct. 6, 1826, between Russia and the Porte, by 
which Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia were 
released from all but nominal dependence on 
Turkey. Pop. 29,609. 

Akmollinsk', a Russian province in Central 
Asia, largely consisting of steppes and wastes. 
Area 210,000 sq. mi.; pop. 463,347.—Akmol¬ 


linsk, the capital, is a place of some impor¬ 
tance for its caravan trade. Pop. 3,130. 

Akron, Summit co., O., 35 miles s. e. of 
Cleveland. Railroads, Erie; B. & O.; C. A. & 
C.; A. & C. Junction; P. &W.; C. T. & V.; 
and Northern Ohio. Industries, rubber works, 
five cereal mills, iron foundry, sewer pipe, li¬ 
noleum, boiler, farm implements, and other 
factories, printing works, and potteries. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural, bituminous 
coal in vicinity. The town was first settled in 
1810 and became a city in 1836. Population, 
1900, 42,728. 

Alabama, one of the southern states of the 
the U. S. Its length is 330 miles, average 
breadth 154, and area 50,722 sq. mi. The Al¬ 
leghany range stretches into the northern por¬ 
tion of the state, but the elevation is nowhere 
great. The Alabama is the chief river of the 
state. It is formed by the junction of the 
Coosa and the Tallapoosa, which unite about 
10 miles above the city of Montgomery. Forty- 
five miles above Mobile the Alabama is joined 
by the Tombigbee,and from that point is known 
as the Mobile River. It is navigable from Mo¬ 
bile to Wetumpka, on the Coosa, some 460 
miles. The Tombigbee is navigable to Colum¬ 
bus, and the Black Warrior, one of its chief 
tributaries, to Tuscaloosa. The Tennessee 
flows through the northern portion of the 
state, and the Chattahoochee forms part of its 
eastern boundary. 

Soil .—The southern portion of the state has 
an alluvial formation, and a light but produc¬ 
tive soil well adapted to raising fruits. 
Cotton and corn are produced, and there are 
extensive forests of pine in this region. North 
of this tract is a division known as the cotton 
belt, mostly prairie land, largely devoted to 
the culture of cotton. The great mineral re¬ 
gion is in the eastern and northeastern part of 
the state. Gold has been found here in pay¬ 
ing quantities for many years. There is also 
bituminous coal mined in this region as well 
as other valuable minerals. West of this is a 
manufacturing district well supplied with wa¬ 
ter power. In the northern part of the state 
are rich grazing lands which yield large crops 
of cereals and fruits. 

Vegetation .—In Alabama vegetable prod¬ 
ucts of the temperate and semi-tropical re¬ 
gions thrive. The principal forest trees are 
oak, hickory, chestnut, cedar, elm, and pine. 
There are also some dense cane-brakes, which 
have now for the most part been cleared away, 
leaving a most fertile soil. 

In the southern parts of the state are forests 
of Cyprus, yellow pine, and magnolia. Also 
the fig and pomegranate, olive, apricot, and 
orange trees. Grasses, the cereals, and corn, 
and in the valleys, cotton, are raised in the 
northern part of the state. In the southwest¬ 
ern part of the state is grown sugar, rice, and 
some indigo ; tobacco is grown to some extent. 

Climate. — The climate of Alabama varies 
with the latitude and elevation. The north¬ 
ern counties have a delightful temperate cli¬ 
mate, the thermometer in winter seldom 
falling below 32° Fahrenheit, while th-e eleva 


Alabama 


Alabaster 


tion prevents intense heat in the summer. 
Some of the river valleys are very unhealthful, 
and on the other hand there are several resorts 
for invalids in the state. In the southern part 
of the state there is a great tendency to ma¬ 
laria and fevers. But for the gulf breezes the 
heat would be almost unbearable. The water 
supply is from artesian wells in the southern 
part of the state, while the northern part is 
supplied with springs and good wells. 

Manufactures. — Within the last twenty-five 
years Alabama has made rapid strides in 
the establishment of manufacturing indus¬ 
tries. There are a number of large saw-mills, 
grist-mills and leather-dressing establishments, 
boot and shoe factories, turpentine distilleries, 
carriage and wagon factories, in operation, 
employing thousands of men. The manufac¬ 
ture of pig-iron, which can be produced here 
as cheaply as any place in the U. S., machin¬ 
ery, and cotton goods, has been carried on with 
remarkable success and several large factories 
xiave been established. 

Education. — There are four normal schools 
in the state located at Marion, Florence, 
Huntsville, and Tuskegee. The State Uni¬ 
versity of Alabama is located at Tuscaloosa. 
The Agricultural and Mechanical College and 
the Southern University are located at Auburn 
and Greensboro respectively. At Mobile there 
is a blind asylum, and an institute for the 
deaf, dumb, and blind at Talladega, also an 
insane asylum at Tuscaloosa. There are 
about 200 newspapers in the state, 16 of them 
being dailies. The public school system of 
Alabama has not developed with the increase 
in population. 

History. — The first settlement in Alabama 
was made on the Mobile River in 1702 by the 
French. The city of Mobile was founded in 
1712. Alabama was made a state of the Union 
in 1819 and was one of the seceding states in 
1861. The population in 1900 was 1,828,697. 
The chief towns are Montgomery, the capital, 
Mobile, and Birmingham. 

Governors. — William W. Bibb, 1819-20; 
Thomas Bibb, 1820-21 ; Israel Pickens, 1821— 
25; John Murphy, 1825-29; Gabriel Moore, 
1829-31 ; John Gayle, 1831-35; Clement C. 
Clay, 1835-37; Arthur P. Bagby, 1837-41 ; 
Benjamin Fitzpatrick, 1841-45; Joshua L. 
Martin, 1845-47; Reuben Chapman, 1847-49; 
Henry W. Collier, 1849-53; John A. Winston, 
1853-57; Andrew B. Moore, 1857-61; John G. 
Shorter, 1861-63; Thomas H. Watts, 1863-65; 
Lewis E. Parsons, 1865; Robert M. Patton, 
1865-68; William H. Smith, 1868-70; Robert 
B. Lindsay, 1872; D. P. Lewis, 1872-74; G. S. 
Houston, 1874-79; R. W. Cobb, 1879-81; E. A. 
O’Neal, 1882-84-86; T. Seay, 1886-88-90; T. G. 
Jones, 1890-94; W. C. Oates, 1894-96; J. F. 
Johnston, 1896-1900; W. J. Samford, 1900. 

Alabama, a river of Alabama, formed by 
the junction of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa. 
After a course of 300 miles, it joins the Tom- 
bigbee and assumes the name of the Mobile. 

Alabama, a vessel built at Birkenhead, Eng 
laud, in 1862, by Messrs. Laird & Sons, for 
the Confederate Government. She was a 


piratical craft, and it is certain that she was 
forced to deal with her captures precisely as 
a pirate does, against whom every port is 
closed; i. e., she first plundered and then burnt 
them. Her devastations gave rise to the Ala¬ 
bama question, and ultimately cost Great 
Britain over $16,000,000. The cruiser was a 
wooden ship of 1,040 tons’ register, barque- 
rigged, with two engines of 350 horse-power 
each, pierced for 12 guns, besides being able 
to carry two heavy pivot-guns amidships, and 
cost in all nearly $260,000. At Terceira, one 
of the Azores, she received guns, stores, and 
coals from another vessel. Captain Semmes 
then stepped on board, and Aug. 24, 1862, 
produced his commission, named the vessel 
the A., hoisted the Confederate flag, and pre¬ 
pared for work. Before September 16 she had 
destroyed more than her own cost, and for 
nearly two years after she was the terror of 
Union merchantmen in every sea. In all, she 
captured sixty-five vessels, and destroyed 
property estimated at $4,000,000. Swift-sail¬ 
ing cruisers scoured the seas in search of the 
pirate , who, was at length forced, partly from 
want of stores, to take refuge in the port of 
Cherbourg, on the coast of Normandy, June 
11, 1864. A few days later, the U. S. steamer 
Kearsarge, commanded by Captain Winslow, 
also arrived at Cherbourg. June 19 a fight 
took place outside the port and in less than an 
hour the A. was sunk. Semmes and others 
were picked up by an English yacht, the 
Deerhound. 

Not many months after the A. had com¬ 
menced her destructive career, Mr. Seward, 
in his capacity of secretary of state, informed 
the British Government that the U. S. held 
themselves entitled to damages for the inju¬ 
ries done to American commerce by a vessel 
fitted out for war in a British port, and would 
claim them in due time. The idea took 
strong hold of the American mind, and at 
length Great Britain was induced to submit 
to arbitration the question of her culpability 
in regard to the escape of the A. A congress 
met at Geneva Dec. 17, 1871, consisting of rep¬ 
resentatives of Great Britain and the U. S., 
and of three members appointed by the king 
of Italy, the president of the Swiss Confed¬ 
eration, and the emperor of Brazil. The 
decision was given 
Sept. 15, 1872. It 
was adverse to 
Great Britain, 
which was ordered 
to pay to the U. S. 
the sum of $16, - 
145,833. After all 
awards were made 
to private claim¬ 
ants about $8,000,- 
000 still remained 
unclaimed. 

Alabas'ter, a 
name applied to a 
granular variety of 
gypsum or hydrated sulphate of lime. It was 
much used by the ancients for the manufact- 



Alabaster. 


Alagoas 


Alamo 


are of ointment and perfume boxes, vases, and 
the like. It has a fine granular texture, is 
usually of a pure white color, and is so soft 
that it can be scratched with the nail. It is 
found in many parts of Europe; in great 
abundance and of peculiarly excellent quality 
in Tuscany. From the finer and more compact 
kinds, vases, clock-stands, statuettes, and other 
ornamental articles are made, and from inferior 
kinds the cement known as plaster of Paris. 
A variety of carbonate of lime, closely resem¬ 
bling alabaster in appearance, is used for simi¬ 
lar purposes under the name of Oriental ala¬ 
baster. It is usually stalagmitic or stalactitic 
in origin, and is often of a yellowish color. 
It may be distinguished from true alabaster 
by being too hard to be scratched with the 
nail. 

Alago'as, a maritime province of Brazil. 
Area 11,640 sq. mi.; pop. about 400,000. — Al- 
goas, the former capital of the province is 
about 20 mi. distant from Maceio, to which 
the seat of government was transferred in 
1839. Pop. about 4,000. 

Alajuela (a-la-7m-a'la), a town of Central 
America, capital of the state of Costa Rica. 
Pop. 12,000. 

Alameda, Alameda co., Cal., a favorite sub¬ 
urban residence for San Francisco business 
men. It is situated on the Bay of San Fran¬ 
cisco about 8 mi. from the city, with which 
it is connected by a steam ferry. It is cele¬ 
brated for its orchards and gardens. Pop. 
1900, 16,464. 

Alamo, Bexar co., Tex., celebrated for the 
resistance which 145 men under Col. Travis 
made against Gen. Santa Anna and 5,000 Mexi¬ 
can soldiers, from February 23 to March 6, 
1836, in the war of Texan independence. The 
Alamo was built originally for a mission, but 




The Alamo. 


was strong enough for a place of defense, ex¬ 
cept against artillery. It had a surrounding 
wall of masonry over two and a half feet 
thick, and eight feet high. The main square 
was 154 yards long by 54 wide. On the south¬ 
east of it was the church, with walls of stone 
4 feet thick and about 23 feet high. It was 
never completed and had no roof. From the 
northeast corner of the chapel, a wall extended 
northward 186 feet, thence westward, at right 
angles to the convent, enclosing the convent 
yard. The convent was a two-story adobe 


building, 191 by 18 feet. It was used as an 
armory and barracks. The prison was one- 
story, 115 by 17 feet, and from its southeast 
corner a diagonal ditch, over which was a 
strong stockade with an entrance iii the center, 
extended to the church. The whole area en¬ 
closed was about three acres, this was supplied 
with water from two aqueducts. Upon the 
walls of the Alamo were mounted fourteen 
guns, three of which were planted upon the 
walls of the church. The stockade was pro¬ 
tected by two pieces, and two more overlooked 
the gateway and prison; others were placed 
at various points on the walls. Col. Travis 
was forced to take refuge in this place, on the 
above mentioned date, on account of the ap¬ 
proach of the Mexican forces under Santa 
Anna. He had barely time to get a few bush¬ 
els of corn and about twenty-five head of 
beeves within the enclosure. He had a very 
small supply of ammunition. Santa Anna 
appeared before the walls of the Mission and 
demanded an unconditional surrender, which 
was answered with a cannon shot. Within 
the improvised fortress were such men as 
James Bowie, David Crockett, and J. B. Bon¬ 
ham. They determined not to surrender un¬ 
der any circumstances, nor would they retreat. 
Santa Anna continued to draw his forces 
around the walls, and a constant bombardment 
was kept up, and although nearly 200 shells 
fell inside the works, not a Texan was killed 
during the first eight days. The walls with¬ 
stood the cannonade with little or no harm. 
The Texans in the meantime utilized their 
small supply of ammunition by picking off 
whatever of the Mexican forces fell within the 
range of their rifles. Santa Anna considered 
several times the advisability of storming the 
fortress, but it was not undertaken until the 
arrival of 1,200 more men and some heavy 
guns. On March 5, Santa Anna gave the or¬ 
der for the attack, and in four columns they 
proceeded to the fortress, provided with lad¬ 
ders, crow-bars, and axes. The attacking 
forces numbered 2,500 men, aided by the cav¬ 
alry, which was stationed at several points to 
cut off escape. Early in the morning of the 
6th, the attacking forces were ready for the 
onset. The besieged were also prepared, and 
at the first assault, made a terrible slaughter 
with the artillery and rifles, while they re¬ 
mained practically unharmed. At first the 
Mexicans were unable to scale the outer walls, 
and were repulsed several times, always with 
terrible loss. Again the stormers returned to 
the attack, and it was only on account of su¬ 
perior numbers that they at length gained an 
entrance to the wall. Col. Travis was killed, 
and the small amount of ammunition made it 
impossible to keep up the artillery firing. The 
outer walls were abandoned and the defenders 
retired to the long barracks and the church. 
They kept up the firing as well as they could 
through the windows and loopholes, but the 
Mexicans, having now gotten control of the 
Alamo artillery, made short work of destroy¬ 
ing the retreats of the defenders. Then fol¬ 
lowed a sharp hand-to-hand conflict, as the 



















Alamo 


Alaska 


defenders retired from one room to another. 
At length crowded into the church, the few 
remaining men, among whom were David 
Crockett, made a determined stand and turned 
the gun which was mounted on the church, 
against the Mexicans. Their superior num¬ 
bers, however, soon overcame the remainder 
of the defenders, and the last of the Texan 
heroes was slain. In less than an hour after 
the bugle call to the assault, the Alamo was 
in the possession of the Mexicans. Six of 
those who were besieged in the Alamo were 
spared, three of whom were women, two chil¬ 
dren, and Col. Travis’s negro servant-boy. 
The Texans were denied the right of burial. 
Their bodies were piled in layers between 
wood and dry brush, and set on fire. The 
loss to the Mexican forces is estimated at 
1,600 men. In consequence of the heroic re¬ 
sistance made at this place, the Alamo is 
known as the “Thermopylae of America.’’ 
Throughout the struggle for Texan independ¬ 
ence, the battle cry was, “Remember the 
Alamo.” 

Al'amo, a town of Mexico, state of Sonora, 
well built, the capital of a mining district. 
Pop. 12,000. 

Aland (o'land) Islands, a numerous group of 
islands and islets, belonging to Russia, situated 
in the Baltic Sea, near the mouth of the Gulf 
of Finland. Area 468 sq. mi. The fortress of 
Bomarsund was destroyed by an Anglo-French 
force in August, 1854. The islands were ceded 
by Sweden to Russia in 1809. Pop. 18,000. 

Alarcon' Y Mendo'za, Don Juan Ruiz de, 
one of the most distinguished dramatic poets 
of Spain, born in Mexico about the beginning 
of the seventeenth century. He came to 
Europe about 1622, and in 1628 he published a 
volume containing eight comedies, and in 1634 
another containing twelve. One of them 
called La Verdad Sospechosa (The Truth Sus¬ 
pected), furnished Corneille with the ground¬ 
work and greater part of the substance of his 
Menteur. His Tejador de Segovia (Weaver of 
Segovia) and Las Paredes Oyen (Walls have Ears) 
are still performed on the Spanish stage. He 
died in 1639. 

Al'aric 1 (376-410), a famous Yisigothic war¬ 
rior. In 394 Theodosius gave him the com¬ 
mand of his Gothic auxiliaries. In 396 he in¬ 
vaded and pillaged Greece, from which, 
when pressed by Stilicho (397), he made a 
masterly retreat to Illyria. In 400 he invaded 
Italy, but sustained a defeat from Stilicho at 
Pollentia (403). A. made a second invasion of 
Italy, memorable for three sieges of Rome. 
The first (408) was bought off, but the second 
(409) resulted in the surrender of the city, and 
the substitution of Attalus for Honorius. The 
incapacity of Attalus induced A. to restore 
Honorius. Rome was besieged for the third 
time, 410, and sacked for six days. A. in¬ 
tended to invade Sicily and Africa, but dying 
at Cosenza, he was buried in the bed of the 
Busento. A. was naturally generous, and it 
was owing to him that the splendid edifices of 
Greece and Rome suffered so little damage 
during his invasions. The most lasting effect 


of his inroads on the Western Empire was the 
establishment of the Yisigothic Empire ki 
Spain by the warriors whom he left behind 
him. 

Al'aric II, eighth king of the Yisigoths, suc¬ 
ceeded his father in a. d. 484. He preferred 
peace to war, and, though an Arian, granted 
privileges to the Catholics. In a battle at 
Vouille, near Poitiers, the army of A. was de¬ 
feated, and himself slain (507). 

Alaska, formerly Russian America, a terri¬ 
tory of the U. S., is a vast tract of country 
forming the northwest portion of North Amer¬ 
ica. Alaska comprises the whole of North 
America from 141° w. long, to Behring Strait, 
and also numerous islands along the coast, 
notably Prince of Wales Island, King George 
III Archipelago, the Kodiak Islands, and the 
Aleutian Islands, which stretch seaward from 
the extremity of the peninsula. From north to 
south the extreme length of Alaska is about 
1,100 miles, and the greatest breadth from east 
to west is 800 miles. The area of the whole 
territory is 590,884 sq. mi. 

The numerous islands, creeks, and inlets of 
Alaska lengthen out its coast line to 7,860 
miles, ah extent greater than that of the 
eastern coast line of the U. S. The principal 
river of Alaska is the Yukon. At a distance 
of 600 miles from the sea this magnificent 
river has a width of more than a mile, and has 
many large tributaries. Its volume is so great 
that 10 miles out from its principal mouth the 
water is fresh. A great mountain range ex¬ 
tends from British Columbia, in a northwest 
direction, along the coast of Alaska, the sum¬ 
mit being covered with snow and glaciers. 
The Muir Glacier, the largest in the world, is 
situated here. Professor John Muir, after 
whom the glacier is named, was the first to 
describe it. It is as large as all the Alpine 
glaciers in one, being 1,200 sq. mi. in area. 
Where it discharges into the sea, it presents a 
wall of blue ice exceeding 500 feet in thickness. 
This river of ice, with its numerous branches, 
is 150 mi. in length, and varying from one to 
a dozen miles in width. It is continuously 
discharging icebergs, small and large, some 
containing hundreds of tons of ice, the fall of 
which into the sea casts up spray for hundreds 
of feet into the air. The Muir Glacier is esti¬ 
mated to discharge 77 billion cubic feet of ice 
in icebergs, and 175 billion cubic feet of water 
by melting every year. In the interior and to 
the north the country is mountainous, with 
great intervening plains. 

The northwest coast of this part of America 
was discovered and explored by a Russian ex¬ 
pedition under Behring in 1741; and at subse¬ 
quent periods settlements were made by the 
Russians at various places, chiefly for the 
prosecution of the fur trade. In 1799 the ter¬ 
ritory was granted to a Russo-American fur 
company by the Emperor Paul VIII, and in 
1839 the charter of the company was renewed. 
New Archangel was the principal settlement, 
but the company had about forty stations. 
They exported annually 25,000 skins of the 
seal, sea-otter, beaver, etc., besides about 20,000 


Alaska Boundary 


Alaska Boundary 


sea-horse teeth. The privileges of the com¬ 
pany expired in 1803; and in 1867 the whole 
Russian possessions in America were ceded to 
the U. S. for a money payment of $7,200,000. 
The treaty was signed March 30, and ratified 
June 20, 1807; and on October 9, following, 
the possession of the country was formally 
made over to a military force of the U. S. at 
New Archangel. 

The climate on the southwestern coast of 
Alaska is tolerably mild considering its high 
latitude. The great warm current of the Pa¬ 
cific, sweeping in a northeasterly circuit from 
the East India Islands, and corresponding very 
much in character and effects to the Gulf 
Stream of the Atlantic, washes its shores; and 
while it modifies the temperature, also causes 
an excessive rainfall. At Sitka the mean tem¬ 
perature is 42.9°, and the average rainfall about 
80 inches. Alaska will never have any great 
agricultural value. From the great amount 
of rain and the want of heat, cereals grow, but 
will not ripen, and vegetables do not thrive. 
Native grasses and berries grow plentifully, 
but the chief wealth of the country is in its vast 
forests, in its gold and coal mines, in the furs 
of its wild animals, and in the fish with which 
its rivers and seas abound. The forests, rising 
from the coast and covering the mountains to 
a height of 2,000 feet, consist of a very dura¬ 
ble yellow cedar, spruce, larch, and fir of great 
size, and also cypress and hemlock. The wild 
animals include the elk, the deer, and various 
species of bear, and also many fur-bearing ani¬ 
mals, such as the wolf and fox, the beaver, er¬ 
mine, marten, otter, and squirrel. Near the 
coast and islands there are innumerable fur¬ 
bearing seals, which are caught in great num¬ 
bers by the settlers; but from the rigor of the 
climate and the arduous nature of the work, 
the trapping of the animals of the interior is 
left to the Indians. The salmon abounds in 
the rivers, and there are great banks along the 
shores, the favorite haunt of cod and other fish. 
About eighty whalers prosecute their fishing 
off the coast of Alaska. Coal, iron, and gold 
are the most important minerals. Gold in 
great quantities was discovered at Cape Nome 
on the west coast of Alaska in 1898. See Cape 
Nome Cold Fields. 

The population in 1900 was 63,592. Sitka is 
the headquarters of the U. S. authorities. It 
has 1,396 inhabitants, is the residence of a 
Greek bishop, and has fortifications, maga¬ 
zines, and a magnetic observatory. Nome, at 
Cape Nome, is the largest town in Alaska with 
12,486 inhabitants. 

Alaska Boundary Question. —The Alaskan 
boundary has been a subject of dispute for 
over three-quarters of a century, at first be- 
tween.Russia and Great Britain, and latterly 
between Great Britain and the United States. 
It was thought to have been definitely settled 
by the treaty of 1825 between Russia and Great 
Britain, but the discoveries of gold in the Klon¬ 
dike region drew the attention of the Cana¬ 
dians to that part of the Dominion. 

As this question in itself is of so much 
importance, and as so much is dependent upon 


its settlement, it is necessary to go into the 
history of the boundary line and the previous 
controversies concerning it. 

A joint high British-American commission 
met in Quebec, Canada, in August, 1898,to at¬ 
tempt to draw a treaty which would settle and 
dispose of all the questions in controversy be¬ 
tween Canada and the United States. This 
commission resulted from negotiations which 
were begun in Washington in May, 1898. It 
was agreed between the British ambassador, Sir 
Julian Pauncefote, and the Canadian minister 
of marine and fisheries, Sir Louis H. Davies, 
representing Great Britain and Canada on the 
one hand, and ex-Secretary of State John W. 
Foster and John A. Kasson, reciprocity com¬ 
missioner, representing the United States, on 
the other, that a joint commission should be 
created, the members of which to be appointed 
by the executive branches of the two govern¬ 
ments. 

The members of the commission were as 
follows: American — Charles W. Fairbanks, of 
Indiana, United States senator; Charles J. 
Faulkner, of West Virginia, United States 
senator; Nelson Dingley, of Maine, member of 
the house of representatives; John A. Kasson, 
of Iowa, United States reciprocity commis¬ 
sioner; John W. Foster, of the District of 
Columbia; andT. Jefferson Coolidge, of Massa¬ 
chusetts. British — Baron Herschel, lord high 
chancellor of England; Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 
G. C. M. G., premier of Canada; Sir Richard 
Cartwright, K. C. M. G., Canadian minister of 
trade and commerce; Sir Louis Henry Davies, 
Canadian minister of marine and fisheries; 
Sir James T. Winter, premier of Newfound¬ 
land. 

The principal questions for the consideration 
of the commission were as follows: — 

The questions in respect to the fur seals in 
Bering Sea and the waters of the North Pacific 
Ocean. 

Provisions in respect to fisheries off the At¬ 
lantic and Pacific coasts and in the waters of 
their common frontiers. 

Provisions for the delimitation and establish¬ 
ment of the Alaska-Canadian boundary by 
legal and scientific experts, if the commission 
shall so decide, or otherwise. 

Provisions for the transit of merchandise in 
transportation to or from either country, 
across intermediate territory of the other, 
whether by land or water, including natural 
and artificial waterways and intermediate 
transit by sea. 

Provisions relating to the transit of mer¬ 
chandise from one country to be delivered at 
points in the other beyond the frontier. 

The question relating to the alien labor 
laws, applicable to the citizens or subjects of 
the United States and Canada. 

Mining rights of the citizens or subjects of 
each country within the territory of the other. 

Such readjustment and concessions as m?,y 
be deemed mutually advantageous of customs 
duties applicable in each country to the crod- 
ucts of the soil or industry of the other, upon 
the basis of reciprocal equivalents. 


Alaska Boundary 

A revision of the agreement of 1817 respect¬ 
ing naval vessels on the Great Lakes. 

Provisions for the conveyance for trial or 
punishment of persons in the lawful custody 
of the officers of one country through the ter¬ 
ritory of the other. 

Reciprocity in wrecking and salvage rights. 


Alaska Boundary 

boundary.” In regard to this part of the 
negotiations, the statement was as follows: — 
“The difficulties, apart from the immediate 
delimitation of this boundary by the commis¬ 
sion itself, arose from the conditions under 
which it might be referred to arbitration. 
The British commissioners desired that the 



The commission adjourned February 20, 
1890, to meet again in August, unless another 
date should be agreed upon later. The several 
questions mentioned before were discussed, 
and it was reported that the commission had 
reached an agreement upon some of the minor 
ones. When the commission adjourned, the 
only official statement as to the proceedings 
was to the effect that “substantial progress” 
had been made, but that they were “unable 
to agree upon a settlement of the Alaskan 


whole question should be referred on terms 
similar to those provided in the reference of 
the Venezuelan boundary line, and which, by 
providing an umpire, would insure certainty 
and finality. The United States commission¬ 
ers, on the other hand, thought the local con¬ 
ditions in Alaska so different, that some 
modification of the Venezuela boundary ref¬ 
erence should be introduced. They thought 
the reference should be made to six eminent 
jurists, three chosen by each of the high con- 








































Alaska Boundary 

tracting parties, without providing for an 
umpire, they believing that finality would 
be secured by a majority vote of the jurists 
so chosen. 

“ They did not see any prospect of agreeing 
to a European umpire, to be selected in the 
manner proposed by the British commissioners, 
while the British commissioners were unwill¬ 
ing to agree to the selection of an American 
umpire in the manner suggested by the United 
States commissioners. The United States com¬ 
missioners further contended that special 
stipulations should be made in any reference 
to arbitration, that the existing settlements 
on the tide waters of the coast should in any 
event continue to belong to the United States. 
To this contention the British commissioners 
refused to agree.” 

As the joint high commission did not come 
together again in August, 1899, nor, in fact, 
has it convened since, it is evident that all the 
questions hang upon the settlement of the 
Alaska boundary. To understand the ques¬ 
tion, it is necessary to go back to the Russo- 
British treaty of 1825. 

The Modus Vivendi .— A temporary boundary 
line was established in October, 1899, by the 
foreign offices of the United States and Great 
Britain, acting independently of the joint high 
commission. This line is intended to avoid 
any trouble in the ‘‘existing settlements on 
the tide waters of the coast,” mentioned in 
the paragraph before, these settlements being 
Dyea and Skaguay, which are situated at the 
head of Lynn Canal. These two ports prac¬ 
tically control the most frequented routes to 
the Klondike gold fields. The accompanying 
map shows the line established by the modus 
vivendi, with the line extended at either end to 
meet the boundary line which has always been 
claimed by the United States. The provisional 
line does not give Canada a port on Lynn 
Canal, and at the same time it retains for the 
United States all of the towns and villages of 
the Porcupine River region, lying south of 
Klukwan and west of Pyramid Harbor, which 
is supposed to be rich in gold. 

The text of the modus vivendi is as follows: — 

“It is hereby agreed between the govern¬ 
ments of the United States and Great Britain 
that the boundary line between Canada and 
the territory of Alaska in the region about the 
head of Lynn Canal shall be provisionally 
fixed, without prejudice to the claims of either 
party in the permanent adjustment of the in¬ 
ternational boundary, as follows: — 

“In the region of the Dalton trail, a line be¬ 
ginning at the peak west of Porcupine Creek, 
marked on the map No. 10 of the United 
States Commission, December 31, 1895, and on 
sheet No. 18 of the British Commission, De¬ 
cember 31,1895, with the number 6,500; thence 
running to the Klehini (or Klaheela) River in 
the direction of the peak north of that river 
marked 5,020 on the aforesaid United States 
map and 5,025 on the aforesaid British map; 
thence following the high or right bank of the 
said Klehini River to the junction thereof with 
the Chilkat River, a mile and a half, more or 


Alaska Boundary 

less, north of Klukwan; provided that persons 
proceeding to or from Porcupine Creek shall 
be freely permitted to follow the trail between 
the said creek and the said junction of the riv¬ 
ers, into and across the territory on the Cana¬ 
dian side of the temporary line wherever the 
trail crosses to such side, and, subject to such 
reasonable regulations for the protection of the 
revenue as the Canadian government may pre¬ 
scribe, to carry with them over such part or 
parts of the trail between the said points as 
may lie on the Canadian side of the temporary 
line such goods and articles as they desire with¬ 
out being required to pay any customs duties 
on such goods and articles, and from said junc¬ 
tion to the summit of the peak east of the Chil- 
kat River, marked on the aforesaid map No. 10 
of the United States Commission with the num¬ 
ber 5,410, and on the map No. 17 of the afore¬ 
said British Commission, with the number 
5,490. 

“ On the Dyea and Skaguay trails, the sum¬ 
mits of the Chilkoot and White passes. 

“It is understood, as formerly set forth in 
communications of the Department of State 
of the United States, that the citizens who are 
subjects to either power found by this arrange¬ 
ment within the temporary jurisdiction of the 
other shall suffer no diminution of the rights 
and privileges which they now enjoy. 

“ The government of the United States will 
at once appoint an officer or officers, in con¬ 
junction with the officer or officers to be named 
by the government of Her Britannic Majesty, 
to mark the temporary line agreed upon by the 
erection of posts, stakes, or other appropriate 
temporary marks.” 

The accompanying map shows the general 
line claimed by the Canadian commissioners, 
for the entire distance from the 141st meridian 
to the southern extremity of Alaska. A prop¬ 
osition from Canada for a permanent settle¬ 
ment of the boundary question was delivered 
to Ambassador Choate in London, October 24, 
1899, after the modus vivendi had been agreed 
upon. It was as follows: — 

“ That the boundary line be arbitrated upon 
terms similar to those imposed by the United 
States and Great Britian over Venezuela, par¬ 
ticularly those provisions making fifty years’ 
occupancy by either side conclusive evidence 
of title; occupancy of less than that period to 
be taken as equity allows under international 
law. 

“That as a condition precedent to and abso¬ 
lutely preliminary to arbitration, Skaguay and 
Dyea would be conceded to the United States 
without further claim if Canada received Pyra¬ 
mid Harbor.” 

By this arrangement Canada would relin¬ 
quish much of the territory which she claims 
as her right, demanding as a quid pro quo a 
harbor, but insists upon this concession before 
agreeing to arbitration of the boundary. Noth¬ 
ing came of this proposition. 

The whole discussion hinges upon the inter¬ 
pretation of the language of the treaty of 1825 
between Great Britain and Russia, which at¬ 
tempted to settle the boundary line between 


Alaska Boundary 


Alaska Boundary 


Alaska and British America. We quote in full 
the two articles of that treaty referring to the 
boundary line, and present the principal argu¬ 
ments of both sides. 

The treaty of 1825 defines the boundary as 
follows:.— 

“Article III.— The line of demarcation be¬ 
tween the possessions of the high contracting 
parties, upon the coast of the continent and 
the islands of America to the northwest, shall 
be drawn in the manner following: Commenc¬ 
ing from the southmost point of the island 
called the Prince of Wales Island, which point 
lies in the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, 
and between the 131st and 133d degree of west 
longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said 
line shall ascend to the north, along the chan¬ 
nel called the Portland Channel, as far as the 
point of the continent where it strikes the 56th 
degree of north latitude; from this last men¬ 
tioned point the line of demarcation shall fol¬ 
low the summit of the mountains situated 
parallel to the coast, as far as the point of 
intersection of the 141st degree of west longi¬ 
tude (of the same meridian), and finally from 
the said point of intersection, the said meridian 
line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as 
far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit 
between the Russian and British possessions 
of the continent of America to the northwest. 

“Article IV.— With reference to the line 
of demarcation laid down in the preceding 
article, it is understood, —first: That the island 
called the Prince of Wales Island shall belong 
wholly to Russia. Second: That wherever the 
summit of the mountains, which extend paral¬ 
lel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north 
latitude to the point of intersection of the 
141st degree, shall prove to be at the distance 
of more than ten marine leagues from the 
ocean, the limit between the British possessions 
and the line of coast which is to belong to 
Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed 
by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, 
which shall never exceed the distance of ten 
marine leagues therefrom.” 

As no detailed reports of the sessions of the 
joint high commission were published, it is 
impossible to give the line of argument of the 
Canadian commissioners at those sessions, but 
the Canadian case has been clearly stated by 
Hon. David Mills, Canadian minister of jus¬ 
tice, as follows:— 

“Under the treaty of 1825, the line drawn 
between the recognized territory of Russia 
and Great Britain was begun at the southeast 
of Prince of Wales Island, and from that point 
was to ascend north along the channel called 
Portland Channel. This could hardly be the 
channel called Portland Channel in modern 
maps, because Portland Channel of this day 
lies due east from the southern extremity of 
Prince of Wales Island, a distance of 130 
miles. 

“The line was to ascend the channel to a 
point on the coast, on the 56th degree of north 
latitude. Now, what is known as Portland 
Channel falls far short of that point. The 
line was also to extend north in such a way 


as to leave Prince of Wales Island to Russia. 
If the boundary started from the southern 
extremity of Prince of Wales Island and ran 
due east, it would have left the whole of the 
island to Russia, but if drawn north from the 
south extremity, it would have cut off a small 
portion of the southeastern end of the island. 

“ So the treaty would indicate a line drawn 
up that channel which is east of Prince of 
Wales Island, to the 56th degree of north lati¬ 
tude, a point which could not be reached by 
what is now known as Portland Channel. So 
you see the initial point of the boundary is in 
controversy. 

“The boundary, when it reached the 56th 
degree, was to follow the summit of the moun¬ 
tains, which extend in a line parallel to the 
coast from the 56th degree to the intersection 
with the 141st parallel; but when the moun¬ 
tains prove to be more than ten marine leagues 
from the coast, the limit between the British 
possessions and the coast was to be a line 
‘parallel to the windings of the coast,’ but 
which should never exceed a distance of ten 
marine leagues. It is clear that the makers 
of the treaty assumed that there was a moun¬ 
tain range which, for the most part, was 
within ten marine leagues of the coast. 

“ The treaty also provides that neither con¬ 
tracting party shall form settlements within 
the territory of the other. The United States 
received all the rights of Russia, and no more. 
But the United States authorities seem to 
think that not only have they the right to form 
settlements on our side, but also that when 
they do so, the territory ought to be considered 
as theirs, and under no reference to arbitration 
should the sovereignty over our territory, tipis 
encroached on, be open to arbitration. 

“I return again to Lynn Canal. Bear in 
mind what the treaty says about the line, 
which should ‘follow the coast,’ being within 
ten marine leagues of it. If a line were drawn 
around the head of Lynn inlet, as the United 
States contends it should be, the point where 
it passed that inlet would be at least twenty 
leagues from the coast. There is a well de-' 
fined coast line from the 141st meridian to 
Cape Spencer, on the 57th degree of north lat¬ 
itude, and by the terms of the treaty the 
boundary could not be more than ten leagues 
from the coast. It must, in fact, be much 
nearer, because the range in this latitude sets 
in near the coast. 

“ The United States refuses to arbitrate un¬ 
less we abandon our claim to the Lynn Canal. 

. . . The British commissioners offered to 
compromise. The United States rejected the 
offer, because it recognized our claim to Pyra¬ 
mid Harbor and a strip of territory leading 
therefrom to what is indisputably our territory 
in the Yukon. Under this compromise the 
United States would have held both Dyea and 
Skaguay, which we think are in Canadian ter¬ 
ritory.” 

Of course the contention of the United 
States is based solely upon the Russo-British 
treaty of 1825, as this government acquired 
what Russia owned, no more and no less. For- 


Alaska Boundary 


Alba 


tunately the correspondence relating to this 
treaty between Russia and Great Britain in 
the two years preceding the adoption of the 
treaty of 1825 has been published by the Brit¬ 
ish Foreign Office. 

In regard to the British claim that Behm 
Canal is what was then known as Portland 
Canal it appears that the contention is not 
well founded. The Russian prime minister 
contended that Prince of Wales Island would 
be useless if it had no protection from the 
mainland, as it would not have if English set¬ 
tlements were made on the coast opposite. 
Portland Canal, however, is described as “at 
the height of Prince of Wales Island,” or the 
mouth of the canal was opposite the southern 
extremity of Prince of Wales Island. It seems 
clear that Portland Canal as it is known to-day 
was the inlet intended by the treaty of 1825. 

In the second point, that the line should fol¬ 
low the crest of the mountains near the coast, 
Great Britain has no case, as it is now known 
that there is no range of mountains near the 
coast, but only some isolated groups; a few 
minor ranges run at right angles to the coast. 
The language of the treaty implies that a 
range of mountains runs parallel to the coast, 
but since such a range does not exist, the ot her 
determining clause—“the limit between the 
British possessions and the line of coast which 
is to belong to Russia as above mentioned shall 
be formed by a line parallel to the windings 
(sinuosities) of the coast, and which shall never 
exceed the distance of ten marine leagues there¬ 
from ” — should prevail. 

The British contend that the ten marine 
leagues should be measured from the outer 
coast line of the islands and not from the 
coast of the mainland. This position is unten¬ 
able because a line so drawn would not, in 
many instances, reach the mainland at all, and 
would divide islands between the two powers. 
All the correspondence referred to before, shows 
that such a thing could not have been thought 
of. The islands were Russia’s, and she con¬ 
tended that they would be practically useless, 
or even a burden, if she could not protect them 
by a strip of the mainland. 

For the same reason Russia insisted that the 
line should follow the sinuosities of the coast. 
Russia did not want Britain to have any access 
to the coast near the Russian possessions. If the 
inlets were cut across at or near their mouths, 
the purpose of Russia would have been defeated, 
for an outlet would have been afforded the 
British at the head of one or more inlets. A 
good example may be noted on the accompany¬ 
ing map: Lynn Canal extends inward more 
than ten marine leagues, and if the boundary 
was ten leagues from the general coast line 
and not the coast of the canal itself, the Brit¬ 
ish would have a free port at Pyramid Har¬ 
bor. It is further shown that Russia insisted 
upon all these points, and would consent to no 
other, with the result that the British finally 
yielded. The Russian minister, Count Nes¬ 
selrode, said: “Russia, when she insists upon 
the reservation of a medium space of terra 
firma, does not insist upon it for any value it 


has, but in order not to lose the surrounding 
isles. We do not seek any advantage; v,e 
would avoid grave inconvenience.” Since the 
country has become valuable from the dis¬ 
covery of gold, a new feature is added to the 
case. 

It has been announced that the joint com¬ 
mission will again take up the question and try 
to reach an agreement. 

Alba, the name of several towns in ancient 
Italy, the most celebrated of which was Alba 
Longa, a city of Latium, according to tradition 
built by Ascanius, the son of vEneas, 300 years 
before the foundation of Rome, at one time 
the most powerful city of Latium. In later 
times its site became covered with villas of 
wealthy Romans. 

Albani (al-ba' ne), Francesco (1578-1660), 
a famous Italian painter. Among the best 
known of his compositions are the Sleeping 
Venus, Diana in the Bath, Danae Reclining , 
Galatea on the Sea, Europa on the Bull. 

Albani, Mme. (Marie Emma Lajeunesse), 
born in Montreal, Canada, in 1851. She sang 
in Albany, N. Y., in the Catholic cathedral, 
and funds were procured to send her to Europe 
to complete her musical education. She sang 
in 1870 at Messina, Sicily, and adopted the 
name of Albani in remembrance of the city of 
Albany. Mme. Albani has sung in opera in 
London, Florence, St. Petersburg, and all the 
principal cities of this country. In 1889, she 
took partin the historic operatic season at the 
Chicago Auditorium. She died in 1894. 

Alba'nia, an extensive region in the s. w. 
of Turkey in Europe, stretching along the 
coast of the Adriatic for about 290 mi., and 
having a breadth varying from about 90 to 
about 50 mi. Albania has many species of 
oak, the poplar, hazel, plane, chestnut, cypress, 
and laurel. The vine flourishes, together 
with the orange, almond, fig, mulberry, and 
citron; maize, wheat and barley are cultivated. 
Its fauna comprises bears, wolves, and chamois; 
sheep, goats, horses, asses, and mules are 
plentiful. The chief exports are live stock 
wool, hides, timber, oil, salt-fish, cheese, anc 
tobacco. The chief ports are Prevesa, Avlona, 
and Durazzo. The population, about 1,400,- 
000, consists chiefly of Albanians, or, as they 
call themselves, mountaineers, with a certain 
number of Greeks and Turks. They are only 
half civilized, are divided into a number of 
clans, and bloody feuds are still common 
among them. They belong partly to the 
Greek, partly to the Roman Catholic Church, 
but the great majority are Mohammedans. 
Though their country became a province of 
the Turkish dominions in the fifteenth century, 
they still maintain a certain degree of in¬ 
dependence, Avhich the Porte has never found 
it possible to overcome. 

Alba'no, a city and lake in Italy, the former 
about 15 mi. s. e. of Rome, and on the west 
border of the lake, amid beautiful scenery, 
with remarkable remains of ancient structures. 
Pop. 6,493.—The lake, situated immediately 
beneath the Alban Hill, is of an oval form, 6 
mi. in circumference, surrounded by steep 


Albany 

banks of volcanic tufa, 300 or 400 feet high, 
and discharges its superfluous waters by an 
artificial tunnel at least 2,000 years old. 

Al'bany, the original Celtic name probably 
at first applied to the whole of Britain, but 
latterly restricted to the Highlands of Scot¬ 
land. It gave the title of duke formerly to 
a prince of the blood-royal of Scotland. 
Latterly the title has belonged to members 
of the British royal family. 

Al'bany, capital of the state of New York, 
145 miles north of New York City. The Erie 
Canal and the numerous railway lines center¬ 
ing here from all directions greatly contribute 
to the growth and prosperity of The city, 
which carries on an extensive trade. It is a 
great mart for timber, and has foundries, 
breweries, tanneries, etc. Albany was settled 
by the Dutch in 1610-14, and the older houses 
are in the Dutch style, with the gable-ends 
to the streets. There is a university, an ob¬ 
servatory, and a state library with 90,000 
volumes. The principal public edifices are 
the capitol, or state-house, the state-hall for 
the public offices, a state arsenal, and numer¬ 
ous religious edifices. Pop. 94,151. 

Albatross, a large marine swimming bird of 
several species, of which the wandering 
albatross is the best known. The bill is straight 
and strong, the upper mandible hooked at the 
point and the lower one truncated; there are 
three webbed toes on each foot. The upper 
part of the body is of a grayish brown, and the 



Wandering Albatross. 


belly white. It is the largest sea-bird known, 
some measuring 17£ feet from tip to tip of their 
expanded wings. They abound at the Cape 
of Good Hope and in other i>arts of the southern 
seas, and in Behring’s Straits, and have been 
known to accompany ships for whole days 
without ever resting on the waves. The 
albatross is met with at great distances from 
the land, settling down on the waves at night 
to sleep. It is exceedingly voracious when¬ 
ever food is abundant,gorging to such a degree 
as to be unable to fly or swim. It feeds on 
fish, carrion, fish-spawn, oceanic mollusca, and 
other small marine animals. Its voice is a 
harsh, disagreeable cry. Its eggs are larger 


Albigenses 

than those of a goose. It lays but one egg, 
on the ground, where it makes a kind of 
nest by scraping the earth around it. The 
young is entirely white, and covered with a 
woolly down, which is very beautiful. 

Albay (al-bi'), a province, town, bay, and 
volcano in the southeast part of the island of 
LU 9011 , one of the Phillippines. The province 
is mountainous but fertile; the town regularly 
built, with a population of 13,115; the bay 
capacious, secure, and almost landlocked; and 
the volcano, which is always in activity, forms 
a conspicuous landmark. 

Albert, king of Saxony, b. 1828, succeeded to 
the throne 1873. He married Caroline, Prin¬ 
cess Vasa, of Sweden in 1853. He supported 
Prussia in the war with France, 1870-71, and 
was made a field-marshal in the German Army. 

Albert Edward. See Edward VII. 

AI'bert, Francis-Augustus-Charles-Em- 
manuel, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, late 
Consort of Queen Victoria, of England, was the 
second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha, b. 1819. In 1840 he became the hus¬ 
band of the queen of England. The name of 
Prince A. will ever be remembered as that of 
a true friend of progress and the people. He 
was an earnest promoter of science and art, 
and was the first to suggest the International 
Exhibition of 1851. The manner in which he 
filled his somewhat anomalous position as the 
Queen’s consort was marked by the greatest 
sagacity and tact. His death, Dec. 14, 1861, 
caused the most profound grief throughout the 
world. A collection of the speeches of Prince 
A. was published soon after his death. 

Alber'ta, one of the districts of the North¬ 
west Territories of Canada, having Assiniboia 
and Saskatchewan on the east,British Columbia 
on the west, the U. S. on the south, and Atha¬ 
basca on the north. Area 106,500 sq. mi.; pop. 
15,533. It is a fertile grassy region with trees 
in the river valleys; coal is abundant. Capital, 
Calgary. 

Albert Nyan'za, a lake of Africa, one of the 
head-waters of the Nile. It abounds with fish, 
and its shores are infested with crocodiles 
and hippopotami. It receives the Victoria 
Nile from the Victoria Nyanza, and the White 
Nile issues from its northern extremity. 

Albigenses (al-bi-jen'sez), a sect which 
spread widely in the south of France and else¬ 
where about the twelfth century, and which 
differed in doctrine and practise from the 
Roman Catholic Church, by which they were 
subjected to severe persecution. They are 
said to have been so named from the district 
Albi, where, and about Toulouse, Narbonne, 
etc., they were numerous. A crusade was begun 
against them and Count Raymond VI of Tou¬ 
louse, for tolerating them, in 1209, the army of 
the cross being called together by Pope Innocent 
III. Simon de Montfort, the military leader of 
the crusade, was severe toward other places in 
the territory of Raymond and his allies. When 
hundreds of thousands had fallen on both sides, 
a peace was made in 1229, by which Raymond 
was obliged to cede Narbonne with other terri¬ 
tories to Louis IX, and make his son-in-law, a 



Albina 

brother of Louis, his heir. The heretics were 
now delivered up to the proselytizing Domini¬ 
cans, and to the Inquisition, and they dis¬ 
appeared after the middle of the thirteenth 
century. With them the language and poetry 
of the Troubadours became also extinct. 

Albinos (al-bi'noz), the name given to those 
persons from whose skin, hair, and eyes, in 
consequence of some defect in their organiza¬ 
tion, the dark coloring matter is absent. The 
skin of albinos, therefore, whether they belong 
to the white, Indian, or negro races, is of a 
uniform pale milky color, their hair is white, 
while the iris of their eyes is pale rose color, 
and the pupil intensely red, the absence of the 
dark pigment allowing the multitude of blood¬ 
vessels in these parts of the eye to be seen. 
For the same reason their eyes are not well 
suited to endure the bright light of day, and 
they see best in shade or by moonlight. The 
peculiarity of albinism is always born with the 
individual, and is not confined to the human 
race, having been observed also in horses, rab¬ 
bits, rats, mice, etc., birds (white crows or 
black-birds are not particularly uncommon), 
and fishes. 

Al'bion, the earliest name by which the 
island of Great Britain was known, employed 
by Aristotle, and in poetry still used for Great 
Britain. The same word as Albany , Albyn. 

Albuera (al-bu-a'ra), a village of Spain, in 
Estremadura, 12 mi. s. s. e. of Badajoz. A 
battle was fought here, May 16, 1811, be¬ 
tween the army of Marshal Beresford (30,000) 
and that of Marshal Soult (25,000), when the 
latter was obliged to retreat to Seville, leaving 
Badajoz to fall into the hands of the allies. 

Albu'men (or Albumin), a substance, or 
rather, group of substances, so named from the 
Latin for the white of an egg, which is one of 
its most abundant known forms. It may be 
taken as the type of the protein compounds or 
the nitrogenous class of food stuffs. One va¬ 
riety enters largely into the composition of 
the animal fluids and solids, is coagulable by 
heat at and above 160°, and is composed of 
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, with 
a little sulphur. It abounds in the serum of 
the blood, the vitreous and crystalline hu¬ 
mors of the eye, the fluid of dropsy, the sub¬ 
stance called coagulable lymph, in nutritive 
matters, the juice of flesh, etc. The blood 
contains about 7 per cent, of albumen. An¬ 
other variety called vegetable albumen exists 
in most vegetable juices and many seeds, and 
has nearly the same composition and proper¬ 
ties as egg albumen. When albumen coag¬ 
ulates in any fluid it readily encloses any 
substances that may be suspended in the 
fluid. Hence it is used to clarify syrupy liq¬ 
uors. In cookery white of eggs is employed 
for clarifying, but in large operations like 
sugar-refining the serum of blood is used. 
From its being coagulable by various salts, 
and especially by corrosive sublimate, with 
which it forms an insoluble compound, white 
of egg is a convenient antidote in cases of 
poisoning by that substance. With lime it 
forms a cement to mend broken ware. 


Alchemy 

In botany the name albumen is given to the 
farinaceous matter which surrounds the em¬ 
bryo, the term in this case having no reference 
to chemical composition. It constitutes the 
meat of the cocoanut, the flour or meal of 
cereals, the roasted part of coffee, etc. 

Albuquerque (al-bu-kerk'a), Alfonso de 
(1452-1515), an eminent Portuguese admiral. 
His career was extremely successful, he hav¬ 
ing extended the Portuguese power over Mala¬ 
bar, Ceylon, the Sunda Islands, and the 
Peninsula of Malacca, and made the Portu¬ 
guese name respected by all the nations and 
princes of India. 

Albuquerque, Bernalillo co., N. M., on Rio 
Grande River, 528 mi. s. of Denver. Rail¬ 
roads, Atlantic & Pacific and A. T. & S. F. 
Industries — two flouring mills, iron foundry, 
ice factory, stamp mill, and a wool-scouring 
plant, and railroad machine shops. Surround¬ 
ing country, agricultural and mineral. The 
town was first settled in 1880 and became a 
city in 1892. Pop. 1900, 6,238. 

Albur' num, the soft white substance which, 
in trees, is found between the liber or inner 
bark and the wood, and, in progress of time ac¬ 
quiring solidity, becomes itself the wood. A 
new layer of wood, or rather of alburnum, is 
added annually to the tree in every part just 
under the bark. 

Alcaeus, one of the greatest Grecian lyric 
poets, was born at Mitylene, in Lesbos, and 
flourished there at the close of the seventh 
and beginning of the sixth centuries b. c.; 
but of his life little is known. A strong manly 
enthusiasm for freedom and justice pervades 
his lyrics, of which only a few fragments are 
left. He wrote in the JEolic dialect, and was 
the inventor of a meter that bears his name, 
which Horace has employed in many of his 
odes. 

Alcala'de Henares (en-a'res), a beautiful 
city of Spain, 16 mi. e. n. e. of Madrid. It 
has an imposing appearance when seen from 
some distance, but on nearer inspection is 
found to be in a state of decay. There was 
formerly a university here, at one time at¬ 
tended by 10,000 students; but in 1836 it was 
removed with its library to Madrid. Cervantes 
was born here. Pop. 12,317. 

Alces'tis, in Greek mythology, wife of Ad- 
metus, king of Thessaly. Her husband was 
ill, and, according to an oracle, would die un¬ 
less some one made a vow to meet death in 
his stead. This was secretly done by Alcestis, 
and Admetus recovered. After her decease 
Hercules brought her back from the infernal 
regions. See Mythology. 

Al'chemy (or Alchymy), the art which in 
former times occupied the place of, and paved 
the way for, the modern science of chemistry 
(as astrology did for astronomy), but whose 
aims were not scientific, being confined solely 
to the discovery of the means of indefinitely 
prolonging human life, and of transmuting the 
baser metals into gold and silver. Among the 
alchemists it was generally thought necessary 
to find a substance which, containing the orig¬ 
inal principle of all matter, should possess the 


Alcibiades 


Alcott 


power of dissolving all substances into their 
elements. This general solvent, which at the 
same time was to possess the power of remov¬ 
ing all the seeds of disease out of the human 
body and renewing life, was called the philoso¬ 
pher's stone , and its pretended possessors were 
known as adepts. Alchemy flourished chiefly 
in the Middle Ages. Many of the monks de¬ 
voted themselves to alchemy, although they 
were latterly prohibited from studying it by 
the popes. But there was one even among 
these, John XXII, who was fond of alchemy. 
Raymond Lully, or Lullius, a famous alche¬ 
mist of the thirteenth and fourteenth centu¬ 
ries, is said to have changed for King Edward I 
a mass of 50,000 lbs. of quicksilver into gold, 
of which the first rose-nobles were coined. 
Among other alchemists may be mentioned 
Parcelsus and Basilius Valentinus. When 
more rational principles of chemistry and 
philosophy began to be diffused and to shed 
light on chemical phenomena, the rage for 
alchemy gradually decreased. 

Alcibi'ades (dez) (b. c. 450-404), an Athe¬ 
nian of high family and of great abilities, but 
of no principle, b. at Athens, being the son of 
Cleinias, and a relative of Pericles. In youth 
he was remarkable for the dissoluteness of his 
manners. He came under the influence of 
Socrates. After the death of Cleon he at¬ 
tained a political ascendency which left him 
no rival but Nicias. He played an important 
part in the Peloponnesian war. In 415 he ad¬ 
vocated the expedition against Sicily, and was 
chosen one of the leaders, but before the expe¬ 
dition sailed he was charged with profan¬ 
ing and divulging the Eleusinian Mysteries. 
Rather than stand his trial he went over to 
Sparta, divulged the plans of the Athenians, 
and assisted the Spartans to defeat them. He 
soon left Sparta and took refuge with the Per¬ 
sian satrap Tissaphernes. He began to in¬ 
trigue for his return to Athens, offering to 
bring Tissaphernes over to the Athenian al¬ 
liance, and latterly he was recalled and his 
banishment canceled. He, however, remained 
abroad in command of the Athenian forces, 
and took Chalcedon and Byzantium. In b. c. 
407 he returned to Athens, but in 406, he was 
deprived of his command. He once more 
went over to the refuge of the satrap Pharna- 
bazus of Phrygia, and here he was assassi¬ 
nated. 

Al'cohol, the purely spirituous or intoxi¬ 
cating part of all liquids that have under¬ 
gone vinous fermentation, extracted by dis¬ 
tillation—a limpid colorless liquid, of an 
agreeable smell and a strong pungent taste. 
When brandy, whisky, and other spirituous 
liquors, themselves distilled from cruder mate¬ 
rials, are again distilled, highly volatile alcohol 
is the first product to pass off. Charcoal and 
carbonate of soda put in the brandy or other 
liquor, partly retain the fusel-oil and acetic 
acid it contains. The product thus obtained 
by distillation is called rectified spirits or spirits 
of wine, and contains from 55 to 85 per cent, of 
alcohol, the rest being water. By distilling 
rectified spirits over carbonate of potassium, 
4 


powdered quicklime, or chloride of calcium, 
the greater part of the water is retained, and 
nearly pure alcohol passes over. It is only, 
however, by very prolonged digestion with 
desiccating agents and subsequent distillation 
that the last traces of water can be removed. 
The specific gravity of alcohol varies with its 
purity, decreasing as the quantity of water it 
contains decreases. By simple distillation the 
specific gravity of alcohol can scarcely be re¬ 
duced below .825 at 60°Fahr.; by rectification 
over chloride of calcium it may be reduced to 
.794; as it usually occurs it is about .820. 
Alcohol is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, in the proportions of 2 to 6 to 1 re¬ 
spectively. Under a barometric pressure of 29.5 
inches it boils at 178° Fahr.; in the ex¬ 
hausted receiver of an air-pump it boils at 
ordinary temperatures. Its very low freezing- 
point renders it valuable for use in thermom¬ 
eters for very low temperatures. Alcohol is 
extremely inflammable, and burns with a pale- 
blue flame, scarcely visible in bright daylight. 
It occasions no carbonaceous deposit upon sub¬ 
stances held over it, and the products of its 
combustion are carbonic acid and water. The 
steady and uniform heat which it gives during 
combustion makes it a valuable material for 
lamps. It dissolves the vegetable acids, the 
volatile oils, the resins, tan, and extractive mat¬ 
ter, and many of the soaps ; the greater num¬ 
ber of the fixed oils are taken up by it in small 
quantities only, but some are dissolved largely. 
When alcohol is submitted to distillation with 
certain acids a peculiar compound is formed, 
called ether. It is alcohol which gives all in¬ 
toxicating liquors the property whence they 
are so called. Alcohol acts strongly on the 
nervous system, and though in small doses it 
is stimulating and exhilarating, in large doses 
it acts as a poison. In medicine it is often of 
great service. 

The name alcohol is also applied in chem¬ 
istry to a large group of compounds of carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, whose chemical prop¬ 
erties are analogous to that of common or 
ethylic alcohol. 

Alco'ran. See Koran. 

Alcott, Amos Bronson (1799-1888), born in 
Wolcott, Conn. In 1828 he went to Boston 
and organized a school on a novel plan. Later 
Mr. Alcott went to Concord, Mass., where he 
studied natural theology, reform in education 
and civil and social institutions, and began to 
lecture. In 1842 he went to England to con¬ 
fer with educational and social reformers. On 
his return to America he again settled in Con¬ 
cord. Among his publications are, Tablets 
(1868); Concord Days (1872); Table Talk (1877); 
and Sonnets and Canzonets (1877). 

Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888), author, 
born in Germantown, Penn. She was the 
daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott. For a num¬ 
ber of years she wrote for periodicals, while 
she was occupied as a school-teacher. In 1862 
she went as a volunteer nurse in military hos¬ 
pitals. In 1866 Miss Alcott visited Europe, and 
on her return wrote Little Women, a book that 
at once established her popularity as a writer. 


Alcuin 


Alembert 


Some of her other publications have been al¬ 
most equally popular. 

Alcuin (alk'win) (735-804), a learned Eng¬ 
lishman, the confidant, instructor, and adviser 
of Charles the Great (Charlemagne). Charle¬ 
magne became acquainted with him at Par¬ 
ma, invited him in 782 to his court, and made 
use of his services in his endeavors to civilize 
his subjects. Charlemagne established at his 
court a school, called Scliola Palatina , or the 
Palace School. Most of the schools in France 
were either founded or improved by him; thus 
he founded the school in the abbey of St. Mar¬ 
tin of Tours, in 796. Alcuin left the court in 
801, and retired to the abbey of St. Martin of 
Tours, but kept up a constant correspondence 
with Charles to his death. He left works on 
theology, philosophy, rhetoric, also poems and 
letters, all of which have been published. 

Alden, John, one of the Pilgrim Fathers 
landing in Massachusetts in 1620. The roman¬ 
tic incident of his courtship of Priscilla as the 
emissary of Miles Standish has been preserved 
in Longfellow’s verse. He died 1687. 

Alder (al'der), a genus of plants, of the 
birch order, consisting of trees and shrubs in¬ 
habiting the temperate and colder regions of 
the globe. Common alder is a tree which 
grows in wet situations in the U. S., Europe, 
and Asia. Its wood, light and soft and of a 



reddish color, is used for a variety of purposes, 
and is Avell adapted for work which is to be 
kept constantly in water. The roots and 
knots furnish a beautifully-veined wood, well 
suited for cabinet work. The charcoal made 
from the wood is used in manufacturing pow¬ 
der. The bark is used in tanning and leather 
dressing, and by fishermen for staining their 
nets. This and the young twigs are some¬ 
times employed in dyeing, and yield different 
shades of yellow and red. With the addition 
of copperas it yields a black dye. 

Al'derney, an island belonging to Britain 
off the coast of Normandy, 10 mi. due west 
of Cape La Hogue, and 60 from the nearest 
point of England, the most northerly of the 
Channel Islands, between 3 and 4 miles long, 
and about 1£ broad. About a third of the is¬ 
land is occupied by grass lands; and the Al¬ 


derney cows, a small-sized but handsome 
breed, are famous for the richness of their 
milk. Climate is mild and healthy. The 
Race of Alderney, the strait between the coast 
of France and this island. Pop. 2,039. 

Aldershot (al'der), a town and military 
station in England. The camp was origi¬ 
nated in 1854 by the purchase by government 
of a tract of moorland known as Aldershot 
Heath, on the confines of Surrey, Hampshire, 
and Berkshire. Pop. (including military) 
25,595. 

Al'dine Editions, the name given to the 
works which proceeded from the press of Al¬ 
dus Manutius and his family at Venice (1490- 
1597). They have gained the respect of schol¬ 
ars and the attention of book-collectors. Many 
of them are the first printed editions of Greek 
and Latin classics. Others are texts of the 
modern Italian authors. These editions are of 
importance in the history of printing. Aldus 
had nine kinds of Greek type, and fourteen 
kinds of Latin type. 

Aldrich, Nelson Wilmahth, b. in R. I., 1841; 
was a member of the assembly, 1875-76, in 
the latter year was a speaker in the House of 
Representatives. He was elected to Congress 
in 1878 and 1880. In 1881 he was elected to 
the U. S. Senate as a Republican to succeed 
General Burnside, and was re-elected in 1886, 
1892 and 1898. 

Aid'rich, Thomas Bailey, an American 
poet and writer of prose tales, mostly humor¬ 
ous, born in 1836, was a short time in a mer¬ 
cantile house, but soon adopted literature as a 
profession, and was for a time editor of the 
Atlantic Monthly. He has written in verse: 
The Bells; Ballad of Baby Bell; Pampinea and 
other Poems; Cloth of Gold and other Poems; 
Floicer and Thorn; in prose, Daisy's Necklace; 
Story of a Bad Boy; Marjory Daw; Prudence 
Palfrey, etc. 

Aldridge, Ira (1804-1867), a negro actor, 
born at Belair, Md., died in Lodez, Poland. 
He was educated for a preacher, but united 
Avith an amateur dramatic company of his 
race, where he showed marked ability. His 
dramatic aspirations were interrupted by 
friends, and he went to England to complete 
a ministerial education. But in London the 
youth made his debut at the Royalty theater 
as Othello, the Moor of Venice, and met Avith 
success. Later he appeared at Belfast, Ireland. 
In 1833 Aldridge appeared at Covent Garden 
theater in London, and in 1848 at the Surrey 
theater. He played for three years in Ger¬ 
many, and in 1857 visited SAveden. He re 
ceived several honors in Europe. 

Alecto, in Greek mythology, one of the 
Furies. 

Alembert (a-lam-bar), Jean de Rond d’ 
(1717-1783), a French mathematician and phil¬ 
osopher. He Avas the illegitimate son of Mad¬ 
ame de Tencin. His parents never publicly 
acknowledged him, but his father settled upon 
him an income of 1,200 livres. He entered the 
College Mazarin at the age of tAvelve, and stud¬ 
ied mathematics Avith success. Having left 
college he studied laAV and became an advo- 



Alemtejo 


Alexander 


cate, but did not cease to occupy himself 
with mathematics. A pamphlet on the mo¬ 
tion of solid bodies in a fluid, and another on 
the integral calculus, which he laid before the 
Academy of Sciences in 1739 and 1740, showed 
him in so favorable a light that the Academy 
received him in 1741 into the number of its 
members. He published his famous work on 
dynamics, Traite de Dynamique (1743); and 
that on fluids, Iraite des Fluides. He also took 
a part in the investigations which completed 
the discoveries of Newton respecting the mo¬ 
tion of the heavenly bodies. He took part in 
the celebrated Encyclopedic for which he wrote 
the Discours Preliminaire , and almost all the 
mathematical articles. He received an invita¬ 
tion from the Russian empress Catherine II 
to go to St. Petersburg, and Frederick the 
Great invited him to Berlin, but in vain. 
From Frederick, however, he accepted a pen¬ 
sion. There was an intimate friendship be¬ 
tween him and Voltaire. 

Alemtejo (a-lan-ta'zho), the largest province 
of Portugal, and the most southern except Al¬ 
garve. Area 19,255 sq. mi.; pop. 367,169. The 
capital is Evora. 

Alen^on (a-lan-son), a town of France, capital 
of department Orne, on the right bank of the 
Sarthe, 105 mi. w. by s. of Paris; has a fine 
Gothic church (fifteenth century), and interest¬ 
ing remains of the old castle of the dukes of 
d’Alen^n. Alen<jon was long famed for its 
point-lace, called “point d’AlenQon.” Fine 
rock-crystal, yielding the so-called “ diamants 
d’Alenin,” is found in the neighboringgranite 
quarries. Pop. 17,237.— Alenin, a dukedom, 
became united with the crown in 1221. The 
first duke of the name lost his life at the battle 
of Agincourt in 1415; another, called Charles 
IV, married the celebrated Margaret of Valois, 
sister of Francis I. 

Alep'po, a city of Asiatic Turkey, in north 
Syria, 195 mi. n. n. e. of Damascus. Pre¬ 
vious to 1822 Aleppo contained about 100 
mosques, but in that year an earthquake laid 
the greater part of them in ruins, and destroyed 
nearly the whole city. The aqueduct built by 
the Romans is the oldest monument of the 
town. It has a trade in wool, cotton, silk, 
wax, skins, soap, tobacco, etc. By the Greeks 
and Romans it was called Bercca. It was con¬ 
quered by the Arabs in 638, and its original 
name Chalybon was then turned into Haleb , 
whence the Italian form Aleppo. Its popula¬ 
tion is now estimated at over 100,000, of whom 
perhaps 25,000 are Christians. The language 
generally spoken is Arabic. 

Alessan' dria, a town and fortress in north 
Italy, capital of the province of the same 
name; was built in 1168 by the Cremonese and 
Milanese, and was named in honor of Pope 
Alexander III, who made it a bishop’s see. It 
has a cathedral, important manufactures of 
linen, woolen, and silk goods, and an active 
trade. Pop. 30,761. 

Aletsch=glacier, the greatest glacier in 
Switzerland, canton Vaud, a prolongation of 
the immense mass of glaciers connected with 


the Jungfrau, the Aletschhorn (14,000 ft.), and 
other peaks; about fifteen miles long. 

Aleu'tian Islands, a chain of about eighty 
small islands belonging to the U. S. See 
Alaska. 

Alexander the Great, king of Macedon 
(356-323 b. c.), the greatest character in his¬ 
tory before the Christian era. In early youth 
Alexander gave evidence of invincible cour¬ 
age, wonderful strength and endurance, and 
boundless ambition. At the age of 13 he be¬ 
came a pupil of Aristotle. During the life¬ 
time of his father, Philip of Macedon, he 
shared in the wars for the supremacy of 
Macedon over the neighboring states of Greece. 
On the assassination of his father (336), Alex¬ 
ander came to the throne, at the age of twenty. 
He put to death several of the murderers of 
his father, and the latter’s second wife and 
her infant son. The conditions under which 
Alexander came to the throne were far from 
favorable. He at once began a series of 
conquests which filled his reign of a little 
more than twelve years. The first two years 
were occupied in subduing the revolting cities 
of Greece and hostile tribes beyond the north¬ 
ern frontier of Macedonia. It was reported 
that Alexander had been slain, and a con¬ 
siderable revolt against the Macedonian yoke 
was begun anew in Greece, with Athens and 
Thebes as its center. Alexander appeared be¬ 
fore the latter city. The allies of Thebes, in¬ 
cluding Athens, deserted her and the city was 
taken by storm. The famous city was totally 
destroyed, the house of the poet Pindar alone 
being spared. The remaining states of Greece 
were pardoned. 

Alexander set out in the spring of 334 for the 
conquest of the Persian Empire. With an army 
of 35,00 he crossed the Hellespont, and at the 
Granicus he totally defeated a Persian force, 
thereby opening the gate to all Asia Minor. 
The next year (333) the invading force met a 
vast Persian army numbering 600,000 on the 
plain of Issus. The Persians were again routed. 
Alexander next turned his attention to Phoe¬ 
nicia. The whole of Syria and Phoenicia sub¬ 
mitted to him excepting only the famous city 
of Tyre, which was taken after a siege of seven 
months (332). The population of 8,000 was ex¬ 
terminated. The capture of Tyre is considered 
the greatest of Alexander’s military operations. 
The next conquest was that of Egypt. At one 
of the mouths of the Nile the conqueror founded 
the city of Alexandria, which became so im¬ 
portant a factor in the commerce of the Med¬ 
iterranean. He next proceeded to the famous 
temple of Zeus Ammon in the Libyan desert. 
Alexander now turned his army eastward, to 
complete his overthrow of the Persian Empire. 
At Arbela, he met the army of the Persians, 
numbering more than 1,000,000, and fought one 
of the decisive battles of the world (331). With 
his army of 47,000 Alexander routed the Per¬ 
sians, and King Darius III met his death. He 
entered Babylon and Susa, taking in the latter 
city the royal treasure of silver and gold. Alex¬ 
ander was now regarded by himself and by the 
Persians as the successor of Darius. The vie- 


Alexander 


Alexander II 


torious army was next led northward for the 
subjugation of various tribes about the Caspian 
Sea, and thence across the Hindu Kush into 
Bactria and Sogdiana (329-328). In 327 Alex¬ 
ander led his army to India, where all the na¬ 
tive princes submitted except Porus, a power¬ 
ful king north of the Indus, who was defeated. 
Alexander rediscovered the sea-route from the 
Indus to the Euphrates via the Indian Ocean, 
an achievement of great importance for the 
commerce of India. He made Babylon the 
capital of his vast empire. By means of colo¬ 
nies and intermarriage the peoples of Europe 
and Asia were to be fused into a single great 
nation, having common laws, language, and 
ruler. He himself married a daughter of King 
Darius, and 10,000 of his soldiers took Asiatic 
wives. In the midst of his vast projects Alex¬ 
ander was seized by a fever and died at Baby¬ 
lon. Of the generals among whom his vast 
domain was divided, the most famous was 
Ptolemy, who founded in Egypt the line of 
rulers of that name. 

Alexander’s title to greatness lies in his mili¬ 
tary achievements. His insatiate vanity and 
unchecked excesses are a serious blemish. His 
uncontrolled passion led him to commit deeds, 
such as the murder of his dearest friend, 
Clitus, which he bitterly repented. He never 
asked his soldiers to do what he would not do 
himself. He was a man of fine tastes and a 
liberal patron of art, philosophy, and literature. 
The effects of his conquests were, to end the 
struggle between Greece and Persia, to spread 
Hellenic civilization over Egypt and western 
Asia, while to the Greeks came the wealth 
and the vices of the Orient. 

The story of Alexander’s life and conquests 
is told in many ancient annals, and in the 
romances and legends of many nations. 

Alexander, the name of eight popes, the 
earliest of whom, Alexander I, is said to have 
reigned from 109 to 119. The most famous 
is Alexander VI (Borgia), (1431-1503), who 
was born at Valencia, in Spain. When he was 
only twenty-five years of age his uncle, Pope 
Calixtus III, made him a cardinal, and 
shortly afterward appointed him to the digni¬ 
fied and lucrative office of vice-chancellor. By 
bribery he prepared his way to the papal 
throne, which he attained in 1492, after the 
death of Innocent VIII. Both the authority 
and revenues of the popes being at this time 
much impaired, he set himself to reduce the 
power of the Italian princes, and seized upon 
their possessions for the benefit of his own 
family. His policy was faithless and base. He 
sold indulgences, and set aside, in favor of 
himself, the wills of several cardinals. His 
excesses roused against him the powerful 
eloquence of Savonarola, who, by pen and pul¬ 
pit, urged his deposition, but had to meet his 
death at the stake in 1498. His son Cesare 
Borgia, and his daughter, Lucrezia, are 
equally notorious with himself. 

Alexander, the name of three Scottish kings. 
Alexander I, a son of Malcolm Canmore and 
Margaret of England. He was a great bene¬ 
factor of the church and a firm vindicator of 


the national independence. Alexander II 
(1198-1248) succeeded his father, William the 
Lion, in 1214. Alexander died at Kerrera, an 
island opposite Oban, when on an expedition 
in which he hoped to wrest the Hebrides from 
Norway. He was succeeded by his son, Alex¬ 
ander III, a boy of eight, who, in 1251, mar¬ 
ried Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry III, 
of England. He brought the Hebrides under 
his sway in a few years after the defeat of the 
Norse King Haco at Largs, in 1203. Alexan¬ 
der was strenuous in asserting the independ¬ 
ence both of the Scottish kingdom and the 
Scottish church against England. He died in 
1285. Under him Scotland enjoyed greater 
prosperity than for generations afterward. 

Alexander I (1777-1825), emperor of Russia, 
son of Paul I and Maria, daughter of Prince 
Eugene of Wiirtemberg. On the assassination of 
his father, in 1801, Alexander ascended the 
throne, and concluded peace with Great Britain, 
against which his predecessor had declared 
war. In 1803 he offered his services as media¬ 
tor between England and France, and two 
years later a convention was entered into 
between Russia, England, Austria, and Sweden 
for the purpose of resisting the encroachments 
of France on the territories of independent 
states. He was present at the battle of 
Austerlitz (1805), when the combined armies of 
Russia and Austria were defeated by Napoleon. 
In the succeeding campaign the Russians were 
again beaten at Eylau and Friedland (1807), the 
result of which was the treaty at Tilsit. The 
Russian emperor identified himself with the 
Napoleonic schemes, and obtained possession 
of Finland and territory on the Danube. The 
French alliance was too oppressive, and his 
having separated himself from Napoleon led 
to the French invasion of 1812. In 1813 he 
published a manifesto which served as the basis 
of the coalition of the other European powers 
against France, which was followed by the 
capture of Paris (in 1814), the abdication of 
Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons, 
and the utter overthrow of Napoleon the fol¬ 
lowing year. After Waterloo, Alexander, ac¬ 
companied by the emperor of Austria and the 
king of Prussia, made his second entrance 
into Paris, where they concluded the treaty 
known as the Holy Alliance. The remaining 
part of his reign was chiefly taken up in 
measures of internal reform, including the 
gradual abolition of serfdom, and the promotion 
of education, agriculture, commerce, and man¬ 
ufactures, as well as literature and the fine arts. 

Alexander II (1818-1881), emperor of Rus¬ 
sia, succeeded his father Nicholas in 1855, be¬ 
fore the end of the Crimean war. After peace 
was concluded the new emperor set about ef¬ 
fecting the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, 
a measure which gave freedom, on certain 
conditions, to 22,000,000 human beings. Un¬ 
der him, too, representative assemblies were 
introduced, and he did much to improve edu¬ 
cation, and to reorganize the judicial system. 
During his reign the Russian dominions in 
Central Asia were extended, a piece of terri¬ 
tory south of the Caucasus, formerly belong- 


Alexander 


Alexandria 


ing to Turkey, was acquired, and a part of 
Bessarabia, belonging since the Crimean war 
to Turkey in Europe, but previously to Russia, 
was restored to the latter power. The latter 
additions resulted from the Russo-Turkish 
war of 1877-78. He was killed by an explo¬ 
sive missile flung at him by a Nihilist in a 
street in St. Petersburg, March 13, 1881. He 
was succeeded by his second son, Alexan¬ 
der III (1845-1894), his eldest son having died 
in youth. His only daughter is the wife of 
the Duke of Edinburgh. 

Alexander, Archibald (1772-1851), born in 
Virginia. He became a Presbyterian minister, 
and in 1812 head of the theological seminary 
at Princeton. He published several theolog¬ 
ical treatises. 

Alexander, Stephen (1806-1883), astrono¬ 
mer, b. in Schenectady, N. Y.; d. at Prince¬ 
ton, N. J. From 1845 to 1878 he occupied the 
professorships of mathematics and of astron¬ 
omy and mechanics at Princeton. In 1860 he 
conducted an expedition to Labrador for the 
purpose of observing a solar eclipse. 

Alexander, William (1726-1783), called 
“Lord Stirling,” soldier, born in New York 
City. In 1757 he prosecuted his claim to the 
earldom of Stirling before the British House 
of Lords, but without success. He became 
surveyor-general and member of the provin¬ 
cial council. At the beginning of the Revolu¬ 
tion he joined the colonial army, 1775, as colo¬ 
nel of the battalion of East Jersey, captured 
an armed British transport, for which exploit 
Congress appointed him brigadier-general. 
At the battle of Long Island, Aug. 26, 1776, 
he was taken prisoner. Within the same year 
he was exchanged, and in February, 1777, was 
promoted a major-general. When Gen. Charles 
Lee marched to Philadelphia, in December, 
1776, Alexander remained in command at 
New York. At Trenton, N. J., he captured a 
Hessian regiment. On June 24, 1777, at Me- 
tuchen his division was defeated. He fought 
creditably at Brandywine, Germantown, and 
Monmouth. In 1779 he surprised a British 
force at Paulus Hook, N. J. In 1781 he was 
in command at Albany. Alexander was one 
of the founders of King’s College (now Colum¬ 
bia), and became its first president. 

Alexander Nevskoi (1219-1263), a Russian 
hero and saint, son of the Grand-duke Jaros- 
lav. He fought against assaults of the Mon¬ 
gols, the Danes, Swedes, and knights of the 
Teutonic order. He gained a splendid victory, 
on the Neva, over the Swedes. His countrymen 
commemorated him in popular songs, and 
raised him to the dignity of a saint. Peter 
the Great built a splendid monastery at St. 
Petersburg in his honor, and in memory of 
him established the order of Alexander 
Nevskoi. 

Alexander Seve'rus (a. d. 205-235), a Ro¬ 
man emperor. He was raised to the impe¬ 
rial dignity in 222 a. d. by the praetorian 
guards, after they had put his cousin, the em¬ 
peror Heliogabalus, to death. He governed 
ably both in peace and war; and also occupied 
himself in poetry, philosophy, and literature. 


In 232 he defeated the Persians under Artax- 
erxes, who wished to drive the Romans from 
Asia. When on an expedition into Gaul to 
repress an incursion of the Germans, he was 
murdered with his mother in an insurrection 
of his troops, headed by the brutal Maximin, 
who succeeded him as emperor. 

Alexan'dria, an ancient city and seaport in 
Egypt, at the northwest angle of the Nile 
delta, on a ridge of land between the sea 
and Lake Mareotis. Ancient Alexandria was 
founded by, and named in honor of, Alexan¬ 
der the Great, in b. c. 332, and was long a 
great and splendid city, the center of com¬ 
merce between the East and West, as well as 
of Greek learning and civilization, with a 
population at one time of perhaps 1,000,000. 
It was especially celebrated for its great li¬ 
brary, and also for its famous lighthouse, one 
of the wonders of the world, standing upon the 
little island of Pharos, which was connected 
with the city by a mole. Under Roman rule 
it was the second city of the empire, and when 
Constantinople became the capital of the East 
it still remained the chief center of trade; 
but it received a blow from which it never re¬ 
covered when captured by Amru, general of 
Caliph Omar in 641, after a siege of fourteen 
months. Its ruin was finally completed by the 
discovery of the passage to India by the Cape 
of Good Hope, which opened up a new route 
for the Asiatic trade. See Alexandrian Library , 
Alexandrian School. Modern Alexandria stands 
partly on what was formerly the island of 
Pharos, partly on the peninsula which now 
connects it with the mainland and has been 
formed by the accumulation of soil, and 
partly on the mainland. The streets in the 
Turkish quarter are narrow, dirty, and irregu¬ 
lar; in the foreign quarter they are regular 
and wide, and it is here the finest houses are 
situated, and where are the principal shops 
and hotels, banks, offices of companies, etc. ; 
this part of the city being also supplied with 
gas, and with water brought by the Mahmu- 
dieh Canal from the western branch of the 
Nile. Alexandria is connected by railway 
with Cairo, Rosetta, and Suez. A little to 
the south of the city are the catacombs which 
now serve as a quarry. Another relic of an¬ 
tiquity is Pompey’s Pillar, 98 ft. 9 in. high. 
Alexandria has two ports, on the east and 
west respectively of the isthmus of the Pharos 
peninsula, the latter having a breakwater over 
3,000 yards in length, with fine quays and 
suitable railway and other accommodation. 
The trade of Alexandria is large and varied, 
the exports being cotton, beans, peas, rice, 
wheat, etc. ; the imports chiefly manufac¬ 
tured goods. At the beginning of the century 
Alexandria was an insignificant place of 5,000 
or 6,000 inhabitants. The origin of its more 
recent career of prosperity it owes to Moham¬ 
med Ali. In 1882 the insurrection of Arabi 
Pasha and the massacre of Europeans led to 
the intervention of the British, and the bom¬ 
bardment of the forts by the British fleet, in 
July. When the British entered the city they 
found the finest parts of it sacked and in 


Alexandria 


Alfieri 


flames, but the damage is being repaired. 
Pop. 227,064. 

Alexandria, a town and port of Virginia, on 
the right bank of the Potomac, 7 miles south 
of Washington, with straight and spacious 
streets; carries on a considerable trade, chiefly 
in flour. Pop. 15,230. 

Alexandrian Library, the largest and most 
famous of all the ancient collections of books, 
founded by Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, and 
greatly enlarged by succeeding Ptolemies. At 
its most flourishing period it is said to have 
numbered 700,000 volumes, accommodated in 
two different buildings, one of them being the 
Serapeion, or temple of Jupiter Serapis. The 
other collection was burned during Julius Cae¬ 
sar’s seige of the city, but the Serapeion li¬ 
brary existed to the time of the emperor Theo¬ 
dosius the Great, when, at the general destruc¬ 
tion of the heathen temples, the splendid tem¬ 
ple of Jupiter Serapis was gutted (a. d. 391) by 
a fanatical crowd of Christians, and its liter¬ 
ary treasures destroyed or scattered. A li¬ 
brary was again accumulated, but was burned 
by the Arabs when they captured the city un¬ 
der the Caliph Omar in 641. Amru, the captain 
of the caliph’s army, would have been willing 
to spare the library, but Omar is said to have 
disposed of the matter in the famous words : 
“If these writings of the Greeks agree with 
the Koran they are useless, and need not be 
preserved; if they disagree they are perni¬ 
cious, and ought to be destroyed.” 

Alexandrian School (or Age), the school or 
period of Greek literature and learning that 
existed at Alexandria in Egypt during the 
three hundred years that the rule of the Ptol¬ 
emies lasted (323-30 b. c.), and continued un¬ 
der the Roman supremacy. Ptolemy Soter 
founded the famous library of Alexandria and 
his son, Philadelphus, established a kind of 
academy of sciences and arts. Many scholars 
and men of genius were thus attracted to 
Alexandria, and a period of literary activity 
set in, which made Alexandria for long the 
focus and center of Greek culture and intel¬ 
lectual effort. Among the grammarians and 
critics, were Zenodotus, Eratosthenes, Aris¬ 
tophanes, Aristarchus, and Zoilus, proverbial 
as a captious critic. Their merit is to have 
collected, edited, and preserved the existing 
monuments of Greek literature. To the poets 
belong Apollonius, Lycophron, Aratus, Ni- 
cander, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus, 
Philetas, etc. Among those who pursued 
mathematics, physics, and astronomy, was 
Euclid, the father of scientific geometry; 
Archimedes, great in physics and mechanics; 
Apollonius of Perga, whose work on conic sec¬ 
tions still exists; Nicomachus, the first scien¬ 
tific arithmetician; and (under the Romans) 
the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. 
Alexandria also was distinguished in philo¬ 
sophical speculation, and it was here that the 
New Platonic school was established at the 
close of the second century after Christ by 
Ammonius of Alexandria (about 193 a. d.), 
whose disciples were Plotinus and Origen. 
Being for the most part Orientals, formed by 


the study of Greek learning, the writings of 
the New Platonists are strikingly character¬ 
ized— for example, those of Ammonius Sac- 
cas, Plotinus, Iamblicus, Porphyrius — by a 
mixture of Asiatic and European elements. 
The principal Gnostic systems also had their 
origin in Alexandria. 

Alexandrian Version, or Codex Alexan- 
drinus, a manuscript in the British Museum, 
of great importance in Biblical criticism, writ¬ 
ten on parchment with uncial letters, and be¬ 
longing probably to the latter half of the sixth 
century. It contains the whole Greek Bible 
(the Old Testament being according to the 
Septuagint), together with the letters of 
Bishop Clement of Rome, but it wants parts 
of Matthew, John, and Second Corinthians. 
The Patriarch of Constantinople, who in 1628 
sent this manuscript as a present to Charles I, 
said he had received it from Egypt (whence 
its name). 

Alex'is Michai' Iovitch (son of Michael) 
(1629-1676), second Russian czar of the line of 
Romanoff (the present dynasty). He did much 
for the internal administration and for the en¬ 
largement of the empire; reconquered Little 
Russia from Poland, and carried his authority 
to the extreme east of Siberia. He was father 
of Peter the Great. 

Alex'ius Comne'nus (1048-1118), Byzantine 
emperor. See Byzantine Empire. 

Alfal fa, a name given to a perennial forage 
plant, and one of the most valuable of the le¬ 
guminous plants grown for the supply of 
green food to cattle. It is sometimes known 
as Lucerne. It is a native of the south of 
Europe, and has been cultivated there from 
an unknown antiquity. It is largely culti¬ 
vated in some parts" of North and South 
America. It is especially adapted to the 
Southern states. It endures great droughts, 
its roots penetrating very deep into the 
ground. It is the best of all forage crops for a 
drought. It delights in a rich and calcareous 
soil, and never succeeds on damp soils or tena¬ 
cious clays. It is a perennial, and if kept free 
from weeds affords good crops for six, seven, 
or more years. It is sown in rows, at 10 or 14 
inches apart, and may be mown several times 
in a year, growing very quickly after being 
mown. The quantity of produce is very great 
— sometimes from twenty to thirty tons per 
annum — and few other forage plants are 
ready for use so early in spring. Alfalfa has 
a rather erect stem, leaves with three obo- 
vate-oblong toothed leaflets; purplish-blue or 
sometimes yellow flowers in many-flowered 
racemes, and pods twisted two or three times 
round. 

Alfara'bi, an eminent Arabian scholar of 
the tenth century; died at Damascus in 950 
wrote on the Aristotelian philosophy, and com¬ 
piled a kind of encyclopedia. 

Alfieri (al-fe-a're), Vittorio, Count (1749- 
1803), Italian poet. After extensive European 
travels he began to write, and his first play, 
Cleopatra (1775), being received with general ap¬ 
plause, he determined to devote all his efforts to 
attaining a position among writers of dramatic 


Alford 


Algarve 


poetry. He died at Florence and was buried 
in the church of Santa Croce, between Mac- 
chiavelli and Michael Angelo, where a beauti¬ 
ful monument by Canova covers his remains. 
He wrote twenty-one tragedies and six come¬ 
dies. He is considered the first tragic writer 
of Italy, and has served as a model for his suc¬ 
cessors. Alfieri composed also an epic, lyrics, 
satires, and poetical translations from the an¬ 
cient classics. He left an interesting auto¬ 
biography. 

Alford, Henry, D. D. (1810-1871), Dean of 
Canterbury, an English poet, scholar, and mis¬ 
cellaneous writer. He wrote an edition of the 
Greek Testament with commentary, which 
occupied him for twenty years. In 1857 he 
was appointed Dean of Canterbury. Among 
other things he wrote Chapters on the Poets of 
Ancient Greece, Sermons, Psalms and Hymns, 
Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, Letters 
from Abroad, Poetical Works, Plea for the 
Queen'’s English. 

Alfred the Great (849-901), king of the 
West Saxons. The youngest son of Ethel- 
wulf, who reigned 836-858, he came to the 
throne in 871, the intervening thirteen years 
having been occupied by the reigns of his 
three older brothers. In his youth Alfred was 
an eager student, and so remained through 
life. His entire reign of 30 years was occu¬ 
pied in repelling the attacks of invading 
Danes and Northmen, and in restoring his 
country from the effects of their ravages. 
On coming to the throne Alfred made a truce 
with the Danes, who turned their attention to 
the other provinces of Britain. It is to be 
noticed that Alfred was not king of all Eng¬ 
land, his dominions having extended hardly as 
far north as the mouth of the Severn. He 
fitted out a number of ships and with these 
resumed hostilities in 876. The following 
spring he is said to have met a force of 120 
Danish ships and driven them on shore, where 
all on board perished in the wreck. The next 
winter the Danes invaded in large numbers, 
and Alfred with his followers fled to the hills 
and woods for safety. It is to this period that 
the familiar legend of the burning cakes be¬ 
longs. He was joined by a band of trusty fol¬ 
lowers, and made repeated sallies against the 
enemy’s possessions. In May, 878, he prepared 
to attack the Danish army under Guthrum at 
Eddington. It is said that two or three days 
before the battle he entered the Danish camp 
disguised as a gleeman, and gained all the in¬ 
formation desired respecting their strength 
and position. In the battle that followed, the 
Danes were utterly defeated. Guthrum and 
his followers accepted Christianity and were 
assigned territory north of Wessex. He after¬ 
ward ceded to them the eastern portion of 
Mercia, which became known as the Danelagh. 
Alfred was now the ruler of nearly all Eng¬ 
land, though never recognized by title as such. 
During the period of peace which followed 
Alfred rebuilt the cities and fortresses and 
improved his fleet. Ships were stationed at 
intervals along the coast to guard against in¬ 
vasion. It is to this period that Alfred’s most 


important government reforms and literary 
labors belong. He established a regular militia 
which should be able to protect the several 
parts of the kingdom without leaving any dis¬ 
trict defenseless. The last invasion during 
Alfred’s reign was in 894 under the famous 
Hastings. After three years of hard fighting 
in nearly all parts of the kingdom, the invad¬ 
ers were driven out. Alfred’s last years were 
passed in peace. He was succeeded by his son, 
Edward the Elder. 

Of all the monarchs to whom the title of 
“Great” has been given, none deserves it, in 
point of character, as does Alfred. The self¬ 
ish ambition and cruelty which have stained 
the characters of other great rulers are not 
recorded in his life. In the making and 
administration of laws, in his careful oversight 
of the courts of justice, in his promotion of 
the arts of peace, he had the welfare of his 
subjects ever in view. He was blessed with 
signal good judgment in choosing his advis¬ 
ers. Of his military genius, the record of 
obstacles patiently combated and victoriously 
overcome is sufficient witness. He was in be¬ 
lief and in practise a devout Christian; for 
many years he suffered uncomplainingly the 
ravages of a dread, mysterious disease. 
Alfred is conspicuous for the patronage he 
gave to letters, and his own learning and in¬ 
dustrious scholarship are most remarkable. 
To bring knowledge within reach of his sub¬ 
jects he translated Bede’s Ecclesiastical History 
of England, Gregory’s Pastoral Care, Boethius’s 
Consolations of Philosophy, from Latin into 
Anglo-Saxon, adding much of his own compo¬ 
sition. It was during his reign that the 
valuable Anglo-Saxon Chronicle assumed a sys¬ 
tematic form. He represents all that is great¬ 
est and best in the modern Christian civili¬ 
zation of the West, and was the herald of cent¬ 
uries far removed from him in point of time. 

Al'gse (al' je), an order of plants, found for 
the most part in the sea and fresh water, and 
comprising sea-weeds, etc. The higher forms 
have stems bearing leaf-like expansions, and 
they are often attached to the rocks by roots, 
which, however, do not derive nutriment from 
the rocks. A stem, however, is most frequently 
absent. The plants are nourished through 
their whole surface by the medium in which 
they live. They vary in size from the micro¬ 
scopic diatoms to forms whose stems resemble 
those of forest trees, and whose fronds rival 
the leaves of the palm. They are entirely 
composed of cellular tissue, and many are 
edible and nutritious, as carrageen or Irish- 
moss, dulse, etc. Kelp, iodine, and bromine 
are products of various species. The Algm are 
also valuable as manure. 

Algar'di, Alessandro (1602-1654), one of 
the chief Italian sculptors of the seventeenth 
century. He lived and worked chiefly at 
Rome; executed the tomb of Leo XI in St. 
Peter’s, and a marble relief with life-size 
figures over the altar of St. Leo there. 

Algarve (all-gar'va), a maritime province of 
Portugal occupying the southern portion of 
the kingdom; mountainous but with some 


Algebra 

fertile tracts. Area 2,099 sq. mi.; pop. 200,- 

000 . 

Algebra, a kind of generalized arithmetic, 
In which numbers or quantities and opera¬ 
tions, often also the results of operations, are 
represented by symbols. Thus the expression 
xy -f- cz -|- dy 2 denotes that a number repre¬ 
sented by x is to be multiplied by a number 
represented by y, a number c multiplied 
by a number s, a number d by a number y 
multiplied by itself (or squared), and the sum 
taken of these three products. So the 
equation (as it is called) x 2 — 7x -f- 12 = 0 ex¬ 
presses the fact that if a certain number x is 
multiplied by itself, and this result made less 
by seven times the number and greater by 
twelve, the result is 0. In this case x must 
either be 3 or 4 to produce the given result; 
but such an equation (or formula) as (a + 6) 
(a — b) = a 2 — b 2 is always true whatever values 
may be assigned to a and b. Algebra is an in¬ 
valuable instrument in intricate calculations 
of all kinds, and enables operations to be per¬ 
formed and results obtained that by arith¬ 
metic would be impossible, and its scope is 
still being extended. 

The beginnings of algebraic method are to 
be found in Diophantus, a Greek of the fourth 
century of our era, but it was the Arabians 
that introduced algebra to Europe, and from 
them it received its name. The first Arabian 
treatise on algebra was published in the reign 
of the great Caliph A1 Mamun (813-833) by 
Mohammed Ben Musa. In 1202 Leonardo Fi¬ 
bonacci of Pisa, who had traveled and studied 
in the East, published a work treating of alge¬ 
bra as then understood in the Arabian school. 
From this time to the discovery of printing 
considerable attention was given to algebra, 
and the work of Ben Musa and another Ara¬ 
bian treatise, called the Rule of Algebra , were 
translated into Italian. The first printed work 
treating on algebra (also on arithmetic, etc.) 
appeared at Venice in 1494, the author being a 
monk called Luca Pacioli da Bergo. Rapid 
progress now began to be made, and among 
the names of those to whom advances are to be 
attributed are Tartaglia and Cardan. About 
the middle of the sixteenth century the Ger¬ 
man Stifel introduced the signs +, —, ]/, and 
Recorde the sign =. Recorde wrote the first 
English work on algebra. Francois Vieta, a 
French mathematician (1540-1603), first adopt¬ 
ed the method which has led to so great an ex¬ 
tension of modern algebra, by being the first 
who used general symbols for known quantities 
as well as for unknown. It was he also who 
first made the application of algebra to geome¬ 
try. Albert Girard extended the theory of 
equations by the supposition of imaginary 
quantities. The Englishman Harriot, early in 
the seventeenth century, discovered negative 
roots, and established the equality between 
the number of roots and the units in the de¬ 
gree of the equation. He also invented the 
signs < >, and Oughthred that of X. Des¬ 
cartes, though not the first to apply algebra to 
geometry, has, by the extent and importance 
of his applications, commonly acquired the 


Algeria 

credit of being so. The same discoveries have 
also been attributed to him as to Harriot, and 
their respective claims have caused much con¬ 
troversy. He obtained by means of algebra 
the definition and description of curves. Since 
his time algebra has been applied so widely in 
geometry and higher mathematics that we 
need only mention the names of Fermat, Wab 
lis, Newton, Leibnitz, De Moivre, Mac Laurin, 
Taylor, Euler, D’Alembert, Lagrange, La¬ 
place, Fourier, Poisson, Gauss, Horner, De 
Morgan, Sylvester, Cayley, Boole, Jevons, and 
others who applied the algebraic method not 
only to formal logic but to political economy. 

Algeciras (al-^e-the'ras), a seaport of Spain, 
on the west side of the Bay of Gibraltar, a well- 
built town carrying on a brisk coasting trade. 
It was the first conquest of the Arabs in Spain 
(711), and was held by them till 1344, when it 
was taken by Alphonso XI of Castile after a 
siege of twenty months. Near Algeciras, in 
July, 1801, the English admiral Saumarez de¬ 
feated the combined French and Spanish fleets, 
after having failed in an attack a few davsbe* 
fore. Pop. 14,230. 

Alger, Horatio, Jr., an American author 
of books for young people, born in Massachu¬ 
setts, 1834. His works are numerous and very 
popular. Died July 18, 1899. 

Alger, Russell A., an American soldier 
and statesman, b. in Medina co., O., 1836, in a 
log cabin. His parents died when he was 
twelve years old, leaving four children to fight 
the battles of life. When fourteen years of 
age he began to work as a common farm la¬ 
borer at $3 a month. He received a fair Eng¬ 
lish education, but it was in the university of 
adversity. Shortly after his marriage the war 
broke out, and in August, 1861, he enlisted in 
the Second Michigan cavalry, and was commis¬ 
sioned as captain. He was several times 
wounded, and was obliged to resign from the 
army on Sept. 20, 1864. Returning from the 
field he settled in Detroit, and became inter¬ 
ested in the lumber trade. In 1884 he was 
elected governor of the state of Michigan on 
the Republican ticket and in February, 1897, 
was selected by President McKinley as his sec¬ 
retary of war, which position he resigned Aug. 

1 1899 

Alge ria, a French colony in North Africa, 
area 122,878 sq. mi. The country is divided 
into three departments — Algiers, Oran, and 
Constantine. The country is traversed by the 
Atlas Mountains, two chains of which — the 
Great Atlas bordering on the Sahara, and 
the Little, or Maritime Atlas, between it and 
the sea — run parallel to the coast, the former 
attaining a height of 7,000 feet. The climate 
varies considerably according to elevation and 
local peculiarities. There are three seasons: 
winter from November to February, spring 
from March to June, and summer from July 
to October. The summer is very hot and dry. 
In many parts of the coast the temperature is 
moderate and the climate so healthy that Al¬ 
geria is now a winter resort for invalids. 

The chief products of cultivation are wheat, 
barley, and oats, tobacco, cotton, wine, silk, 


Algeria 


Algeria 


and dates. Early vegetables, especially pota¬ 
toes and peas, are exported to France and Eng¬ 
land. A fiber called alfa, a variety of esparto, 
which grows wild on the high plateaux, is ex¬ 
ported in large quantities. Cork is also ex¬ 
ported. There are valuable forests, in which 
grow various sorts of pines and oaks, ash, 
cedar, myrtle, pistachio-nut, mastic, carob, 
etc. The Australian gum-tree has been suc¬ 
cessfully introduced. Agriculture often suf¬ 
fers much from the ravages of locusts. Among 
wild animals are the lion, panther, hyena, and 
jackal; the domestic quadrupeds include the 
horse, the mule, cattle, sheep, and pigs (intro¬ 
duced by the French). Algeria possesses valu¬ 
able minerals, including iron, copper, lead, sul¬ 
phur, zinc, antimony, marble (white and red), 
and lithographic stone. 

The exports (besides those mentioned above) 
are olive-oil, rawhides, wood, wool, tobacco, or¬ 
anges, etc.; the imports: manufactured goods, 
wines, spirits, coffee, etc. The manufacturing 
industries are unimportant, and include mo¬ 
rocco leather, carpets, muslins, and silks. 
French money, weights, and measures are 
generally used, The chief towns are Algiers, 
Oran, Constantine, Bona, and Tlemcen. There 
are about 1,300 miles of railways opened; there 
is also a considerable network of telegraph 
lines. 

The two principal native races inhabiting 
Algeria are Arabs and Berbers. The former 
are mostly nomads, dwelling in tents and wan¬ 
dering from place to place. The Berbers, here 
called Kabyles, are the original inhabitants of 
the territory and still form a considerable part 
of the population. They speak the Berber lan¬ 
guage, but use Arabic characters in writing. 
The Jews form a small but influential part of 
the population. Various other races also exist. 
Except the Jews all the native races are Mo¬ 
hammedans. There are over 260,000 colonists 
of French origin in Algeria, and over 200,000 
colonists natives of other European countries 
(chiefly Spaniards and Italians). Algeria is 
governed by a governor-general, who is assisted 
by a council appointed by the French Govern¬ 
ment. The settled portion of the country, in 
the three departments of Algiers, Constantine, 
and Oran, is treated much as if it were a part 
of France, and each department sends two 
deputies and one senator to the French cham¬ 
bers. The rest of the territory is under mili¬ 
tary rule. The colony costs France a consid¬ 
erable sum every year. Population of civil ter. 
3,324,475; of mil. ter. 492,990; total, 3,817,465. 

The country now called Algeria was known 
to the Romans as Numidia. It flourished 
greatly under their rule. It was conquered 
by the Vandals in 430-431 a. d., and recovered 
by Belisarius for the Byzantine Empire in 
533-534. About the middle of the seventh 
century it was overrun by the Saracens. The 
town of Algiers was founded about 935 by 
Yussef Ibn Zeiri, and the country was subse¬ 
quently ruled by his successors and the dynas¬ 
ties of the Almoravides and Almohades. After 
the overthrow of the latter, about 1269, it broke 
up into a number of small independent terri¬ 


tories. The Moors and Jews who were driven 
out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella at the 
end of the fifteenth century settled in Algeria. 
Various expeditions were made by Spain 
against Algeria, and by 1510 the greater part 
of the country was made tributary. A few 
years later the Algerians invited to their as¬ 
sistance the Turkish pirate Horush Barbarossa, 
who made himself Sultan of Algiers in 1516, 
but was not long in being taken by the Span¬ 
iards and beheaded. His brother and suc¬ 
cessor put Algiers under the protection of 
Turkey (about 1520), and organized the sys¬ 
tem of piracy which was long the terror of 
European commerce, and was never wholly 
suppressed till the French occupation. Hence 
forth the country belonged to the Turkish Em¬ 
pire, though from 1710 the connection was 
little more than nominal. The depredations 
of the Algerian pirates were a continual source 
of irritation to the powers, who sent a long 
series of expeditions against them. In 1815 a 
U. S. fleet defeated an Algerian one and forced 
the dey to agree to a peace in which he rec¬ 
ognized the American flag as inviolable. In 
1816 Lord Exmouth with an English fleet bom¬ 
barded Algiers, and exacted a treaty by which 
all the Christian slaves were at once released, 
and the dey undertook for the future to treat 
all his prisoners of war as the European law 
of nations demanded. At last the French, 
1830, sent a force of over 40,000 men against 
the country. Algiers was speedily occupied, 
the dey retired, r and the country was without 
a government, but resistance was organized 
by Abd-el-Kader, an Arab chief whom the 
emergency had raised up. He began his war¬ 
like career of fifteen years by an attack on 
Oran in 1832, and after an obstinate struggle 
the French, in February, 1834, consented to a 
peace, acknowledging him as ruling over all 
the Arab tribes west of the Shelif by the title 
of Emir of Maskara. War was soon again 
renewed with varying fortune, and in 1837, in 
order to have their hands free in attacking 
Constantine, the French made peace with 
Abd-el-Kader, leaving to him the whole of 
western Algeria except some coast towns. 
Abd-el-Kader prepared for another conflict, 
and in 1838, broke into French territory with 
a strong force, and for a time the supremacy 
of the French was endangered. Gen. Bugeaud 
was appointed governer-general in February, 
1841. In the autumn of 1841 Saida, the last 
fortress of Abd-el-Kader, fell into his hands. 
Abd-el-Kader found himself compelled to seek 
refuge in the adjoining empire. From Ma- 
rocco he twice made a descent upon Algeria, 
on the second occasion defeating the French 
in two battles; and in 1844 he even succeeded 
in raising an army in Marocco to withstand 
the French. Bugeaud crossed the frontier, 
and inflicted a severe defeat on this army, 
while a French fleet bombarded the towns on 
the coast. The emperor of Marocco was at 
length compelled to agree to a treaty, in which 
he not only promised to refuse Abd-el-Kader 
his assistance, but even engaged to lend his 
assistance against him. Reduced to extremi- 


Algiers 


Alicata 


ties Abd-el-Kader surrendered, 1847, and was 
taken to France a prisoner, but was released 
on his promise not to return to Algeria. Re¬ 
peated risings have taken place, especially 
during the Franco-German war of 1871. 

Algiers (al'jerz), a city and seaport on the 
Mediterranean, capital of Algeria, on the 
Bay of Algiers, partly on the slope of a hill 
facing the sea. The old town, which is the 
higher, is oriental in appearance, with narrow, 
crooked streets, and houses that are strong, 
prison-like edifices. The modern French 
town, which occupies the lower slope and 
spreads along the shore, is handsomely built, 
with broad streets, and elegant squares. 
There is a large shipping trade carried on. 
The climate of Algiers, though extremely va¬ 
riable, makes it a very desirable winter resi¬ 
dence for invalids and others from colder 
regions. The winter months resemble a 
bright, sunny autumn, while the heat of sum¬ 
mer is not so intense as that of Egypt. Pop. 
96,784. 

Algo'a Bay, a bay on the south coast of 
Cape Colony, 425 mi. from the Cape of Good 
Hope, the only place of shelter on this coast 
for vessels during the prevailing northwest 
gales. The usual anchorage is off Port Eliza¬ 
beth, on its west coast, now a place of large 
and increasing trade. 

Algo'ma, a district of Canada, on the north 
side of Lake Superior, forming the northwest 
portion of Ontaria, rich in silver, copper, iron, 
etc. 

Algon'kins, one of the two great families 
of North American Indians, formerly spread 
over a great extent of territory, and still form¬ 
ing a large proportion of the Indians of Can¬ 
ada. They consist of four groups ; namely, 
1, the eastern group, comprising the Massa¬ 
chusetts, Narragansetts, Mohicans, Delawares, 
and other tribes ; 2, the northeastern group, 
consisting of the Abenakis, etc.; 3, the west¬ 
ern group, made up of the Shawnees, Miamis, 
Illinois, etc.; 4, the northwestern group, in¬ 
cluding the Chippewas, or Ojibbewas, the larg¬ 
est of all the tribes. 

Alhama (a-la'ma) (that is, “the bath”), a 
town of southern Spain, province of Granada, 
25 mi. s.w. of Granada, celebrated for its warm 
medicinal (sulphur) baths and drinking waters. 
It formed a Moorish fortress, the recovery of 
which in 1482 by the Spaniards led to the en¬ 
tire conquest of Granada. It was thrown into 
ruins by an earthquake in December, 1884. 
Pop. 8,000. 

Alham'bra (“the red castle”), a famous 
group of buildings in Spain, forming the cita¬ 
del of Granada when that city was one of the 
principal seats of the empire of the Moors in 
Spain, situated on a height, surrounded by a 
wall flanked by many towers, and having a cir¬ 
cuit of 2i mi. Within the circuit of the walls 
are two churches, a number of mean houses and 
some straggling gardens, besides the palace of 
Charles V and the celebrated Moorish palace, 
which is often distinctively spoken of as the 
Alhambra. This building was the royal palace 
of the kings of Granada. The greater part of 


the present building belongs to the first half of 
the fourteenth century. It consists mainly of 
buildings surrounding two oblong courts, the 
one called the Court of the Fish-pond (or of the 
Myrtles), 138 by 74 feet, lying north and south; 
the other called the Court of the Lions, 
from a fountain ornamented with twelve lions 
in marble, 115 feet by 66 feet, lying east and 
west, described as being, with the apartments 
that surround it, “the gem of Arabian art in 
Spain, its most beautiful and most perfect 
example.” Its design is elaborate, exhibiting 
a profusion of exquisite detail, gorgeous in 
coloring, but the smallness of its size deprives 
it of the element of majesty. The peristyle or 
portico on each side is supported by 128 pillars 
of white marble, 11 feet high, sometimes placed 
singly and sometimes in groups. Two pavil¬ 
ions project into the court at each end, the 
domed roof of one having been lately restored. 
Some of the finest chambers of the Alhambra 
open into this court, and near the entrance a 
museum of Moorish remains has been formed. 
The prevalence of stucco or plaster ornamen¬ 
tation is one of the features of theAlhambra, 
which becomes especially remarkable in the 
beautiful honey-comb-stalactical pendentives 
which the ceilings exhibit. Arabesques and 
geometrical designs with interwoven inscrip¬ 
tions are present in the richest profusion. The 
beauties of Alhambra have been glowingly 
described by Washington Irving. 

AH (a'le) (a. d. 602-661), cousin and son-in- 
law of Mohammed, the first of his converts, 
and the bravest and most faithful of his 
adherents. 

Ali, Pasha of Yanina (1741-1822), gener¬ 
ally called Ali Pasha, a bold and able, but fero¬ 
cious and unscrupulous Albanian. He made 
himself master of a large part of Albania, in¬ 
cluding Yanina, which the Porte sanctioned 
his holding, with the title of pasha. In 1820 
Sultan Mahmoud pronounced his deposition. 
He surrendered in 1822, and his treasures were 
seized by the Porte. 

Alicante (a-le-kan'ta), a fortified town and 
Mediterranean seaport in Spain, capital of the 
province of the same name, 80 mi. s. by w. of 
Valencia. The principal manufactures are 
cotton, linen, and cigars; one cigar manufac¬ 
tory employing above 3,000 women. The 
chief export is wine, which largely goes to 
England. In 718 it was taken by the Moors, 
from whom it was wrested about 1240. It 
was besieged and bombarded by the French 
in 1709 and in 1812, and by the people of Car¬ 
tagena during the commotions of 1873. Pop. 
39,638.—The province is very fruitful and well 
cultivated, producing wine, silk, fruits, etc. 
Area 2,098 sq.mi. Pop. 433,050. 

Alicata (or Licata) (a-le-kii'ta, le-kii,' ta), the 
most important commercial town on the s. 
coast of Sicily, 24 mi. e s.e. of Girgenti, with 
a considerable trade in sulphur, grain, wine, 
oil, nuts, almonds, and soda. It occupies the 
site of the town which the Tyrant Phintias 
of Acragas erected and named after himself, 
when Gela was destroyed in 280. Pop. 15,966. 


Alien 


Aliment 


A'lien, in relation to any country, a person 
born out of the jurisdiction of the country, 
and not having acquired the full rights of a 
citizen of it. The position of aliens depends 
upon the laws of the respective countries, but 
generally speaking, aliens owe a local allegi¬ 
ance, and are bound equally with natives to 
obey all general rules for the preservation of 
order which do not relate especially to citizens. 
In the U. S. the position of aliens as regards 
acquisition and holding of real property dif¬ 
fers somewhat in the different states, though 
in recent times the disabilities of aliens have 
been removed in most of them. Personal 
property they can take, hold, and dispose of, 
like native citizens. Individual states have 
no jurisdiction on the subject of naturaliza¬ 
tion, though they may pass laws admitting 
aliens to any privilege short of citizenship. 
A naturalized citizen is not eligible to election 
as president or vice-president of the U. S., 
and cannot serve as senator until after nine 
years’ citizenship, nor as a member of the 
House of Representatives until after seven 
years’ citizenship. Five years’ residence in 
the U. S. and one year’s permanent residence 
in the particular state where the application 
is made are necessary for the attainment of 
citizenship. See Naturalization. 

Alien and Sedition Laws. —French inter¬ 
ference in the domestic politics of the U. S. 
caused the passage by Congress, June 25,1798, 
of the Alien law, giving the president power 
to order aliens whom he should adjudge dan¬ 
gerous, out of the' country, and providing for 
the fine and imprisonment of those who re¬ 
fused to go. The Sedition law, passed July 
14, 1798, to remain in force till March 3, 1801, 
imposed fine and imprisonment on conspira¬ 
tors to resist government measures, and on 
libelers and scandalizers of the government, 
Congress, or the president. 

Aligarh (a-le-gar'), a fort and town in India, 
in the Northwest Provinces, on the East In¬ 
dian railway, 84 mi. s.e. of Delhi. The town 
properly called Koel or Coel, is distant about 
2 mi. from the fort. Pop. 61,730. The dis¬ 
trict has an area of 1,954 sq. mi., and a popula¬ 
tion of 1,021,187. 

Al'iment, food, a term which includes 
everything, solid or liquid, serving as nutri¬ 
ment for the bodily system. Aliments are 
of the most diverse character, but all of them 
must contain nutritious matter of some kind, 
which, being extracted by the act of digestion, 
enters the blood, and effects by assimilation 
the repair of the body. Alimentary matter, 
therefore, must be similar to animal sub¬ 
stance, or transmutable into such. All ali¬ 
mentary substances must, therefore, be com¬ 
posed in a greater or less degree of soluble 
parts, which easily lose their peculiar quali¬ 
ties in the process of digestion, and corre¬ 
spond to the elements of the body. The food 
of animals consists for the most part of sub¬ 
stances containing little oxygen and exhibit¬ 
ing a high degree of chemical combination, 
in which respects they differ from most sub¬ 


stances that serve as sustenance for plants, 
which are generally highly oxidized and ex¬ 
hibit little chemical combinations. Accord¬ 
ing to the nature of their constituents most 
of the aliments of animals are divided into 
nitrogenous (consisting of carbon, hydrogen, 
and oxygen along with nitrogen, and also of 
sulphur and phosphorus) and non-nitrogenous 
(consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen 
without nitrogen). Water and salts are 
usually considered as forming a third group, 
and in the widest sense of the word aliment, 
oxygen alone, which enters the blood in the 
lungs, forms a fourth. The articles used as 
food by man do not consist entirely of nutri¬ 
tious substances, but with few exceptions are 
compounds of various nutritious with in¬ 
digestible and accordingly innutritious sub¬ 
stances. The only nitrogenous aliments are 
albuminous substances, and these are con¬ 
tained largely in animal food (flesh, eggs, 
milk, cheese). The principal non-nitrogenous 
substance obtained as food from animals is 
fat. Sugar is so obtained in smaller quanti¬ 
ties (in milk). While some vegetable sub¬ 
stances also contain much albumen, very 
many of them are rich in starch. Among 
vegetable substances the richest in albumen 
are the legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), 
and following them come the cereals (wheat, 
oats, etc.). Sugar, water, and salts may pass 
without any change into the circulatory sys¬ 
tem; but albuminous substances cannot do 
so without being first rendered soluble and 
capable of absorption (in the stomach and 
intestines); starch must be converted into 
sugar, and fat emulsified (chiefly by the ac¬ 
tion of the pancreatic juice). One of the ob¬ 
jects of cooking is to make our food more 
susceptible of the operation of the digestive 
fluids. 

The relative importance of the various nu¬ 
tritious substances that are taken into the sys¬ 
tem and enter the blood depends upon their 
chemical constitution. The albuminous sub¬ 
stances are the most indispensable, inasmuch 
as they form the material by which the con¬ 
stant waste of the body is repaired, whence 
they are called by Liebig the substance- 
formers. But a part of the operation of albu¬ 
minous nutriments maybe performed equally 
well, and at less cost, by non-nitrogenous sub¬ 
stances, that part being the maintenance of 
the temperature of the body. As is well 
known, the temperature of warm-blooded ani¬ 
mals is considerably higher than the ordinary 
temperature of the surrounding air, in man 
about 98° F., and the uniformity of this tem¬ 
perature is maintained by the heat which is 
set free by the chemical processes (of oxida¬ 
tion) which go on within the body. Now 
these processes take place as well with non- 
nitrogenous as with nitrogenous substances. 
The former are even preferable to the latter 
for the keeping up of these processes; by oxi¬ 
dation they yield larger quantities of heat 
with less labor to the body, and they are hence 
called the heat-givers. The best heat-giver is 


Alimentary canai 


Alkanet 


fat. Albuminous matters are not only the 
tissue-formers of the body; they also supply 
the vehicle for the oxygen, inasmuch as it is 
of such matters that the blood corpuscles are 
formed. The more red-blood corpuscles an 
animal possesses, the more oxygen can it take 
into its system, and the more easily and rap¬ 
idly can it carry on the process of oxidation and 
develop heat. Now only a part of the heat so 
developed passes away into the environment 
of the animal; another part is transformed 
within the body (in the muscles) into mechan¬ 
ical work. Hence it follows that the non-ni- 
trogenous articles of food produce not merely 
heat but also work, but only with the assist¬ 
ance of albuminous matters, which, on the one 
hand, compose the working machine, and, on 
the other hand, convey the oxygen necessary 
for oxidation. 

The wholesome or unwholesome character 
of any aliment depends, in a great measure, 
on the state of the digestive organs in any 
given case, as also on the method in which it 
is cooked. Very often a simple aliment is 
made indigestible by artificial cookery. In 
any given case, the digestive power of the in¬ 
dividual is to be considered in order to deter¬ 
mine whether a particular aliment is whole¬ 
some or not. In general, therefore, we can 
only say that that aliment is healthy which is 
easily soluble, and is suited to the power of 
digestion of the individual. Man is fitted to 
derive nourishment both from animal and 
vegetable aliment, but can live exclusively on 
either. The nations of the North incline gen¬ 
erally more to animal aliments; those of the 
South, and the Orientals, more to vegetable. 
The inhabitants of the most northern regions 
live almost entirely upon animal food, and 
very largely on fat on account of its heat¬ 
giving property. See Dietetics, Digestion, Adul¬ 
teration, etc. 

Alimentary Canal, a common name given 
to the oesophagus, stomach, and intestines of 
animals. See Anatomy. 

Al'imony, in law, the allowance to which 
a woman is entitled while a matrimonial suit 
is pending between her and her husband, or 
after a legal separation from her husband, not 
occasioned by adultery or elopement on her 
part. 

Al'ison, Archibald (1792-1867), an English 
lawyer and writer of history. His chief work, 
The History of Europe from 1789 to 1815, was 
first issued in ten vols. in 1833-42, the narrative 
being subsequently brought down to 1852, the 
beginning of the second French Empire. This 
work displays industry and research, and is 
generally accurate, but not very readable. Its 
popularity, however, has been immense, and 
it has been translated into French, German, 
Arabic, Hindustani, etc. 

Aliwal', a village of Hindustan in the Pun¬ 
jab, on the left bank of the Sutlej, celebrated 
from the battle fought in its vicinity, Jan. 28, 
1846, between the Sikhs and a British army, 
resulting in the total defeat of the Sikhs. 

Aliz'arine, a substance contained in the 
madder root, and largely used in dyeing reds 


of various shades. Formerly madder root was 
largely employed as a dye-stuff, its capability 
of dyeing being chieliy due to the presence in 
it of alizarine; but the use of the root has 
been almost superseded by the employment 
of alizarine itself, prepared artificially from 
one of the constituents of coal-tar. It forms 
yellowish-red prismatic crystals, nearly insolu¬ 
ble in cold, but dissolved to a small extent by 
boiling water, and readily soluble in alcohol 
and ether. It possesses exceedingly strong 
tinctorial powers. 

AI kali, a term first used to designate the 
soluble part of the ashes of plants, especially 
sea-weed. Now the term is applied to various 
classes of bodies having the following proper¬ 
ties in common: (1) solubility in water; (2) 
the power of neutralizing acids, and forming 
salts with them ; (3) the property of corroding 
animal and vegetable substances ; (4) the prop¬ 
erty of altering the tint of many coloring 
matters — thus, they turn litmus, reddened by 
an acid, into blue; turmeric, brown ; and 
syrup of violets, an infusion of red cabbages, 
green. The alkalies are hydrates, or water in 
which half the hydrogen is replaced by a 
metal or compound radical. In its restricted 
and common sense the term is applied to four 
substances only: hydrate of potassium (pot¬ 
ash), hydrate of sodium (soda), hydrate of 
lithium (lithia), and hydrate of ammonium 
(an aqueous solution of ammonia). In a more 
general sense it is applied to the hydrates of 
the so-called alkaline earths (baryta, strontia, 
and lime), and to a large number of organic 
substances, both natural and artificial, de¬ 
scribed under Alkaloid. Volatile alkali is a 
name for ammonia. 

Al'kaloid, a term applied to a class of nitro- 
genized compounds having certain alkaline 
properties, found in living plants, and con¬ 
taining their active principles, usually in com¬ 
bination with organic acids. Their names 
generally end in ine, as morphine, quinine, 
aconitine, caffeine, etc. Most alkaloids occur 
in plants, but some are formed by decomposi¬ 
tion. Their alkaline character depends on 
the nitrogen they contain. Most natural alka¬ 
loids contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and 
oxygen, but the greater number of artificial 
ones want the oxygen. The only property 
common to all alkaloids is that of combining 
with acids to form salts, and some exhibit an 
alkaline reaction with colors. Alkaloids form 
what is termed the organic bases of plants. 
Although formed originally within the plant, 
it has been found possible to prepare several 
of these alkaloids by purely artificial means. 

Alkanet, a dyeing drug, the bark of the 
root of the Anchusa, or Alkanna tinctoria, a 
plant with downy and spear-shaped leaves, 
and clusters of small purple or reddish flowers. 
The plant is sometimes cultivated in Britain, 
but most of the alkanet of commerce is im¬ 
ported from the Levant or from southern 
France. It imparts a fine deep-red color and 
is used for coloring oils, plasters, lip-salve, 
confections, etc.; also in compositions for rub- 


Alkarsin 


Allen 


bing and giving color to mahogany furniture, 
and to color spurious port-wine. 

Alkar sin, an extremely poisonous liquid 
containing kakodyle, together with oxidation 
products of this substance, and formerly known 
as Cadet's fuming liquor, characterized by its 
insupportable smell and high degree of spon¬ 
taneous combustibility when exposed to air. 

Alkmaar (alk'mar), a town of the Nether¬ 
lands, prov. of North Holland, 20 mi. n. n. 
w. of Amsterdam. It has manufactures of 
salt, sail-cloth, vinegar, leather, etc., and an 
extensive trade in cattle, corn, butter, and 
cheese. Pop. 13,304. 

A1 lah, in Arabic, the name of God, a word 
of kindred origin with the Hebrew word Elo- 
him. Allah Akbar (God is great) is a Moham¬ 
medan war-cry. 

Allahabad (“City of Allah”), an ancient city 
of India, capital of the Northwest Provinces. 
Allahabad is one of the chief resorts of Hindu 
pilgrims, who have their sins washed away by 
bathing in the waters of the sacred rivers 
Ganges and Jumna at their junction; and is 
also the scene of a great fair in December and 
January. A large general and transit trade is 
carried on. The town is as old as the third 
century b. c. In the mutiny of 1857 it was the 
scene of a serious outbreak and massacre. 
Pop. 150,378.—The division of Allahabad 
contains the districts of Cawnpur, Futtehpur, 
Hamirpur, Banda, Jaunpur, and Allahabad. 
Area 13,746 sq. mi.; pop. 5,754,855.—The 
District contains an area of 2,833 sq. mi., 
about five sixths being under cultivation. Pop. 
1,474,106. 

Allan, David (1744-1796), a Scottish painter. 
His illustrations of the Gentle Shepherd , the 
Cottefr's Saturday Night, and other sketches 
of rustic life and manners in Scotland, 
obtained for him the name of the “Scottish 
Hogarth.” 

Allan, George William, born 1822, in To¬ 
ronto, Canada; graduated at Upper Canada 
College in 1839, and was admitted to the bar in 
1846. In 1855 he was elected mayor of Toronto, 
and in 1858 sat in the Legislative Council for 
York division. In 1867 he was elected to the 
Senate, and in 1876 became chancellor of 
Trinity College. 

Allan, Sir Hugh (1810-1882), born in Scot¬ 
land. In 1824 he came to Canada, and estab¬ 
lished the Allan line of ocean steamers. He 
was a director of several banks, and was 
knighted in 1871. 

Allan, Sir William (1782-1850), a distin¬ 
guished Scottish artist. In 1814 he exhibited 
his pictures, one of which, Circassian Captives, 
made his reputation. He now turned his at¬ 
tention to historical painting, and produced 
Knox Admonishing Mary Queen of Scots, Murder 
of liizzio, Exiles on Their Way to Siberia, The 
Slave Market at Constantinople, etc.; latterly 
also battle scenes, as the Battle of Prestonpans, 
Nelson Boarding the San Nicolas, and two pict¬ 
ures of the Battle of Waterloo, the one from the 
British, the other from the French position, 
and delineating the actual scene and the in¬ 


cidents therein taking place at the moment 
chosen for the representation. 

Alleghany (al-le-ga'ni), a river of Penn¬ 
sylvania and New York, which unites with the 
Monongahela at Pittsburg to form the Ohio; 
navigable nearly 200 miles above Pittsburg. 

Alleghany flountains, a name sometimes 
used as synonymous with Appalachians, but 
also often restricted to the portion of those 
mountains that traverses the states of Vir¬ 
ginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania from 
southwest to northeast, and consists of a 
series of parallel ridges for the most part 
wooded to the summit, and with some fertile 
valleys between. Their mean elevation is 
about 2,500 feet; but in Virginia they rise to 
over 4,000. 

Allegheny (al-le-gen'i), a city of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, on the River Alleghany, opposite 
Pittsburg, of which it may be considered 
virtually to be a suburb, and with which it is 
connected by six bridges. The principal in¬ 
dustries are connected with iron and machin¬ 
ery. Also called Allegheny City. Pop. 129,896. 

Allen, Ethan (1737-1789), soldier, born in 
Litchfield, Conn. About 1763 he settled near 
Bennington. In 1764, the king decided in 
favor of the claim of New York to jurisdiction 
over the Green Mountain territory against the 
settlers under the New Hampshire grants. 
Allen was chosen to plead the cause of the 
New Hampshire settlers at Albany, N. Y. 
The courts decided adversely. Allen was 
made colonel of the “Green Mountain 
Boys,” who, with the New Hampshire 
grantees, expelled the New York settlers. 
Governor Tryon, of New York, offered $750 
reward for Allen. Allen retaliated by offering 
a reward for Tryon. In 1775, after the battle 
of Lexington, the condition of Fort Ticon- 
deroga attracted the attention of the patriots. 
Allen and Benedict Arnold both were eager to 
effect its capture. Arnold was commissioned 
colonel by Massachusetts, but the “Green 
Mountain Boys,” with Allen, reached Lake 
George before Arnold overtook them, and they 
would not receive a new commander. On 
May 10, when only eighty-four of his men had 
as yet crossed the lake, Allen rushed into the 
fort and ordered the commander to surrender 
“in the name of the Great Jehovah and the 
Continental Congress ! ” The fort contained a 
large amount of artillery and arms. Allen 
went to Philadelphia, where he received the 
thanks of Congress for his services. He was 
sent on a secret mission to Canada to learn the 
views of the Canadians as to rebellion. On 
his way to Gen. Montgomery’s expedition he 
took part in a rash adventure at Montreal on 
September 25, and was captured and sent to 
England. He was returned to this country, 
where he was confined in prison-ships, but 
later allowed partial liberty. In 1779 Allen 
published a Narrative of his treatment while a 
British prisoner. It is a compound of local 
barbarisms, Scripture, physiology, and Oriental 
wildness. After Burgoyne’s surrender at 
Saratoga, Congress secured Allen’s release. 
Allen, on obtaining his freedom, was ap- 


Allen 


pointed major-general of the Vermont militia, 
and sent as an agent to Congress to secure the 
admission of Vermont to the Confederation. 
Congress hesitated, and the British com¬ 
manders endeavored to persuade Allen to re¬ 
store the authority of the crown. Vermont 
sent these letters to the president of Congress, 
and soon became a part of the Union, although 
not recognized as a state until 1791. After the 
Revolution Allen lived in retirement, writing 
a book on natural religion, 1784, entitled 
Reason the Only Oracle <rf Man. This is the 
first work opposed to Christianity published in 
America* 

Allen, William, D. D. (1784-1868), American 
clergyman and author. He was president of 
Bowdoin College 1820-1839; author of Ameri¬ 
can Biographical and Historical Dictionary; a 
Supplement to Webster's Dictionary; Poems , etc. 

Allentown, Lehigh co., Pa., on Lehigh 
River, 18 mi. above its junction with the 
Delaware. It has an important trade in coal 
and iron ore, with large blast-furnaces, rolling- 
mills, etc. Pop. 35,416. 

Al'lia, a small affluent of the Tiber, joining 
it about 12 miles from Rome, famous for the 
defeat sustained by the Roman army from 
Brennus and his Gauls, resulting in the capture 
and sack of Rome, about 390 b. c. 

Alliance, Stark co., O., 57 mi. s. e. of Cleve¬ 
land, and 93 miles n. n. w. of Pittsburg; seat 
of Mt. Union College. Manufactures of bag¬ 
ging, white lead, and rolling mill. Pop. 8,974- 

Aliibone, Samuel Austin, LL. D. (1816— 
1889), an American author. He compiled a 
most useful Critical Dictionary of English Litera¬ 
ture and British and American Authors. 

Allier (al-le-a), a central department of 
France. It has extensive beds of coal as well 
as other minerals, which are actively worked, 
there being several flourishing centers of min¬ 
ing and manufacturing enterprise; mineral 
waters at Vichy, Bourbon, L’Archambault, etc. 
Large numbers of sheep and cattle are bred. 
Area 2,822 sq. mi. Capital, Moulins. Pop. 
424,582. 

Alliga'tion, a rule of arithmetic, chiefly 
found in the older books, relating to the solu¬ 
tion of questions concerning the compounding 
or mixing together of different ingredients, or 
ingredients of different qualities or values. 
Thus, if a quantity of sugar worth 4 cents a 
lb. and another quantity worth 7 cents are 
mixed, th question to be solved by alligation 
is, what is the value of the mixture by the 
pound ? 

Alligator, a genus of reptiles of the crocodile 
family, differing from the true crocodiles in 
having a shorter and flatter head, in having 
cavities or pits in the upper jaw, into which 
the long canine teeth of the under jaw fit, and 
in having the feet much less webbed. Their 
habits are less aquatic. They are confined to 
the warmer parts of America, where they fre¬ 
quent swamps and marshes, and may be seen 
basking on the dry ground during the day in 
the heat of the sun. They are most active 
during the night when they make a loud 
bellowing. The largest of these animals grow 


Alloway 

to the length of 18 or 20 feet. They are cov¬ 
ered by a dense armor of horny scales, im¬ 
penetrable by a rifle-ball, and have a huge 
mouth, armed with strong conical teeth. They 
swim with wonderful celerity, impelled by 
their long, laterally-compressed, and powerful 
tails. On land their motions are proportionally 
slow and embarrassed because of the length 
and unwieldiness of their bodies and the short¬ 
ness of their limbs. They live on fish, and any 
small animals or carrion, and sometimes catch 
pigs on the shore, or dogs which are swim¬ 
ming. They even sometimes make man their 
prey. In winter they burrow in the mud of 
swamps and marshes, lying torpid till the 
warm weather. The female lays a great num¬ 
ber of eggs, which are deposited in the sand 
or mud, and left to be hatched by the heat of 
the sun, but the mother alligator is very at¬ 
tentive to her young. The most fierce and 
dangerous species is that found in the south¬ 
ern part of the U. S., having the snout a little 
turned up, slightly resembling that of the pike. 
The alligators of S. A. are there very often 
called Caymans. One species is known also as 
Spectacled Cayman, from the prominent bony 
rim surrounding the orbit of each eye. The 
flesh of the alligator is sometimes eaten. 

AIIigator=pear, an evergreen tree of the nat¬ 
ural order Lauraceae, with a fruit resembling 
a large pear, 1 to 2 lbs. in weight, with a firm 
marrow-like pulp of a delicate flavor; called 
also avocado-pear, or subaltern’s butter. It is a 
native of tropical America and the West Indies. 

Allison, William B., b. in Wayne co. O., 
1829, practised law in Ohio until 1857, when he 
removed to Dubuque, la. He served in Con¬ 
gress as a Republican 1863-1871. In 1873 he 
was elected to the U. S. Senate, and re-elected 
in 1878, 1884, 1890, and 1896. 

Aliitera' tion, the repetition of the same let¬ 
ter at the beginning of two or more words im¬ 
mediately succeeding each other, or at short 
intervals; as many men, many minds; death de¬ 
fies the doctor; “Apt alliteration’s artful aid.’’ 
“Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.” 
In the ancient German and Scandinavian and 
in early English poetry alliteration took the 
place of terminal rhymes, the alliterative syl¬ 
lables being made to recur with a certain reg¬ 
ularity in the same position in successive 
verses. So far has alliteration sometimes been 
carried that long compositions have been writ¬ 
ten every word of which commenced with the 
same letter. 

Allo'dium, land held in one’s own right, 
without any feudal obligation to a superior or 
lord. See Feudal System. 

Allop athy, the name applied by homceop- 
athists to systems of medicine other than 
their own; Hahnemann’s principle being that 
“like cures like,” he called his own system 
homoeopathy, and other systems allopathy. See 
Homoeopathy. 

Al loway, a parish of Scotland, now in¬ 
cluded in Ayr parish. Here Robert Burns 
was born in 1759, and the “auld haunted 
kirk,” near his birthplace, was the scene of 
the dance of witches in Tam O’ Shanter. 


Almanac 


Alloy 


Alloy,' a substance produced by melting 
together two or more metals,sometimes a defi¬ 
nite chemical compound, but more generally 
merely a mechanical mixture. Most metals 
mix together in all proportions, but others 
unite only in definite proportions, and form 
true chemical compounds. Others again resist 
combination, and when fused together form 
not a homogeneous mixture but a conglomerate 
of distinct masses. The changes produced in 
their physicial properties by the combination 
of metals are very various. Their hardness is 
in general increased, their malleability and 
ductility impaired. The color of an alloy may 
be scarcely different from that of one of its 
components, or it may show traces of neither 
of the two. Its specific gravity is sometimes 
less than the mean of that of its component 
metals. Alloys are always more fusible than 
the metal most difficult to melt that enters into 
their composition, and generally even more so 
than the most easily melted one. Newton’s 
fusible metal, composed of three parts of tin, 
two or five parts of lead, and five or eight parts 
of bismuth, melts at temperatures varying from 
198° to 210° F. (and therefore in boiling water); 
its components fuse respectively at the tem¬ 
peratures 442°, 600°, and 478° F. Sometimes 
each metal retains its own fusing point. With 
a few exceptions metals are not used in a pure 
state. Printers’ types are made from an alloy 
of lead and antimony; brass and a numerous 
list of other alloys are formed from copper and 
zinc; bronze from copper and tin. 

All Saints’ Day, a festival of the Christian 
Church, instituted in 835, and celebrated on 
November 1 in honor of the saints in general. 

All Souls’ Day, a festival of the Catholic 
Church, instituted in 998, and observed on 
November 2 for the relief of souls in pur¬ 
gatory. 

Allspice (al'spis) 

• (or Pimenta), is the 
dried berry of a 
West Indian spe¬ 
cies of myrtle, a 
beautiful tree with 
white and fragrant 
aromatic flowers 
and leaves of a 
deep shini ng green. 

Pimenta is thought 
to resemble in fla¬ 
vor a mixture of 
cinnamon, nut¬ 
megs, and cloves, 
v/hence the popu¬ 
lar name of allspice; 
it is also called 
Jamaica pepper. 

It is employed in 
cookery, also in 
medicine as an 
agreeable aromatic, and forms the basis of a 
distilled water, a spirit, and an essential oil. 

Allston, Washington (1799-1843), an Ameri¬ 
can painter, b. in South Carolina. He won 
much fame in England, and returning to 
America died. His Belshazzer's Feast is one 



Allspice. 


of the masterpieces possessed by the Boston 
Athenaeum. In style he imitated the Vene¬ 
tian School and has been called the “Ameri¬ 
can Titian.” 

Allu'vium, deposits of soil, collected by the 
action of water, such as are found in valleys 
and plains, consisting of loam, clay, gravel, 
etc., washed down from the higher grounds. 
Great alterations are often produced by allu¬ 
vium—deltas and whole islands being often 
formed by this cause. Much of the rich land 
along the banks of rivers is alluvial in its 
origin. 

Alma, a small river of Russia, in the Crimea, 
celebrated from the victory gained by the 
allied British and French over the Russians, 
1854. 

Al'maden, Cal., about 60 mi. s.e. of San 
Francisco, with rich quicksilver mines, the 
product of which has been largely employed 
in gold and silver mining. It was so named 
after Almaden, in Spain, where much quick¬ 
silver was mined. 

Alma gro, Diego de (1475-1538), Spanish 
“Conquistador,” a foundling. He took part 
with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and after 
frequent disputes with Pizarro about their 
respective shares in their conquests led an ex¬ 
pedition against Chile, which he failed to con¬ 
quer. On his return a struggle took place 
between him and Pizarro, in which Almagro 
was finally overcome, taken prisoner, stran¬ 
gled, and afterward beheaded. He was 
avenged by his son, who raised an insurrec¬ 
tion in which Pizarro was assassinated in 1541. 
The younger Almagro was put to death in 1542 
by De Castro, the new viceroy of Peru. 

Al'manac, a calendar, in which are set 
down the rising and setting of the sun, the 
phases of the moon, the most remarkable po¬ 
sitions and phenomena of the heavenly bodies, 
for every month and day of the year; also the 
several fasts and feasts to be observed in the 
church and state, etc., and often much mis¬ 
cellaneous information likely to be useful to 
the public. The term is of Arabic origin, but 
the Arabs were not the first to use almanacs. 
In England they are known from the four¬ 
teenth century, there being several English 
almanacs of that century existing in MS. 
They became generally used in Europe within 
a short time after the invention of printing. 
Their effects in France were found so mis¬ 
chievous, from the pretended prophecies 
which they published, that Henry III in 1579 
forbade any predictions to be inserted in them 
relating to civil affairs, whether those of the 
state or of private persons. During the civil 
war of Charles I, and thence onward, English 
almanacs were conspicuous for the boldness of 
their astrological predictions, and their de¬ 
termined perpetuation of popular errors. The 
most famous English almanac was Poor Robin's 
Almanack , which was published from 1663 to 
1775. In 1828 the Society for the Diffusion of 
Useful Knowledge, by publishing the British 
Almanac , took the lead in the production of an 
unexceptional almanac in Great Britain. The 
circulation of almanacs was cramped. by the 




Alma=Tadema 


Almond 


very heavy duty of one shilling and three 
pence per copy till 1834, when this duty was 
abolished. About 200 new almanacs were 
started immediately on the repeal. Almanacs 
from their periodical character, are now more 
and more used as vehicles for conveying sta¬ 
tistical and other useful information for the 
inhabitants of a particular country or district, 
or for a particular class or party. Some of the 
almanacs that are regularly published every 
year are almost indispensable to men engaged 
in official, mercantile, literary, or professional 
business. Such in Great Britain are Thom's 
Official Directory of the United Kingdom, the 
British Almanac, Oliver and Boyd's Edinburgh 
Almanac, and Whitaker's Almanac. The first 
popular almanac in America is believed to 
have emanated from Bradford's press at Phila¬ 
delphia, in 1087. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor 
Bichard's Almanac, first issued in 1732, had a 
popularity for a quarter of a century. Many 
leading newspapers, not a few religious de¬ 
nominations, and several trades and profes¬ 
sions now issue excellent popular almanacs at 
inexpensive rates. The Almanach de Gotha, 
which has appeared at Gotha since 1764, con¬ 
tains information regarding the reigning fami¬ 
lies and governments, the finances, commerce, 
population, etc., of the different states through¬ 
out the world. It is published both in French 
and in German. 

The Nautical Almanac, or the American 
Astronomical Ephemeris, is published by the 
U. S. Bureau of Navigation annually. It em¬ 
braces all the elements necessary for deter¬ 
mining at any time the absolute and relative 
places of the sun, moon, and seven principal 
planets and of many of the fixed stars, also 
several different series of phenomena for the 
determination of longitudes and latitudes, the 
distances of the moon from fixed stars and 
planets, eclipses, etc. To these are added 
rules and tables for practical use in nautical 
astronomy, land observations, and tables of 
tides. It is a text-book for the navigator and 
no sailor leaves the American shore without 
it. It informs him of his place on the ocean 
where there are no other guides than the sun 
and stars. The computations are made three 
years in advance and could be made still far¬ 
ther if necessary, but no cruise is made which 
lasts longer than that time and it is unneces¬ 
sary to keep farther in advance. Before the 
American Nautical Almanac was published 
we used an American edition of the British 
Nautical Almanac which is published an¬ 
nually by the British government two or three 
years in advance. This almanac was com¬ 
menced in 1767 by Dr. Maskelyne, astrono¬ 
mer royal. The French Connaissance des Tem¬ 
pos is published with the same views as the 
American and English almanacs. It was first 
issued in 1679. The German Government also 
publishes a nautical almanac. 

Alma=Tad'ema, Lawrence, Dutch painter, 
born in 1836, resident since 1870 in Eng¬ 
land, where he is a naturalized subject. In 
1876 he was elected an associate of the Royal 
Academy, in 1879, an academician; he is also 


a member of various foreign academies. He 
is especially celebrated for his pictures of an¬ 
cient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian life, which 
are painted with great realism and archaeolog¬ 
ical correctness. 

Almeida (al-ma'i-da), one of the strongest 
fortresses in Portugal, in the province of Beira, 
near the Spanish border, on the Coa. Pop. 
2,000. Taken by Massena from the English in 
1810; retaken by Wellington in 1811. 

Almeida (dal-ma/i-da), Francisco de (1450- 
1510), first Portuguese viceroy of India. He 
fought against the Moors, and being appointed 
governor of the new Portuguese settlements 
on the African and Indian coasts, he sailed for 
India in 1505. In Africa he took possession of 
Quiloa and Mombas, and in the East he con¬ 
quered Cananor, Cochin, Calicut, etc., and es¬ 
tablished forts and factories. His son Lorenzo 
discovered the Maldives and Madagascar, but 
perished in an attack made on him by a fleet 
sent by the sultan of Egypt, with the aid of 
the Porte and the Republic of Venice. Hav¬ 
ing signally defeated the Mussulmans (1508), 
he sailed for Portugal, but was killed in a 
skirmish. 

Almeria (al-ma-re'a), a fortified seaport of 
southern Spain, capital of province Almeria, 
with an important trade, exporting lead, es¬ 
parto, barilla, etc. The province, which has 
an area of 3,300 sq. mi., is generally moun¬ 
tainous, and rich in minerals. Pop. of town 
40,323; of province, 349,854. 

Almohades (al'mo-hadz), an Arabic or 
Moorish dynasty that ruled in Africa and 
Spain in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
They overthrew the Almoravides in Spain, 
but themselves received a defeat in 1212 from 
which they did not recover, and in 1269 were 
overthrown in Africa. 

Almond (a'mund), the fruit of the almond 
tree, a tree which grows usually to the height 
of 20 feet, and is akin to the peach, nectarine, 
etc. It has beautiful pinkish flowers that 
appear before the leaves, which are oval, 



Almond. a.—flower. b.— fruit. 


pointed, and delicately serrated. It is a native 
of Africa and Asia, naturalized in southern 
Europe, and cultivated in England for its 
beauty. The fruit is a drupe, ovoid, and with 
downy, outer surface; the fleshy covering is 


Almoravides 


Alphabet 


tough and fibrous; it covers the compressed, 
wrinkled stone enclosing the seed or almond 
within it. There are two varieties, one sweet 
and the other bitter. The chief kinds of 
sweet almonds are the Valencian, Jordan, and 
Malaga. Bitter almonds come from Magador, 
and besides a fixed oil they contain a substance 
called emulsin, and also a bitter crystalline 
substance called amygdalin , which, acting on 
the emulsin, produces prussic acid, whence the 
aroma of bitter almonds when mixed with 
water. Almond-oil, a bland fixed oil, is ex¬ 
pressed from the kernels of either sweet or 
bitter almonds, and is used by perfumers and 
in medicine. A poisonous essential oil is ob¬ 
tained from bitter almonds, which is used for 
flavoring by cooks and confectioners, also by 
perfumers and in medicine. 

Almo'ravides (-vidz), a Moorish dynasty 
which arose in northwestern Africa in the 
eleventh century, and having crossed the 
Straits of Gibraltar, gained possession of all 
Arabic Spain, but was overthrown by the 
Almohades in the following century. 

Aloe (al'o), the name of a number of plants 
belonging to the genus Aloe, syme of which 
are not more than 
a few inches, 
while others are 
30 feet and up¬ 
ward in height; 
natives of Africa 
and other hot re- 
gions; leaves 
fleshy, thick, and 
more or less spi¬ 
nous at the edges 
or extremity; 
flowers with a 
tubular corolla. 

Some of the 
larger kinds are 
of great use, the 
fibrous parts of 
the leaves being 
made into cord¬ 
age, fishing nets 
and lines, cloth, 

I etc. The juice 
of several species 
is used in medicine, under the name of aloes, 
forming a bitter purgative. The principal 
drug-producing species are, the Socotrine aloe, 
the Barbadoes aloe, the Cape aloe, etc. A 
beautiful violet color is afforded by the leaves 
of the Socotrine aloe. The American aloe (see 
Agave) is a different plant altogether; as are 
also the aloes or lign-aloes of Scripture. Aloe 
fiber is obtained from species of Aloe, Agave, 
Yucca, etc., and is made into coarse fabrics, 
ropes, etc. 

Aloes=wood, Eagle-wood, the inner portion 
of the trunk of forest trees, found in tropical 
Asia, and yielding a fragrant resinous sub¬ 
stance, which, as well as the wood, is burned 
for its perfume. Another tree also produces 
aloes-wood. This wood is supposed to be the 
lign-aloes of the Bible. 

A 'lost (or Aalst) (a'lost, alst), a town of Bel¬ 


gium, 15 mi, w. n. w. of Brussels. It has man¬ 
ufactures of lace, thread, linen, and cotton 
goods, etc., and a considerable trade. Pop. 
29,251. 

Alpac'a, a ruminant mammal of the camel 
tribe, a native of the Andes, especially of the 



Alpaca. 

mountains of Chile and Peru, and so closely 
allied to the llama that by some it is regarded 
rather as a smaller variety than a distinct 
species. It has been domesticated, and re¬ 
mains also in a wild state. In form and size 
it approaches the sheep, but has a longer neck. 
It is valued chiefly for its long, soft, and silky 
wool, which is straighter than that of the 
sheep, and very strong, and is woven into fab¬ 
rics of great beauty, used for shawls, clothing 
for warm climate, coat-linings, and umbrellas, 
and known by the same name. Its flesh is 
pleasant and wholesome. 

Alpena, Alpena co., Mich., 130 mi. n. e. 
of Saginaw City. It is an important lumber 
center, has also two foundries and two banks, 
Pop. 1900, 11,802. 

Alpes (alp), the name of three departments 
in the s. e. of France, all more or less covered 
by the Alps or their offshoots. These are 
Basses Alpes; area 2,685 sq. mi.; capital, 
Digne; pop. 129,494. — Hautes-Alpes (ot-alp) 
(Upper Alps), area 2,158; capital, Gap; pop. 
122,924. — Alpes-Maritimes (alp-ma-ri-tem) 
(Maritime Alps). It produces in the south, 
cereals, vines, olives, oranges, citrons, and 
other fruits; and there are manufactories of 
perfumes, liquors, soap, etc., and valuable 
fisheries. It is a favorite resort for invalids. 
Area 1,482 sq. mi.; capital, Nice; pop. 238,- 
057. 

Al' pha and O ' mega, the first and last letters 
of the Greek alphabet, sometimes used to 
signify the beginning and the end, or the first 
and the last of anything; also as a symbol of 
the Divine Being. They were also formerly 
the symbol of Christianity, and engraved ac¬ 
cordingly on the tombs of the ancient Chris¬ 
tians. 

Al'phabet (from Alpha and Beta , the first 
two letters of the Greek alphabet), the series 
of characters used in writing a language, and 
intended to represent the sounds of which it 
consists. The English alphabet, like most of 
those of modern Europe, is derived directly 
from the Latin, the Latin from the ancient 









Alphabet 


Alps 


Greek, and that from the Phoenician, which 
again is believed to have had its origin in the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hebrew alphabet 
also having the same origin. The names of 
the letters in Phoenician and Hebrew must 
have been almost the same, for the Greek 
names, which, with the letters, were borrowed 
from the former, differ little from the Hebrew. 
By means of the names we may trace the proc¬ 
ess by which the Egyptian characters were 
transformed into letters by the Phoenicians. 
Some Egyptian character would, by its form, 
recall the idea of a house, for example, in 
Phoenician or Hebrew, beth. This character 
would subsequently come to be used wherever 
the sound b occurred. Its form might be after¬ 
ward simplified, or even completely modified, 
but the name would still remain, as beth still 
continues the Hebrew name for b , and beta 
the Greek. Our letter m, which in Hebrew 
was called mim, water, has still a considerable 
resemblance to the zigzag, wavy line which 
had been chosen to represent water, as in the 
zodaical symbol for Aquarius. The letter o, of 
which the Hebrew name means eye, no doubt 
originally intended to represent that organ. 
While the ancient Greek alphabet gave rise to 
the ordinary Greek alphabet and the Latin, 
the Greek alphabet of later times furnished 
elements for the Coptic, the Gothic, and the 
old Slavic alphabets. The Latin characters 
are now employed by a great many nations, 
such as the Italian, the French, the Spanish, 
the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, the 
German, the Hungarian, the Polish, etc., each 
nation having introduced such modifications 
or additions as are necessary to express the 
sound of the language peculiar to it. The 
Greek alphabet originally possessed only six¬ 
teen letters, though the Phoenician had twenty- 
two. The original Latin alphabet, as it is 
found in the oldest inscriptions, consisted of 
twenty-one letters. The German alphabet 
consists of the same letters as the English, but 
the sounds of some of them are different. 
Anciently certain characters called Runic were 
made use of by the Teutonic nations, to which 
some would attribute an origin independent of 
the Greek and Latin alphabets. While the 
alphabets of the west of Europe are derived 
from the Latin, the Russian, which is very 
complete, is based on the Greek, with some 
characters borrowed from the Armenian. 
The Sanskrit or Devanagari alphabet is one of 
the most remarkable alphabets of the world. 
As now used it has fourteen characters for the 
vowels and diphthongs, and thirty-three for 
the consonants, besides two other symbols. 
Our alphabet is a very imperfect instrument 
for what it has to perform, being both defective 
and redundant. An alphabet is not essential 
to the writing of a language, since ideograms 
or symbols may be used instead, as in Chinese. 

There is a remarkable Indian alphabet 
which was invented by See-quah-yali, of the 
Cherokee tribe. This Indian was confined to 
his cabin by a swollen knee, and was set to 
thinking whether the mysterious power of the 
“talking leaf ” was the gift of the Great Spirit 


to the white man or the discovery of the 
white man himself. His mind was directed 
to the mystery of speaking by letters, the 
name of which of course was not to be found 
in his language. From the cries of wild 
beasts, the sound of mocking-birds, the voices 
of his children and companions he observed 
that feelings and passions were conveyed by 
direct sound from one intelligent being to an¬ 
other. He immediately set about to ascertain 
all the sounds in the Cherokee language. In 
this labor he was aided by the more acute ears 
of his wife and children. At first he at¬ 
tempted to use pictorial signs, and images of 
birds and beasts to convey the different sounds 
in their language. He soon abandoned this 
method as difficult or impossible, and invented 
arbitrary signs without any regard to appear¬ 
ances, except such as might assist in recollect¬ 
ing them and distinguishing them from each 
other. His first alphabet consisted of about 
two hundred characters. This proved to be 
too cumbersome, and with the aid of his 
daughter, he reduced them at last to eighty- 
six, which number was used afterward. He 
perfected these characters in appearances, al¬ 
though he had no pen, making his characters 
on bark with a knife or nail. He sent to the 
Indian agent for paper and pen, made ink 
from the bark of the forest trees, and, after 
seeing the construction of the pen, he soon 
made a supply. His alphabet invented, he 
next proceeded to demonstrate to his people 
that he had made a discovery. His daughter, 
who was his only pupil, was sent out of hear¬ 
ing while he asked his friends to name a word 
or sentiment, which he put down. The girl 
was then called back and read what he had 
written. The father then retired, and the 
daughter wrote. This satisfied his compan¬ 
ions of the discovery. Several of the brightest 
young men of the tribe were selected, to whom 
See-quah-yah communicated the mystery. 
This required some months, and at length 
they offered themselves for examination. The 
tribe watched for the results with anxiety. 
The youths were separated from their master 
and from each other and carefully watched. 
The uninitiated conducted the examination, 
which proved in every way successful. A 
great feast was ordered in honor of See-quah- 
yah, who at once became philosopher and 
chief. He continued in his labors and discov¬ 
ered numbers. The U. S. Government had a 
font of type cut for his alphabet, and a news¬ 
paper called “The Cherokee Phoenix,’’ printed, 
partly in the Cherokee language and parti}?' in 
English, was established. Many of the Chero- 
kees were able to read both languages. 

Alphonso, the name of a number of Portu¬ 
guese and Spanish kings. The name is borne 
by the present ruler of Spain, Alphonso XIII, 
born May 17, 1886, nearly six months after 
the death of his father, Alphonso XII. He is a 
Bourbon, a descendant of Louis XIV of 
France. 

Alps, the highest and most extensive moun¬ 
tain-chain in Europe, forming the water-shed 
between the river-systems of the Mediterra- 


Alps 


Alsace-Lorraine 


nean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It includes 
parts of five countries; viz.: portions of north¬ 
ern Italy, southeastern France, southern Ger¬ 
many, western Austria-Hungary, and most 
of Switzerland. The range is about 600 miles 
long, and from 90 to 180 miles wide. Its aver¬ 
age height is about 7,700 feet; the highest 
peaks are Mont Blanc, 15,781 feet, on the 
Franco-Italian border, and Monte Rosa, 15,- 
217, in Switzerland. The system of ranges 
is now commonly grouped under Eastern, 
Western, and Central Alps. The general form 
of the Alps is that of a crescent; from the 
principal chains spurs extend to the Apen¬ 
nines, the Vosges, the Harz, the Balkans, and 
the Carpathians. The line of perpetual snow 
begins at a line about 8,000 to 9,000 feet above 
the sea-level, more than 400 peaks rising to 
this altitude. From these peaks there de¬ 
scend to the valleys below enormous masses 
of partially melted snow and pulverized ice, 
constantly augmented by the masses from 
behind, which acquire a moving force that 
nothing can resist. Finally they reach a 
point where the sun melts them and become 
the sources of mountain rivers. The largest 
glacier is the “Mer de Glace ” on the northern 
slope of Mont Blanc, and is 15 miles long, 
8 to 0 miles wide, and 80 to 120 feet thick. The 
Rhone Glacier is one of the most famous. 
The Helvetian Alps in Western Switzerland, 
on both sides of the Rhone, are the portion 
most visited and afford the most beautiful 
mountain scenery of Europe. Among their 
peaks are the Jungfrau and the Finsteraar- 
horn. The dangerous ascent of Mont Blanc 
was first made in 1786 by a Frenchman, Jacques 
Balmat. The atmospheric conditions of the 
Alps produce at certain points most interest¬ 
ing optical illusions, sometimes very beautiful. 
The Alps were formerly considered well-nigh 
impassable, and many perished in the attempt. 
Hannibal’s famous passage was reckoned one 
of his greatest feats. There are now good 
roads over most of the passes, some of which, 
however, are exceedingly dangerous. The 
chief passes connect Switzerland with Italy, 
and occupy 8 to 15 hours in crossing. ' One of 
the first famous roads was that built by Napo¬ 
leon, 1803-10, over Mt. Cenis, at a height of 
6,773 feet. The Mont Cenis tunnel, connect¬ 
ing France and Italy, is 14 miles from this 
road. It was built 1861-70 and is 7£ miles 
long. The celebrated St. Gothard Pass is 
6,935 feet high, and has been crossed by a 
carriage road since 1823. The great tunnel 
of St. Gothard, connecting Luzerne and 
Milan, is the longest in the world, 9| miles. 
At its central point it is 3,786 feet high. This 
tunnel was built 1872-82, by the contributions 
of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Other 
famous passes are the Col de Balme, cele¬ 
brated for its view of Mont Blanc, the little 
St. Bernard, one of the oldest and easiest, 
and the Great St. Bernard, famed for its inn 
and dogs. The geological structure of the 
Alps has been a subject of interesting inves¬ 
tigation, which was greatly aided by the 
building of the tunnels. Owing to their great 


height, the vegetation of the Alps is remark¬ 
ably varied. At 6,500 feet all the vegetation 
of the plains has disappeared, including maize, 
cereals, common fruit, and forest trees. Be¬ 
tween 7,500 and 8,500 feet a very rich pastur¬ 
age and the peculiar “Alpine flora’’ appear. 
Animal life in many forms is abundant. Pe¬ 
culiar to Alpine regions are the chamois and 
the mountain goat. 

Alsace-Lorraine, an imperial territory of the 
German Empire, ceded by France in 1871 as 
a result of the Franco-German war; area 5,668 
sq. mi.; pop. 1,603,506; capital, Strasburg. 
The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine have 
been “ debatable ground ” between France and 
Germany for many centuries. In the ninth 
century they formed part of the kingdom of 
Lothar, grandson of Charlemagne, and ever 
since the partition of his dominions between 
France and the German Empire (869) portions 
of their territory, including as it does the bor¬ 
ders of the two countries, have been the recur¬ 
ring subject of dispute, belonging to whichever 
power happened to have the mastery. At the 
close of the Roman period, in the fifth century, 
Alsace was filled up by Germanic settlers, and 
the population has remained distinctly Ger¬ 
manic ever since. It took its name from the 
river Ill, the settlers being called Ill-Sassen. 
In 924 Henry the Fowler annexed Alsace to the 
German Empire. During the tenth century it 
was claimed as a French possession, but never 
regained, and after the extinction of the Caro- 
lingian line it remained as an undisputed pos¬ 
session for several centuries. It was at various 
times an Alemannian or Sualian duchy. Dur¬ 
ing the Reformation period a violent outbreak 
of the Alsatian peasantry was quelled (1525) by 
Duke Anthony III. Giselbert, Duke of Lor¬ 
raine, had been attached to Charles the Sim¬ 
ple of France, but during the disorders which 
marked the reign of that king, he voluntarily 
attached himself to the emperor Henry (925), 
the latter became his father-in-law, and Lor¬ 
raine was formally incorporated in the empire, 
where it remained until 1734. Otto the Great 
gave the province to his brother Brun, Bishop 
of Cologne (952), Duke Conrad having re¬ 
belled and been subdued. It was afterward 
divided into Lower and Upper Lorraine. The 
former subsequently became known as Bra¬ 
bant, and was a possession of the Dukes of 
Burgundy. Upper Lorraine retained its name 
and became the modern province. About the 
middle of the eleventh century the emperor 
Henry III conferred it upon Gerard of Alsace, 
the founder of a long line of dukes who ruled 
it, for the most part, down to the eighteenth 
century. During the decadence of the empire 
and the supremacy of France under Louis 
XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV, parts of 
northern Lorraine were seized, including prin¬ 
cipally the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Ver¬ 
dun. During the latter part of the thirty years’ 
war France sought to secure the Rhinelands, 
and by the treaty of Westphalia (1648) these 
three bishoprics, together with most of Alsace, 
were confirmed to Louis XIV. During the war 
of the Palatinate (1689-97) Louis XIV seized 


Alsen 


Alum 


more of the Rhine provinces, but was com¬ 
pelled to give much of it back to the empire 
by the treaty of Ryswick (1697). He retained 
the city of Strassburg, taken 1681, and had 
now acquired entire Alsace. After the war of 
the Polish Succession, the king of Poland, 
Stanislas Leszczynski, received Lorraine, which 
was to be annexed to France at his death. 
This occurred in 1766, and Lorraine became a 
part of France. At the Congress of Vienna 
(1814-15) Prussia sought to recover Alsace and 
Lorraine for Germany, but obtained only a 
small portion on the Rhine. In the Franco- 
German war of 1870-71, there was a strong 
national feeling in Germany for the recovery 
of these provinces, to which she was histor¬ 
ically entitled, and here was the principal bat¬ 
tle-ground. By the treaty of Frankfort, Ger¬ 
many recovered Alsace and German Lorraine, 
in general the part between the Vosges Moun¬ 
tains and the Moselle, together with Metz and 
the adjacent district. Alsace-Lorraine became 
a possession of the whole empire and not of any 
particular state, and is under direct control of 
the imperial government, vested in a provin¬ 
cial committee of 58 members. It has 15 seats 
in the Reichstag. The prevailing language is 
German, except in portions of Lorraine. Both 
languages are commonly understood. The 
German educational system is now well es¬ 
tablished. Seventy-eight per cent, of the pop¬ 
ulation is Roman Catholic. The soil is very 
fertile, producing principally grain, wine, and 
tobacco. The manufactures and mines of coal 
and iron are important. 

Al'sen, an island of Prussia on the east coast 
of Schleswig-Holstein. Pop. 22,500. 

Altai flountains (al'ti), an important Asiatic 
system on the borders of Siberia and Mongolia, 
partly in Russian and partly in Chinese terri¬ 
tory. The highest summit is Byeluka, height 
11,000 feet. The Altai is exceedingly rich in 
minerals, including gold, silver, copper, and 
iron. The inhabitants are chiefly Russians 
and Kalmuks. The chief town is Barnaul. 

Altamu'ra, a town of south Italy, province 
of Bari, at the foot of the Apennines, walled, 
well built, and containing a magnificent cathe¬ 
dral. Pop 20,013. 

Al'tenburg, a town of Germany, capital of 
Saxe-Altenburg, 23 miles south of Leipsic. 
It has manufactures of cigars, woolen yarn, 
gloves, hats, musical instruments, glass, 
brushes, etc. Pop. 26,241. 

Alteratives (al'), medicines, as mercury, 
iodine, etc., which, administered in small 
doses, gradually induce a change in the habit 
or constitution, and imperceptibly alter disor¬ 
dered secretions and actions, and restore 
healthy functions without producing any sen¬ 
sible evacuation by perspiration, purging, or 
vomiting. 

Al'tiscope, an instrument consisting of an 
arrangement of mirrors in a vertical frame¬ 
work, by means of which a person is enabled 
to overlook an object (a parapet, for instance) 
intervening between himself and any view 
that he desires to see, the picture of the latter 


being reflected from a higher to a lower mir¬ 
ror, where it is seen by the observer. 

AI' titude, in mathematics the perpendicular 
height of the vertex or apex of a plane figure 
or solid above the base. In astronomy it is the 
vertical height of any point or body above the 
horizon. It is measured or estimated by the 
angle subtended between the object and the 
plane of the horizon, and may be either true or 
apparent. The apparent altitude is that-which 
is obtained immediately from observation; the 
true altitude, that which results from correct¬ 
ing the apparent altitude, by making allow¬ 
ance for parallax, refraction, etc. 

Alton, Madison co., Ill., on Mississippi River, 
15 mi. n.w. of St. Louis. Railroads: Chicago 
& Alton; C. C. C. & St. L. (Big 4); Burlington, 
Keokuk & Northwestern; C. B. & Q.; M. K. & 
T.; C. St. L. &St. P. (Bluff Line). Industries: 
glass, three flouring-mills, iron foundry, wool¬ 
en-mill, plow company, two carriage factories, 
lime and cement works, firebrick, tile works, 
powder-mill, packing, and mining-tool works. 
Alton became a city in 1837. Population in 
1900, 14,210. 

Al'tona, an important commercial city in 
the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, 
adjoining Hamburg, with which it virtually 
forms one city. It is a free port, and its com¬ 
merce, both inland and foreign, is large, being 
quite identified with that of Hamburg. Pop. 
148,944. 

Altoona, Blair co., Pa., at the eastern 
base of the Alleghanies, 244 mi. w. of Phila¬ 
delphia, with large machine-shops and loco¬ 
motive factories. Pop. 1900, 38,973. 

Al'torf, a small town of Switzerland, capital 
of the canton of Uri, beautifully situated, near 
the Lake of Luzern, amid gardens and or¬ 
chards, and memorable as the place where, 
according to legend, William Tell shot the 
apple from his son’s head. A colossal statue 
of Tell now stands here. Pop. 2,900. 

Alto=Rilievo (al'to-re-le-a"vo) “high relief,’’ 
a term applied in regard to sculptured figures to 
express that they stand out boldly from the 
background, projecting more than half their 
thickness, without being entirely detached. 
In mezzo-rilievo, or middle relief, the projec¬ 
tion is one half, and in basso-rilievo, or bas- 
relief, less than one half. Alto-rilievo is fur¬ 
ther distinguished from mezzo-rilievo by some 
portion of the figures standing usually quite 
free from the surface on which they are 
carved, while in the latter the figures, though 
rounded, are not detached in any part. 

Alum is a crystalline compound containing 
the metals aluminum and potassium, together 
with sulphuric acid and water. A. is pre¬ 
pared from a bituminous shale containing 
iron pyrites interspersed throughout its mass, 
found in the Lower Coal Measures, and tech¬ 
nically called alum ore. In preparing A. from 
the ore, the latter is first roasted—that is, 
heated in contact with air. By this roasting 
the iron pyrites is oxidized to sulphate of iron, 
and sulphuric anhydride, which combines 
with the alumina contained in the ore to form 
sulphate of aluminum. The roasted mass is 


Alumbagh 

treated with water to dissolve out the two sul¬ 
phates, and the solution obtained by this 
means evaporated to a suitable consistency, 
and mixed with chloride of potassium. A. and 
chloride of iron result, the former of which, 
being less soluble than the latter, is readily sepa¬ 
rated by crystallization. A. is a colorless crys¬ 
talline substance of very astringent acid taste. 
Its solution reddens litmus. It is largely em¬ 
ployed by dyers as a mordant. It is also used 
in preparing pigments called lakes. A. is used 
in medicine, and has been employed as an an¬ 
tiseptic. It is sometimes used to adulterate 
flour intended for making bread, as it appears 
to give the bread a firm consistency and white 
color. Burnt A. is A. from which the water 
has been driven off by heat. 

Alumbagh (a-lam-bag'), a palace and con¬ 
nected buildings in Hindustan, about 4 mi. s. 
of Lucknow, famous for its capture and de¬ 
fense by the British in the Indian mutiny. ' 

Alu mina, the single oxide of the metal alu¬ 
minium. As found native it is called corun¬ 
dum; when crystallized, ruby or sapphire; when 
amorphous, emery. It is next to the diamond 
in hardness. In combination with silica it is 
one of the most widely distributed substances, 
as it enters in large quantity into the composi¬ 
tion of granite, traps, slates, schists, clays, 
loams, and other rocks. The porcelain clays 
and kaolins contain about half their weight of 
this earth, to which they owe their most valu¬ 
able properties. It has a strong affinity for 
coloring matters, which causes it to be em¬ 
ployed in the preparation of the colors called 
lakes in dyeing and calico-printing. It com¬ 
bines with the acids and forms numerous 
salts, the most important of which are the sul¬ 
phate and acetate, the latter of extensive use 
as a mordant. 

Alumin'ium, a metal discovered in 1827, but 
nowhere found native, though as the base of 
alumina (which see) it is abundantly dis¬ 
tributed. The mineral cryolite —a fluoride of 
aluminium and sodium—which is brought 
from Greenland, is one of the chief sources of 
aluminium. It is a shining white metal, of a 
color between silver and platinum, very light, 
weighing less than glass, and about one-fourth 
of silver (specific gravity, 2.56 cast, 2.67 ham¬ 
mered), not liable to tarnish or undergo oxi¬ 
dation in the air, very ductile and malleable, 
and remarkably sonorous. It forms several 
useful alloys with iron and copper; one of the 
latter (aluminium'gold) much resembles gold, 
and is made into cheap trinkets. Another, 
known as aluminium bronze , possesses great 
hardness and tenacity. 

The process of extracting aluminium from 
clay requires a very fierce heat or a powerful 
electric current. In some of the factories an 
electric current of 14,000 amperes and 80 volts 
is generated. This terrific current is run into 
the reduction machines by means of heavy 
copper wires. The reduction machine con¬ 
sists of a huge crucible made of carbon blocks 
so as to be infusible. In the bottom of the 
crucible is a small tap-hole where the melted 
aluminum may be drawn out. The electrode 


Alva 

is constructed of heavy carbon plates so as to 
form a prism. This is fastened by a chain to 
a derrick and can be lowered into the crucible 
or furnace as fast as its end burns off. Before 
the process begins, chunks of copper are 
thrown into the crucible to form the negative 
electrode, then the purest obtainable alumina 
or clay is shoveled into the holes. The mo¬ 
ment the electrode is lowered the connection 
is made and the terrific heat thus produced 
causes the alumina to give up its aluminium, 
which may be drawn off through the tap-hole. 
The clay is fed into the crucible as fast as the 
reduction process goes on and until the elec¬ 
trode has been entirely consumed. An ordinary 
aluminium furnace will produce about four 
hundred-weight in twenty-four hours, and 
about fifteen horse-power is necessary for each 
pound of aluminium produced per hour. Alu¬ 
minium factories produce immense volumes 
of poisonous gases and for that reason must be 
more or less isolated. The uses of aluminum 
are many and various. Aluminum was first 
used in making aluminum bronze; it is used 
also for medals and household utensils, jewel¬ 
ers’ novelties, parts of bicycles, scientific and 
surgical instruments, chains for use in mining 
machinery (because acid water does not eat 
nor rust it), barbers’ supplies, umbrella and 
cane sticks. The largest quantity of alu¬ 
minium is used in making steel. Manufac¬ 
turers use it in making bath tubs, and shoe 
dealers build up the heels of shoes with the 
metal. Great war vessels are being finished in 
aluminium, and France has built an aluminium 
torpedo boat. It is used for the manufacture 
of cash registers, artificial limbs, horse shoes, 
ornaments for coffins, elevators, chafing-dishes, 
and dental plates. The two difficulties of 
using the metal extensively are those of solder¬ 
ing and tempering it. 

Alum^root, the name given in America to 
two plants on account of the remarkable as- 
tringency of their roots, which are used for 
medical purposes. 

AIum=slate, a slaty rock from which much 
alum is prepared; color, grayish, bluish, or 
iron-black; often possessed of a glossy or shin¬ 
ing luster; chiefly composed of clay (silicate of 
alumina), with variable proportions of sul¬ 
phide of iron, lime, bitumen, and magnesia. 

AIum=stone, a mineral of a grayish or 
yellowish-white color, approaching to earthy 
in its composition, from which (in Italy) is ob¬ 
tained a very pure alum by simply subjecting 
it to roasting and lixiviation. 

A1 ' va (or A1 ' ba), Ferdinand Alvarez, Duke 
of (1508-1582), Spanish statesman and general 
under Charles V and Philip II; fought in the 
wars of Charles V in France, Italy, Africa, 
Hungary, and Germany. He is remembered 
for his bloody and tyrannical government of 
the Netherlands (1567-78), which had revolted, 
and which he was commissioned by Philip II 
to reduce to entire subjection to Spain. Among 
his first proceedings was to establish the 
“Council of Blood,’’ a tribunal which con¬ 
demned all whose opinions were suspected, 
and whose riches were coveted. Many mer- 


Alvarado 


Amazon 


chants and mechanics emigrated to England. 
The counts Egmont and Horn, and other 
men of rank, were executed, and William and 
Louis of Orange had to save themselves in 
Germany. Resistance was quelled for a time, 
and the provinces of Holland and Zealand re¬ 
volted against his tyranny. A fleet which 
was fitted out at his command was anni¬ 
hilated, and he was everywhere met with in¬ 
superable courage. He was recalled, and in 
1573 he left the country, in which, as he boasted, 
he had executed 18,000 men. He was received 
with distinction in Madrid. Before his death 
he reduced all Portugal to subjection to his 
sovereign. It is said that during sixty years 
of warfare he never lost a battle and was never 
taken by surprise. 

Alvarado (al-va-ra'do), Pedro de, one of the 
Spanish “conquistadors,” was born toward 
the end of the fifteenth century, and died in 
1541. Having crossed the Atlantic he was 
associated (1519) with Cortez in his expedition 
to conquer Mexico; and was intrusted with 
important operations. In July, 1520, during 
the disastrous retreat from the capital after 
the death of Montezuma, the perilous com¬ 
mand of the rear-guard was assigned to 
Alvarado. On his return to Spain he was re¬ 
ceived with honor by Charles Y, who made 
him governor of Guatemala, which he had 
himself conquered. To this was subsequently 
added Honduras. He continued to add to the 
Spanish dominions in America till his death. 

Alwar (al-war'), a state of northwestern 
Hindustan, in Rajputana. Area 3,024 sq. mi. 
This semi-independent state has as its ruler 
a rajah with a revenue of about $1,000,000; 
military force, about 5,000 infantry and 2,000 
cavalry. Pop. 682,926.— Alwar, the capital, 
is situated 80 mi. s.s.w. of Delhi. Pop. 49,867. 

Amade'us, Duke of Aosta, second son of 
Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and brother of the 
present king, was born in 1845, and was chosen 
by the Cortes king of Spain in 1870, Queen 
Isabella having had to leave the country in 
1868. His position was far from comfortable, 
however, and perceiving that, as a member of 
a foreign dynasty, he had little hope of becom¬ 
ing acceptable to all parties in the state, he 
abdicated in 1873 and returned to Italy. 

Amal'ekites, a Semitic race occupying the 
peninsula between Egypt and Palestine, 
named after a grandson of Esau. They were 
denounced by Moses for their hostility to the 
Israelites during their journey through the 
wilderness, and they seem to have been all 
but exterminated by Saul and David. 

Amal'fi, a seaport in southern Italy, 23 
mi. from Naples, formerly a place of great 
commercial importance, in the Middle Ages 
enjoying a republican constitution of its own. 
Here arose the Amalfian Code of maritime 
law. Pop. 7,737. 

Amalgam, a name applied to the alloys of 
mercury with the other metals. One of them 
is the amalgam of mercury with tin, which 
is used to silver looking-glasses. Mercury 
unites very readily with gold and silver at 
ordinary temperatures, and advantage is 


taken of this to separate them from their 
ores, the process being called amalgamation. 
The mercury being properly applied dissolves 
and combines with the precious metal and 
separates it from the waste matters, and is 
itself easily driven olf by heat. 

Amarapura (a-nm-ra-po'ra), a deserted city, 
once the capital of the Burmese Empire, on 
the left bank of the Irrawaddy, 10 mi. n.e. 
of Ava. In 1810 it was completely destroyed 
by fire, in 1839 it was visited by a destructive 
earthquake. In 1857 the seat of government 
was removed to Mandalay. The population 
in 1800 was 175,000. 

Amaryllida'ceae, an order of plants, gen¬ 
erally bulbous, with a highly colored flower, 
natives of Europe and most of the warmer 
parts of the world. The order includes the 
snowdrop, the snow-flake, the daffodil, the 
belladonna-lily, the so-called Guernsey-lily 
(probably a native of Japan), the Brunsvigias, 
the blood-flowers of the Cape of Good Hope, 
different species of Narcissus, Agave (Ameri¬ 
can aloe), etc. Many are highly prized in 
gardens and hothouses; the bulbs of some are 
strongly poisonous. 

Amasia (a-ma-se'a), a town in the north of 
Asia Minor, on the Irmak, 60 miles from the 
Black Sea, surmounted by a rocky height 
in which is a ruined fortress; has numer¬ 
ous mosques, richly-endowed Mohammedan 
schools, and a trade in wine, silk, etc. Amasia 
was a residence of the ancient kings of Pontus. 
Pop. 25,000. 

Amati (a-ma'te), a family of Cremona who 
manufactured violins in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. Most of the violins 
made by them are of comparatively small size 
and flat model, and the tone produced by the 
fourth or G string is somewhat thin and sharp. 
Many of Niccolo Amati’s violins are, however, 
of a larger size and have all the fulness and 
intensity of tone characteristic of those manu¬ 
factured by Stradivario and Guarnerio. 

Amatit Ian, a town in Central America, 
state of Guatemala, about 15 miles south of 
the city of Guatemala, a busy modern town, 
the inhabitants of which are actively engaged 
in the cochineal trade. There is a small lake 
of same name close to the town. Pop. 12,000. 

Amauro'sis, a species of blindness, formerly 
called guttaserena (the “drop serene,” as 
Milton, whose blindness was of this sort, 
called it), caused by disease of the nerves 
of vision. The most frequent causes are 
a long-continued direction of the eye on 
minute objects, long exposure to a bright 
light, to the fire of a forge, to snow, or 
irritating gases, overfulness of blood, disease 
of the brain, etc. If taken in time it may be 
cured or mitigated; but confirmed amaurosis 
is usually incurable. 

Am'azon, a river of South America, 
the largest in the world, formed by a great 
number of sources which rise in the 
Andes ; length, including windings, between 
3,000 and 4,000 mi.; area of drainage basin 
2,300,000 sq. mi. It enters the Atlantic under 
the equator by a mouth 200 miles wide. In 


Amazonas 


Ambleteuse 


its upper course navigation is interrupted by 
rapids, but from its mouth upward for a dis¬ 
tance of 3,300 mi. (mostly in Brazil) there is 
no obstruction. It receives the waters of 
about 200 tributaries, 100 of which are navi¬ 
gable, and seventeen of these 1,000 to 2,300 
miles in length. The Amazonian water sys¬ 
tem affords some 50,000 miles of river suitable 
for navigation. The rapidity of the river is 
considerable, especially during the rainy sea¬ 
son (January to June), when it is subject to 
floods; but there is no great fall in its course. 
The tides reach up as far as 400 miles from its 
mouth. The singular phenomenon of the 
bore, or as it is called on the Amazon the 
pororoca, occurs at the mouth of the river 
at spring-tides on a grand scale. The river 
swarms with alligators, turtles, and a great va¬ 
riety of fish. Steamers and other craft ply on 
the river, the chief center of trade being Para, 
at its mouth. The Amazon was discovered by 
Yanez Pinion in 1500, but the stream was not 
navigated by any European till 1540, when 
Francis Orellana descended it. Orellana stated 
that he found on its banks a nation of armed 
women, and this circumstance gave the name 
to the river. 

Amaz'onas, the largest province of Brazil, 
traversed by the Amazon and its tributaries. 
Area 753,000 sq. mi.; pop. 80,000. 

Amazons, according to an ancient Greek 
tradition, the name of a community of 
women, who permitted no man to reside 
among them, fought under the conduct of a 
queen, and long constituted a formidable 
state. They were said to burn off the right 
breast that it might not impede them in the 
use of the bow. Several nations of Amazons 
are mentioned, the most famous being those 
who dwelt in Pontus, who built Ephesus and 
other cities. Their queen, Hippolyta, was 
vanquished by Hercules. They attacked At¬ 
tica in the time of Theseus. They came to 
the assistance of Troy under their queen, Pen- 
thesilea, who was slain by Achilles. 

Amazuiu. See Zulus. 

Amba'Ia (Umball'a), a town of India, in the 
Punjab, with a flourishing trade in grain and 
other commodities. Total pop. 67,463. 

Ambas'sador, a minister of the highest 
rank, employed by one prince or state at the 
court of another to manage the public con¬ 
cerns, or support the interests of his own 
prince or state, and representing the power 
and dignity of his sovereign or state. Am¬ 
bassadors are ordinary when they reside per¬ 
manently at a foreign court, or extraordinary 
when they are sent on a special occasion. 
When Ambassadors extraordinary have full 
powers, as of concluding peace, making trea¬ 
ties, and the like, they are called plenipoten¬ 
tiaries. Ambassadors are often called simply 
ministers. Envoys are ministers employed on 
special occasions, and are of less dignity than 
ambassadors. Until recently the U. S. sent no 
ambassadors to foreign countries, but were 
represented by ministers-plenipotentiary, ap¬ 
pointed by the president, with approval of the 
Senate. In 1896 the ministers to Germany, 


France, England, and Italy were raised to the 
rank of ambassadors. 

Amba'to, a town of Ecuador, on the side of 
Chimborazo, 70 mi. s. of Quito. Pop. 12,000. 

Am'ber, a semi-mineral substance of res¬ 
inous composition, a sort of fossil resin, the 
produce of extinct Coniferae. It is usually of 
yellow or reddish-brown color; brittle; yields 
easily to the knife; is translucent, and pos¬ 
sessed of a resinous luster. It burns with a 
yellow flame, emitting a pungent, aromatic 
smoke, and leaving a light carbonaceous resi¬ 
due, which is employed as the basis of the 
finest black varnishes. By friction it becomes 
strongly electric. It is found in masses from 
the size of coarse sand to that of a man’s head, 
and occurs in beds of bituminous wood situ¬ 
ated upon the shores of the Baltic and Adri¬ 
atic Seas; also in Poland, France, Italy, and 
Denmark. It is often washed up on the Prus¬ 
sian shores of the Baltic, and is also obtained 
by fishing for it with nets. Sometimes it is 
found on the east coast of Britain, in gravel 
pits round London, also in the U. S. 

Working in Amber .— The amber blocks are 
sawed into small blocks by an extremely thin 
saw. With the amber rough-shaped the wor¬ 
ker puts in his lathe a disk file, a circular 
steel plate with radiating file sections on its 
face, thus the amber is reduced to the desired 
size. In making the mouthpiece for a pipe, 
for instance, the blocks of amber, after being 
brought nearly to the finished shape, are put 
in the lathe to be bored out. As the hole 
must be drilled in the exact center, the amber 
must be truly centered in the lathe. The 
hole for the bone screw which joins the mouth¬ 
piece and the pipe stem is bored out, and a 
screw thread cut in with a toothed tool. A 
curious thing about amber is that it will 
crack if a hole is bored straight through from 
one end. After the hole is bored the amber is 
brought down to the right size for the particu¬ 
lar pipe stem for which it is intended and is 
then polished. Some of the mouthpieces are 
curved and this is done after the amber is 
shaped and bored. The straight mouthpiece 
is put into hot oil until it loses its stiffness and 
is then bent as desired. Rubber and horn 
mouthpieces are worked much as amber, but 
the tools employed are stronger and heavier. 
Amber is sold by the pound, the price vary¬ 
ing from $2 to $75 per pound. There is no 
difference, so far as cost is concerned, between 
the clouded and the clear amber. Amberine 
is an imitation of amber as its name implies. 
It is tougher and stronger than amber. 

Ambergris, a substance derived from the 
intestines of the sperm-whale, and found 
floating on or near the shore; yellowish or 
blackish white; very light; melts at 140°, 
and is entirely dissipated on red-hot coals ; is 
soluble in ether, volatile oils, and partially in 
alcohol, and is chiefly composed of a peculiar 
fatty substance. Its odor is very agreeable, 
and hence it is used as a perfume. 

Ambleteuse (an-bl-tmz), a small seaport of 
France, 6 mi. from Boulogne. Here James II 
landed on his flight from England in 1688; 


Amblyopsls 

and from its harbor Napoleon I prepared to 
despatch a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats for 
the invasion of Britain. 

Amblyop' sis, a genus of blind fishes, con¬ 
taining only one species, found in the Mam¬ 
moth Cave of Kentucky. 

Amboy' na (Amboina, or Apon), one of the 
Molucca Islands in the Indian Archipelago, 
close to the large island of Ceram; area about 
280 sq. mi. Here is the seat of government of 
the Dutch residency or province of Amboyna, 
which includes also Ceram, Booro, etc. It af¬ 
fords a variety of useful trees, including the 
cocoa-nut and sago palms. Cloves and nut¬ 
megs are the staple productions. The natives 
are mostly of Malayan race. The capital, 
also called Amboyna, is situated on the Bay of 
Amboyna, and is well built and defended by 
a citadel. The streets are planted on each 
side with rows of fruit-trees. It is a free port. 
Pop. 10,500. In 1607 Amboyna and the other 
Moluccas were taken by the Dutch from the 
Portuguese, and it was for some years the 
seat of government of the Dutch East Indies. 
Trade with the Moluccas was secured to the 
British by treaty in 1619, but the British es¬ 
tablishment was destroyed and several persons 
massacred in 1623, an outrage for which no 
satisfaction was obtained till 1654 by Crom¬ 
well. Amboyna was taken by the British in 
1796 and 1810, but each time restored to the 
Dutch. Pop. 30,000. 

Amboyna Wood, a beautiful curled orange 
or brownish colored wood brought from the 
Moluccas. 

Ambulance, a four or two wheeled wagon 
fitted up for the conveyance of injured per¬ 
sons. In the armies of the world the term is 
applied to movable field hospitals, especially 
those controlled by the Red Cross Society. 
Every principal city in America has its hos¬ 
pitals and police departments equipped with 
excellent ambulances in the charge of quali¬ 
fied surgeons. These vehicles having the right 
of way over other vehicles, respond to acci¬ 
dent calls sent by the police, and render most 
efficient first aid to the injured as well as con¬ 
veying them to hospitals or their homes. 
Ambulances are also provided for the convey¬ 
ance of injured animals. 

Amend 'ment, a proposal brought forward 
in a meeting of some public or other body, 
either in order to get an alteration introduced 
on some proposal already before the meeting, 
or entirely to overturn such proposal. When 
amendments are made in either house of Con¬ 
gress upon a bill which passed the other, the 
bill, as amended, must be sent back to the 
other house. The Senate may amend money 
bills passed by the House of Representatives, 
but cannot originate such bills. The Con¬ 
stitution of the U. S. contains a provision for 
its amendments, as follows :— 

“ The Congress, whenever two thirds of both 
houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose 
amendments to this constitution; or, on the 
application of the legislatures of two thirds of 
the several states, shall call a convention for 
proposing amendments, which, in either case, 


America 

shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as 
part of this constitution, when ratified by the 
legislatures of three fourths of the several 
states, or by conventions in three fourths 
thereof, as the one or the other mode of rati¬ 
fication may be proposed by the Congress; pro¬ 
vided, that no amendment which may be 
made prior to the year 1808 shall in any 
manner affect the first and fourth clauses in 
the ninth section of the first article; and that 
no state, without its consent, shall be deprived 
of its equal suffrage in the Senate.” 

Amer'ica, or the New World, the largest of 
the great divisions of the globe except Asia, is 
washed on the west by the Pacific, on the east 
by the Atlantic, on the north by the Arctic 
Ocean, on the south tapers to a point. On the 
northwest it approaches within about 50 mi. 
of Asia, while on the northeast the island of 
Greenland approaches within 370 mi. of Ice¬ 
land. America as a whole forms the two 
triangular continents of North and South 
America, united by the narrow Isthmus of 
Panama, and having an entire length of about 
10,000 miles; a maximum breadth (in North 
America) of 3,500 miles; a coast line of 44,000 
miles; and a total area, including the islands, 
of nearly 16,000,000, of which North America 
contains about 9,000,000 sq. mi. South Amer¬ 
ica is more compact in form than North 
America, in this respect resembling Africa, 
while N. America more resembles Europe. 
Between the two on the east side is the great 
basin which comprises the Gulf of Mexico, the 
Caribbean Sea, and the West India Islands. 
Like Europe also N. America possesses numer¬ 
ous islands, while those of S. America are less 
important and confined almost to the southern 
extremity. 

North America. —The political divisions of 
N. A. are, the U. S. (including Alaska), 
Mexico, Canada, Greenland, and the Bermuda 
Islands. 

Surface, Rivers, and Lakes .—North America 
naturally divides itself into five physical 
regions: 1. The table-land of Mexico, with 
the strip of low country on its eastern and 
western shores; 2. The plateau lying between 
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, a 
country with a mild and humid atmosphere 
as far north as the 55th parallel, but inhospi¬ 
table and barren beyond this boundary; 3. The 
great central valley of the Mississippi, rich 
and well wooded on the east side; bare but not 
unfertile in the middle; dry, sandy, and 
almost a desert on the west; 4. The eastern 
declivities of the Alleghany Mountains, a 
region of natural forests, and of mixed but 
rather poor soil; 5. The great northern plain 
beyond the 50th parallel, four fifths of which 
is a bleak and bare waste, overspread with 
innumerable lakes, and resembling Siberia 
both in the physical character of its surface 
and the rigor of its climate. The loftiest 
mountains in N. America are Wrangell in 
Alaska, 20,000 ft.; Mount St. Elias, ;,500 ft.; 
and Popocatepetl, 17,783 ft. The principal river 
systems are the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, 
the Mackenzie, and the Rio del Norte. The 






TYPE OF AMERICAN INDIANS, i. Eskimo Woman (Labrador). 2. Mexican (Coast). 3. Mexican (Hig 
9, xo. Apache (U. S. A.) 11. Bellacoola or Bilchula. 12, 13. Pueblo (U. S. A.). 14, 15. Zapoteca (Mexico). 16, 17. 
del Fuego. 23. Patagonian Woman. 







4. Mexican Woman (Yucatan). 5. Indian (Ecuador). 6. Indians (Peru). 7. Ipurina (Brazil). 8. Sioux. 
18. Botokudin. 19. Umaua or Omagua (Brazil). 20. Araucanian (Chile). 21, 22. Woman and Child of Terra 












































































































REUEF MAP OF NORTH AMERICA. 


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America 


America 


Mississippi River system is, next to the 
Amazon, the largest in the world. It receives 
as tributaries the Missouri, the Ohio, the 
Arkansas, and the Red River, draining a total 
territory of about one million and a half 
sq. mi. This river system is separated from 
the Mackenzie River system by a low plateau 
which stretches across the country near the 
Canadian lakes. The Mackenzie flows into the 
Arctic Ocean. A part of this territory north 
of the lakes is drained by numerous small 
rivers which empty into Hudson Bay. The 
third great river system is the St. Law¬ 
rence, which is the outlet of the five great 
lakes. It has a drainage area of about 400,000 
sq. mi. The Rio del Norte flows into the 
Gulf of Mexico, draining an area of about 
200,000 sq. mi. The principal rivers emptying 
into the Pacific Ocean are the Columbia, the 
Colorado, the Sacramento, and the Frazer. 
The Yukon, in Alaska, empties into Bering 
Sea. The principal indentations of the coast 
of North America are Hudson Bay, the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, the Gulf of Mexico, Long 
Island Sound, the bays of Fundy, Cape Cod, 
Delaware, and Chesapeake, and the Gulf of 
California and San Francisco Bay and Puget 
Sound. 

Geology .— If we run a line westward across 
the continent of North America at the lati¬ 
tude of Delaware Bay (38°), the geological 
formations present themselves in the follow¬ 
ing order: 1. Tertiary and Cretaceous strata 
on the shores of the Atlantic; 2. Gneiss under¬ 
lying these strata, and presenting itself on the 
eastern slope of the Alleghany or Appalachian 
mountains, but covered in parts by new Red 
Sandstone; 3. Palaeozoic rocks, consisting of 
Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous strata, 
curiously bent into parallel foldings, with syn¬ 
clinal and articlinal axes, the crests of the 
latter forming the ridges of the Alleghany 
Mountains, which in this region rise to the 
height of 2,500 feet. Upon these Palaeozoic 
rocks rest three great coal-fields — the Appa¬ 
lachian, that of Illinois, and that of Michigan, 
covering a large portion of the space between 
the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, and em¬ 
bracing collectively an area equal to the sur¬ 
face of Great Britain. From the Mississippi 
westward to Utah the Palaeozoic rocks occur 
in great folds, between which are extensive 
areas of Triassic, Oolitic, Cretaceous, and 
Tertiary beds. In California the rocks are 
chiefly metamorphosed secondary strata on 
which lie patches of Tertiary sediments. In 
British America there is an enormous devel¬ 
opment of the Laurentian and Huronian rocks, 
which are the oldest yet discovered, and oc¬ 
cupy most of the country immediately north 
of the large lakes. Newfoundland and the 
neighboring British territories consist of Pre- 
Silurian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous 
(which includes coal-fields of considerable 
extent), and Triassic rocks. The area north 
of about 40° n. is also covered and strewed 
with glacial drift and boulders. 

The Ozark Mountains resemble the Allegha¬ 
nies in their mineral structure, containing the 


same rocks from the granite to the carbonif¬ 
erous, and probably upward to the chalk. 
The mineral products of N. A. are of une¬ 
qualed richness and variety. Gold is abun¬ 
dant in California, Nevada, and Montana. It 
is also found in British Columbia, Mexico, 
Alaska, and Canada, and sparingly in Vir¬ 
ginia and South Carolina. Silver is obtained 
from Mexico, California, and Newfoundland. 
Great masses of almost pure copper are found 
in the Huronian rock strata, the north and 
east shores of Lake Superior being the richest 
of copper mining regions; while New York and 
Indiana possess a share of the same metal, 
and it is found in different countries from 
British Columbia to the isthmus. The iron 
ores of Pennsylvania, and those of Canada, 
including New Brunswick, are of the greatest 
importance; the former are rendered more 
available by their occurring close to the beds 
of bituminous coal, giving materials for the 
manufacturing industry of Pittsburg; while 
anthracite coal is obtained from the eastern 
districts of Pennsylvania. It is estimated 
that one third of the total area of this state 
is occupied by coal-fields, which can scarcely 
be exhausted. Lead is found in Wisconsin, 
Illinois, and Missouri, in New York, in Canada, 
in California; white zinc is got from Arkan¬ 
sas and New Jersey. Reverting to the subject 
of coal, as having an intimate economic con¬ 
nection with all metallic wealth, it should be 
observed that the united area of all the coal¬ 
fields in the U. S. is estimated at 190,000 
sq. mi., exceeding twenty-fold those of Europe. 
The chief of these' coal-fields are, first, the 
Appalachian, extending from the Susque¬ 
hanna in Pennsylvania to the Tuscaloosa in 
Alabama, along the west side of the Alleghany 
Mountains; the area of this coal-field is 70,- 
000 sq. mi., and its greatest thickness 2,500 
feet; secondly, the coal-field of Michigan, 
about the center of that state; thirdly, the 
extensive coal-field between the Ohio and the 
Mississippi, across the states of Indiana and 
Illinois; lastly, the Iowa 'and Missouri coal¬ 
field. Coal is found also in Nova Scotia, in 
British Columbia, and Vancouver Island, and 
wherever the Upper Palaeozoic strata prevail 
in the geological structure. 

Climate .—The climate of N. A. varies from 
the tropical to the frigid. Mexico is hot, 
moist, and unhealthy on the low coast, but the 
greater part of its area, comprising all the 
populous district, is a table-land from-5,000 to 
9,000 feet in height. In consequence of this, 
Mexico, though half of it is within the torrid 
zone, has a temperate and equable climate. 
The mean heat of the capital (7,400 feet above 
the sea) is 62-^°. The difference between the 
warmest and the coldest month is only 12°. 
In the extensive region lying between the par¬ 
allels of 30° and 50° n., which comprehends 
three fourths of the useful soil of N. A., we 
have three well-marked varieties of climate, 
that of the east coast, the west coast, and the 
basin of the Mississippi. On the east coast, 
from Georgia to Lower Canada, the range of 
the thermometer is very great, the summer 





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America 


America 


being hot and the winter cold. At Quebec 
the temperature of the warmest month ex¬ 
ceeds that of the coldest by no less than 
60^° F. The climate undergoes a more rapid 
change in America as we proceed from south 
to north, a degree of latitude in the mid¬ 
dle of the temperate zone producing a de¬ 
crease of annual temperature of 1°.57 F. At 
the mouth of Columbia River, in latitude 
46|° n., the mean heat of the warmest month 
was about 62° F., of the coldest about 36°, 
and of the whole year 51°. The place is under 
the same latitude with Quebec, where the 
snow lies five months, and the mean tempera¬ 
ture during the three winter months is 18° be¬ 
low the freezing point. This single circum¬ 
stance marks emphatically the contrast in the 
climate of the east and west coasts of N. A. 

Vegetation .—North America is rich in forests 
of pine, oak, ash, hickory, beech, walnut, ma¬ 
ple, cedar, cypress, juniper, hemlock, bass¬ 
wood, palmetto, dogwood, willow, elm, syca¬ 
more, magnolia, gum, locust, and other trees. 
Perhaps the most important plant is the maize 
or Indian corn. Corn is raised mostly in the 
central part of the U. S., and is the principal 
product of many of the prairie states. Wheat, 
barley, peas, oats, and rice are cultivated 
throughout the greater portion of the conti¬ 
nent. Vanilla, pimento, jalap, cinchona, to¬ 
bacco, sweet potatoes, and the cactus are grown 
in various parts, and are mostly indigenous. 
All kinds of vegetables and fruits are grown. 
The orange, lemon, apple, peach, and pear are 
grown very extensively. Coffee, sugar, and 
cotton are staple products. The potato is a 
native of both North and South America and 
is raised in great quantity. 

Zoology .—The animals of N. A. include the 
polar, black, and grizzly bears in the Arctic 
regions and Rocky Mountains. Also the cou¬ 
gar, or panther, lynx, and wildcat. Formerly 
r he buffalo, or bison, roamed over the prairies 
in great herds but it is now almost extinct. 
Other animals are the musk-ox, the moose, 
reindeer, antelope, wolves, dogs, and foxes. 
Among the smaller animals are beaver, otter, 
raccoon, badger, opossum, weasel, hare, musk¬ 
rat, squirrel, porcupine, gopher. There are 
numerous species of reptiles, the rattlesnake 
being among the most dangerous. In the 
southern part of the U. S. and in Mexico are 
found the alligator, boa-constrictor, tortoise, 
sea-turtle, toad, frog, and lizard. There are 
a great many birds found which are peculiar 
to this continent. The wild turkey, one of 
the principal native birds, has now almost dis¬ 
appeared. Wild pigeons are still found in 
some localities. Other birds are the bald 
eagle, sparrow-hawk, swallow-tail hawk, fal¬ 
con, vulture, turkey-buzzard, and owl. Among 
the smaller birds are turkeys, pheasants, 
grouse, and quails; also cranes, herons, fla¬ 
mingoes, spoonbills, rails, and gallinules. The 
principal water fowls are swans, wild geese, 
ducks, and pelicans, Some of the smaller 
birds are larks, orioles, buntings, magpies, 
jays, cedar birds, thrushes, shripes, mocking 
birds, robins, grossbeaks, bluebirds, parrots, 


woodpeckers, humming - birds, kingfishers, 
whip-poor-wills. The principal varieties of 
fish are sturgeon, salmon-trout, shad, white 
fish, mackerel, herring, halibut, sheeps-head, 
salmon, bass, perch, pike, blue fish, suckers. 
The domestic animals are horses, cattle, sheep, 
and swine. 

Population .— The inhabitants of N. A., when 
it was discovered by Europeans, were Indians 
of whom many are still in existence, though 
they are fast disappearing before the advance 
of civilization. Whence came the aborigines 
of America no one can say definitely, but the 
best authorities agree that they came from 
Asia. The Indians living in N. A. at the pres¬ 
ent time are, in the extreme northern parts, 
the Esquimaux ; a few in the U. S., located in 
the Indian Territory, and some on small res¬ 
ervations in various states, and in Mexico. 
When the Europeans first came to this conti¬ 
nent the various tribes of Indians were scat¬ 
tered over the whole continent. Some of the 
Indians had made great advances in a rude 
sort of civilization, dwelling in large and well- 
built houses and having a settled form of gov¬ 
ernment, practising agriculture and to some 
extent the mechanical arts. The white popu¬ 
lation of the continent is mainly of British 
origin though to considerable extent it con¬ 
sists of Germans, Scandinavians, and the de¬ 
scendants of such. There may also be found 
representatives of nearly every race and na¬ 
tion on the face of the globe. The African 
race constitutes an important part of the popu¬ 
lation especially in the southern part. It con¬ 
sists of freed slaves and the descendants of 
slaves. 

History .— America was first made known tc 
the world by the discovery of Christopher Co¬ 
lumbus who set sail from Spain in August, 
1492. The continent of North America was 
first discovered by John Cabot and his son Se¬ 
bastian, in 1497. The new world was named 
after Amerigo Vespucci who was the first to 
write a description of it. Various voyages 
were made from Europe, the principal ones 
being by Gaspar de Cortereal, a Portuguese 
sailor, who made two voyages to the coast of 
Labrador; Ponce de Leon, who discovered 
Florida in 1512; Verrazzano, a Florentine 
sailor, who explored more than 2,000 miles of 
the eastern coast; Jacques Cartier, who ex¬ 
plored Newfoundland and descended the St. 
Lawrence; Cortez, who discovered and con¬ 
quered Mexico. The first English settlers in 
what is now the U. S. came in 1G07, locat¬ 
ing in Jamestown, Va. From time to time 
colonies came from England, Holland, and 
France and made settlements along the east¬ 
ern coast, from Florida to Quebec. At times 
expeditions were made inland, and in the 
course of 150 years settlements were made on 
the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi Valley. 
By 1776 the English owned most all of the set¬ 
tlements except those of Quebec and Florida. 
In that year the English colonies established 
an independent American Commonwealth. In 
1821 Mexico became independent of Spain, 
forming a republic. The remainder of N. A., 



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RELIEF MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA. 





















America 


America 


except the peninsula of Alaska, which belongs 
to the U. S., and Greenland, which is a Danish 
possession, belongs to Great Britain. 

Central America extends from the Isthmus 
of Panama to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Its 
entire length is about 800 mi., with a breadth 
varying from 25 to 350 mi. Its area is about 
190,000 sq. mi. The political divisions of Cen¬ 
tral America are Guatemala, Honduras, San 
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and British 
Honduras. 

Surface, Rivers , and Lakes .—The surface of 
Central America is for the most part moun¬ 
tainous. North of Panama is the plateau of 
Yeragua, the highest point of which is 8,000 
ft. The plateaus of Costa Rica and Cartago 
lie north of this. There are several peaks of 
10,000 ft. in height. These plateaus gradually 
slope down to the plain of Nicaragua, north of 
which rises the table-land of Honduras with an 
average height of 4,000 ft. South of this 
region are two rows of volcanoes. The plateaus 
of Honduras and Guatemala are connected 
by a single mountain. In the plateau of 
Guatemala are several volcanoes over 12,000 ft. 
in height. Among the rivers of Central 
America which are considerable in size though 
short, are the Usumasinta and the San Juan, the 
outlet of Lake Nicaragua. On the east coast 
is the Gulf of Honduras, and on the west the 
Bay of Panama, the Gulf of Dulce, Coronada 
Bay, Gulf of Nicoya, and the Gulf of Fonseca. 
The lakes are: Nicaragua, area 34,000 sq. mi., 
Managua in Nicaragua, Illopongo, Amatitlan, 
and the Yojoa. 

Geology. —In the central part are the crystal¬ 
line and volcanic rocks, on either side of 
which are strata of the Tertiary Age. Gold, 
silver, lead, and mercury are found in many 
places and especially in Costa Rica and Hon¬ 
duras. The only hindrance to the working of 
these mines is the unhealthy climate. Jasper 
and marble are also found in Honduras and 
large quantities of salt are produced on the 
western coast, and also from the numerous salt 
springs. 

Climate. —There are only two seasons in 
Central America, the wet and the dry. Dur¬ 
ing the wet season the skies are filled with 
clouds and falling rain and the sun is seldom 
seen. During the dry season the temperature 
does not rise so high, but hot and dry weather 
prevails, and the atmosphere is clear and 
health)^. The higher regions are more open 
and are comparatively healthy, but many con¬ 
tagious diseases prevail in the low marshes. 

Vegetation. —Central America is rich in the 
growth of vegetables and tropical fruits, 
among which are sugar-cane, indigo, Indian 
corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco, cacao, the cac¬ 
tus, mandioca, and banana. There are large 
forests of mahogany, logwood, lignum-vitae, 
pimento, sarsaparilla, vanilla, black balsam, 
etc. There are about one hundred different 
kinds of trees in the forests of Panama that 
are fatal to animal life. 

Zoology. —There is very little difference 
between the zoology of C. A. and the other 
divisions of the continent. There are many 


species of humming-birds and quezal. The 
birds are noted for their brilliant plumage. 
There are many large and dangerous serpents, 
also a brown and green species of locust. The 
rivers and lakes are rich in fish. 

Population .—The inhabitants of C. A. are 
the descendants of the Spaniards who settled 
there centuries ago, and some Indians and 
creoles. There are also a few blacks. In gen¬ 
eral the people of these hot republics are 
quarrelsome. 

History .—Columbus visited the east coast of 
C. A. in 1502, passing along the shores of Hon¬ 
duras and Costa Rica. In 1523 Cortez sent 
one of his lieutenants to conquer this region 
which he did in two years’ time. The whole 
territory belonged to Spain from that time 
until 1823 when it became a republic. In 1833 
this republic was dissolved and the five extant 
republics were formed. The only European 
possession is that of British Honduras owned 
by Great Britain. 

South America is a vast peninsula of a 
roughly triangular form about 5,000 mi. long 
by 3,230 mi. broad, having an area of about 
7,000,000 sq. mi. The political divisions of 
S. A. are Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Equa- 
dor, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, the Argentine Repub¬ 
lic, Paraguay, Uruguay, and British, Dutch, 
and French Guiana. 

Surface, Rivers, and Lakes .—There are four 
great systems of mountains in S. A., the 
greatest of which are the Andes, on the Pa¬ 
cific coast, stretching in a continuous chain 
for over four thousand miles. Next to the 
Himalayas this is the highest mountain range 
in the world, the highest point being 25,000 
feet. The second system is that of the high¬ 
lands of Guiana which lie north of the Ama¬ 
zon valley. Here are several irregular groups 
of mountains about 2,000 feet high which sep¬ 
arate the plains of the Orinoco from those of 
the Rio Negro and the Amazon. The third 
system is the coast chain of Venezuela, the 
highest point of which is 8,000 feet. The 
Brazilian highland, the fourth system, is very 
broad, and crossed by low ranges of mountains. 
Its average height is less than half that of the 
Andes. From the configuration of its surface, 
the continent may be divided into five phys¬ 
ical regions: 1. The low country skirting 
the shores of the Pacific Ocean, from 50 to 
150 mi. in breadth, and 4,000 in length. 
The two extremities of this territory are fer¬ 
tile, the middle a sandy desert. 2. The basin 
of the Orinoco, a country consisting of ex¬ 
tensive plains, or steppes, called Llanos, either 
destitute of wood or merely dotted with trees, 
but covered with a very tall herbage during a 
part of the year. During the dry season the 
heat is intense here, and the parched soil 
opens into long fissures, in which lizards and 
serpents lie in a state of torpor. 3. The basin 
of the Amazon, a vast plain, embracing a sur¬ 
face of more than two million square miles, 
possessing a rich soil and humid climate, it 
is covered almost everywhere with dense for¬ 
ests, which harbor innumerable tribes of wild 
animals, and are thinly inhabited by savages, 

























































America 


America 


who live by hunting and fishing. 4. The 
great southern plain, watered by the Plata 
and the numerous streams descending from 
the eastern summits of the Cordilleras. Open 
steppes, which are here called Pampas, occupy 
the greater portion of this region, which is 
dry, and in some parts barren, but in general 
is covered with a strong growth of weeds and 
tall grass, which feeds prodigious herds of 
horses and cattle, and affords shelter to a few 
wild animals. 5. The country of Brazil, east¬ 
ward of the Parand and Uruguay, presenting 
alternate ridges and valleys, thickly covered 
with wood on the side next the Atlantic, and 
opening into steppes, or pastures, in the in¬ 
terior. 

The three important river systems of S. A. 
are the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La 
Plata, the Amazon being the largest river 
on the globe. All of these rivers flow into the 
Atlantic. The Amazon rises in the Andes, 
and is 4,000 mi. long. It Is navigable for 
about 2,300 mi. The Orinoco rises in the 
Parine mountains and is 1,400 mi. long. The 
Orinoco and the Amazon systems are con¬ 
nected by a small river called the Cassiqui- 
are. The Plata is formed by the confluence 
v of the Panana and Uruguay rivers and is 185 
mi. long, and at its mouth about 125 mi. 
wide. The principal smaller rivers are the 
San Francisco, the Rio Negro, the Colorado 
and Essequibo. The largest lake is Titicaca 
in the Andes, covering an area of about 4,000 
sq. mi. and is over 12,000 feet above the level 
of the sea. There are several small lakes in 
the mountain regions but none of any special 
importance. 

Geology .— The mountain areas of S. A. are 
as a general rule, those which have received 
the thickest accumulations of sedimentary 
matter. During the periods of the formation 
of such deposits, these areas were areas of 
subsistence, and since those beds which once 
formed the sea bottoms now constitute the 
highest peaks, these areas must have been 
subjected to subsequent upheaval. Vertical 
movements of this kind have occurred again 
and again, indicating that these areas are 
specially liable to disturbance. The history 
of the mountain chains is almost co-extensive 
with that of the continent itself. In the sea 
the beds were deposited horizontally, or nearly 
so; and at certain intervals the beds were up¬ 
lifted above the sea. The rocks were at one 
time faulted, folded, and metamorphosed, and 
at other times denuded. The land was up¬ 
lifted in a broad band, the axis of which ran 
parallel to the shore of the sea in which the 
beds were formed. The principal ridges 
formed during the same period usually coin¬ 
cide in direction with the stratigraphical 
strike of the bed forming them. The oldest 
rocks form the outermost rim of the continent, 
of which the n.e. and s.e. corners have prob¬ 
ably been swept away. These corners now 
correspond with the mouths of the Orinoco, 
the Amazon, and the La Plata rivers. Within 
this basin are schists and quartzites, which 
are in all probability of Silurian Age. Within 


this again are sandstones and limestones, 
usually referred to the Carboniferous period, 
which also form part of the transverse ridges. 
A band of rocks of secondary age follow, some 
of which are believed to be Triassic, while 
others are identified as Cretaceous. Tertiary 
beds, some of Miocene date, together with 
Post-Tertiary beds, cover the largest part of 
the areas of the great river basins and the hol¬ 
lows in the mountain range, and also occur on 
the seaward flanks of the principal chains. 
There are some twenty or more volcanic cones, 
of which about a dozen are active. Bolivia 
has one or two active vents, and Peru several; 
but it is in Ecuador, with its dozen ignivo- 
mous vents, that have occurred the grandest 
and most frequent displays. Colombia has 
four or five volcanoes. With the exception 
of the Moluccas, no country in the world 
has had so many and so destructive earth¬ 
quake shocks as S. A. But these are con¬ 
centrated along the Andes, and more par¬ 
ticularly their western slope. Comparatively 
few are felt in the plains to the east of 
them. Peru seems to be the principal focus 
of action; and next to it in importance as a 
seismic area comes Chile. Bolivia is compara¬ 
tively free from them, as also are Brazil and 
the Argentine Republic, but they are more 
frequent in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, 
and the three Guianas. 

The mineral wealth of S. A. consists in gold, 
silver, copper, mercury, diamonds, and other 
valuable metals. The desert coast of Chile is 
rich in guano, niter, valuable iodine com¬ 
pounds, and borax. Chile is also rich in cop¬ 
per and silver and the coal mines are being 
developed rapidly and give promise of great 
wealth. There are celebrated silver mines in 
Bolivia and considerable supplies of gold in 
Venezuela and Guiana. Some rich gold mines 
have been discovered in the southern part of 
Argentine. Brazil has some coal mines, but 
its great mineral wealth consists in diamonds. 

Climate .— In the western and warmest part 
of the parched steppes of Caraccas, the hottest 
known region in America, the temperature of 
the air during the day is only 98° in the shade. 
At Calabozo, farther east in the Llanos, the 
common temperature of the day is only from 
88° to 90°; and at sunrise the thermometer 
sinks to 80°. The basin of the Amazon is 
shaded with lofty woods; and a cool breeze 
from the east, a minor branch of the trade- 
wind, ascends the channel of the stream, fol¬ 
lowing all its windings, almost to the foot of 
the Andes. Hence this region, though under 
the equator, and visited with almost con¬ 
stant rains, is neither excessively hot nor 
unhealthy. Brazil, and the vast country ex¬ 
tending westward from it between the Plata 
and the Amazon, is an uneven table-land, blessed 
with an equable climate. At Rio Janeiro, 
which stands low, and is exposed to a heat 
comparatively great, the temperature in sum¬ 
mer .varies from 68° to 82° F., and the 
mean is only about 74°. Farther north, and 
in the interior, the Indians find it necessary to 
keep fires in their huts; and in the country 





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America 


America 


near the sources of the Paraguay, hoar-frost is 
seen on the hills during the colder months, 
and the mean temperature of the year falls 
below 65° or 67°. On the declivities of the 
Andes, and on the high plains of Upper Peru, 
the heats are so moderate that the plants of 
Italy, France, and Germany come to maturity. 
Lower Peru, though a sandy desert, enjoys a 
wonderful degree of coolness, owing to the 
fogs which intercept the solar rays. At Lima, 
which is 540 feet above the sea, the tempera¬ 
ture varies from 53° to 82°, but the mean for 
the whole year is only 72°. At Buenos Ayres, 
for instance, the mean annual heat is 68° F. 
As we advance southward, the diminish¬ 
ing breadth of the continent makes the cli¬ 
mate approximate to that of an island, and 
the extremes approach each other. In the 
Strait of Magellan the temperature of the 
warmest month does not exceed 43° or 46°; 
and snow falls almost daily in the middle of 
winter. The climate of Patagonia is abso¬ 
lutely colder than that of places in the same 
latitude in Europe; but the difference lies 
chiefly in the very low temperature of the 
summer. This peculiarity no doubt results 
chiefly from the greater coolness of the sea in 
the southern hemisphere; for beyond the 
parallel of 48°, the difference of temperature 
in the north and south Atlantic amounts, 
according to Humboldt, to 10° or 12° of Fahr¬ 
enheit’s scale. The sum of the peculiar quali¬ 
ties which distinguish the climate of South 
America may be briefly stated. Near the 
equator the new continent is humid; and 
within the tropics generally, owing to its vast 
forests, the absence of sandy deserts, and the 
elevation of the soil, it is cooler. Beyond 
the tropics the heat is nearly the same in the 
south temperate zone of America and the 
northern one of the old continent, till we 
ascend to the latitude of Cape Horn, where 
we have cold summers and a very limited 
range of the thermometer. 

Vegetation .— The vegetable kingdom in S. A. 
has a magnificent development, particularly 
in the vast tropical territory east of the Andes, 
the basins of the Amazon, the Orinoco, and 
their tributaries, where the genera and species 
are very abundant, the forests large, and the 
forms gigantic. Besides its palms, it has dye- 
woods of all sorts, cedar, mahogany, ebony, 
etc.; farther south are the araucarias of Chile, 
and the beech forests of Argentine. There 
are numerous kinds of fruit trees, the fruit 
of which is usually very large, and covered 
with an extremely thick shell. Among these 
may be mentioned the cannon-ball tree and 
the Brazil-nut tree. Ferns and water lilies 
are also numerously represented, and splendid 
specimens of both are found. The jungle, or 
undergrowth, in the forests, is impenetrable 
in many places. Cinchona is found on the 
higher ground within the tropics. A holly is 
grown, the leaves of which are soaked in 
water, and produce a beverage called “Para¬ 
guay Tea.” 

Zoology .—The zoology of S. A. is extensive 
and peculiar, embracing a fourth of all the 


known mammals, among which, however, are 
almost none of the wild animals so abundant 
in Africa and Asia. The most powerful of the 
carnivora is the jaguar, which is indeed the 
only formidable beast of prey in the whole 
continent. Of the other animals may be men¬ 
tioned the great tapir, peccaries, sloths, ant- 
eaters, armadilloes; the llama, the chinchilla, 
and the monkey. The armadillo is said to be 
the only wild animal that increases with the 
increase of population. It catches mice and 
poisonous snakes, kills them, cuts them up, 
and eats as much as it requires. Although 
often hunted for its succulent flesh, by means 
of trained dogs, this singular animal actually 
multiplies in number as the population of the 
district it inhabits increases. If versatility in 
habits or adaptiveness can be taken as a 
measure of intelligence, the armadillo is the 
superior of the large-brained cats and canines. 
Many of the species are peculiar to S. A., 
and are not found elsewhere. Among birds 
the most notable are various parrots, hum¬ 
ming-birds, flamingoes, toucans, and aracaris. 
Chief among the reptiles are alligators, boas, 
turtles, and rattlesnakes. 

Population .—The aborigines of S. A. are 
undoubtedly of the same race as those of N. 
A., as there exists a very striking general 
physical resemblance between the native races 
throughout the whole of the American conti¬ 
nent, from Cape Horn to Bering’s Strait. See 
America and Indians. They are almost all of 
a copper color, with long black hair, deep-set 
black eyes, aquiline nose, and often hand¬ 
some, slender form. In S. A. these red men are 
far more numerous than in N. A., and though 
many are half-civilized, a greater number are 
in a state of barbarism. A considerable por¬ 
tion of the population also consists of persons 
of Spanish and Portuguese blood, and along 
with these a far greater number of mixed In¬ 
dian and European blood, civilized, and form¬ 
ing an important element in the various states 
of the continent. To these are now being 
added considerable numbers of Spanish and 
Italian immigrants. 

History .—Columbus first touched the conti¬ 
nent at the mouth of the Orinoco in 1498. 
The next navigator to explore this continent 
was Hojeda, a Spaniard, who touched the 
continent near the equator and passed up the 
coast of Venezuela. He was accompanied by 
Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was an expe¬ 
rienced mariner, and in 1500, after his return, 
published an account of the voyage, and on 
account of this the new world was called 
America. Spain and Portugal had almost en¬ 
tire control of the continent until the begin¬ 
ning of the nineteenth century. The Spanish 
colonies declared their independence in 1810 
and after a ten years’ war established a num¬ 
ber of republics. In 1823 Brazil became 
independent of Portugal and retained a mon¬ 
archical form of government which lasted 
until 1889, when the form of government was 
changed to a republic. The only foreign pos¬ 
sessions on the continent at the present time 
are those of British, French and Dutch Guiana. 


Americanism 


Americanism 


Between the first of these and Venezuela there 
was a boundary dispute which was submitted 
to arbitration. The U. S. Government re¬ 
quested this under the authority of the “Mon¬ 
roe Doctrine.” See Venezuela. 

Americanism, a term applied to certain 
words and idioms of the English language pe¬ 
culiar to the U. S. Following are a few of 
the more common Americanisms:— 

Around or round, about or near. To hang 
around is to loiter about a place. 

Backicoods, the partially cleared forest re¬ 
gions in the western states. 

Bee, an assemblage of persons to unite their 
labors for the benefit of an individual or fam¬ 
ily, or to carry out a joint scheme. 

Bogus, false, counterfeit. 

Boss, an employer or superintendent of la¬ 
borers, a leader. 

Bug, a coleopterous insect, or what in Eng¬ 
land is called a beetle. 

Buggy, a four-wheeled vehicle. 

Bulldose, to; to intimidate voters. 

Bunkum or buncombe, a speech made solely 
to please a constituency; talk for talking’s 
sake, and in an inflated style. 

Bureau, a chest of drawers; a dressing-table 
surmounted by a mirror. 

Calculate, to suppose, to believe, to think. 

Camp-meeting, a meeting held in the fields or 
woods for religious purposes, and where the 
assemblage encamp and remain several days. 

Canebrake, a thicket of canes. 

Caucus, a private meeting of the leading 
politicians of a party to agree upon the plans 
to be pursued in an approaching election. 

Chunk, a short, thick piece of wood or any 
other material. 

Clever, good-natured, obliging. 

Cocktail, a stimulating drink made of brandy 
or gin mixed with sugar, and a very little 
water, etc. 

Corn-husking, or corn-shucking, an occasion 
on which a farmer invites his neighbors to as¬ 
sist him in stripping the husks from his In¬ 
dian corn. 

Cowhide, a whip made of twisted strips of 
rawhide. 

Creek, a small river or brook; not, as in Eng¬ 
land, a small arm of the sea. 

Cunning, small and pretty, nice; as, it was 
such a cunning baby. 

Bander, to get one’s dander raised, to have 
one’s dander up, is to have been worked into a 
passion. 

Dead-heads, people who have free admission 
to entertainments, or who have the use of pub¬ 
lic conveyances, or the like, free of charge. 

Depot, a railway station. 

Down east, in or into the New England states. 
A down-easter is a New Englander. 

Drummer, a commercial traveler. 

Dry goods, a general term for such articles as 
are sold by linen-drapers, haberdashers, hos¬ 
iers, etc. 

Fix, to ; to put in order, to prepare, to adjust. 
To fix the hair, the table, the fire, is to dress 
the hair, lay the table, make up the fire. 

Fixings , arrangements, dress, embellish¬ 


ments, luggage, furniture, garnishings of any 
kind. 

Gerrymander, to arrange political divisions 
so that in an election one party may obtain an 
advantage over its opponent, even though the 
latter may possess a majority of votes in the 
state; from the deviser of such a scheme, 
named Gerry, governor of Massachusetts. 

Given name, a Christian name. 

Grit, courage, spirit, mettle. 

Guess, to; to believe, to suppose, to think, to 
fancy; also used emphatically, as “Joe, will 
you liquor up ?” “I guess I will.” 

Gulch, a deep, abrupt ravine, caused by the 
action of water. 

Happen in, to; to happen to come in, or call. 

Help, a servant. 

Highfalutin, inflated speech, bombast. 

Hoe-cake, a cake of Indian meal baked on a 
hoe or before the fire. 

Johnny-cake, a cake made of Indian corn 
meal mixed with milk or water, and sometimes 
a little stewed pumpkin; the term is also ap¬ 
plied to a New Englander. 

Julep, a drink composed of brandy or whisky 
with sugar, pounded ice, and some sprigs of 
mint. 

Loafer, a lounger, a vagabond. 

Log-rolling, the assembly of several parties of 
wood-cutters to help one of them in rolling 
their logs to the river after they are felled and 
trimmed; also employed in politics to signify 
a like system of mutual co-operation. 

Lot, a piece or division of land, an allotment. 

Lumber, timber sawed for use ; as beams, 
joists, planks. 

Lynch law, an irregular species of justice 
executed by the populace or a mob, without 
legal authority or trial. 

Mail letters, to ; to post letters. 

Mitten: to get the mitten is to meet with a re¬ 
fusal. 

Muss, a state of confusion. 

Notions, a term applied to every variety of 
small wares. 

One-horse: a one-horse thing is a thing of no 
value or importance, a mean and trifling thing. 

Pickaninny, a negro child. 

Pile, a quantity of money. 

Planks, in a political sense, are the several 
principles which appertain to a party; plat¬ 
form is the collection of such principles. 

Reckon, to ; to suppose, to think. 

Rile, to; to irritate, to drive into a passion. 

Rooster, the common domestic cock. 

Scalawag, a scamp, a scapegrace. 

Shanty, a structure such as squatters erect; 
a temporary hut. 

Skedaddle, .to; to run away; a word intro¬ 
duced during the CivilWar. 

Smart, often used in the sense of consider¬ 
able, a good deal, as a smart chance. 

Span of horses, two horses as nearly as pos¬ 
sible alike, harnessed side by side. 

Spread-eagle style, a compound of exaggera¬ 
tion, bombast, mixed metaphor, etc. 

Spry, active. 

Stampede, the sudden flight of a crowd or 
number. 


Americus 


Ammoniaphone 


Store , a shop, as a book store, a grocery store. 

Strike oil, to; to come upon petroleum; 
hence to make a lucky hit, especially finan¬ 
cially. 

Stump speech, a bombastic speech calculated 
to please the popular ear, such speeches in 
newly-settled districts being often delivered 
from stumps of trees. 

Tall, great, fine (used by Shakespeare pretty 
much in the same sense); tall talk is extrava¬ 
gant talk. 

Ticket: to vote the straight ticket is to vote 
for all the men or measures your party wishes. 

Truck , the small produce of gardens; truck 
patch, a plot in which the smaller fruits and 
vegetables are raised, 

Ugly , ill-tempered, vicious. 

Vamose , to ; to run off (from the Spanish 
vamos, let us go). 

Wilt, to; to fade, to decay, to droop, to 
wither. 

Americus, Sumter co., Ga.; has a female 
college, a large carriage factory, etc. Pop. 
7,674. 

Amerigo Vespucci (a-mer-e'go vesput'che) 
(1451-1512), a maritime discoverer, after whom 
America has been named. In 1499 he coasted 
along the continent of America for several 
hundred leagues, and the publication of his 
narrative, while the prior discovery of Colum¬ 
bus was yet comparatively a secret, led to the 
giving of his name to the new continent. 

Amersfoort (a'merz-fort), a town in Hol¬ 
land, province of Utrecht, manufactures 
woolen goods, tobacco, glass, and silk yarn. 
Pop. 14,863. 

Ames, Fisher (1758-1808), a distinguished 
American statesman of the Revolutionary era, 
an orator of great power, famous for his eu¬ 
logy on Washington. 

Ames, Oakes (1804-1873), born in Easton, 
Mass. Congressman from 1862-1873 from the 
second Massachusetts district. He was inter¬ 
ested in contracts for building the Union Pa¬ 
cific railroad, and his connection with the 
Credit Mobilier led to a congressional investi¬ 
gation and Mr. Ames was censured. He with¬ 
drew from political life. His son, Oliver, 
became governor of Massachusetts, 1889. 

Amesbury, Essex co., Mass., on Merrimac 
River, 5 mi. n. of Newburyport. Railroads: 
Boston & Maine; Haverhill & Amesbury; 
Newburyport & Amesbury. Industries: woolen 
company, 45 carriage factories, shoe, hat, and 
bicycle factories. Surrounding country agri¬ 
cultural. Birthplace of Josiah Bartlett, signer 
of Declaration of Independence, and burial 
place of John G. Whittier. First frigate Al¬ 
liance for Continental Congress built here. 
The town was first settled in 1630. Pop. 

1900, 9,473. 

Amherst, Hampshire co., Mass., 25 mi. s. 
of Springfield. Railroads, Boston & Maine, 
and Central Vermont. Industries, two large 
straw-hat factories. Surrounding country ag¬ 
ricultural. Amherst College is located here, 
also Massachusetts Agricultural College. Am¬ 
herst was first settled in 1731 by people from 


Hadley, and it is still a town Pop. 

1900, 5,028. 

Amherst (am'erst), a seaport of British Bur- 
mah, 31 mi. s. of Moulmein, a health resort of 
Europeans. Pop. 3,000. The district of Am¬ 
herst has an area of 15,189 sq. mi. Pop. 301,086. 
It exports rice and teak. 

Amherst, Jeffrey, Lord (1717-1796), a 
British general, who fought at Dettingen and 
Fontenoy, and commanded in America, where 
he took Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Quebec, 
and restored the British prestige in Canada. 
He was raised to the peerage, became com- 
mander-in-chief, and ultimately field-marshal. 

Amiens (a-me-an), a town of France, capi¬ 
tal of the department of Somme. It has a 
citadel, wide and regular streets, and several 
large open areas; a cathedral, one of the larg¬ 
est and finest Gothic buildings in Europe, 
founded in 1220. It has a large trade and 
numerous important manufactures, especially 
cottons and woolens. It was taken by the 
Germans in 1870. Pop. 88,731 The Peace of 
Amiens, concluded between Great Britain, 
France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic, 
March 27, 1802, put an end for a time to the 
great war which had lasted since 1793. 

Ammana'ti, Bartolomeo (1511-1589), an 
Italian sculptor and architect; executed the 
Leda at Florence, a gigantic Neptune for St. 
Mark’s Place at Venice, a colossal Hercules at 
Padua, and built the celebrated Trinity Bridge 
at Florence. 

Am'mon, an ancient Egyptian deity, identi¬ 
fied by the Greeks with Zeus ; represented as 
a human being with a ram’s head, or simply 
with the horns of a ram. There was a cele¬ 
brated temple of Ammon in the Oasis of Siwah 
in the Libyan desert. 

Ammo hia, an alkaline substance, which dif¬ 
fers from the other alkalies by being gaseous, 
and is hence sometimes called the volatile alkali. 
It is a colorless, pungent gas, composed of ni¬ 
trogen and hydrogen. It was first procured in 
that state by Priestley, who termed it alkaline 
air. He obtained it from sal-ammoniac by 
the action of lime, by which method it is yet 
generally prepared. It is used for many pur¬ 
poses, both in medicine and scientific chemis¬ 
try; not, however, in the gaseous state, but 
frequently in solution in water, under the 
names of liquid ammonia, aqueous ammonia, or 
spirits of hartshorn. It may be procured natu¬ 
rally from putrescent animal substances; arti¬ 
ficially it is chiefly got from the distillation of 
coal and of refuse animal substances, such as 
bones, clippings and shavings of horn, hoof, 
etc. It may also be obtained from vegetable 
matter when nitrogen is one of its elements. 
Sal-ammoniac is the chloride of ammonium. 

Ammo'niaphone, an instrument, consisting 
of a metallic tube containing some substance 
saturated with ammonia, peroxide of hydro¬ 
gen, and a few flavoring compounds, fitted 
with a mouthpiece to breathe through, which 
is said to render the voice strong, clear, rich, 
and ringing by the inhalation of the ammoni- 
acal vapor. It was invented by Dr. Carter 
Moffat, and was suggested by the presence of 


Ammonite 


Amoeba 


ammonia in some quantity in the atmosphere 
of Italy— the country of fine singers. 

Am monite, a fossil Cephalopod, allied to 
the Nautilus, having a many-chambered shell, 
in shape like the curved horns on the ancient 
statues of Jupiter Ammon; characteristic of 


the Trias, Lias, and Oolite formations, and 
sometimes found in immense numbers and of 
great size. 

Am'monites, a Semitic race frequently 
mentioned in Scripture, descended from Ben- 
Ammi, the son of Lot (Gen. 19:38), often 
spoken of in conjunction with the Moabites. 
A predatory and Bedouin race, they inhabited 
the desert country east of Gad, their chief city 
being Rabbath-Ammon (Philadelphia). Wars 
between the Israelites and the Ammonites 
were frequent; they were overcome by Jeph- 
thah, Saul, David, Uzziah, Jotham, etc. 
They appear to have existed as a distinct peo¬ 
ple in the time of Justin Martyr, but have 
subsequently become merged in the aggregate 
of nameless Arab tribes. 

Ammo nium, the name given to the hypo¬ 
thetical base of ammonia, analogous to a metal, 
as potassium. It has not been isolated, but it 
is believed to exist in an amalgam with mer¬ 
cury. 

Amoeba, one of the smallest and simplest 
animals in the world. It can be found in 
almost any pool of stagnant water, and clings 
to weeds, dead leaves, and other submerged 
objects. This little animal cannot be seen 
with the naked eye, and only in very excep¬ 
tional cases does it ever get to be over a hun¬ 
dredth of an inch in diameter. Thus it is 
necessary to study it under a microscope. 
Under an ordinary microscope, which magni¬ 
fies from 25 to 50 diameters, the amoeba looks 
to be about as large as the head of a pin. But, 
under a microscope which magnifies about 
300 diameters, it appears to be about the size 
of a silver dollar. It is shown in No. 1. 

Only one who has had some experience with 
a microscope can see this little animal, be¬ 
cause it is almost transparent. It appears 
like a shapeless blob of jelly. This jelly-like 
substance is called protoplasm , which is a sub¬ 
stance of extreme chemical complexity. It 
consists of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, 
and sulphur, and is nearly identical with the 
white of an egg. Protoplasm is the most ele¬ 
mentary living matter in animal and plant 
structures. In regard to this substance, plants 
have a decided advantage over animals, for 
they are able to manufacture protoplasm direct 


from mineral compounds and from the atmos¬ 
phere. Animals cannot produce their proto¬ 
plasm in this way, but must convert dead pro¬ 
toplasm into living by the process of digestion. 
The central part of the amoeba is granular and 
semi-transparent, and resembles ground glass 
in appearance. Around the outer 
edge is a border of perfectly trans¬ 
parent and colorless substance. With¬ 
in the granular part may be seen a 
small round mass which is a little 
darker than the rest, and is called 
the nucleus. This nucleus is very 
important, as without it the amoeba 
could not live or reproduce its own 
kind. (See Nos. 1 and 2.) 

There is another little structure in 
the granular part besides the nucleus. 
This is a clear rounded space which 
periodically disappears with a sudden contrac¬ 
tion and then slowly reappears. It is called the 
contractile vacuole , and contains a watery fluid. 
(No. 2.) If an amoeba is watched under a mi¬ 
croscope it will be noticed that it does not retain 
quite the same shape for long together. In other 
words, the little animal has the power of chang¬ 
ing its form. It does this by sending out little 
finger-like processes which are called pseudo¬ 
podia or “ false feet.” The process starts as a 
little pimple-like elevation; this increases in 
size until at last the granular matter follows 
after, and thus the shape of the animalcule is 
changed. (No. 4 shows the different forms 
which one of the little animals assumed in 



the space of five minutes.) Of course the 
volume of the amoeba is not changed by this 
process, as every p3eudopod thus protruded 
from one part of the body necessitates the 
withdrawal of an equal volume from some 
other part. The amoeba also has the power of 
drawing in these feet. In addition to being 
the means of locomotion these pseudopods 
carry the food to the “mouth.” When the 
edge of the animal comes in contact with 
anything which it can digest, one of these little 
finger-like processes runs out on one side of it 
and another on the other side. Then the two 
pseudopods come together on the opposite 
side of the prey and surround it. The food 
particle is thus forced up on top of the amoeba, 




Amoeba 

where it comes in contact with a small quan¬ 
tity of fluid which has the power to digest it, 
just as the human stomach has power to digest 
meat and potatoes. When all the nutriment 
in the food particle has been extracted, the 
remaining part is pushed right on over the top 
of the animal, and is finally thrown off 
on the side opposite to where it was 
taken on. The part of the food which 
is extracted goes to make up new pro¬ 
toplasm or living material. It is assim¬ 
ilated or converted into the actual living 
substance. 

It is self-evident that if the amoeba 
continues to absorb food material it will 
increase in size. And this leads to the 
consideration of the method in which „ 
this animalcule produces its own kind. ^ 
If a human being eats very heartily he * 
will grow. But there is a limit to the size he 
can attain. He is constantly throwing off waste 
material of the body, and this tends to keep the 
size about the same. Not so with the amoeba. 
As has been seen, it takes into its system only 
such material as it can thoroughly assimilate. 


Amphibia 

Thus, when it has extended itself to a certain 
length, the furrow which appears across the 
middle of the drawn-out body deepens, until 
finally the animalcule separates into two sep¬ 
arate beings, which henceforward lead an in¬ 
dependent existence. This is the simplest 



Confrdc/i/e / 

ifucuole,. 





Contractile 

vcicuole 


And when it has taken in or absorbed—con¬ 
verted into protoplasm—a food particle, it can¬ 
not throw it off. The question naturally arises: 
“ What is thereto prevent the amoeba from 
growing to the size of a peck measure?” It 
is answered by describing the method in which 
the animalcule produces new individuals. 
This is done in a very simple way. The 


method of reproduction known, and is called 
simple fission. (No. 3 shows the process of di¬ 
vision.) The animal simply divides into two, 
both exactly alike, and neither of the animals 
dies. They go on dividing, and, if there were 
no outside influences, the amoeba would be 
practically immortal. 

Amoo^Daria, a Russian territory of Cen¬ 
tral Asia, on the east of the Amoo, and 
southeast of the Sea of Aral. Area 40,000 
sq, mi ; pop. 220,000. 

Ampere (an-par), Andre-Marie (1775- 
.nucleus 1836), a celebrated French mathematician 
and philosopher, founder of the science of 
electro-dynamics, professor of mathemat¬ 
ical analysis at the Polytechnic School, 
Paris, and of physics at the College of 
France. What is known as Ampere’s Theory 
is that magnetism consists in the existence 
of electric currents circulating round the 
particles of magnetic bodies, being in dif¬ 
ferent directions round different particles 
when the bodies are unmagnetized, but all 
In the same direction when magnetized. 

Amphibia, a class of vertebrate animals, 
which in their early life breathe by gills or 
branchiae, and afterward partly or entirely 
by lungs. The Frog, breathing in its tadpole 
state by gills and afterward throwing off 
these organs and breathing entirely by lungs 
in its adult state, is an example of the latter 



nucleus, which, as stated above, is a very 
vital part of the structure of the amoeba, first 
divides into two. Then the whole organism 
elongates; that is, it flows out lengthwise, as 
jelly would do, and this process draws the two 
parts of the nucleus apart. This protoplas¬ 
mic substance acts just like gum when it is 
stretched. It will stretch so far and then it 
will break in two. In other words, it is elastic. 


phase of amphibian existence. The Proteus 
of the underground caves of Central Europe 
exemplifies forms in which the gills of early 
life are retained throughout life, and in which 
lungs are developed in addition to the gills. 
A second character of this group consists in 
the presence of two occipital “ condyles,” or 
processes by means of which the skull articu¬ 
lates with the spine or vertebral column, rep- 





Amsterdam 


Amphictyonic League 


tiles possessing one condyle only. The class 
divided into four orders: the Ophiomorpha 
(or serpentiform), represented by the Blind- 
worms, in which limbs are wanting and the 
body is snake-like; the Urodela or “Tailed” 
Amphibians, including the Newts, Proteus, 
Siren, etc.; the Anoura, or tailless Amphibia, 
represented by the Frogs and Toads; and the 
Labyrinthodontia, which includes the extinct 
forms known as Labyrinthodons. 

Amphic'tyonic League (or council), in an¬ 
cient Greece, a confederation of tribes for the 
protection of religious worship, but which 
also discussed questions of international law, 
and matters affecting their political union. 
The most important was that of the twelve 
northern tribes which met alternately at Del¬ 
phi and Thermopylae. The tribes sent two 
deputies each, who assembled with great 
solemnity; composed the public dissensions, 
and the quarrels of individual cities, by force 
or persuasion; punished civil and criminal 
offenses, and particularly transgressions of 
the law of nations, and violations of the 
temple of Delphi. Its calling on the states 
to punish the Phocians for plundering Delphi 
caused the Sacred Wars, 595-586, 448-447, 357- 
346 b. c. 

Amphi'on, in Greek mythology, son of Zeus 
and Antiope, and husband of Niobe; had mi¬ 
raculous skill in music, being taught by Mer¬ 
cury, or, according to others, by Apollo. In 
poetic legend he is said to have availed him¬ 
self of his skill when building the walls of 
Thebes—the stones moving and arranging 
themselves in proper position at the sound 
of his lyre. 

Amphithe'ater, an ancient Roman edifice 
of an oval form without a roof, having a 
central area (the arena ) encompassed with 
rows of seats, rising higher as they receded 



Amphitheater. 


from the center, on which people used to sit 
to view the combats of gladiators and of wild 
beasts, and other sports. The Colosseum at 
Rome is the largest of all the ancient amphi¬ 
theaters, being capable of containing from 
50,000 to 80,000 persons. That at Verona is 
one of the best examples remaining. Its 
dimensions are 502 feet by 401, and 98 feet 
high. The name means “both-ways theater,” 
or “theater allround,” the theater forming 
only a semicircular edifice. 


Amphitri'te, in Greek mythology, daugh¬ 
ter of Oce&nus and Tethys, or of Nereus and 
Doris, and wife of Poseidon (or Neptune), 
represented as drawn in a chariot of shells 
by Tritons, with a trident in her hand. 

Amphit'ryon, in Greek legend, king of 
Thebes, son of Alcaeus, and husband of Alc- 
mena. Plautus, and after him Molifcre, have 
made an amour of Zeus with Alcmena the 
subject of amusing comedies. 

Ampudia, Pedro de, Mexican, was ap¬ 
pointed general by Santa Anna in 1840; in 1842, 
he commanded the land forces in the siege of 
Campeachy, Yucatan. Later he was in com¬ 
mand of Monterey, where, in 1846, he surren¬ 
dered to General Taylor of the U. S. 

Amputa tion, in surgery, that operation by 
which a member is separated from the body 
according to the rules of the science. See 
Surgery. 

Amra'oti, a town of British India in Ber4r; 
it is celebrated for its cotton, and is a place of 
good trade. Pop. 23,550. The district has an 
area of 2,767 sq. mi.; pop. 546,448. 

Am' ritsir (or Amritsar) (“the pool of immor¬ 
tality”), a flourishing commercial town of Hin¬ 
dustan, capital of a district of the same name, 
in the Punjab, the principal place of the re¬ 
ligious worship of the Sikhs. It has consider¬ 
able manufactures of shawls and silks; and 
receives its name from the sacred pond con¬ 
structed by Ram Das, the apostle of the Sikhs, 
in which the Sikhs and other Hindus immerse 
themselves that they may be purified from all 
sin. Pop. 151,896. The district of Amritsir 
has an area of 1,574 sq. mi. Pop. 893,266. 

Am 'ru, originally an opponent, and subse¬ 
quently a zealous supporter of Mohammed, 
and one of the ablest of the Mohammedan 
warriors. He brought Egypt under the power 
of the Caliph Omar in 638, and governed it 
wisely till his death in 636. The burning of 
the famous Alexandrian Library has been 
generally attributed to him, though only on 
the authority of a writer who lived six cen¬ 
turies later. 

Am'sterdam (that is, “the dam of the Am- 
stel ”), one of the chief commercial cities of 
Europe, capital of Holland. On account of 
the lowness of the site of the city the greater 
part of it is built on piles. It is divided by 
numerous canals into about 90 islands, which 
are connected by nearly 300 bridges. Among 
its numerous industries may be mentioned as 
a speciality the cutting and polishing of dia¬ 
monds. The harbor, formed by the Y river, 
lies along the whole of the north side of the 
city, and is surrounded by various docks and 
basins. The trade is very great, being much 
facilitated by the great ship-canal (15 mi. long, 
22-26 feet deep, constructed 1865-76), which 
connects the Y directly with the North Sea. 
Another canal, the North Holland Canal (46 
mi. long, 20 feet deep), connects Amsterdam 
with the Helder. During the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries Amsterdam was one of 
the wealthiest and most flourishing cities in 
the world. Its forced alliance with France 






Amsterdam 


Anakim 


ruined its trade, but since 1813 its commerce 
has revived. Pop. 417,539. 

Amsterdam, Montgomery co., N. Y., on Mo¬ 
hawk River, 33 mi. w. of Albany. Railroads: 
N. Y. C. & H. R., and West Shore. Industries: 
carpet mills, linseed oil, broom, carriage 
springs, and knitted goods factories. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural. The town 
was first settled about 1776 and became a 
city in 1885. Pop. 1900, 20,929 

Amuck (Amuk), to run, a phrase applied to 
natives of the eastern Archipelago who are 
occasionally seen to rush out in a frantic state, 
making indiscriminate and murderous assaults 
on all that come in their way. The cause of 
such outbursts is not well known. 

Amy Fie Alcohol, another name for fusel oil. 

Amyrida'ceae, a natural order of plants con¬ 
sisting of tropical trees or shrubs, the leaves, 
bark, and fruit of which abound in fragrant, 
resinous, and balsamic juices. Myrrh, frank¬ 
incense, and the gum-elemi of commerce are 
among their products. 

Anabap'tists, a name given to a Christian 
sect by their adversaries, because, as they ob¬ 
jected to infant baptism, they rebaptized 
those who joined their body. The founder of 
the sect appears to have been Nicolas Storch, 
a disciple of Luther. He incited the peas¬ 
antry of Suabia and Franconia to insurrection. 
This insurrection was quelled in 1525. In 
1534 the town of Munster in Westphalia be¬ 
came their center of action. Bockhold became 
leader, assuming the name of John of Leyden, 
king of the New Jerusalem, and Munster be¬ 
came a theater of all the excesses of fanati¬ 
cism, lust, and cruelty. They rejected the 
practise of polygamy, community of goods, 
and intolerance toward those of different 
opinions which had prevailed in Miinster. The 
application of the term Anabaptist to the gen¬ 
eral body of Baptists throughout the world is 
unwarranted. The Baptists repudiate the 
name Anabaptist. 

Anab'asis (“a goingup”), the Greek title of 
Xenophon’s celebrated account of the expedi¬ 
tion of Cyrus the Younger against his brother 
Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The title is also 
given to Arrian’s work which records the cam¬ 
paigns of Alexander the Great. 

Anach ronism, an error of chronology by 
which things are represented as co-existing 
which did not co-exist; applied also to any¬ 
thing foreign to, or out of keeping with, a speci¬ 
fied time. The anachronisms of authors and 
painters have furnished materials for many 
amusing magazine articles. In art, some of 
the most glaring instances have occurred in 
the works of the Dutch school, as for instance 
arming scriptural characters with guns or 
attiring them in the costume of the seven¬ 
teenth century. 

Anacon'da, the popular name of two of the 
largest species of the serpent tribe; viz., a 
Ceylonese species of the genus Python, said to 
have been met with, 33 feet long; and a native 
of tropical America, allied to the boa-con¬ 
strictor, and the largest of the serpent tribe, 


attaining the length of 40 feet. See Boa-con¬ 
strictor. 

Anaconda, Deer Lodge co., Mon., the center 
of an active mining district. Population 
1900, 9,453. 

Anac reon, an amatory lyric Greek poet of 
the sixth century b. c., native of Teos, in 
Ionia. Only a few fragments of his works 
have come down to us; the collection of odes 
that usually passes under the name of An¬ 
acreon is mostly the production of a later 
time. 

Anaesthet'ics, medical agents employed for 
the removal of pain, especially in surgical op¬ 
erations, by suspending sensibility either locally 
or generally. Various agents have been em¬ 
ployed for both of these purposes, from the 
earliest times, but the scientific use of anaes¬ 
thetics may be said to date from 1800, when 
Sir Humphrey Davy made experiments on the 
anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide, and 
recommended its use in surgery. In 1818 
Faraday established the anaesthetic properties 
of sulphuric ether, but this agent made no ad¬ 
vance beyond the region of experiment, till 
1844, when Dr. Wells, a dentist of Hartford, 
Conn., applied the inhalation of sulphuric 
ether in the extraction of teeth, but owing to 
some misadventure did not persevere with it. 
The example was followed in 1846 by Dr. Mor¬ 
ton, a Boston dentist, who also extended the 
use of ether to other surgical operations. The 
practise was soon after introduced into Eng¬ 
land by Mr. Liston, and a London dentist, Mr. 
Robinson. A few weeks later Sir James 
Simpson made the first application of ether in 
a case of midwifery. This was early in 1847. 
Toward the end of the same year Simpson 
had his attention called to the anaesthetic 
efficacy of chloroform, and announced it as a 
superior agent to ether. This agent has since 
been the most extensively used anaesthetic, 
though the use of ether still largely prevails in 
the U. S. In their general effects ether and 
chloroform are very similar: but the latter 
tends to enfeeble the action of the heart more 
readily than the former. For this reason 
great caution has to be used in administering 
chloroform where there is weak heart action 
from disease. Local anaesthesia is produced 
by isolating the part of the body to be operated 
upon, and producing insensibility of the nerves 
in that locality. Dr. Richardson’s method is 
to apply the spray of ether, which, by its 
rapid evaporation, chills and freezes the tis¬ 
sues and produces complete anaesthesia. This 
mode of treatment, besides its use in minor 
surgical operations, has recently begun to 
have important remedial applications. A 
valuable local anaesthetic now employed is 
cocaine. See Coca. 

Anahuac (a-na-wak') (“near the water”), an 
old Mexican name applied to the plateau of 
the city of Mexico, from the lakes situated 
there, generally elevated from 6,000 to 9,000 
feet above the sea. 

An'akim, the posterity of Anak, the son of 
Arba, noted in sacred history for their fierce¬ 
ness and loftiness of stature. Their strong- 


Analysis 

hold was Kirjath-arba, or Hebron, which was 
taken and destroyed by Caleb and the tribe of 
Judah. 

Anal'ysis, the resolution of an object, 
whether of the senses or the intellect, into its 
component elements. In philosophy it is the 
mode of resolving a compound idea into its 
simple parts, in order to consider them more 
distinctly, and arrive at a more precise knowl¬ 
edge of the whole. It is opposed to synthesis, 
by which we combine and class our percep¬ 
tions, and contrive expressions for our thoughts, 
so as to represent their several divisions, 
classes, and relations. 

Analysis, in mathematics, is, in the widest 
sense, the expression and development of the 
functions of quantities by calculation; in a 
narrower sense the resolving of problems by 
algebraic equations. The analysis of the an¬ 
cients was exhibited only in geometry, and 
made use only of geometrical assistance, 
whereby it is distinguished from the analysis 
of the moderns, which extends to all measur¬ 
able objects, and expresses in equations the mu¬ 
tual dependence of magnitudes. Analysis is 
divided into lower and higher; the lower com¬ 
prising, besides arithmetic and algebra, the 
doctrines of functions, of series, combinations, 
logarithms, and curves; the higher comprising 
the differential and integral calculus, and the 
calculus of variations. 

In chemistry, analysis is the process of de¬ 
composing a compound substance with a view 
to determine either (a) what elements it con¬ 
tains ( qualitative analysis), or ( b ) how much of 
each element is present (< quantitative analysis). 
Thus by the first process we learn that water 
is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and 
by the second that it consists of one part of 
hydrogen by weight to eight parts of oxygen. 

Anam', a country of Asia occupying the e. 
side of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. It is com¬ 
posed of three parts: Tonquin in the n.; Co¬ 
chin-China in the s.; and the territory of the 
Laos tribes, s.w. of Tonquin. Area together, 
170,000 sq. mi.; pop. 15,000,000 — 9,000,000 in 
Tonquin. Tonquin is mountainous on the 
north, but in the east is nearly level, termi¬ 
nating toward the sea in an alluvial plain 
yielding good crops of rice, cotton, fruits, gin¬ 
ger, and spices, and a great variety of varnish- 
trees, palms, etc. The principal river is the 
Song-ka, which has numerous tributaries, 
many of them being joined together by canals, 
both for irrigation and commerce. Tonquin 
is rich in gold, silver, copper, and iron. Co¬ 
chin-China is, generally speaking, unproduc¬ 
tive, but contains many fertile spots, in which 
grain, leguminous plants, sugar-cane, cinna¬ 
mon, etc., are produced in great abundance. 
Agriculture is the chief occupation, but many 
of the inhabitants are engaged in the spinning 
and weaving of cotton and silk into coarse fab¬ 
rics, the preparation of varnish, iron-smelting, 
and the construction of ships or junks. The 
inhabitants are said to be the ugliest of the 
Mongoloid races of the peninsula, being under 
the middle size and less robust than the sur¬ 
rounding peoples. Their language is monosyl- 


Anastatic Printing 

labic, and is connected with the Chinese. The 
religion of the majority is Buddhism, but the 
educated classes hold the doctrines of Con¬ 
fucius. The principal towns are Hanoi, the 
capital of Tonquin, and Hue, the capital of 
Cochin-China, and formerly of the whole em¬ 
pire. Anam was conquered by the Chinese in 
214 b. c., but in 1428 a. d. it completely won 
its independence. The French began to inter¬ 
fere actively in its affairs in 1847 on the plea of 
protecting the native Christians. By the trea* 
ties of 1862 and 1867 they obtai ned the southern 
and most productive part of Cochin-China, sub¬ 
sequently known as French Cochin-China: and 
in 1874 they obtained large powers over Ton¬ 
quin, notwithstanding the protests of the Chi¬ 
nese. Finally in 1883 Tonquin was ceded to 
France, and next year Anam was declared a 
French protectorate. After a short period of 
hostilities with China the latter recognized 
the French claims, and Tongkin is now di¬ 
rectly administered by France, while Anam is 
entirely under French direction. 

Anani as, a disciple at Jerusalem, who, 
having with his wife Sapphira, committed a 
fraud, was with her struck dead. 

Anarajapoo'ra (or Anuradhapura), a ruined 
city, the ancient capital of Ceylon, built about 
540 b. c., and said to have covered an area of 
300 sq. mi., doubtless a great exaggeration. 
The great object of interest is the sacred 
Bo-tree planted over 2,000 years, and probably 
the oldest historical tree in the world, but 
shattered by a storm in 1887. 

An'archists, a revolutionary sect or body 
setting forth as the social id,eal the extreme 
form of individual freedom, and holding that 
all government is injurious and immoral, that 
the destruction of every social form now exist¬ 
ing must be the first step to the creation of a 
new world. Their recognition as an independ¬ 
ent sect may be dated from the secession of 
Bakunin and his followers from the Social 
Democrats at the congress of The Hague in 
1872, since which they have maintained an 
active propaganda. Their principal journals 
have been La Revolte (Paris), the Freiheit (New 
York), Liberty (Boston), and the Anarchist 
(London). Akin to the Nihilists, of alien 
birth, the Anarchists in America, with the 
exception of a bomb outrage in Chicago, have 
accomplished little. 

Anasta'sius 1 (491-518 a. d.), Emperor 
of the East, succeeded Zeno, at the age of 
sixty. He was a member of the imperial life¬ 
guard, and owed his elevation to Ariadnp. 
widow of Zeno, whom he married. He dis¬ 
tinguished himself by suppressing the com¬ 
bats between men and wild beasts in the arena, 
abolishing the sale of offices, building the for¬ 
tifications of Constantinople, etc. 

Anastat'ic Printing, a mode of obtaining 
fac-simile impressions of any printed page or 
engraving by transferring it to a plate of zinc, 
which, on being subjected to the action of an 
acid, is etched or eaten away with the excep¬ 
tion of the parts covered with the ink, which 
parts, being thus protected from the action of 


Anatomy 


Anatomy 


the acid, are left in relief so that they can 
readily be printed from. 

Anatomy is that branch of biological science 
which treats of the structure of organized 
bodies. The words anatomy and dissection 
are synonymous etymologically; but custom, 
while retaining the original meaning of the 
latter word (literally, to cut apart) has broad¬ 
ened that of the former until it has come 
to include all the many sciences embraced 
within the one great science of organic form. 
Thus we speak of Human, Animal , and Vege¬ 
table Anatomy; of Embryology , or develop¬ 
mental anatomy; of Comparative Anatomy, 
which teaches the variations of corresponding 
structures in different animals; of Philosoph¬ 
ical Anatomy, which teaches Homology , or 
the fundamental identity of organs arising 
from the same parts of the embryos of differ¬ 
ent species; of Histology, or the study of the 
minute anatomy of the tissues; of Descriptive 
Anatomy, treating of the gross form and rela¬ 
tions of organs and structure; and finally of 
Systematic and Topographical (regional or sur¬ 
gical) Anatomy; the former treating of sys¬ 
tems; e. g., digestive, genito-urinary, nervous, 
vascular, muscular systems; the latter treat¬ 
ing of regions made up of parts of several 
systems; e. g., neck, abdomen, arm, leg. We 
will consider here only Human Anatomy, and 
under this head only Systematic Anatomy. For 
other branches of the subject, see Histology 
and Embryology. 

Systematic Anatomy. — In response to the 
tendency to specialization observed in many 
celled organisms, the cells of the human body 
group themselves into systems, each perform¬ 
ing certain functions, although the law of the 
physiological division of labor imposes the 
closest interdependence between each system 
and its yoke-fellows. In every system we find 
one or more most highly specialized cell-groups 
to which we give the name of organs. Enter¬ 
ing intimately into the composition of organs, 
as well as binding them together and keeping 
them in proper correlation with other organs, 
we find tissues. These latter are the ultimate re¬ 
sults of cell-differentiation, and are considered 
under Histology. We recognize the follow¬ 
ing principal systems sufficiently isolated by 
function to require separate consideration: 1, 
Skeleton, Osseous System, the supporting 
framework of the body; 2, Articular System 
the system of joints; 3, Muscular System, a 
series of elastic and voluntarily contractile 
fibers, the ends of which are inserted into the 
extremities of the bones; 4, Vascular System, 
a series of tubes which supply the tissues with 
nourishment and carry away the effete pro¬ 
ducts of the body; 5, Respiratory System, 
through which oxygen enters the blood, and 
carbon-dioxide is thrown off; 6, Digestive Sys¬ 
tem, through which soluble food is elaborated 
from insoluble diet; 7, Urinary System, effete 
products taken up by the blood are eliminated 
in part through this system; 8, Reproductive 
Organs; 9, Nervous System. All of these vari¬ 
ous systems are united anatomically by masses 
of connective tissue. 


Osseous System, or Skeleton. Articular Sys¬ 
tem, or Joints. —The skeleton is composed of 
200 bones, of which 74 belong to the Axial 
skeleton (head, neck, and trunk), and 126 to 
the extremities, or Appendicular skeleton. 
This number does not include certain small 
bones developed in tendons as they pass across 
bony angles. 

Axial Skeleton.—The vertebral column, or 
spine, is made up of 26 bones, of which 7, 
called cervical vertebrae, are located in the 
neck; 12, called dorsal or thoracic vertebrae, 
lie in the thoracic region, or chest, and sup¬ 
port 24 ribs and the sternum; 5 lie in the 
loin or lumbar region and are called lumbar 
vertebrae; the sacrum (made up during early 
life of five sacral vertebrae which fuse into 
one solid mass in the adult), in the sacral or 
pelvic region, forming a kind of keystone, 
by which the weight of the body is trans¬ 
mitted to the pelvic girdle and the lower 
extremities; and the coccyx (made up dur¬ 
ing early life of 4 rudimentary vertebrae), in 
the coccygeal region. Each vertebrae is com¬ 
posed of a body, or centrum, from which 
arise two arches, a neural arch, enclosing a 
segment of the spinal cord or marrow, lying 
in the neural or spinal canal, and a haemal, or 
visceral arch enclosing more or less completely 
a segment of the great visceral cavity found 
in the neck, chest, and abdomen. The neural 
canal is complete except in the lower sacral 
and coccygeal regions. The visceral arches, 
however, are subject to many vicissitudes, and 
it is only in the upper thoracic region that we 
find them completely encircling the visceral 
cavity, each arch being completed by two ribs 
and a segment of the sternum or breast-bone. 
In the lower thoracic region the ribs do 
not completely encircle the cavity. Strength, 
combined with great elasticity and flexibility, 
is provided for the spinal column by anterior, 
posterior, and lateral ligaments, by pads of 
cartilage placed between the vertabrae, and by 
an alternation of anterior and posterior curves 
in the four principal regions. The ribs are 
tipped anteriorly with costal cartilages and 
the seven upper (true) ribs are joined to the 
sternum by their cartilages. Of the remain¬ 
ing five ribs (false), the upper three are fixed 
to the cartilages above, but not to the sternum, 
and the lower two are free or floating. In the 
sternum we recognize three pieces, united in 
the adult — manubrium or handle, gladiolus 
or body, and xiphoid or ensiform appendix. 

The axial skeleton is completed by the skull 
and hyoid bone—23 bones, of which 8 (occipi¬ 
tal, sphenoid, ethmoid, frontal, 2 parietals, 2 
temporals) enter into the cranium or brain 
case, and 15 (vomer, 2 nasals, 2 lachrymals, 2 
palates, 2 malar, 2 superior maxillaries, 2 max- 
illo- or inferior turbineals, inferior maxillary, 
hyoid) form the bony framework of a series 
of arches (face and neck) surrounding the 
organs of special sense and the upper ori¬ 
fices of the respiratory and digestive organs. 
See Embryology. Springing upward from the 
axis is a series of arches composed of thin, 
flat bones enveloping the brain, and either 


Anatomy 

paired, or developed from paired ossific de¬ 
posits. These arches bear a close resemblance 
to the neural arches of the vertebrae, espe¬ 
cially when we consider that the brain is 
merely the expanded end of the spinal cord. 
Thrown downward from the cranio-facial 
axis are other arches: (a) enclosing the nose 
and forming the roof of the mouth; (b) the 
lower jaw and the floor of the mouth. Cer¬ 
tain bones are also formed in connection with 
the organs of special sense, these organs be¬ 
ing pushed in above or between the arches: (a) 
malar and lachrymal bones in relation to the 
organ of vision, and above the palato-maxillary 
arch; (b) turbinal bones for the reception of 
the organ of smell, between the two maxilla- 
ries; (c) petrous and mastoid parts of the tem¬ 
poral bones, containing the organ of hearing, 
and lying between the occipital and sphenoid 
bones; (d) the organ of taste, supported below 
and behind by the hyoid bone, and pushed in 
between the maxillary and mandibular arches; 
(e) the organ of voice (larynx) suspended from 
the hyoid bone and surmounted by one or more 
very rudimentary cartilaginous arches. The 
cavity containing the eye-ball and its machin¬ 
ery is called the orbit; the passage leading 
from without into the petrous and mastoid 
part of the temporal bone is called the external 
auditory meatus; the parallel nasal passages 
leading from the nostrils to the throat are 
called nares. Opening into the nares are 
chambers or sinuses in the frontal, ethmoid, 
sphenoid, and maxillary bones, containing air 
and modifying the voice as by a sounding- 
board. A bony bar running from the outer 
margin of the orbit to just above the external 
auditory meatus is called the Zygoma, and 
partly encloses the great temporal and Zygo¬ 
matic fossae for the reception of the muscles 
of mastication. The upper and lower jaw are 
provided with alveolar processes containing 
sockets for the reception of teeth, of which 
there are 32 in the adult jaws (8 incisors, 4 
canines, 8 biscuspids, 12 molars), and 20 (milk 
or temporary) teeth in the jaws of the infant. 
The mandible, or inferior maxillary, joins the 
skull by means of an articular condyle, fitting 
into the glenoid fossa of the temporal bone, 
and is the only movable bone of the skull, the 
others being immovably united by sutures. 
Separating the mouth from the nose is the 
hard palate, made up of horizontal plates from 
the maxillary and palate bones. The cranial 
cavity is smooth and unbroken above, but 
broken into fossae below for the reception of 
the cerebrum and cerebellum. The spinal cord 
leaves the cranial cavity through the foramen 
magnum (foramen; a hole or opening) in the 
occiptal bone, on either side of which can be 
seen the occipital condyles for articulation 
with the atlas. Other openings give passage 
to nerves and vessels to and from the brain: 
through the optic foramen pass the optic nerve 
and ophthalmic artery; through the sphenoidal 
fissure between the wings of the sphenoid pass 
the nerves to the orbit; through the carotid 
foramen passes the artery of that name; through 
the jugular foramen pass the jugular vein and 


Anatomy 

the ninth, tenth, and eleventh nerves; through 
the round and oval openings pass branches of 
the fifth nerve; through the internal auditory 
meatus pass the facial and auditory nerves; 
through the anterior condylar foramen passes 
the twelfth nerve. The hyoid bone lies be¬ 
tween the tongue and the larynx and is joined 
to the skull (styloid process of temporal bone) 
by a stylo-hyoid ligament. The hyoidean arch 
is the last of the visceral arches of the human 
skull. 

Appendicular Skeleton.—This skeleton com¬ 
prises the shoulder girdle with the upper ex¬ 
tremities (64 bones), and the pelvic girdle with 
the lower extremities (62 bones). The shoulder 
girdle is made up of clavicle or collar-bone, 
and scapula or shoulder-blade, bound together 
at the outer extremities by ligaments, and 
joined to the trunk at one point only by a 
small gliding joint between the inner extrem¬ 
ity of the clavicle and the upper piece of 
the sternum. By thus pivoting the upper ex¬ 
tremity on the trunk, there is secured great 
freedom of motion with little loss of power by 
joint friction. The clavicle is a slender bone 
shaped like the Roman S, lying between 
sternum and scapula. The scapula is a flat, 
irregularly triangular bone lying close to the 
side of the thorax, but separated and sus¬ 
pended from it by muscles. The part applied 
to the thorax is the sub-scapular fossa; the part 
looking backward and outward is divided into 
supra- and infra-spinous fossae by a prominent 
spine, which projects upward and outward. 
At the outer angle of the scapula, between 
coracoid, clavicle, and acromion, is the glen¬ 
oid fossa for the reception of the humeral head 
(ball and socket joint). The glenoid and hu¬ 
merus are held together in the shoulder joint 
by the action of the shoulder muscles, and by 
a loose sac called the capsular ligament, per¬ 
mitting a wide range of motion in almost every 
direction. The humerus, or arm bone, is a 
long bone, at the upper extremity of which 
are found a head, neck, and two tuberosities; 
below these is a long, rounded shaft, grooved 
behind by the musculo-spiral nerve, and sup¬ 
porting an irregularly flattened inferior extrem¬ 
ity, presenting a trochlea (pulley surface) and 
capitellum (head) for articulation with the ulna 
and radius respectively. In the forearm (or 
antibrachium) are found the radius externally 
and the ulna internally. These bones are united 
to the humerus by a hinge-joint, permitting 
only antero-posterior motion, the head of the 
radius playing on the capitellum, and the ulna 
presenting a great sigmoid notch for the re¬ 
ception of the trochlea (or pulley) of the 
humerus. At their inferior extremities the 
forearm bones join the carpus, the radius di¬ 
rectly, the ulna indirectly through the inter¬ 
vention of a small fibro-cartilage. The ulna is 
heaviest at the humeral end, the radius at 
the carpal end. The carpus or wrist (8 bones) 
is irregularly biconvex and made up of two 
rows of small bones united by ligaments 
and lying between forearm and palm. The 
metacarpus (palm) is made up of five met¬ 
acarpal bones numbered from thumb to little 


FRONT VIEW OF 
SKELETON. 





‘ • *' 


1. Frontal Bone. 

2. Parietal Bone. 

3. Coronal Suture. 

4. Squamous portion of Tem¬ 

poral Bone. 

5. Mastoid Process of Tempo¬ 

ral Bone. 

6. Zygoma. 

7. Superior Maxillary Bone. 

8. Inferior Maxillary Bone. 

9. Tempero-Maxillary Artic¬ 

ulation. 

10. Nasal Bone. 

11. Orbit. 

12. Cervical Vertebra. 

13. First Rib. 

14. Clavicle. 

15. Manubrium. 

16. Body of Sternum. 

17. Fnsiform Process of Sternum 

18. Shoulder Blade (Scapula). 

19. Acromion Process of Scap¬ 

ula. 

20. Costal Cartilage. 

21. Seventh Rib. 

22. Eighth (First False) Rib. 

23. Twelfth (Fifth False) Rib. 

24. Twelfth Dorsal Vertebra. 

25. Rumbar Vertebra. 

26. Head of Humerus. 

27. Humerus. 

28. Elbow-Joint. 

29. Radius. 

30. Ulna. 

31. Wrist. 

32. Metacarpal Bone. 

33. Thumb. 

34. Phalanges of Fingers. 

35. Sacrum. 

36. Ilium. 

37. Crest of the Ilium. 

38. Pubic Bone. 

39. Ischium. 

40. Sacro-Iliac Symphysis. 

41. Pubic Symphysis. 

42. Obturator Foramen. 

43. Head of Femur. 

44. Neck of Femur. 

45. Greater Trochanter. 

46. Femur. 

47. Patella Knee-pan. 

48. Tibia. 

49. Fibula. 

50. External Malleolus. 

51. Internal Malleolus. 

52. Os Calcis. 

53. Tarsus. 

54. Metatarsal Bone. 

55. Phalanges of Toes. 












































































































































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Anatomy 

finger. The digits are provided with three 
phalanges each, except the thumb, which has 
only two. The thumb, however, has the ad¬ 
vantage of moving freely on the carpus by 
means of a saddle-joint. The other carpal 
and metacarpal bones play slightly upon their 
fellows by means of gliding joints. 

The pelvic girdle comprises the innominate 
bones, immovably united to the sacrum, poste¬ 
riorly, by strong ligaments, and joined anteri¬ 
orly in the median line, The innominate bone 
is composed of three bones (ilium, ischium, os 
pubis) which unite in adult life along a Y 
shaped line located in the cup of the hip-joint. 
Superiorly the ilium spreads out a broad con¬ 
cave surface, in which the intestines are sup¬ 
ported; anteriorly the pubic bones reach the 
median line, beneath which are suspended the 
external genito-urinary organs; interiorly the 
ischium, or haunch bone, forms the projection of 
the buttock and supports the body while sit¬ 
ting. Between the pubis and ischium is found 
the obturator foramen. This foramen is closed 
by the obturator membrane. The pelvis (or 
basin) furnishes the bony support upon which 
rest the contents of the abdomen, and is 
traversed by the outlets of the intestinal, gen¬ 
ital, and urinary passages. The broad, ex¬ 
panded portion above is called the false pel¬ 
vis, and is part of the abdomen; the narrow, 
funnel-like portion below is the true pelvis, 
and contains the rectum, uterus, and blad¬ 
der. The pelvis of the woman is broader 
and much more roomy than that of the man. 
The lower extremities (the bones of which 
are thirty in number) join the innominate 
bones in the hip-joints. This articulation is 
a perfect example of the ball and socket 
joint, the globular head of the femur fitting 
into the cup above mentioned. In addition to 
the supports afforded by a strong capsular lig¬ 
ament, by an additional rim of fibro-cartilage 
deepening the bony cup, by great muscles con¬ 
stantly drawing the cup and head together, 
and by atmospheric pressure resisting the sep¬ 
aration of the two joint elements, there is also 
a round ligament found within the joint, unit¬ 
ing the femoral head to a depression in the 
bottom of the cup. The femur is the bone of 
the thigh, and is the longest bone in the human 
body. Unlike even most of the higher primates, 
the femur of man is longer than the tibia. We 
recognize a head, neck, angle, and trochanters 
(great and small) at the upper end of the shaft. 
At the lower end are two condyles (external 
and internal) articulating with the tibia and 
patella in the knee joint. The patella or knee- 
pan is a sesamoid bone, placed in the tendon of 
the great quadriceps extensor muscle, at the 
point where the tendon glides over the external 
surface of the femur. The knee-joint is a com¬ 
pound articulation formed by a fusion of the 
femoro-patellar joint, with the two joints lying 
between the outer and inner condyles of the 
femur and the corresponding tuberosities of 
the tibia. Between the surfaces of the two 
latter joints are interposed two semilunar 
fibro-cartilages, and partly separating the mes¬ 
ial from the lateral joint are two crucial liga- 
7 


Anatomy 

ments. A single synovial membrane is com¬ 
mon to all three joints. The femoro-patellar 
is a gliding joint; the femoro-tibial is a hinge- 
joint, although the surfaces also glide and ro¬ 
tate. The leg contains two bones, tibia and 
fibula. The tibia or shin-bone is the heaviest 
bone of the leg, is internal and anterior to the 
fibula, is the only leg bone to articulate with 
the femur, and transmits the weight of the 
body to the tarsus. On the upper extremity 
are two tuberosities with concave surfaces for 
articulation with the femoral condyles, and be¬ 
tween them a spine to which attach the crucial 
ligaments and the semilunar fibro-cartilages. 
In front is a tubercle for the tibial attachment 
of the patellor tendon. At the lower extremity 
is a horizontal, smooth surface for the astraga¬ 
lus, and projecting still lower on the inner side 
is the inner malleolus, The upper part of the 
astragalus is mortised into a three-sided space, 
open in front and behind, bounded above by 
the smooth surface just mentioned, internally 
by the inner malleolus, and externally by the 
outer malleolus or lower extremity of the 
fibula. The ankle is, therefore, a true gingly- 
mus or hinge-joint allowing motion only in 
an antero-posterior direction. The fibula is a 
slender bone located on the outside of the leg, 
covered entirely by muscles except at its upper 
and lower extremities, articulating above and 
below with the tibia, and articulating with the 
astragalus as the outer malleolus. 

The foot is made up of a series of bones ar¬ 
ranged in three groups : tarsus, comprising 
astragalus, os calcis, scaphoid, three cunei¬ 
form bones, cuboid; metatarsus, made up of 
five metatarsal bones; and five digits, in each 
of which are found three phalangeal bones ex¬ 
cept in the series attached to the great toe, 
which contains only two. The foot bones are 
grouped into arches supporting the weight of 
the body at the ankle joint through the me¬ 
dium of the astragalus. On the outside of the 
foot is an arch reaching from the os calcis to 
the fifth metatarsal bone and including the 
cuboid. On the inside of the foot is another 
arch comprising the os calcis, astragalus, 
scaphoid, internal cuneiform, and first meta¬ 
tarsal bones. In the crown of these two 
arches, fitting in like a keystone, is found the 
larger part of the astragalus, transmitting the 
weight of the body to the underlying foot. A 
third arch or dome is formed from side to side 
in the region of the ball of the foot by the five 
metatarsal bones, while the foot and leg are 
bound together by a series of ligaments admit¬ 
ting of motion only in an antero-posterior 
direction, the more complicated motions ob¬ 
served in the foot take place by gliding joints 
located between the tarsal bones. 

The Muscular System. —The motive power by 
which the organism effects changes of position 
is furnished through the muscular system. 
Muscles are of two kinds: striped or voluntary, 
and unstriped or involuntary. For the anat¬ 
omy of each, see Histology. Involuntary mus¬ 
cle occurs in the digestive tube, bladder, 
uterus, and is considered under those organs. 
,We shall consider here those groups of striped 


Anatomy 


Anatomy 


muse. )y which voluntary motion is effected. 
Contri utility is the essential property of mus¬ 
cle fib ;r. It is further essential to muscular 
action that the muscle acting shall be attached 
with r iasonable firmness to the two or more 
points ncted upon. These two points are called 
Origin and Insertion , the former term denoting 
the po nt which, for the time, remains station¬ 
ary, the latter designating the point yielding 
to the pall. It should be noted, however, that 
all mu soles attached at both ends to bone may 
take th t : r base or origin from either extremity 
and pull toward the other end. Other muscles 
are attached at one end only to bone, the 
other jnd being attached to soft parts and 
invariably draw those parts toward the bone. 
Thus, ihe facial muscles draw the skin in va¬ 
rious directions toward the skull. Muscles at¬ 
tached at both ends to bone furnish in almost 
all cases the power operating levers of any of 
the three classes. It is therefore a requisite 
that there shall intervene between the origin 
and insertion of these muscles, a joint, which 
shall be the balance upon which the fulcrum 
and the moving bone or lever are enabled to 
adjust the difference between power and load. 
In many cases, muscles skip one bone and 
two joints on their way from origin to inser¬ 
tion, and their action becomes thus com¬ 
pounded with the action of other muscles, 
which serve to steady the intervening bone, 
and enable the muscle to subserve two entirely 
different groups of motions. As muscles ap¬ 
proach their terminal points, they become 
fibrous, the fibers grouping themselves into 
round cords or tendons, or flattening out into 
thin glistening sheets. We classify the mus¬ 
cles of the body broadly into a Dorsal and Ven¬ 
tral group, the former acting usually as ex¬ 
tensors, the latter as flexors, but the body 
has experienced so many changes in process 
of development, that this classification will 
hardly hold. Nor can we adopt any very lu¬ 
cid system of classification at present for the 
trunk and head muscles, so varied is their 
function. We therefore group and name 
these latter according to anatomical position 
as much as possible. In the extremities we 
distinguish the following groups of muscles: 
flexors, extensors, pronators (action illustrated 
by laying hand on table with palm down), su¬ 
pinators (palm up), adductors and abductors 
(drawing to or from the median line of the 
body), external and internal rotators (of arm 
and thigh). 

Following are the principal divisions of the 
muscular system of the human body : be¬ 
tween spine and upper limb, posteriorly; 
between ribs and upper limb, anteriorly; be¬ 
tween shoulder girdle and humerus; between 
shoulder, arm, and forearm (flexors and exten¬ 
sors); pronators and flexors of forearm, hand, 
and fingers (ulnar side); supinators and exten¬ 
sors of forearm, hand, and fingers (radial side); 
muscles of the palm of the hand; muscles of 
the thumb; muscles of the little finger; be¬ 
tween spine or pelvis, and femur; thigh to 
leg; thigh to leg or heel (flexors); leg to foot 
(flexor); leg to foot (abductors and extensors); 


dorsum of foot; plantar surface of foot; great 
and little toe muscles ; muscles of scalp; mus¬ 
cles of orbit and eye; muscles of expression, 
in addition to the muscles of mastication; 
muscles of the palate; muscles of the tongue; 
muscles of the pharynx and larynx; muscles 
of head, neck, and trunk (lateral to spine, 
posterior to spine); muscles of thorax (respira¬ 
tory); muscles of the abdomen (support, res¬ 
piration, draw thorax to either side or for¬ 
ward); and muscles of pelvic outlets. 

In connection with the muscular system we 
note a series of broad sheets of fibrous and 
connective tissue surrounding and separating 
the layers of muscles from one another, and 
defining the various regions of the body. 
These sheets of membrane become in many 
cases of vast importance to the surgeon, since 
within their meshes are contained usually the 
great nerves or blood-vessels of the body on the 
way from region to region; thus, the deep 
cervical fascia not only binds the muscles and 
other organs together, but passes with the 
trachea and oesophagus as well as the large 
vessels and nerves downward into the thorax 
and continues there to bind these structures 
to the heart, lungs, and pericardium. In 
many cases also the fascias, by virtue of their 
excessive thickness and firmness serve to sup¬ 
port the contour of the limbs. Again, we find 
the more superficial fascias giving off thick, 
fibrous sheets, which pass to the bone between 
the anterior and posterior muscles of the limb. 
Other fascias occur as membranes lying be¬ 
tween the parallel bones of arm and leg, and 
are there designated as interosseus membranes. 

Circulatory System. —The circulatory system 
consists of a double pump connected with a 
series of tubes, propelling and conveying blood 
(see Histology ), through the medium of which 
the tissues are nourished and oxygenated, and 
by which waste products are carried from the 
tissues to the excretory organs. Under Circu¬ 
latory System we consider Heart , Arteries , 
Veins, and Lymphatics. 

The Heart is a conical organ, located cen¬ 
trally in the thoracic cavity with the base 
directed upward and backward, the apex 
directed forward and to the left, and is sur¬ 
rounded by a serous sac called the pericardium 
within which it moves freely, except at the 
base where the sac is pierced by the aorta, 
venae cavse, and pulmonary vessels. Each 
half of the pump comprises a receiving cham¬ 
ber or auricle, and a propelling chamber or 
ventricle. These two pumps, pulmonary and 
systemic, are situated, the one on the right 
and the other on the left side of the heart; 
although in the development of the body the 
right side has come to lie more anteriorly. 
The right side of the heart receives venous or 
impure blood. This blood, received first into 
the auricle, is propelled through the tricuspid 
valves into the ventricle and passes thence 
through three pulmonary semilunar valves 
into the pulmonary artery and the lungs. 
Having become oxygenated in the lung, the 
pure blood is returned to the left auricle by 
pulmonary veins. A pair of mitral valves 


Anatomy 

directs the blood current into the left ventricle 
and prevents its return to the auricle. The 
thick, muscular walls of the left ventricle 
propel the blood still farther through three 
semilunar or aortic valves into the aorta. The 
muscle of which the heart is composed, while 
involuntary in its action, possesses many of the 
histological properties of striped muscle fiber, 
disclosing the striated appearance of the latter, 
but also showing an intricate system of com¬ 
munication between fiber and fiber never found 
in voluntary muscles. 

Arteries— In the middle coat of the arteries 
into which the blood is propelled by the heart, 
is found the homologue of the heart muscle 
existing as a series of circular unstriped muscle 
fibers. These fibers in all probability furnish 
the basis from which the heart muscle was 
developed, for while the fibers lack the stripes 
of voluntary muscles, they possess the intricate 
interlacing arrangement, and the elongated 
nuclei, of the heart muscle. We distinguish 
in the artery three coats or tunics; the internal 
coat, made up of a basement membrane sup¬ 
porting a layer of shining, flat, epithelial cells 
along which the blood current can glide smooth¬ 
ly; the middle coat, containing the circular 
muscle above mentioned; and the external 
coat, made up of interlacing fibers and con¬ 
nective tissue, passing gradually into the fas¬ 
cia usually found surrounding a blood-vessel. 
In the aorta are found very few of the muscle 
cells, but these are replaced by numerous fibers 
of yellow elastic tissue. 

Branching of Arteries. — The arterial blood, 
propelled through the ascending aorta, is car¬ 
ried to the aortic arch, situated at the root of 
the neck in front of the trachea and oesophagus. 
From the arch of the aorta are given off in 
order the innominate artery, dividing into 
right carotid and subclavian, and left carotid 
and subclavian vessels. The common carotid 
arteries take an upward course from the neck 
to the head, giving off no branches until they 
divide into external and internal carotids. The 
external carotid gives off many branches sup¬ 
plying the upper part of the neck and super¬ 
ficial portions of the head (superior thyroid, 
lingual, facial, occipital, temporal, and inter¬ 
nal maxillary); the internal carotid artery 
supplies the brain and orbit, givingoff cerebral 
and ophthalmic branches. The subclavian ar¬ 
tery ascends for a short distance into the neck 
behind the clavicle, arching over the first rib, 
and giving off a vertebral artery ascending 
into the skull to join the posterior branches of 
the internal carotid. Other branches of the 
subclavian pass to the neck and inner wall of 
the chest. The subclavian artery, passing into 
the region of the shoulder behind the clavicle, 
becomes the axillary space, or armpit, and 
the inner aspect of the arm. At the front of 
the elbow, the brachial artery divides into 
radial and ulnar, which pass down the outer 
and inner side of the front of the forearm. 
These two ar eries in the palm of the hand 
unite as superficial and deep palmar arches. 
The palmar arches furnish the most perfect 
examples of the interlacing and union of arte- 


Anatomy 

rial branches to be found in the body. By 
means of interlacing, the system is enabled to 
correct temporary inequalities in the circula¬ 
tion of any given part; for when through any 
cause, let us say, the radial artery is obstructed, 
the blood is enabled to reach the palmar arches 
by way of the ulnar channel. The arch of the 
aorta is continued downward along the front 
of the thoracic spine as the descending tho¬ 
racic aorta, giving off in this region the inter¬ 
costal arteries. Perforating the diaphragm, 
the thoracic becomes the abdominal aorta, and 
gives off the cceliac axis supplying the liver, 
stomach, spleen, and upper bowels; the infe¬ 
rior-mesenteric supplying the lower bowels; 
renal arteries supplying the kidneys; spermatic 
arteries supplying the ovaries or testicles, and 
certain small arteries supplying the muscles of 
the loin. Over the fourth lumbar vertebra the 
aorta divides into right and left common iliac 
arteries, supplying the lower extremities and 
the pelvic organs. Each common iliac divides 
presently into external and internal iliac 
branches; the latter passing deeply into the 
pelvis to supply the bladder, rectum, and struc¬ 
tures of the pelvic outlet, including the gluteal 
region, or buttock, and the sciatic nerve. The 
blood reaches the lower extremity through the 
external iliac vessel, entering the anterior as¬ 
pect of the thigh underneath Poupart’s liga¬ 
ment, at which point the iliac becomes the 
common femoral artery. A common femoral 
artery passing down the anterior aspect of the 
thigh, presently gives off a deep femoral artery 
to supply the deeper structures of this region. 
The superficial femoral, the main trunk, winds 
around the inner aspect of the thigh from 
front to back until it comes to lie behind the 
knee-joint. About two inches below the knee- 
joint this artery divides into anterior and pos¬ 
terior tibial arteries; the anterior tibial passing 
above the interosseus membrane and to the 
front of the leg and foot; the posterior tibial 
continuing down the posterior aspect of the 
leg, under the calf muscles, to a point behind 
the inner malleolus, where it enters the sole of 
the foot as the external and internal plantar 
arteries. 

Capillaries .—The arteries terminate in a 
fine network of blood-vessels, in which we 
find remaining only the internal coat of 
the artery, and, in some cases, only the 
epithelial portion of that coat. The blood, 
on reaching the capillaries, allows its liquid 
constituents and a few of the white corpuscles 
to escape through spaces between epithelial 
cells. These liquid constituents are presently- 
collected again, after parting with their nutri¬ 
ment and taking up waste products from the 
tissues, into lymphatic vessels, which are 
found as delicate networks and spaces 
throughout the body. At certain points in 
this lymphatic network are located lymphatic 
glands, which serve as strainers to prevent 
the re-entrance of poisonous or foreign ma¬ 
terial into the system; thus, in the groin, in 
the axillary space, in the neck, in the abdominal 
and thoracic cavities are located groups of 
these lymphatics, which are inconspicuous in 


Anatomy 


Anatomy 


health, but in disease become enlarged and 
inflamed in the effort to dispose of dangerous 
material. The larger portion of the lymphatic 
fluid, however, is collected into small chan¬ 
nels, of which the thoracic duct is the largest, 
and reaches the general circulation again 
through the veins of the neck. 

Veins. —The corpuscular elements of the 
blood do not leave the capillaries, but are 
collected into vessels of gradually increasing 
size known as veins. Veins differ from arter¬ 
ies in the thinness of their walls, in the pres¬ 
ence of valves, and in the fact that they carry 
blood in which the oxygen has been replaced by 
carbon-dioxide. The thinness of the veins is 
due to the fact that the middle coat, which 
in the artery contains circular, muscular, and 
elastic fibers, is almost entirely absent, so the 
vein lacks not only the property of contrac¬ 
tility found in the artery, but is so inelastic 
that its walls collapse immediately when 
emptied of blood. Veins follow the same 
course as arteries, and as a rule receive the 
same names. In the lower extremity, how¬ 
ever, we find two superficial veins. In the 
upper extremity the superficial veins are 
known as cephalic and basilic. It is from the 
latter vein that the blood is taken in the 
operation of blood-letting. Within the skull 
the venous blood is accumulated into great 
channels lying within the dura mater, and in 
the neck the large venous channels are known 
as external and internal jugular veins. The 
jugular and subclavian veins from either side 
of the body unite into right and left innomi¬ 
nate veins, which pour the blood into the 
descending vena cava. The blood from the 
lower part of the body is collected into the 
ascending vena cava. It is to be noted, how¬ 
ever, that the venous blood from the stomach 
and intestines, is collected into the large 
portal vein, and through this vein is carried 
a second time to capillaries located in the 
.iver, from which an hepatic vein carries it 
into the ascending vena cava. The course 
taken by the venous blood from the stomach, 
intestines, and liver to the vena cava is known 
as the Portal Circulation. 

Nervous System .—Within the bony arches, 
which, we have said, are thrown backward 
from the bodies of the vertebrae as well as from 
that cranio-facial axis of the skull which is sup¬ 
posed to correspond in some measure to the 
vertebral bodies, is a neural canal, so-called 
because it contains the larger portion of the 
central nervous system. We divide this system 
into two portions, the one contained within 
the neural canal, comprising the brain and 
spinal cord, and known as the cerebrospinal 
axis; the other made up of nerve fibers passing 
to and from this axis, lying external to the 
neural canal, and called peripheral nerves. In 
addition to these two sets of nerve structures, 
classed together as the cerebro-spinal nervous 
system, the body is served also by a group of 
nerves made up of conducting fibers, and cen¬ 
tral cells collected into ganglia at various 
points, and called the sympathetic nervous system. 
This latter system appears to control the purely 


vegetative functions of the body, such for in¬ 
stance as digestion, nutrition, elimination, 
etc. The cerebro-spinal system controls ac¬ 
tions of which the brain or the individual is 
cognizant. The functions in which the cen¬ 
tral nervous system takes part, may be divided 
into those (a) in which sensation and its modi- 
fications-are the essential features, represented 
by a series of fibers passing toward the central 
nervous system and known as afferent nerves; 
and (b) motor impulses, or their modifications, 
represented by a series of fibers passing from 
the central nervous system, known as efferent 
nerves. In addition to these peripheral trunks, 
made of white nerve fibers, or axis cylinders, 
many of which are contained not only in the 
peripheral nerves, but within the substance 
of the spinal cord, and pass upward as far as 
the gray matter of the brain, the nervous sys¬ 
tem contains many cells constituting the gray 
substance, distinctly central in their charac¬ 
ter, within which the impulses conveyed to 
and from the periphery are elaborated. These 
cells are the essential features of the central 
nervous system, and all fibers passing thereto, 
whether located in the brain, spinal cord, or 
in the properly so called peripheral nerves, 
are distinctly peripheral. See Histology. 

Peripheral Nerves. —Springing from the cen¬ 
tral nervous system and passing symmetrically 
to either side of the body, are forty-three 
pairs of peripheral nerves, some of which con- 
tain'purely afferent or sensory fibers, some con¬ 
tain efferent or motor fibers, and some are called 
mixed nerves because they contain both mo¬ 
tor and sensory tracts. There are forty-three 
of these paired nerve trunks, and it is sup¬ 
posed that they indicate, in some manner, an 
arrangement of the body into segments cor¬ 
responding, at least in the trunk, to each 
pair of supplying nerves. Thirty-one pairs 
spring from the spinal portion of the neural 
axis and are classed as spinal nerves; twelve 
pairs spring from the brain, and passing out 
through openings in the cranium are called 
cranial nerves. Of the twelve cranial nerves 
we note the following points; 1, Olfactory 
nerve, an efferent nerve supplying the spe¬ 
cial sense of smell, arising from the olfactory 
lobe of the brain, emerging from the skull 
through a series of small openings in the eth¬ 
moid (or sieve) bone, and distributing its fila¬ 
ments over the mucous membrane of the up¬ 
per part of the nose. 2, Optic nerve, a 
sensory nerve supplying the retina, or organ 
of vision, arising from the.optic thalamus on 
either side, crossing to the opposite side, in¬ 
terlacing with the fibers of the opposite nerve, 
and emerging from the cranial cavity through 
the optic foramen, enters the orbit and termi¬ 
nates in the back part of the eyeball. 3, Mo¬ 
tor oculi, or third nerve, a nerve of motion, 
arising from the inner side of the crus cere¬ 
bri, passing into the back part of the orbit to 
all the muscles of the eyeball except the ex¬ 
ternal rectus and superior oblique. 4, The 
Patheticus or trochlear nerve, arising from 
the base of the brain near the origin of the 
preceding nerve, and supplying the superior 


I 



Nerves of the Posterior Surface of the 
Power Extremities. 

i. Large Gluteal Muscle. 2. Small Gluteal Muscle. 3. Up¬ 
per Gluteal Muscle. 4. Lower Gluteal Muscle. 5. Square 
Crural Muscle (or Four-cornered Muscle of the Thigh). 
6. Sciatic Nerve. 7. External Popliteal Nerve. 8. Internal 
Popliteal Nerve. 9. Popliteal Artery. 10. Gastrocnemius 
Muscle. 11. Posterior Tibial Nerve. 12. Tendon Achilles. 
13. External Saphenous Nerve. 14. Os Calcis. 15. Inner 
Plantar Nerve. 16. Outer Plantar Nerve. 17. Nerves of the 
Toes. 



Nerves of the Forearm and Hand. 

Upper Side. 

1. Radial Nerve. 2. Radial Artery. 3. Median 
Nerve. 4. Ulnar Nerve. 5. Ulnar Artery. 6. Deep 
Palmar Arch. 7. Thenar Muscle. 8. Hypo-Thenar 
Muscle. 9 Cutaneous Nerves of Thumb. 10. Flexor 
Tendons of Fingers. 11. Cutaneous Nerves of Fingers 












































i 



FRONT VIEW OF THE CHEST. 


Divided perpendicularly. 

i. Lower Jaw. 2. Os-Hyoides. 3. First Rib. 4. Seventh Rib. 5. Cartilages of False 
Ribs. 6. Tenth Rib. 7. Larynx. 8. Trachea. 9. Branches of the Bronchus of the Left 
Lung. 10. Right Ventricle of the Heart. 11. Left Ventricle of the Heart. 12. Right 
Auricle. 13. Left Auricle of the Heart. 14. Pulmonary Artery. 15. Aorta. 16. Superior 
Vena Cava. 17. Left Lung, with its Branches of the Bronchus and Bloodvessels. 18. Pleura. 
19. Diaphragm or Midriff. 20. Liver. 21. Great Omentum. 22. Cervical Nerves. 




















THE ABDOMEN. 

After Removal of Integument and Omentum. 

i. Stomach. 2. Cardiac Orifice of Stomach. 3. Fundus of Stomach 4. Pyloric End of Stomach. 5. Duode- 
mini. 6. Right Lobe of Liver. 7. Left Lobe of Liver. 8. Gall-Bladder. 9. Common Bile Duct. 10. Spleen, ix. Small 
Intestine. 12. Transverse Colon of Intestine. 13. Descending Colon. 14. Sigmoid Flexure of Colon. 15. Urinafy 
Bladder. 16. Urethra, with Corpus Spongiosum. 17. Spermatic Cord and Testicle. 18. Seventh Rib. 19. Twelfth 
Rib 20. Crest of the Ilium. 21. Peritoneum, with the Ligaments of the Bladder. 22. Diaphragm. 23. Suspensory 
Ligament of the Liver. 24. Coeliac Axis. 25. Portal Vein. 26. Femoral Artery. 27. Femoral Vein. 28. Anterior 
Crural Nerve. 29. Superficial Nerve of the Thigh. 
























THE BRAIN 

Removed, from the Skull and cut through 
perpendicularly from right to left. 

i. Cortex Cerebri. 2. Brain-substance of the 
Large Hemispheres of the Brain. 3. Longitudinal 
Fissure. 4. Corpus Callosum. 5. Fornix. 6. Lat¬ 
eral Ventricle. 7. Optic Thalamus. 8. Third Ven¬ 
tricle. 9. Island of Reil. 10. Claustrum. 11. Teg¬ 
mentum. 12. Ammon’s Horn. 13. Pons. 



The Brain seen from below. (Base of the 
Brain.) 

1. Left Front-Lobe. 2. Right Front-Lobe. 3. Ol¬ 
factory Nerve. 4. Fissure of Sylvius 5 Right 
Middle-Lobe. 6. Hypophysis. 7 - Optic Nerve. 
8. Optic Chiasm. 9. Tuber Cinereum. 10. Fourth 
Nerve, n. Nerve of the Trochlear Muscle. 12. Fifth 
Nerve. 13. Sixth Nerve. 14. Facial Nerve, Audi¬ 
tory Nerve, Glosso-Pharyngeal and Vagus Nerve. 
15. Accessor}^ Nerve. 16. Hypo-Glossal Nerve. 
17. Pons. 18. Medulla Oblongata. 19. Left Half of 
Cerebellum. 20. Right Half of Cerebellum. 



Nerves of the Head and Neck that lie deep. 

1. Trochlear Nerve. 2. Third Nerve. 3. Ophthalmic Ganglion. 4. Gasserian Gang¬ 
lion. 5. First; 6. Second; 7. Third Branch of the Fifth Nerve. 8. Meckel’s Ganglion. 
9. Upper Back Tooth Nerve. 10. Nerve of the Lower Socket of the F)ye. it. Submaxil¬ 
lary Nerve with Nerves of Lower Teeth. 12. Lingual Nerve. 13. Buccinator Nerve. 
14. Submaxillary Gland. 15. Lower Jaw partly laid bare. 16. Vagus Nerve. 17. Facial 
Nerve. 18. Sympathetic Nerve. 19. Accessory'Nerve. 20. Third Cervical Nerve. 























Anatomy 


Anatomy 


oblique muscle of the eyeball. 5, A mixed 
nerve, dividing before emerging from the cra¬ 
nial cavity into three branches, hence called 
trifacial or trigeminal nerve. The upper branch 
supplies the region of the orbit and fore¬ 
head, the middle branch supplies the re¬ 
gion of the nose and the upper jaw and teeth, 
and the lower branch supplies the lower jaw 
and the teeth contained within it, also carry¬ 
ing the fibers of the gustatory nerve to the 
tongue. The lower branch also contains the 
only fibers of the fifth nerve which are motor 
in their function. 0, Abducens oculi, a 
nerve of motion, supplying the external rec¬ 
tus muscle of the eye. 7, Facial nerve, a 
motor nerve presiding over the muscles of the 
face, arises from the side of the medulla ob¬ 
longata near the fourth ventricle, becomes 
very intimately associated with the eighth 
nerve in the petrous portion of the temporal 
bone, and presently leaving that nerve, emerges 
on the face at the base of the temporal bone. 
On the face, this nerve divides within the sub¬ 
stance of the parotid gland into many branches, 
supplying the muscles of the ear, the muscles 
of the eyelid, of the nose, mouth, and a few of 
the muscles of the neck. 8, Auditory nerve, 
an afferent nerve carrying fibers from the ear, 
or auditory organ, arises from the medulla, 
and is distributed to the organ of hearing. 9, 
Glosso-pharyngeal, a mixed nerve containing 
sensory fibers (probably of taste) from the 
tongue, and carrying motor fibers (probably) 
to the pharynx.. These fibers originate in the 
medulla near the fourth ventricle, and pass 
out through the jugular foramen, together 
with the tenth and eleventh nerves, between 
the branches of the internal jugular vein. 
This nerve lies very deeply in the back part of 
the throat under cover of the parotid gland, 
and sends branches to the pharyngeal muscles 
and the posterior half of the tongue. 10, 
Pneumo-gastric nerve, or vagus, so called from 
its extensive distribution to the lungs, heart, 
and stomach; arises within the medulla, 
emerges from the cranial cavity with the 
ninth and eleventh nerve through the jugular 
foramen, passes very deeply into the neck, 
and lies closely associated with the carotid 
vessels. In the neck, it is probable that this 
nerve sends out a number of branches to the 
pharyngeal muscles. It sends branches also to 
the muscles of the larynx. Very slightly 
diminished in size, it passes from the neck 
into the chest, and there supplies numerous 
branches to the heart and root of the lung. 
The nerve then leaves the chest in company 
with the oesophagus and supplies branches to 
both sides of the stomach. It will thus be 
seen that this nerve supplies the pharynx, lar¬ 
ynx, trachea, lungs, heart, oesophagus, and 
stomach. 11, Spinal accessory nerve is a 
nerve containing many motor fibers, and 
(probably) a few sensory fibers. Portions of 
this nerve pass to the muscles of the pharynx 
by way of fibers which enter the pneumogas- 
tric nerve; the main trunk of the nerve passes 
backward in the neck to supply the trapezius 
and sterno-mastoid. 12, Hypoglossal nerve, 


a nerve of motion supplying the depressors 
and elevators of the hyoid bone, and many of 
the muscles of the tongue, arises in the me¬ 
dulla and emerges from the skull through the 
anterior condyloid foramen. This nerve has a 
somewhat superficial course in the neck, ly¬ 
ing at one point upon the external carotid ar¬ 
tery, and there dividing, sends one set of fibers 
to the depressors of the hyoid bone, and an¬ 
other set directly forward to the elevators of 
the hyoid bone and the muscles of the tongue. 

Spinal Nerves .—Springing from the side of 
the spinal cord are thirty-one pairs of nerves, 
of which we find eight in the cervical region, 
twelve in the thoracic, five in the lumbar, five 
in the sacral, and one in the coccygeal region. 
Each nerve springs from the cord by two roots, 
a posterior, made up of afferent fibers, and an 
anterior, carrying motor fibers. On the pos¬ 
terior root is found a ganglionic enlargement. 
The fibers from the two roots uniting, emerge 
through intervertebral foramina and divide ex¬ 
ternally to the spine into anterior and poste¬ 
rior divisions, each containing both motor and 
sensory fibers. The dorsal divisions of the 
spinal nerves are small, do not join one another 
into important plexuses, and their distribution 
is, in a great measure, limited to corresponding 
segments of the muscles of the back and overly¬ 
ing skin. The anterior divisions of the spinal 
nerves are large and important, especially 
in the cervical, lumbar, and sacral regions. 
In the thoracic region the anterior divisions of 
the spinal nerves pass forward between the 
ribs, preserving in a great measure the undis- 
guisedly segmental character of that region. 
In the other regions, however, the anterior 
nerves on emerging from the spinal column, 
blend immediately into great plexuses made 
up of interlacing fibers of the adjacent spinal 
nerves. We distinguish the following plexuses 
formed from the anterior primary divisions of 
spinal nerves: 1, a cervical plexus made up of 
the first four cervical nerves, and supplying 
the muscles and skin of the neck; 2, a brachial 
plexus made up of the anterior divisions of the 
lower four cervical nerves, and a large part of 
the first dorsal nerve. These nerves unite into 
three cords, which surround the axillary artery 
and presently divide into branches supplying 
the shoulder and upper extremity. They also 
supply the neck, superficial portions of the 
chest, the arm, and forearm. The muscles 
of the back of the arm are supplied by a great 
nerve which winds around the back of the 
humerus, presently emerging near the elbow 
on the interior and external portion of the 
forearm. The greater number of the muscles 
in the palm of the hand are supplied through 
the ulnar nerve, which, coursing down the 
inner side of the arm and forearm, supplies 
two of the forearm muscles with motion, and 
supplies sensation to the remainder of the 
palmer aspect of the hand. 3, The lumbar 
plexus is made up of the anterior division of 
the first four lumbar nerves, supplying motion 
and sensation to the muscles and skin of the 
abdomen and the anterior aspect of the thigh. 
4, Sacral plexus is made up of portions of the 


Anatomy 


Anatomy 


fourth and fifth lumbar nerves, and the first, 
second, and third, with a portion of the fourth 
sacral nerves. This plexus supplies motion 
and sensation to the pelvic outlet, to the pos¬ 
terior aspect of the thigh, to the buttock, and 
to the leg and foot with the exception of that 
portion of the skin which is supplied with sen¬ 
sation through the internal saphenous nerve. 

Sympathetic Nervous System .—The sympa¬ 
thetic system comprises two gangliated cords 
lying on either side of the vertebral column 
throughout the trunk. In the thoracic region 
there are twelve ganglia on each side; in the 
cervical region there are but three; in the 
lumbar and sacral regions there are eight or 
nine, and the system terminates in a median 
ganglion located on the front of the coccyx. 
These ganglia are connected with one another 
by communicating fibers and are also con¬ 
nected with the anterior divisions of the 
spinal nerves. In addition to the function of 
visceral control already mentioned, this sys¬ 
tem governs the blood-vessels by means of 
vaso-motor fibers, and sends other fibers also 
to the heart (increasing usually the pulsations 
of this organ), so that the sympathetic nerv¬ 
ous system may be considered to regulate the 
action of the unstriped muscle fiber through¬ 
out the body, as well as the action of glan¬ 
dular organs. In addition to what may be 
called the central portion of the sympathetic 
nervous system, networks of communicating- 
fibers surround all the large blood-vessels, 
governing their action and communicating 
with the cerebro-spinal nerves located in the 
vicinity. Branches from the three cervical 
ganglia surround the carotid artery and de¬ 
scend as cardiac branches into the thorax to 
the heart, apparently exercising an action an¬ 
tagonistic to the cardiac branches of the pneu- 
mogastric nerve. From the thoracic portion 
of the sympathetic system, branches pass 
downward through the diaphragm into the 
abdomen. These nerves communicate with a 
solar or epigastric plexus resting upon the ab¬ 
dominal aorta, and govern the action of the 
digestive system. Fibers radiate from the 
semilunar ganglia and solar plexus in the di¬ 
rection of plexuses located on the various ab¬ 
dominal organs; thus we find diaphragmatic, 
supra-renal, renal, coeliac, hepatic, coronary, 
splenic, mesenteric, spermatic, ovarian, hem¬ 
orrhoidal, vesical, prostatic, cavernous, vaginal, 
and uterine plexuses, governing the nutrition, 
blood supply, and vegetative life of the va¬ 
rious organs. In addition to these ganglia 
found in the sympathetic cord, and to be con¬ 
sidered as belonging exclusively to that sys¬ 
tem, there are a number of enlargements 
found on the spinal and cranial nerves, which 
contain gray cells and appear to be capable of 
functioning up to a certain point, as a part of 
the central nervous system — probably gov¬ 
erning local reflex actions. Into some of these 
ganglia we find three kinds of nerve fibers 
passing, motor, sensory, and sympathetic, 
from adjacent trunks. The cerebro-spinal 
axis is made up of the brain and spinal cord 
enclosed within three membranes, dura mater , 


arachnoid , and pia mater. Of these mem¬ 
branes, the dura mater, tough and fibrous, is 
the most superficial and separates the nervous 
axis from the overlying bone. At certain 
points within the skull the dura mater is re¬ 
flected away from the bone and comes to lie 
between portions of the brain. The dura 
mater of the cranium is adherent to the skull 
and serves as the periosteum; in the spinal 
canal, however, the dura mater takes only an 
occasional attachment to adjacent vertebra? 
by way of support. Beneath the dura mater is 
found the second membrane, or arachnoid 
mater, from which is secreted the watery 
cerebro-spinal fluid found on penetrating the 
dura mater. Beneath the arachnoid is found 
the third covering of the cerebro-spinal axis, 
the pia mater, which supports the blood-ves¬ 
sels supplying the brain and cord, and consists 
of a very delicate network of white fibrous 
tissue from which the vessels pass into the 
nerve tissue. At certain points where ventri¬ 
cles or cavities exist in the cerebral structure, 
the pia mater becomes fringed. 

Spinal Cord.— The spinal cord is that portion 
of the cerebro-spinal axis lying within the 
spinal column, but is continuous into that 
portion of the brain called medulla oblongata 
without any line of separation. From its 
commencement at the foramen magnum to 
its termination near the first lumbar vertebra, 
it is about seventeen inches in length, and 
terminates in a bundle of nerve fibers, which 
pass to the lower end of the sacrum within 
the spinal canal. The human spinal cord is 
about eight millimeters in diameter, but there 
are enlargements in the cervical and lumbar 
regions corresponding to the points at which 
the brachial and lumbar plexuses are given off. 
The cord is traversed from one end to the 
other by two deeper fissures, anterior and 
posterior median, which lie in the median 
line of the cord in an antero-posterior plane. 
The substance of the cord comprises gray and 
white nerve matter. The gray substance is 
composed largely of nerve cells lying in the 
interior, and having roughly the appearance 
of the letter II; the white substance, made up 
entirely of conducting fibers running in a 
direction parallel to the long axis and filling in 
the contour of the cord, is poured in, as it 
were, around the outside of the H, or gray 
substance. Between the two lateral halves of 
the cord, at a point where the anterior and 
posterior median fissures do not meet, are 
found two series of transverse fibers called 
commissures, connecting the lateral halves of 
the gray and white substance respectively. 
Microscopical and experimental investigation 
has shown that the white substance, appar¬ 
ently homogeneous, is made up of definitely 
grouped collections or columns of nerve fibers 
passing upward to the brain from the per¬ 
iphery, or downward to the periphery from the 
brain. Investigation also shows that the gray 
substance is made up largely of tracts and 
groups of nerve cells controlling certain auto¬ 
matic functions of the body which are not 
directly dependent on cerebral control. 


Anatomy 

The brain comprises that portion of the 
nervous system contained within the cranial 
cavity, with the exception of such portions of 
the twelve cranial nerves as lie between the 
brain and their foramina of exit. The human 
brain is larger and heavier, not only in pro¬ 
portion to the weight of the body, but in 
actual mass, than that of any other animal 
except the elephant and some of the whales. 
The average male European brain weighs 
about 50 oz., that of the female about 45 oz. 
Since the height and weight of the average 
woman is about eight per cent, less than that 
of the average man, it appears to be a fact 
that the average female is possessed of a 
smaller brain capacity than the average man. 
In the infant at birth the brain weighs about 
10 oz. and continues to increase in size until 
about the eighth year. The weight, however, 
increases until middle life. The largest brain 
is said to have been that of Cuvier, about 64 
oz. The smallest brain of an intelligent indi¬ 
vidual weighs about 35 oz. Among idiots, 
however, brains have been found with a weight 
as low as oz., and, on the other hand, the 
brain of an idiot has been observed to weigh 
as much as 60 oz. Among the lower races of 
mankind, the average weight is distinctly 
lower, ranging in males from 45 to 42 oz. It 
may be remarked in passing that the weight 
of the brain of the gorilla is about 30 oz. 
The brain is composed of the Cei'ebrum , Cere¬ 
bellum, Pons Varolii , and Medulla Oblongata. 

The Medulla Oblongata is that portion of 
the brain lying most interiorly, continuous at 
the foramen magnum with the spinal cord and 
joined above with the cerebellum and cerebrum 
by fibers contained in the inferior crura cere- 
belli and pons varolii. It is pyramidal in shape, 
about an inch long, and rests upon the basilar 
process of the occipital bone. It is in reality 
simply the expanded upper portion of the 
spinal cord, but containing more numerous 
and more important centers and groups of 
nerve cells than are contained in the cord 
proper; thus, many of the motor and sensory 
cranial nerves have their points of origin 
buried deeply in the substance of the medulla. 
The centers governing respiration, the action 
of the heart and blood-vessels, and many of the 
functions of digestion, secretion, and nutrition, 
are found in the medulla. The intimate struc¬ 
ture of the medulla is composed of a series of 
white columns, continuous with the columns of 
the cord below, and with the pons varolii and 
peduncles of the cerebellum above. In the me¬ 
dian line anteriorly are found sets of fibers pass¬ 
ing from one side to the other in what is known 
as the pyramid. Posteriorly, ascending fibers 
pass upward from what is known as the resti- 
form body, and, diverging to enclose the 
fourth ventricle, terminate in the cerebellum, 
constituting the inferior peduncles of that 
body. The point at which these fibers diverge 
is called the Calamus Scriptorius. In the lat¬ 
eral portion of the medulla are found white 
fibers in a lateral tract, continuous with the 
same tract of the cord, and an olivary body 
consisting of an oval mass of white fiber en- 


Anatomy 

closing gray nerve cells. Other bundles of 
fibers continuous with corresponding bundles 
in the cord pass upward into the substance of the 
medulla; bound together by these bundles are 
the groups of nerve centers above mentioned, 
represented by gray nuclei. The H shaped ar¬ 
rangement of the gray matter in the cord is 
lost in the medulla, and gives place to gray 
nuclei located here and there among the white 
bundles. 

Pons Varolii. — Above and interior to the 
medulla oblongata is the pons Varolii, made 
up almost entirely of white connecting fibers 
passing between various divisions of the brain. 
The pons is further situated between and an¬ 
terior to the lobes of the cerebellum, with 
which it is connected by the middle peduncles 
of that structure. Within the pons are found 
alternating layers of transverse and longi¬ 
tudinal white fibers, the transverse fibers being 
continuous with the middle peduncle of the 
cerebellum, the longitudinal fibers are com¬ 
municating tracts from the medulla, passing 
upward into the crura cerebri. 

The Cerebellum is that portion of the brain 
which lies posteriorly to medulla and pons, 
and below the posterior lobes of the cerebrum 
in the inferior occipital fossa?. Separating the 
cerebrum from the cerebellum is the tentorium 
cerebelli,' and between the two cerebellar lobes 
is located the falx cerebelli. The cerebellum 
weighs about one eighth as much as the cere¬ 
brum, but is larger in proportion in infants and 
the lower animals. The white matter of the 
cerebellum is located internally, the gray mat¬ 
ter externally. The convolutions are very 
numerous and lie in narrow, transverse folds, 
separated by numerous deep fissures placed 
very closely together, and appear to possess 
very little of the distinctive character of the 
fissures and convolutions of the cerebral hemi¬ 
spheres. The cerebellum is divided into three 
large lobes, a middle and two lateral, the 
middle lobe being called the worm or vermis, 
and the two lateral lobes the hemispheres. 
These lobes cannot be separated from one 
another, so that the cerebellum may be de¬ 
scribed as two large lobes connected per¬ 
pendicularly by a smaller median ridge, the 
ridge constituting the middle lobe or vermis. 
A median section of the cerebellum discloses 
the great depth of the cerebellar fissures. The 
surface of the fissures is composed entirely of 
gray matter, and running toward this from 
the interior of the cerebellum is the white 
substance, arranged in a branching manner 
and called therefore Arbor Vitae. The fourth 
ventricle is a lozenge-shaped cavity located 
between the medulla and pons anteriorly, and 
the cerebellum posteriorly. The floor or an¬ 
terior aspect of this ventricle is diamond 
shaped, formed by the posterior aspect of the 
medulla and pons. It is continuous below 
with the central canal of the spinal cord; above, 
it is continuous with the ventricles of the 
brain through the Sylvian aqueduct. The 
fourth ventricle is closed laterally by the points 
of contact between medulla, pons, and cere¬ 
bellum. Within the fourth ventricle are 


Anatomy 


Anatomy 


located the gray nuclei before mentioned, of 
I he fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, fenth, 
and eleventh cranial nerves. Somewhat below 
the fourth ventricle is found the nucleus for 
the twelfth nerve, and somewhat above the 
ventricle, in the floor of the aqueduct of 
Sylvius, are found the nuclei for the third and 
fourth nerves. 

The Cerebrum is the largest portion of the 
brain, is supported in the anterior and middle 
fossae of the skull, rests posteriorly on the 
tentorium cerebelli, and is covered above by 
the dome of the cranium. It is divided into 
lateral and symmetrical hemispheres, partly 
separated by the falx cerebri lying in the 
great longitudinal fissure, and joined more 
deeply by a great commissure or bridge pass¬ 
ing across the median line, known as Corpus 
Callosum. The outer surface, composed en¬ 
tirely of gray matter, or cortex, is arranged 
into lobes and convolutions separated by fis¬ 
sures. The cortical layer, seen also in the 
ventricles, is composed of alternate strata of 
gray and white matter, the entire layer being 
about one-sixth of an inch thick. The true 
interior of the cerebrum is composed of white 
matter. Before describing the interior struc¬ 
ture it is important to note the larger of the 
lobes and fissures. There are five great lobes, 
separated by fissures varying from half an 
inch to one inch in depth. The most impor¬ 
tant of the fissures are: Sylvian, running up¬ 
ward and outward along the outside of each 
hemisphere; the fissure of Rolando, commenc¬ 
ing at a point a little behind and above the 
point of junction of the ascending and hori¬ 
zontal limbs of the fissure of Sylvius, and ex¬ 
tending upward and backward to a point 
somewhat behind the parietal eminence; the 
parieto-occipital fissure, found still farther 
back. The five lobes of the cerebrum are as 
follows: frontal lobe, lying in front of the 
ascending limb of the fissure of Sylvius; pari¬ 
etal lobe, lying between the fissure of Rolando, 
the parieto-occipital fissure, and the horizontal 
part of the fissure of Sylvius; occipital lobe, 
constituting the posterior extremity of the 
hemispere, and separated from the parietal 
lobe by the parieto-occipital fissure; temporo- 
sphenoidal lobe, in the middle fossa of the 
skull below and behind the horizontal limb of 
the fissure of Sylvius; central lobe, or Island 
of Reil, on the outer surface of the cerebrum, 
and not visible upon the convex surface. The 
lobes are divided into many convolutions and 
gyri by secondary fissures running into those 
already mentioned. The importance of a study 
of the convolutions is becoming increasingly 
obvious, for experimental science has demon¬ 
strated beyond question that the gray matter 
found in each convolution presides over some 
definite function or portion of the body; thus 
it is a fact not to be questioned, that certain 
convolutions in the frontal lobes control the 
function of speech, certain others control the 
motions of the head and extremities on the 
opposite side of the body. The lateral ventri¬ 
cles are lined by a thin serous membrane and 
contain a small amount of cerebro-spinal fluid. 


They are separated in the median line from 
one another by a thin partition, and each ven¬ 
tricle is divided into a body, and anterior, 
posterior, and middle cornua. Below the cor¬ 
pus callosum is a mass of white matter made 
up of longitudinal commissural fibers diverg¬ 
ing in front and behind to form anterior and 
posterior pillars. Behind the anterior pillars 
of the fornix and below the body, is the fora¬ 
men of Monro, connecting each lateral ventri¬ 
cle with the anterior part of the third ventricle. 
Passing through this foramen into the third 
ventricle and extending into either lateral 
ventricle, lying in what is known as the great 
transverse fissure of Bichat, is the velum in- 
terpositum, a process of pia mater from which 
originate the choroid plexuses of the third 
and lateral ventricles. The posterior boun¬ 
dary of the foramen of Monro is the optic 
thalami, two masses composed externally of 
white and internally of gray matter. The 
thalami form also the lateral boundaries of the 
third ventricle. The floor of the third ventri¬ 
cle is formed by the lamina cinerea, infundi¬ 
bulum, corpora albicantia, and posterior per¬ 
forated space. Crossing the third ventricle 
are three sets of transverse fibers, commissures. 
joining the optic thalami. Directly behind 
the third ventricle, and in the Sylvian aque¬ 
duct, is the pineal gland, a small reddish body 
about the size of a split pea and containing a 
clear albuminous liquid and minute phos- 
phatic calculi called brain sand. Above the 
Sylvian aqueduct and forming its roof are 
four bodies, ranged in pairs, known as corpora 
quadrigemina , masses of gray matter with a 
thin covering of white fibers. Resting against 
the back part of each thalamus and external 
to the corpora quadrigemina, are the genicu¬ 
late bodies, two small masses of nerve tissue, 
called external and internal, and separated 
from each other by a portion of the optic 
tract. Especial attention should be directed 
to the fact that the cavities of the brain and 
spinal cord are directly continuous; thus, we 
may trace the central canal of the cord into 
the fourth ventricle, into the Sylvian aqueduct 
and third ventricle, and thence through the 
foramen of Monro into the lateral ventricles. 
This continuity arises from the method by 
which the nervous system is developed, a 
central nerve tube running from a very early 
period throughout the entire length of the 
body, around which presently appear enlarge¬ 
ments of nerve tissue corresponding to the 
various anatomical divisions of the adult 
brain. The lateral ventricles of the cerebral 
hemispheres are pushed forward And outward 
from each side of the anterior extremity of 
the central tube. 

Organs of Special Sense comprise: the Nose, 
or organ of smell, containing terminal fibers 
of the first or olfactory nerve; the Eye , or 
organ of sight, supplied by the second or optic 
nerve; the Tongue, or organ of taste, supplied 
by the gustatory branch of the fifth nerve, and 
the lingual branch of the glosso-pharyngeal 
nerve; and the Ear, or organ of hearing, sup¬ 
plied by the eighth or auditory nerve. In ad- 


Anatomy 

dition to these nerves of special sense, localized 
in their distribution, the skin is supplied with 
tactile corpuscles, very largely distributed, 
and presiding over the sense of touch. It is 
probable that the nerves of smell, hearing, 
sight, and taste are merely highly specialized 
modifications of the nerves of touch. 

The organ of smell is contained within the 
nose, and is found in the Schneiderian (mucous) 
membrane covering the bones and cartilages 
of the nasal fosses. The openings of the nose 
are the nares, anterior on the face, and pos¬ 
terior into the pharynx. Dividing the nose 
into two more or less equal and parallel fossae, 
is a median osseo-cartilaginous septum extend¬ 
ing in an antero-posterior plane. Into either 
fossa project from the lateral aspect the three 
turbinal bones, twisted like scrolls and covered 
by the Schneiderian membrane. Upon the 
walls of the superior meatus only, are found 
the terminal filaments of the olfactory nerve, 
thus explaining why it is necessary to inhale 
deeply into the nose before the sense of smell 
can be excited by delicate odors. Opening 
into the nose are the lachrymal canal from the 
orbid, and the apertures of the frontal, eth¬ 
moidal, sphenoidal, and maxillary sinuses. 

The Eye is the organ of sight, and with its 
appendages is located within and in front of 
the orbit. The appendages include the eye¬ 
brows, two projecting lids, and the lachrymal 
apparatus. Opening on the inner aspect of 
each lid are lachrymal ducts, conveying the 
tears from a lachrymal gland, located in the 
upper and outer segment of the orbit above 
the upper lid. The tears, after moistening the 
eye, are carried into a lachrymal sac beneath 
the inner angle of the lids, by means of two 
lachrymal canals commencing on the inner 
extremity of each tarsal cartilage. From the 
lachrymal sac, the tears fall into the inferior 
meatus of the nose through the nasal duct. 
The eyeball lies within the orbital fat and is 
about one inch in diameter in the transverse 
plane, somewhat less in the sagittal plane. It 
is spherical in shape, but the anterior one 
sixth of the surface is interrupted by a seg¬ 
ment of a smaller sphere introduced to form 
the clear cornea, projecting somewhat beyond 
the circumference of the posterior larger 
sphere, the latter being bounded by the tough 
opaque, and fibrous sclerotic. Entering the 
eyeball posteriorly is the optic nerve, and ro¬ 
tating it freely upon its cushion of fat are the 
six ocular muscles, four recti and two oblique. 
On penetrating the cornea, a clear aqueous 
humor gushes from that part of the eyeball in 
front of the crystalline lens. This space is 
partially divided into a large anterior and a 
small posterior chamber by the iris; the pupil, 
or circular opening in the iris, allowing the 
aqueous humor to circulate in both chambers. 
The iris is that membrane which gives the eye 
its color and is composed of circular and radi¬ 
ating muscular (unstriped) fibers, bounding 
the pupil and inserted circumferentially into 
the junction of cornea and sclerotic. The 
choroid is of a deep brownish color, contains 
many pigment cells, and furnishes the blood- 


Anatomy 

vessels supplying the eyeball. Hung behind 
the iris, by means of a suspensory ligament 
attaching to the ciliary processes, is the crys¬ 
talline lens enclosed in a transparent capsule. 
The lens is biconvex, one third of an inch in 
diameter, one fifth of an inch thick antero- 
posteriorly, and is composed of concentric and 
hard but transparent laminae. With its sus¬ 
pensory ligament it separates the aqueous 
from the vitreous humor. The vitreous hu¬ 
mor is a clear, gelatinous fluid filling the 
larger sphere of the eyeball, and is contained 
in a thin, transparent, hyaloid membrane by 
which it is separated from the retina. The 
retina is the expanded and differentiated ter¬ 
mination of the optic nerve, and lies between 
the choroid and vitreous. It is very scantily 
pigmented, but at certain thin points, the dark 
choroid may be seen behind it. Posteriorly, 
the optic nerve enters it, and anteriorly it ter¬ 
minates at the outer edge of the ciliary proc¬ 
esses. At the point of entrance of the optic 
nerve there are no terminal elements, hence 
the “blind spot.” The retina presents a yel¬ 
low spot a little external to the entrance of the 
nerve, at which point vision is held to be most 
acute. The intimate nervous structure of the 
retina is made of a series of terminal fibers 
called rods and cones, arranged in ten layers, 
in which are also found pigment cells and lim¬ 
iting membranes. The rods and cones lie in a 
radial direction, and it is a curious fact that 
their terminal elements are found in contact, 
not with the vitreous humor, but with the 
choroid, and are turned away from the point 
of most immediate contact with the impinging 
visual ray. 

The Ear is divided into external, middle, 
and internal ear. The external ear is com¬ 
posed of the convoluted portion seen ex¬ 
ternally, and the external auditory canal, 
terminating at a depth of one and a quarter 
inches in the drum membrane. The middle 
ear, or tympanum, is a cavity in the petrous 
part of the temporal bone about one sixth of 
an inch wide, containing the ear bones; it is 
closed externally by the drum membrane, in¬ 
ternally by the wall of the internal ear, and 
opens by a JEustachian tube passing down¬ 
ward, forward, and inward for one-and-a-half 
inches into the naso-pharnyx. The tympanum 
is filled with air, and by means of a chain of 
three small bones, called malleus, incus, and 
stapes, articulating with one another and con¬ 
necting the drum membrane with the internal 
ear, sound waves are transmitted from the outer 
world to the end filaments of the auditory 
nerve. Opening posteriorly into the middle 
ear and serving probably as a sounding board, 
are the mastoid cells contained within the 
mastoid portion of the temporal bone. Dis¬ 
charges retained in the middle ear by closure 
of the Eustachian tube cause abcesses, which, 
through lack of opportunity to discharge, often 
spread to the mastoid cells and cause the well- 
known mastoid abcesses. These latter are 
occasionally fatal, because the cells are sepa¬ 
rated by but a thin layer of bone from the 
brain. The essential part of the organ of 


Anaxagoras 


Anchor 


hearing, and the only portion existing in many 
lower animals, is the internal ear or labyrinth. 
This is made up of a series of cavities lying 
within the petrous part of the temporal bone 
and called the bony labyrinth. Within this 
bony shell is contained the auditory nerve dis¬ 
tributed on the membranous labyrinth, and 
bathed in the clear endolymph filling the 
cavity of the labyrinth. The bony labyrinth 
consists of a vestibule opening into the tym¬ 
panum by a fenestra ovalis, which is closed by 
a part of the stapes (ossicle). Piercing the 
inner wall of the vestibule from the internal 
auditory meatus are several small openings for 
the fibers of the auditory nerve; in the ante¬ 
rior wall is an opening into the cochlea; and in 
the posterior wall are the five openings of the 
semicircular canals. The semicircular canals 
are three in number (superior, posterior, and 
external), lying in transverse, sagittal, and hori¬ 
zontal planes. They contain a part of the 
membranous labyrinth, within which are 
found a few small grains of chalky material 
(otoliths) moving in the endolymph. The 
cochlea resembles a small shell, and is a canal 
coiled spirally two-and-a-half times around a 
columella or central piece; the canal is divided 
into two compartments, partly by a bony shelf 
and by a membrane. The semicircular canals 
contain that portion of the auditory organ de¬ 
voted to equilibration, the organ of Corti prob¬ 
ably presides over sensations more strictly 
produced by sounds. 

The Tongue or organ of taste is supplied with 
special sense through branches of the glosso¬ 
pharyngeal nerve distributed to the base of 
that organ. The so-called gustatory or lingual 
branch of the fifth nerve is distributed to the 
anterior two thirds of the tongue, and is said 
to be merely a nerve of common sensation. 
Located upon the dorsum or upper surface are 
numerous elevations or papillte, arranged in 
rows running from the median line obliquely 
outward and forward. The largest of these, 
lying most posteriorly, and eight or ten in 
number, contain the taste buds or terminal 
modifications of the ninth nerve. Farther for¬ 
ward are more numerous and smaller fungi¬ 
form papillae, and scattered in among these 
are the conical (or smallest) papillae. Mucous 
and serous glands furnish the moisture neces¬ 
sary to bring food substance in contact with 
the taste buds. 

The organs of touch will be described with 
the skin. See Histology. 

For minute or textural anatomy, see His¬ 
tology. 

For developmental anatomy, see Embryology. 

Anaxagoras (500-428 b. c.), an ancient 
Greek philosopher of the Ionic school, born at 
Clazomenae, in Ionia, gathered around him a 
circle of renowned pupils, including Pericles, 
Euripides, Socrates, etc. At the age of fifty he 
was publicly charged with impiety and sen¬ 
tenced to perpetual banishment. He went to 
Sampsacus, where he died. He held that 
there was an infinite number of different kinds 


of elementary atoms, and that these, in them¬ 
selves motionless and originally existing in a 
state of chaos, were put in motion by an inter¬ 
nal, immaterial, spiritual, elementary being, 
Nous (Intelligence), from which motion the 
world was produced. The stars were, accord¬ 
ing to him, of earthy materials; the sun a 
glowing mass, about as large as the Pelopon¬ 
nesus; the earth was flat; the moon a dark, 
inhabitable body, receiving its light from the 
sun, the comets wandering stars. 

Anaximan'der (611-547 b. c.), an ancient 
Greek (Ionic) philosopher, was born at Mile¬ 
tus. The fundamental principle of his phi¬ 
losophy is that the source of all things is an 
undefined substance infinite in quantity. 
The firmament is composed of heat and cold, 
the stars of air and fire. The sun occupies 
the highest place in the heavens, has a cir¬ 
cumference twenty-eight times larger than 
the earth, and resembles a cylinder, from 
which streams of fire issue. The moon is 
likewise a cylinder, nineteen times larger than 
the earth. The earth has the shape of a cylin¬ 
der, and is placed in the midst of the universe, 
where it remains suspended. To him is cred¬ 
ited the invention of geographical maps and 
the first application of the style fixed on a 
horizontal plane to determine the solstices and 
equinoxes. 

Anaximiraes (an-aks-im'e-nez) of Miletus, an 
ancient Greek philosopher, according to whom 
air was the first principle of all things. Fi¬ 
nite things were formed from the infinite air 
by compression and rarefaction produced by 
eternally existent motion; and heat and cold 
resulted from varying degrees of density of 
the primal element. He flourished about 550 

B. C. 

Ancachs (an-kach'), a dep. of Peru, be¬ 
tween the Andes and the Pacific. Area 18,000 
sq. mi; pop. 284,000. 

Anchises (an-ki'sez), the father of the Tro¬ 
jan hero HCneas, who carried him off on his 
shoulders at the burning of Troy and made 
him the companion of his voyage to Italy. 
He died during the voyage at Drepanum, in 
Sicily. 

Anchor, in Navigation, a crook or hook, an 
instrument of iron or other heavy material 
used for holding ships in any situation in 
which they may be required to lie, and pre¬ 
venting them from drifting by the winds or 
tides, by the currents of rivers, or any other 
cause. This is done by the anchor, after it is 
let down from the ship by means of the cable, 
fixing itself into the ground, and there hold¬ 
ing the vessel fast. The anchor is thus obvi¬ 
ously an implement of the first importance in 
navigation, and one on which too much at¬ 
tention cannot be bestowed in its manufac¬ 
ture and proper construction, seeing that on 
it depends the safety of the vessel in storms. 
The invention of so necessary an instrument 
is to be referred, as may be supposed, to the 
remotest antiquity. The most ancient an¬ 
chors consisted merely of large stones, baskets 
full of stones, sacks filled with sand, or logs 
of wood loaded with lead. 


Anchovy 

Up to the commencement of the present 
century what was termed the “old-plan long- 
shanked” anchor seems to have been gen¬ 
erally used. It was made of wrought iron, 
but the appliances of the anchor smith were 
so crude that little dependence could be 
placed upon it. 

The size of anchors for various ships has 
been determined by practise, but is based 
upon the theory that as the anchor is required 
to withstand the force brought upon the ship 
by the wind and tide, which would otherwise 
cause her to drift, its strength must be nearly 
proportional to her resistance. 

A large ironclad carries 8 anchors — 2 bow, 
2 sheet, 1 stream, 1 stern, and 2 hedge. 

Mooring anchors are those wdiich are placed 
in harbors, etc., for the convenience of vessels 
frequenting them. A large buoy is attached 
to the end of the mooring cable, and the ship 
is made fast to a ring-bolt fitted on the buoy. 
Mooring anchors are not limited by consider¬ 
ations of weight, etc., as other anchors are, 
the only requirements being that they have 
sufficient holding power, and do not project 
above the ground, as any projection in the 
shallow waters in which they are usually 
placed would render ships liable to injury 
from grounding on them, and be dangerous to 
tishing-nets, etc. 

Anchovy (an-cho'vi), a small fish of the 
Herring family, all the species, with exception 
of the common anchovy,inhabitants of the trop¬ 
ical seas of India and America. The common 



Anchovy. 


anchovy, so esteemed for its rich and peculiar 
flavor, is not larger than .the middle finger. It 
is caught in vast numbers in the Mediterranean, 
and frequently on the coasts of France, Hol¬ 
land, and the south of England, and pickled 
for exportation. 

Ancho'vy=pear, a tree of the natural order 
Myrtaceae, a native of Jamaica, growing to the 
height of 50 feet, with large leaves and large 
white flowers, and bearing a fruit somewhat 
bigger than a hen’s egg, which is pickled and 
eaten like the mango, which it strongly resem¬ 
bles in taste. 

Anco' na, a seaport of Italy, capital of the 
province of the same name, 130 mi. n. e. of 
Rome, with harbor works begun by Trajan, 
who built the ancient mole or quay. A 
triumphal arch of white marble, erected in 
honor of Trajan, stands on the mole. An¬ 
cona is a station of the Italian fleet, and the 


Andersen 

commerce is increasing. There is a colossal 
statue of Count Cavour. Ancona is said to 
have been founded about four centuries b. c., 
by Syracusan refugees. It fell into the hands 
of the Romans in the first half of the third 
century b. c., and became a Roman colony. 
Pop. 59,573. The province has an area of 762 
sq. mi., and a population of 277,861. 

Andalusia, a large and fertile district in 
the south of Spain; area about 33,650 sq. mi., 
including the modern provinces of Seville, 
Huelva, Cadiz, Jaen, Cordova, Granada, Ai- 
meria, and Malaga. It is traversed by moun¬ 
tains, the loftiest being the Sierra Nevada. 
Minerals abound, especially in the province of 
Huelva, where the Tharsis and Rio Tinto cop¬ 
per-mines are situated. The principal river 
is the Guadalquivir. The vine, myrtle, olive, 
palm, banana, carob, etc., grow abundantly in 
the valley of the Guadalquivir. Wheat, maize, 
barley, and many varieties of fruit grow al¬ 
most spontaneously; besides which, honey, 
silk, and cochineal form important articles of 
culture. The horses and mules are the best in 
the Peninsula; the bulls are sought for bull¬ 
fighting over all Spain; sheep are reared in 
vast numbers. Agriculture is in a backward 
state, and the manufactures are by no means 
extensive. The Andalusians are descended in 
part from the Moors, of whom they still pre¬ 
serve decided characteristics. Pop. 3,282,448. 

An'damans, a chain of islands on the east 
side of the Bay of Bengal. The inhabitants 
are about 14,500 in number, and mostly in a 
very savage state, living almost naked in the 
rudest habitations. They are small (gener¬ 
ally much less than five feet), well formed, 
and active, skilful archers and canoeists, and 
excellent swimmers and divers. These is¬ 
lands have been used since 1858 as a penal 
settlement by the Indian government, the 
settlement being at Port Blair, on South 
Andaman. 

An'dersen, Hans Christian (1805-1875), a 
famous Danish novelist, poet, and writer of fairy 
tales, was born at Odense. Picking up what 
education he could at leisure he wrote several 
tragedies, and in 1810 went to Copenhagen, but 
failed in getting any of his plays accepted. 
His abilities at last brought him under the 
notice of Councillor Collin, a man of con¬ 
siderable influence, who procured for him free 
entrance into a government school at Slagelse. 
From this school he was transferred to the 
university, and soon became favorably known 
by his poetic works. He received a royal 
grant to enable him to travel, and in 1833 he 
visited Italy, his impressions of which he pub¬ 
lished in The Improvvisatore. The scene of 
his following novel, 0. T., was laid in Den¬ 
mark, and in Only a Fiddler he described his 
own early struggles. In 1835 appeared the 
first volume of his Fairy Tales. Among his 
other works are, Picture-books Without Pictures , 
A Poet's Bazaar , and a number of dramas. 
In 1845 he received an annuity from the gov¬ 
ernment. He visited England in 1848, and 
acquired such a command of the language 
that his next work, The Two Baronesses, was 




























Anderson 


Andes 


written in English. In 1853 he published an 
autobiography, under the title My Life's Ro¬ 
mance i, an English translation of which, pub¬ 
lished in 1871, contained additional chapters 
by the author, bringing the narrative to 1867. 
Among his later works we may mention, To Be 
or Not To Be; Tales from, Jutland; The Ice 
Maiden. 

Anderson, Madison co., Ind., on White 
River. Railroads: Big 4 (C. C. C. & St. L.); 
Pan Handle (P. C. C. & St. L.); Midland 
(C. S. & E.). Industries: wire nail works, 
three flouring mills, four iron foundries, and 
other factories. Surrounding country agri¬ 
cultural. Oil and gas in abundance. The 
town was first settled in 1825 and became a 
city in 1864. Pop. 1900, 20,178. 

Anderson, Galusha, b. 1832 in Bergen, N. 
Y.; educated for the Baptist ministry, held 
pastorates in Brooklyn and Chicago, and from 
1878 to 1885 was president of the old Chicago 
University. He is now professor in the Di¬ 
vinity school of the new University of Chi¬ 
cago. 

Anderson, John (1726-1796), professor of 
natural philosophy in the University of Glas¬ 
gow, Scotland. By his will he directed that 
the whole of his effects should be devoted to 
the establishment of Anderson’s University. 
There were to be four colleges—arts, medicine, 
law, and theology—besides an initiatory school. 
As the funds, however, were totally inadequate 
to the plan, it was at first commenced with 
only a single course of lectures on natural 
philosophy and chemistry. The institution 
gradually enlarged its sphere of instruction, 
the medical school in particular possessing a 
high reputation. Latterly it has been incor¬ 
porated with other institutions to form the 
Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical Col¬ 
lege, the medical school, however, retaining a 
distinct position. 

Anderson, Mary, a very beautiful and ex¬ 
emplary American actress; born in California 
in 1859. Her principal successes were in 
Shakesperian roles. She married Antonio F. 
de Navarro in 1890, and retiring absolutely 
from the stage, published some interesting 
memoirs. 

Anderson, Robert (1805-1871), an Ameri¬ 
can soldier, born in Kentucky. He served in 
the Black Hawk, Florida, and Mexican wars 
and was wounded at Molino del Rey. As 
Major of Artillery he was in charge of Forts 
Moultrie and Sumter in Charleston Harbor on 
the outbreak of the CivilWar in 1861 and gal¬ 
lantly defended Sumter. He was promoted 
major-general, and died in France. 

Andersonville, Sumter co., Ga., the site of 
a Confederate prison wherein 12,926 Union 
soldiers died out of 49,485 confined. Henry 
Wirz, its superintendent, was convicted by a 
military commission on a charge of cruelty 
to prisoners, and hanged Nov. 1, 1865. The 
site is now a National cemetery, wherein 13,- 
705 soldiers are buried. 

Andes (an'dez), or, as they are called in 
Spanish South America, Cordilleras (ridges) 
de los Andes, or simply Cordilleras, a range 


of mountains stretching along the whole of the 
west coast of South America, from Cape Horn 
to the Isthmus of Panama and the Caribbean 
Sea. In absolute length (4,500 miles) no single 
chain of mountains approaches the Andes, 
and only a certain number of the higher peaks 
of the Himalayan chain rise higher above the 
sea level; which peak is highest of all is not 
yet settled. Several main sections of this huge 
chain are distinguishable. The Southern 
Andes present a lofty main chain, with a 
minor chain running parallel to it on the east, 
from Terra del Fuego and the Straits of Ma¬ 
gellan, rising in Aconcagua to a height of 
22,860 feet. North of this is the double chain 
of the central Andes, inclosing the wide and 
lofty plateaus of Bolivia and Peru, which lie 
at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet above 
the sea. The mountain system is here at its 
broadest, being about 500 miles across. Here 
are also several very lofty peaks, as Illampu or 
Sorata (21,484 feet), Sahama (21,054), Illimani 
(21,024). Farther north the outer and inner 
ranges draw closer together, and in Ecuador 
there is but a single system of elevated masses, 
generally described as forming two parallel 
chains. In this section are crowded together 
a number of lofty peaks, most of them volca¬ 
noes, either extinct or active. Of the latter 
class are Pichincha (15,918 feet), with a crater 
2,500 feet deep; Tunguragua (16,685 feet); San- 
gay (17,460 feet); Cotopaxi (19,550 feet). The 
loftiest summit here appears to be Chimbo¬ 
razo (20,581 feet); others are Antisana (19,260 
feet) and Cayambe (19,200 feet). Northward 
of this section the Andes break into three dis¬ 
tinct ranges, the eastmost running northeast¬ 
ward into Venezuela, the westmost running 
northwestward to the Isthmus of Panama. In 
the central range is the volcano of Tolima (17,- 
660 feet). The western slope of the Andes is 
generally exceedingly steep, the eastern much 
less so, the mountains sinking gradually to the 
plains. The whole range gives evidence of 
volcanic action, but it consists almost entirely 
of sedimentary rocks. Thus mountains may 
be found rising to the height of over 20,000 
feet, and fossiliferous to their summits (as Illi¬ 
mani, and Sorata or Illampu). There are about 
thirty volcanoes in a state of activity. The 
loftiest of these burning mountains seems to 
be Gualateiri, in Peru (21,960 feet). The 
heights of the others vary from 13,000 to 20,- 
000 feet. All the districts of the Andes system 
have suffered severely from earthquakes, towns 
having been either destroyed or greatly injured 
by these visitations. Peaks crowned with per¬ 
petual snow are seen all along the range, and 
glaciers are also met with, more especially from 
Aconcagua southward. The passes are gen¬ 
erally at a great height, the most important 
being from 10,000 to 15,000 feet. Railways 
have been constructed to cross the chain at a 
similar elevation. The Andes are extremely 
rich in the precious metals, gold, silver, cop¬ 
per, platinum, mercury, and tin, all being 
wrought; lead and i-ron are also found. In the 
Andes are towns at a greater elevation than 
anywhere else in the world, the highest being 


Andorre 


Andrews 


the silver mining town of Cerro de Pasco (14,- 
270 feet), the next being Potosi. 

Andorre' (or Andor'ra), a small, nominally 
independent state in the Pyrenees, with an 
area of about 230 sq. mi.; pop. 10,000. It has 
been a separate state for six hundred years; is 
governed by its own civil and criminal codes, 
and has its own courts of justice, the laws be¬ 
ing administered by two judges, one of whom 
is chosen by France, the other by the Bishop 
of Urgel, in Spain. The chief industry is 
the rearing of sheep and cattle. The com¬ 
merce is largely in importing contraband 
goods into Spain. Capital, Old Andorre. 

Andover, Essex co., Mass., on Shaushin 
River, 3 mi. e. of Lawrence. Railroad, west¬ 
ern division of Boston & Maine. Indus¬ 
tries: woolen mills, flax mill, flannel mill, 
and rubber company. Surrounding country 
agricultural. Seat of Andover Theological 
Seminary, Phillips Academy, and Abbot 
Academy. The town was first settled in 1646. 
Pop. 1900, 6,813. 

Andrassy (an-dra'she), Count Julius (1823- 
1890), Hungarian statesman; took part in the 
revolution of 1848, was condemned to death, 
but escaped and went into exile; appointed 
premier when self-government was restored to 
Hungary in 1867; became imperial minister 
for foreign affairs in 1871, retiring from public 
life in 1879. 

Andre (an'dra), Major John, adjutant- 
general in the British army during the Ameri¬ 
can Revolutionary war. Employed to nego¬ 
tiate the treason of the American general, 
Arnold, and the delivery of the works at West 
Point, he was apprehended in disguise, Sept. 
23, 1780, within the American lines; declared 
a spy from the enemy, and hanged Oct. 2, 
1780. His remains were taken to England 
in 1821 and interred in Westminster Abbey, 
where a monument has been erected to his 
memory. Much sympathy was felt for him in 
the patriot army, but military jurists are 
agreed that his punishment was merited and 
necessary. His own letter to Washington was 
so frank an admission of guilt as to warrant 
his conviction, and his one chance of escape 
was destroyed by the British refusal to sur¬ 
render Arnold. Andre’s personal character¬ 
istics made him a universal favorite, and the 
entire British army wore crape at his loss. 
His error lay in landing to confer with Arnold, 
in assuming disguise, and taking a false name in 
the safe-conduct or pass given him by Arnold. 

Andree, S. A., distinguished Swedish civil 
engineer and scientific aeronaut, who pro¬ 
posed in 1895 to make a journey to the North 
Pole by balloon. He constructed a balloon that 
would hold gas for three months, with provis¬ 
ion to refill if necessary, and buoyant enough 
to carry three persons, with provisions and 
apparatus. In the summer of 1896 he conveyed 
his apparatus to a small island north of Spitz- 
bergen, but the winds proved adverse and the 
effort was not made. He succeeded in getting 
away in 1897 and has not been heard from since. 

An'drews, Elisha Benjamin, D.D., LL.D., 
born at Hinsdale, N. H., graduated at Brown 
8 


University, 1870. He taught two years at 
Suffield, Conn., and was a student at the 
Theological Institute, 1872-74. He preached 
one year at Beverly, Mass., and was president 
of Denison University, Ohio, 1875-79. He 
studied in Europe, 1882-3, and was professor 
of public finance at Cornell University, 1888-9. 
He was president of Brown University 1889- 
1898; superintendent of the Chicago public 
schools 1898-1900. In 1900 he became presi¬ 
dent of the University of Nebraska. He was 
a Union soldier, 1861-65. Among the books 
of which he is author, are, Institutes of Econo¬ 
mics, Institutes of General History, Hist, of JJ. S. 

An'drew, John Albion (1818-1867), born in 
Albion, Me. He was graduated at Bowdoin, 
studied law, and was admitted to practise at 
Boston. He became an antislavery man, and 
was elected to the Legislature in 1858. In 
1860 he was a delegate to the Republican con¬ 
vention which nominated Abraham Lincoln 
for president, and in the same year was elected 
governor of Massachusetts. To this office he 
was re-elected until 1866. In January, 1861, 
he began to prepare for war by reorganizing 
the militia. He also called on the governors 
of the other New England states to do like¬ 
wise. Within a week after the president’s 
proclamation of 1861, he dispatched five regi¬ 
ments of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, and 
a battery of artillery to Washington. In Sep¬ 
tember, 1862, he attended the convention of 
the governors of the loyal states at Altoona, 
Pa., and drew up the address they presented 
to the president. 

An'drews, Lancelot (1555-1626), bishop of 
the English Church; high in favor both with 
Queen Elizabeth and James I. In 1605 he 
became bishop of Chichester, in 1609 was 
transferred to Ely, and appointed one of the 
king’s privy-councilors; and in 1618 he was 
transferred to Winchester. He was one of those 
engaged in preparing the Authorized Version of 
the Scriptures. He left sermons, lectures, and 
other writings. 

An'drews, St., an ancient city in Fifeshire, 
Scotland, 31 mi. ri.e. from Edinburgh; was 
erected into a royal burgh by David I in 
1140, and after having been an episcopal, 
became an archiepiscopal see in 1472, and was 
for long the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland. 
The cathedral, now in ruins, was begun about 
1160, and took 157 years to finish. The old 
castle, founded about 1200, and rebuilt in the 
fourteenth century, is also an almost shapeless 
ruin. In it James III was born and Cardinal 
Beaton assassinated, and in front of it George 
Wishart was burned. There are several other 
interesting ruins. The trade and manu¬ 
factures are of no importance, but the 
town is in favor as a watering-place. Golf 
is much played here. Pop. 7,000. The Uni¬ 
versity of St. Andrews, the oldest of 
the Scotch universities, founded in 1411, 
consists of three colleges, St. Salvator, St. 
Leonard’s, and St. Mary’s. Originally all three 
had teachers both in arts and theology; 
but in 1579 the colleges of St. Salvator and St. 
Leonard were confined to the teaching of arts 


Andrews 


Anemoscope 


and medicine, and that of St. Mary to theol¬ 
ogy. In 1747 the two former colleges were 
united by act of Parliament. Degrees are con¬ 
ferred in arts, divinity, medicine, and law, 
but there is a complete teaching staff only in 
arts and divinity. 

Andrews, Stephen Pearl (1812-1886), au¬ 
thor, b. in Templeton, Mass. He studied at 
Amherst College, removed to New Orleans, 
La., became a lawyer, and in 1839 went to 
Texas. In 1843 Andrews went to England to 
raise money with which to purchase the free¬ 
dom of the Texan slaves, and render it a free 
state. He was unsuccessful, and returned 
home, settling in Boston, where he became a 
leader in the antislavery movement. In 1847 
he removed to New York City, where he 
published a series of phonographic instruc¬ 
tion books. He was an accomplished linguist. 
He also evolved a scientific universal language 
called “Alwato;” in this he conversed and 
corresponded with his pupils, and was prepar¬ 
ing a dictionary of it at the time of his death. 

An'dria, a town of south Italy, province 
of Bari, with a fine cathedral, founded in 1046; 
the church of Sant’ Agostino, with a beautiful 
pointed Gothic portal; a college; manufac¬ 
tures of majolica, and a good trade. Pop. 37,- 
192. 

Andromache (an-drom'a-ke), in Greek my¬ 
thology, wife of Hector, one of the most attrac¬ 
tive female characters of Homer’s Iliad. 
The passage describing her parting with Hec¬ 
tor when he was setting out to his last battle, 
is well known and much admired. Euripides 
and Racine have made her the chief character 
of tragedies. 

Andromeda, in Greek mythology, daughter 
of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and of Cassio¬ 
peia. Cassiopeia having boasted that her 
daughter surpassed the Nereids, if not Hera 
(Juno) herself, in beauty, the offended god¬ 
desses prevailed on their father, Poseidon 
(Neptune), to afflict the country with a horrid 
sea-monster, which threatened universal de¬ 
struction. To appease the offended god, An¬ 
dromeda was chained to a rock, but was 
rescued by Perseus; and after death, was 
changed into a constellation. 

Androni'cus, the name of four emperors of 
Constantinople. Andronicus I, Comnenus, 
b. 1110, murdered 1185. Andronicus II, Pa- 
heologus, b. 1258, d. 1332. His reign is cele¬ 
brated for the invasion of the Turks. An¬ 
dronicus III, Palaeologus the Younger, b. 
1296, d. 1341. Andronicus IV, Palmologus, 
reigned in the absence of John IV. In 1373 
he gave way to his brother Manuel, and d. a 
monk. 

Androni'cus of Rhodes, a Peripatetic philos¬ 
opher who lived at Rome in the time of 
CicerO. He arranged Aristotle’s works in much 
the same form as they retain in present 
editions. 

Androni'cus, Livius, the most ancient of 
the Latin dramatic poets; flourished about 
240 b. c.; by origin a Greek, and long a slave. 
A few fragments of his works have come down 
to us. 


Androni'cus Cyrrhestes (sir-es'tez), a 
Greek architect about 100 b. c., who con¬ 
structed at Athens the Tower of the Winds, 
an octagonal building, still standing. On the 
top was a Triton, which indicated the direc¬ 
tion of the wind. Each of the sides had a 
sort of dial, and the building formerly con¬ 
tained a clepsydra or water-clock. 

Andros, Sir Edmund (1637-1714), an 
English colonial governor. Governor of New 
York in 1674; of New England 1686, of Vir¬ 
ginia 1692. He died in England. His con¬ 
duct in New England was tyrannical and his 
taxation of the colonists extremely unpopular. 
His expedition to Hartford gave rise to the 
Charter Oak incident. 

Andros Islands, a group of isles belonging 
to the Bahamas, lying southwest of New 
Providence, not far from the east entrance 
to tho Gulf of Florida. The passages through 
them are dangerous. 

Andujar (an-cZo-^ar'), a town in Spain, in 
Andalusia, 50 mi. e. n. e. of Cordova, manu¬ 
factures a peculiar kind of porous earthen 
water bottles and jugs. Pop. 12,605. 

Anega'da, a British West Indian island, the 
most northern of the Virgin group, 10 mi. 
long by 44 broad; contains numerous salt 
ponds, from which quantities of salt are ob¬ 
tained. 

Anemom' eter, an instrument for measur¬ 
ing the force and velocity of the wind. This 
force is usually measured by the pressure of 
the 'yvind upon a square plate attached to 
one end of a spiral spring (with its axis hori¬ 
zontal), which yields more or less according to 
the force of the wind, and transmits its motion 
to a pencil which leaves a trace upon paper 
moved by clockwork. For indicating the ve¬ 
locity of the wind, the instrument which has 
yielded the best results consists of four hemi¬ 
spherical cups, attached to the ends of equal 
horizontal arms, forming a horizontal cross 
which turns freely about a vertical axis. 
By means of an endless screw, carried by the 
axis, a train of wheel-work is set in motion; 
and the indication is given by a hand which 
moves round a dial; or in some instruments 
by several hands moving round different dials 
like those of a gas-meter. It is found that the 
center of each cup moves with a velocity 
which is almost exactly one third of that of 
the wind. There are various other forms of 
instruments, one of which is portable, and is 
especially intended for measuring the velocity 
of currents of air passing through mines, and 
the ventilating spaces of hospitals and other 
public buildings. The direction of the wind 
as indicated by a vane can also be made to 
leave a continuous record by various contriv¬ 
ances; one of the most common being a pinion 
carried by the shaft of a vane, and driving a 
rack which carries a pencil. 

Anem'oscope, any contrivance indicating 
the direction of the wind; generally applied 
to a vane which turns a spindle descending 
through the roof to a chamber, where, by 
means of a compass-card and index, the direc¬ 
tion of the wind is shown. 


Angel 


Angina Pectoris 


Angel, one of those spiritual intelligences 
who are regarded as dwelling in heaven and 
employed as the ministers or agents of God. 
Scripture frequently speaks of angels, but with 
great reserve, Michael and Gabriel alone being 
mentioned by name in the canonical books, 
while Raphael is mentioned in the Apocrypha. 

Angel, a gold coin introduced into England 
in the reign of Edward IV and coined down to 
the Commonwealth, so named from having 



Angel of Edward IV. 


the representation of the archangel Michael 
piercing a dragon upon it. It had different 
values in different reigns, varying from $1.75 
to $2.50. 

Angel=fish, a fish nearly allied to the sharks, 
very ugly and voracious, preying on other fish. 
It is from 6 to 8 feet long, and takes its name 
from its pectoral fins, which are very large, 
extending horizontally like wings when spread. 
This fish connects the rays with the sharks, 
but it differs from both in having its mouth 
placed at the extremity of the head. 

Angelico (an-jel'i-ko), Fra (1387-1455). the 
common appellation of Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, 
one of the most celebrated of the early Italian 
painters. He entered the Dominican order in 
1407, and was employed by Cosmo de Medici 
in painting the monastery of St. Mark and 
the church of St. Annunziata with frescoes. 
These pictures gained him so much celebrity 
that Nicholas V invited him to Rome, to orna¬ 
ment his private chapel in the Vatican, and 
offered him the archbishopric of Florence, 
which was declined. His works were consid¬ 
ered unrivaled in finish and in sweetness and 
harmony of color, and were made the models 
for religious painters of his own and succeed¬ 
ing generations. 

Angell, James Burrill, LL. D., was born 
in Rhode Island, 1829, graduated at Brown 
University, 1849, and later became professor 
of modern languages and literature in the 
same university. In 1860 he became editor of 
the Providence Journal, in 1866 president of 
the University of Vermont, and in 1871 presi¬ 
dent of the University of Michigan, where he 
is at present. He was minister to China in 
1880-81, and is a regent of the Smithsonian In¬ 
stitute. He was appointed minister to Tur¬ 
key by President McKinley in 1897. 

Angelo (an'je-lo), Michael (Buonarroti) 
(1475-1563), b. at Caprese, in Tuscany, d. 
in Rome. He was of the ancient family 
of the counts of Canossa. He became a dis¬ 
tinguished Italian painter, sculptor, architect, 
and poet. He studied drawing under Domen¬ 
ico Ghirlandaio, and sculpture under Bertoldo 


at Florence, and having attracted the notice 
of Lorenzo de Medici, was for several years 
an inmate of his household. Having distin¬ 
guished himself both in sculpture and painting, 
he was commissioned (together with Leonardo 
da Vinci) to decorate the senate-hall at Flor¬ 
ence with a historical design, but before It was 
finished, in 1505, he was induced by Pope 
Julius II to settle in Rome. Here he sculp¬ 
tured the monument of the pontiff (there are 
seven statues belonging to it) now in the church 
of St. Pietro in Vincoli; and painted the dome 
of the Sistine Chapel, his frescoes representing 
the creation and the principal events of sacred 
history. In 1530 he took a leading part in the 
defense of Florence againstCharles V. Three 
years later he began his great picture in the 
Sistine Chapel, The Last Judgment , which oc¬ 
cupied him eight years. His last considerable 
works in painting were two large pictures: the 
Conversion of St. Paul , and The Crucifixion of 
St. Peter, in the Pauline Chapel. In sculpture 
he executed The Descent of Christ from the 
Cross, four figures, of one piece of marble. 
His statue of Bacchus was thought by Raphael 
to possess equal perfection with the master¬ 
pieces of Phidias and Praxiteles. As late as 
1546 he was obliged to undertake the continu¬ 
ation of the building of St. Peter’s, and planned 
and built the dome,' but he did not live long 
enough to see his plan finished, in which many 
alterations were made after his death. Besides 
this, he undertook the building of the Piazza 
del Campidoglio (Capitol) of the Farnese Pal¬ 
ace, and of many other edifices. His style in 
architecture is distinguished by grandeur and 
boldness, and in his ornaments the untamed 
character of his imagination frequently ap¬ 
pears, preferring the uncommon to the simple 
and elegant. His poems, which he considered 
merely as pastimes, contain, likewise, convinc¬ 
ing proofs of his great genius. His prose works 
consist of lectures, speeches, etc. 

Angers (4n-zha), a town and river port of 
France, capital of the department of Maine-et- 
Loire, and formerly of the province of An¬ 
jou, 5| mi. from the Loire, 150 mi. s. w. of 
Paris. Has an old castle, once a place of great 
strength, now used as a prison, barrack, and 
powder-magazine; a fine cathedral of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with very 
fine old painted windows, is the seat of a bishop, 
and has a school of arts and manufactures; a 
public library, an art-gallery, a large modern 
hospital, the remains of a hospital founded by 
Henry II of England in 1155, courts of law, 
theater, etc. Manufactures: sail-cloth, hosiery, 
leather, and chemicals, foundries, etc. In 
the neighborhood are immense slate-quarries. 
Pop. 73,044. 

Angina Pectoris (an-jl'na pek'to-ris), or 
Heart-spasm, a disease characterized by an ex¬ 
tremely acute constriction, felt generally in 
the lower part of the sternum, and extending 
along the whole side of the chest and into the 
corresponding arm, a sense of suffocation, 
faintness, and apprehension of approaching 
death; seldom experienced by any but those 
with organic heart-disease. The disease rarely 


Angler 

occurs before middle age and is more frequent 
in men than in women. Those liable to attack 
must lead a quiet, temperate life, avoiding all 
scenes which would unduly rouse their emo¬ 
tions. The first attack is occasionally fatal, 
but usually death occurs as the result of re¬ 
peated seizures. The paroxysm may be re¬ 
lieved by opiates, or the inhalation, under due 
precaution, of anaesthetic vapors. 

Angler, also from its habits and appearance 
called Fishing-frog and Sea-devil , a remarkable 
fish often found on the British coasts. It is 
from 3 to 5 feet long; the head is very wide, 
depressed with protuberances, and bearing 
long separate movable tendrils; the mouth is 



Angler. 

capacious. The American Angler, Fishing- 
frog or Goose-fish, of the Atlantic, is from 
two to three feet long; it is exceedingly vo¬ 
racious; its large mouth allows it to swallow 
fish about as big as itself. 

Angles, a low German tribe who in the 
earliest historical period had their seats in 
the district about Angeln, in the duchy of 
Sleswig, and who in the fifth century sub¬ 
sequently crossed over to Britain along with 
bands of Saxons and Jutes (and probably 
Frisians also), and colonized a great part of 
what from them has received the name of 
England, as well as a portion of the Lowlands 
of Scotland. The Angles formed the largest 
body among the Germanic settlers in Britain, 
and founded the three kingdoms of East 
Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. 

Anglesey (ang'gl-se) (or Anglesea) (“the 
Angles’ Island”), an island and county of 
north Wales, separated from the mainland 
by the Menai Strait. Area 193,511 acres; pop. 
50,500. The chief agricultural products are 
oats and barley, wheat, rye, potatoes, and 
turnips. Numbers of cattle and sheep are 
raised. Anglesey yields a little copper, lead, 
silver, ocher, etc. The Menai Strait is crossed 
by a magnificent suspension-bridge, 580 feet 
between the piers and 100 feet above high- 
water mark, and also by the great Britannia 
Tubular Railway Bridge. The chief market 


Angling 

towns are Beaumaris, Holyhead, Llangefni, 
and Amlwch. 

Anglican Church, a term which strictly em¬ 
braces only the Church of England and the 
Protestant Episcopal churches in Ireland, 
Scotland, and the colonies; but is sometimes 
used to include also the Episcopal churches 
of the U. S. The doctrines of the Anglican 
Church are laid down in the Thirty-nine Arti¬ 
cles, and its ritual is contained in the Book of 
Common Prayer. Within the body there is room 
for considerable latitude of belief and doctrine, 
and three sections are sometimes spoken of 
by the names of the High Church, Low 
Church, and Broad Church. 

Angling, the art of catching fish with a 
hook, or angle baited with worms, small fish, 
flies, etc. We find occasional allusions to 
this pursuit among the Greek and Latin 
classical writers. It is mentioned several 
times in the Old Testament, and it was prac¬ 
tised by the ancient Egyptians. The old¬ 
est work on the subject in English is the 
Treatyse of Fysshinge with an Angle, printed 
by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496, along with 
treatises on hunting and hawking, the whole 
being ascribed to Dame Juliana Berners, or 
Barnes, prioress of a nunnery near St. Al¬ 
bans, England. Walton’s inimitable dis¬ 
course on angling was first printed in 1653. 
The chief appliances required by an angler are 
a rod, line, hooks, and baits. Rods are made 
of various materials, and of various sizes. The 
cane rods are lightest; and where fishing- 
tackle is sold they most commonly have 
the preference ; but in country places the 
rod is often of the angler’s own manufac¬ 
ture. Rods are commonly made in sepa¬ 
rate joints so as to be easily taken to 
pieces and put up again. They are made 
to taper from the butt end to the top, and 
are usually possessed of a considerable 
amount of elasticity. In length they may 
vary from ten feet to more than double, 
with a corresponding difference in strength 
— a rod for salmon being necessarily much 
stronger than one suited for ordinary brook 
trout. The reel, an apparatus for winding 
up the line, is attached to the rod near the 
lower end, where the hand grasps it while 
fishing. The best are usually made of brass, 
are of simple construction, and are so made as 
to wind or unwind freely and rapidly. That 
part of the line which passes along the rod 
and is wound on the reel is called the reel 
line, and may vary from 20 to 100 yards in 
length, according to the size of the water 
and the habits of the fish angled for; it is 
usually made of twisted horsehair and silk, 
or of oiled silk alone. The casting line, 
which is attached to this, is made of the 
same materials but lighter and finer. To 
the end of this is tied a piece of fine gut, on 
which the hook or hooks are fixed. The 
casting or gut lines should decrease in 
thickness from the reel line to the hooks. 
The hook of finely tempered steel should 
readily bend without breaking, and yet 
retain a sharp point. It should be long in 












AngIo=Saxons 


Anhalt 


the shank and deep in the bend; the point 
straight and true to the level of the shank; 
and the barb long. Their sizes and sorts 
must of course entirely depend on the kind 
of fish that are angled for. Floats formed 
of cork, goose and swan quills, etc., are often 
used to buoy up the hook so that it may 
float clear of the bottom. For heavy fish 
or strong streams a cork float is used; in 
slow water and for lighter fish, quill floats. 
Baits may consist of a great variety of 
materials, natural or artificial. The princi¬ 
pal natural baits are worms: common garden 
worms, brandlings, and red worms, maggots, 
or gentles (the larvae of blow-flies such as 
are found on putrid meat), insects, small 
fish (as minnows), salmon roe, etc. The ar¬ 
tificial flies so much used in angling for 
trout and salmon are composed of hairs, 
furs, and wools of every variety, mingled 
with pieces of feathers and secured together 
by plaited wire, or gold and silver thread, 
marking silk, wax, etc. The wings may be 
made of the feathers of domestic fowls, or 
any others of a showy color. Some an¬ 
gling authorities recommend that the arti¬ 
ficial flies should be made to resemble as 
closely as possible the insects on which the 
fish is wont to feed, but experience has 
shown that the most capricious and un¬ 
natural combinations of feather, fur, etc., 
have been often successful where the most 
artistic imitations have failed. Artificial 
minnows, or other small fish, are also used 
by way of bait, and are so contrived as to 
spin rapidly when drawn through the water 
in order to attract the notice of the fish 
angled for. Angling, especially with the 
fly, demands a great deal of skill and prac¬ 
tise, the throwing of the line properly being 
the initial difficulty. Nowhere is the art 
pursued with greater success and enthusiasm 
than in the U. S. 

AngIo=Saxons, the name commonly given to 
the nation or people formed by the amalga¬ 
mation of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who 
settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth 
centuries after Christ, the Anglo-Saxons being 
simply the English people of the earlier period 
of English history. The tribes who were thus 
the ancestors of the bulk of the English- 
speaking nationalities came from north Ger¬ 
many where they inhabited the parts about 
the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, and the first 
body of them who gained a footing in Britain 
are said to have landed in 449, and to have 
been led by Hengist and Horsa. From the 
preponderance of the Angles the whole country 
came to be called Engla-land\ that is, the land 
of the Angles or English. Modern officials 
such as sheriffs and aldermen and at least one 
rank of nobility, that of earl, owe their origin 
to Anglo-Saxon institutions. 

Ango'la, a Portuguese territory in Western 
Africa, s. of the Congo; area 300,000 sq. mi.; 
pop. 2,000,000 ; sometimes in the northern part 
of it, also known as Loanda. The principal 
town is the seaport of St. Paul de Loanda, 
which was long the great Portuguese slave-mart. 


Exports: ivory, palm oil, coffee, hides, gum, 
wax, etc. Pop. 600,000. 

Ango'ra, a town in the interior of Asiatic 
Turkey, 215 mi. e.s.e. of Constantinople, with 
considerable remains of Byzantine archi¬ 
tecture, and relics of earlier times, both Greek 
and Roman, such as the remnants of the 
Monumentum Ancyranum, raised in honor of 
the Emperor Augustus. All the animals of 
this region are long haired, especially the goats 
(see Goat), sheep, and cats. This hair forms an 
important export, as well as the fabric called 
camlet here manufactured from it, other ex¬ 
ports being goats’ skins, dye-stuffs, gums, 
honey, and wax v etc. Est. pop. 35,000. 

Angostu'ra (or Ciudad Bolivar), a city of 
Venezuela, capital of the province of Bolivar, 
on the Orinoco, about 240 mi. from the sea. 
Exports: gold, cotton, indigo, tobacco, coffee, 
cattle, etc.; imports: manufactured goods, 
wines, flour, etc. Pop. 10,861. 

Angostura Bark, the aromatic bitter medic¬ 
inal bark obtained chiefly from a tree of 10 to 
20 feet high, growing in the northern regions 
of South America. The bark is valuable as a 
tonic and febrifuge, and is also used for a kind 
of bitters. From this bark being adulterated, 
indeed sometimes entirely replaced, its use as 
a medicine has been almost given up. 

Angouldme (an-go-lam), an ancient town of 
western France, capital of dep. Charente, 60 
mi. n.n.e. of Bordeaux. It has a fine old 
cathedral, a beautiful modern town-hall, a 
lyceum, public library, natural history mu¬ 
seum, hospital, lunatic asylum, etc. There 
are manufactures of paper, woolens, linens, 
distilleries, sugar-works, tanneries, etc. Pop. 
38,068. 

Angra (an'gra), a seaport of Terceira, one of 
the Azores, with the only convenient harbor 
in the whole group. It has a cathedral, a 
military college, and arsenal, etc., and is the 
residence of the governor-general of the Azores 
and of the foreign consuls. Pop. 11,281. 

Angra Pequena (“little bay”), a bay on 
the west of Namaqualand, S. Africa, where 
the German commercial firm Liideritz in 1883 
acquired a strip of territory and established a 
trading station. In 1884, notwithstanding 
some weak protests of the British, Germany 
took under her protection the coast territory 
around this port, and soon after extended the 
protectorate to the Portuguese frontier, but 
not including the British settlement of Wal- 
fisch Bay. 

Anguilla (ang-gil'a) (or Snake Island), one of 
the British West India Islands, 60 mi. n. e. 
of St. Kitts. Area 35 sq. mi. A little sugar, 
cotton, tobacco, and maize are grown. There 
is a saline lake in the center which yields a 
large quantity of salt. Pop. 2,773, of which 
100 is white. 

An'halt, a duchy of north Germany, area 
906 sq. mi. All sorts of grain, wheat es¬ 
pecially, are grown in abundance; also flax, 
rape, potatoes, tobacco, hops, and fruit. Ex¬ 
cellent cattle are bred. The inhabitants are 
principally occupied in agriculture, though 
there are some iron works and manufactures 


Anhydrite 


Animal 


of woolens, linens, beet-sugar, tobacco, etc. 
The united principality is now incorporated 
in the German Empire, and has one vote in 
the Bundesrath and two in the Reichstag. 
Pop. 293,298 almost all Protestants. The 
chief towns are Dessau, Bernburg, Kothen, 
and Zerbst. 

Anhy'drite, anhydrous sulphate of calcium, 
a mineral presenting several varieties of struc¬ 
ture and color. The vulpinite of Italy possesses 
a granular structure, resembling a coarse¬ 
grained marble, and is used in sculpture. Its 
color is grayish white, intermingled with blue. 

An'iline, a substance which has become of 
great importance, as being the basis of a num¬ 
ber of brilliant and durable dyes. It is found 
in small quantities in coal-tar, but the aniline 
of commerce is obtained from benzine or ben¬ 
zole, a constituent of coal-tar, consisting of 
hydrogen and carbon. Benzine, when acted 
on by nitric acid, produces nitro-benzine; and 
this substance again, when treated with nas¬ 
cent hydrogen, generally produced by the 
action of acetic acid upon iron-filings or 
scraps, produces aniline. It is a colorless, oily 
liquid, somewhat heavier than water, with a 
peculiar, vinous smell, and a burning taste. 
Its name is derived from anil, the Portuguese 
and Spanish name for indigo, from the dry 
distillation of which substance it was first ob¬ 
tained by the chemist Unverdorben in 1826. 
When acted on by arsenious acid, bichromate 
of potassium, stannic chloride, etc., aniline 
produces a great variety of compounds, man} 7, 
of which are possessed of very beautiful colors, 
and are known by the names of aniline purple, 
aniline green, roseine, violine, bleu de Paris, 
magenta, etc. The manufacture of these ani¬ 
line or coal-tar dyes as a branch of industry 
was introduced in 1856 by Perkin of London. 
Since then the manufacture has reached large 
dimensions. 

Animal, an organized and sentient living 
being. Life in the earlier periods of natural 
history was attributed almost exclusively to 
animals. With the progress of science, how¬ 
ever, it was extended to plants. In the case 
of the higher animals and plants there is no 
difficulty in assigning the individual to one of 
the two great kingdoms of organic nature, but 
in their lowest manifestations, the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms are brought into such 
immediate contact that it becomes almost im¬ 
possible to assign them precise limits, and to 
say with certainty where the one begins and 
the other ends. From form no absolute dis¬ 
tinction can be fixed between animals and 
plants. Many animals, such as the sea-shrubs, 
sea-mats, etc., so resemble plants in external 
appearance that they were, and even yet popu¬ 
larly are, looked upon as such. With regard 
to internal structure no line of demarkation 
can be laid down, all plants and animals being, 
in this respect, fundamentally similar; that 
is, alike composed of molecular, cellular, and 
fibrous tissues. Neither are the chemical 
characters of animal and vegetable substances 
more distinct. Animals contain in their tis¬ 
sues and fluids a larger proportion of nitrogen 


than plants, while plants are richer in car¬ 
bonaceous, compounds than the former. In 
some animals, moreover, substances, almost 
exclusively confined to plants, are found. Thus 
the outer wall of Sea-squirts contains cellu¬ 
lose, a substance largely found in plant-tis¬ 
sues; while chlorophyll , the coloring-matter, of 
plants, occurs in Hydra and many other lower 
animals. Power of motion, again, though 
broadly distinctive of animals, cannot be said 
to be absolutely characteristic of them. Thus 
many animals, as oysters, sponges, corals, etc., 
in their mature condition are rooted or fixed, 
while the embryos of many plants, together 
with numerous fully developed forms, are en¬ 
dowed with locomotive power by means of 
vibratile, hair-like processes called cilia. The 
distinctive points between animals and plants 
which are most to be relied on are those de¬ 
rived from the nature and mode of assimilation 
of the food. Plants feed on inorganic matters, 
consisting of water, ammonia, carbonic acid, 
and mineral matters. They can only take in 
food which is presented to them in a liquid or 
gaseous state. The exceptions to these rules 
are found chiefly in the case of plants which 
live parasitically on other plants or on animals, 
in which cases the plant may be said to feed 
on organic matters, represented by the juices 
of their hosts. Animals, on the contrary, re¬ 
quire organized matters for food. They feed 
either upon plants or upon other animals. 
But even carnivorous animals can be shown 
to be dependent upon plants for subsistence, 
since the animals upon which Carnivora prey 
are in their turn supported by plants. Ani¬ 
mals, further, can subsist on solid food in addi¬ 
tion to liquids and gases; but many animals 
(such as the Tapeworms) live by the mere 
imbibition of fluids which are absorbed by 
their tissues, such forms possessing no distinct 
digestive system. Animals require a due sup¬ 
ply of oxygen gas for their sustenance, this gas 
being used in respiration. Plants, on the con¬ 
trary, require carbonic acid. The animal ex¬ 
hales or gives out carbonic acid as the part 
result of its tissue-waste, while the plant tak¬ 
ing in this gas is enabled to decompose it 
into its constituent carbon and oxygen. The 
plant retains the former for the uses of its 
economy, and liberates the oxygen, which is 
thus restored to the atmosphere for the use of 
the animal. Animals receive the food into 
the interior of their bodies, and assimilation 
takes place in their internal surfaces. Plants, 
on the other hand, receive their food into their 
external surfaces, and assimilation is effected 
in the external parts, as is exemplified in the 
leaf-surfaces, under the influence of sunlight. 
All animals possess a certain amount of heat 
or temperature which is necessary for the per¬ 
formance of vital action. The only classes of 
animals in which a constantly-elevated tem¬ 
perature is kept up are birds and mammals. 
The bodily heat of the former varies from 
100° F. to 112° F., and of the latter from 96° 
F. to 104° F. The mean or average heat of 
the human body is about 99° F., and it never 
falls much below this in health. Below birds. 


Animal Chemistry 

animals are named “cold-blooded;” this term 
meaning in its strictly physiological sense 
that their temperature is usually that of the 
medium in which they live, and that it varies 
with that of the surrounding medium. ‘ ‘ Warm¬ 
blooded ” animals, on the contrary, do not ex¬ 
hibit such variations, but mostly retain their 
normal temperature in any atmosphere. The 
cause of the evolution of heat in the animal 
body is referred to the union (by a process re¬ 
sembling ordinary combustion) of the carbon 
and hydrogen of the system with the oxygen 
taken in from the air in the process of res¬ 
piration. 

Animal Chemistry, the department of or¬ 
ganic chemistry which investigates the com¬ 
position of the fluids and the solids of ani¬ 
mals, and the chemical action that takes place 
in animal bodies. There are four elements, 
sometimes distinctively named organic elements , 
which are invariably found in living bodies; 
viz., carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
To these may be added, as frequent constitu¬ 
ents of the human body, sulphur, phosphorus, 
lime, sodium, potassium, chlorine, and iron. 
The four organic elements are found in all the 
fluids and solids of the body. Sulphur occurs 
in blood and in many of the secretions. Phos¬ 
phorus is also common, being found in nerves, 
in the teeth, and in fluids. Chlorine occurs al¬ 
most universally throughout the body; lime is 
found in bone, in the teeth, and in the secre¬ 
tions; iron occurs in the blood, in urine, and in 
bile; and sodium, like chlorine, is of almost 
universal occurrence. Potassium occurs in 
muscles, in nerves, and in the blood corpus¬ 
cles. Minute quantities of copper, silicon, 
manganese, lead, and lithium are also found 
in the human body. The compounds formed 
in the human organism are divisible into the 
organic and inorganic. The most frequent of 
the latter is water, of which two thirds (by 
weight) of the body is composed. The or¬ 
ganic compounds may, like the foods from 
which they are formed, be divided into the ni¬ 
trogenous and non-nitrogenous. Of the former 
the chief are albumen (found in blood, lymph, 
and chyle), casein (found in milk), myosine (in 
muscle), gelatine (obtained from bone), and 
others. The non-nitrogenous compounds are 
represented by organic acids, such as formic, 
acetic, butyric, stearic, etc.; by animal 
starches, sugars; and by fats and oils, as 
stearine and olein. 

Animalcule (an-i-mal'kul), a general name 
given to many forms of animal life from their 
minute size. We thus speak of the Infusoria 
Animalcules among the Protozoa, of the Rotif- 
era or Wheel Animalcules, etc., but the term 
is not now used in zoology in any strict signifi¬ 
cance, nor is it employed in classification. 

Animal Intelligence.— In considering the 
intelligence of animals we must guard against 
errors resulting from reading human experi¬ 
ences into brute life. It is rather difficult to 
provide against this common mistake; but it 
makes results unreliable if we interpret the 
various expressions of animals in the light of 
human experiences alone. 


Animal Intelligence 

We gain the best conception of the men¬ 
tality of animals by studying them from the 
point of view of the elements of mental life. 
What elements of consciousness are possessed 
by this or that animal, and what characteris¬ 
tics are absent that are so essential to human 
mind ? Do all animals possess the same senses 
—-seeing, hearing, smell, taste, temperature, 
touch, etc. —as do human beings ? What can 
be said of their memory power ? Do they 
form mental images ? Have they the powers 
of judgment and comparison ? Do they ex¬ 
perience emotions such as anger, grief, joy ? 
Are they able to reason ? Let us consider 
some of these elements of mental life more 
particularly as being present or absent in the 
experiences of the lower animals. 

Sense Powers. — The sense experiences 
constitute the most important of all the 
group of facts that go to make up mental life. 
The senses furnish the raw material for the 
mind to operate on in its acts of memory, im¬ 
agination, judgment, comparison, reasoning, 
and the higher processes. What we remember 
depends upon what we have received through 
our senses. What we compare are the 1 data 
gained from sense experiences of various sorts. 
We reason about material furnished the mind 
through the various avenues of sense. 

Touch. — The various parts of the human 
body differ in the delicacy of the sense of 
touch. The red part of the lips, the finger 
tips, the tip of the tongue have a more delicate 
sense of touch than any other portion of the 
human body. The covering or skin of the 
various animals differs greatly in the delicacy 
of the tactile sense. In some animals special 
hairs are very delicate touch-organs, as in the 
whiskers of the cat and the long hair on the 
rabbit’s lip. With the aid of these the rabbit 
can readily find the way to the burrow in the 
densest darkness; clip them off, and the poor 
animal is unable to find its way in the dark. 
The wing of the bat is very sensitive to touch. 
Through that sense alone the bat is able to 
direct its way while flying rapidly through the 
darkest caves. Many insects as well as the 
crustaceans are covered with a tough skin 
and sometimes with even a dense armor, and 
many would suppose that such creatures would 
be deprived of the sense of touch. But even 
in these animals the sense of touch is by no 
means absent. Seated on the tough skin are 
little hairs almost invisible, through the ,base 
of which a little delicate nerve passes through 
a very small perforation in the integument. 
These are very numerous in the end branches 
oi the legs of many insects. It seems that 
even the lowest forms of animal life (the prim¬ 
itive amoeba, for example) possess the sense of 
touch in a greater or less degree. And by the 
way, this is the most important sense of all those 
with which even human beings are endowed. 

Temperature Sense. —This is closely as¬ 
sociated with the sense of touch. It has been 
shown by Goldscheider and others that there 
are on the skin of the human hand, for ex¬ 
ample, special points that are sensitive to heat 
and cold. These are called heat and cold 


Animal Intelligence 


Animal Intelligence 


spots. Neither the heat nor cold spots are 
sensitive to pressure, pain, touch, or any other 
stimulus. They are nervous end-organs set 
apart for the special service of the tempera¬ 
ture sense. They are present in some of the 
lower animals. 

Taste. — This sense is brought into exercise 
by fluids coming into contact with special 
<*nd-organs, like the taste bulbs located in the 
skin covering the tongue and palate of the 
human being. What is ordinarily called taste 
is really taste plus smell. If the nose be 
stopped so that air cannot pass over the ol¬ 
factory end-organs, one cannot tell the taste 
of the scraped apple, pear, banana, peach, or 
onion from one another. These substances can¬ 
not be distinguished from each other by taste 
alone. Vanilla is almost absolutely tasteless, 
but is detected in the ice cream by its odor 
rather than taste. On the other hand quinine 
is absolutely odorless, but has a marked bitter 
taste. Tastes are classified into sweet, sour, 
salt, bitter, and alkaline. 

In birds and reptiles the sense of taste is not 
very well developed. Parrots have the most 
delicate sense of taste of all the birds. A 
snake, when partially blind owing to a change 
of skin, will eat a piece of cloth as readily as a 
field mouse. In fishes the scales and skin are 
provided with sense organs that distinguish 
the taste of liquids. In he codfish these taste 
bulbs are located along the clearly marked 
lines on both its sides. Caterpillars refuse to 
eat certain herbs because of their bitter taste. 
Moisten the end of the legs (where the taste 
organs are located) of the cockroach with a 
bitter solution (quinine) and see how quickly 
he tries to get rid of it. Butterflies are de¬ 
lighted with sweetened water. Drop a little 
Epsom Salts into such a solution, and the poor 
butterfly spits and sputters and hastily leaves 
off his indulgence. Tempt bees with sugar, 
and they will rapidly congregate in great glee. 
Substitute powdered alum for the sugar, and 
they will become viciously angry. Mix strych¬ 
nine and honey and offer it to a colony of ants. 
The smell of the honey will attract them, but 
when they begin to feed, the effect of the taste 
at once becomes evident. 

Smell. —In some of the lower animals this 
sense is exceedingly acute. See how the dog 
can track its master through the crowded 
street. Deer are also endowed with an exceed¬ 
ingly keen sense of smell. In birds this sense 
is but little developed. Even vultures cannot 
detect the presence of food when it is hidden 
from their sight. Reptiles likewise are very 
dull with respect to the sense of smell. Among 
the fishes the shark has a very keen sense of 
smell. Deprive it of this sense, and it will* 
refuse to eat or move, but becomes perfectly 
helpless. The shark is so dependent on the 
sense of smell that it will starve when unable 
to exercise this sense, though food be placed 
immediately in front of it where it can be 
plainly seen. There is no doubt that insects 
possess the sense of smell in a marked degree. 
Dr. Me Cook introduced a little piece of blot¬ 
ting paper saturated with cologne water into 


the neighborhood of a lot of pavement ants 
who were engaged in a fierce battle. The 
effect was immediate. They stopped fighting, 
letting go of their enemies’ legs and bodies at 
once. In insects the sense of smell is located 
in the extremity of the legs. Clip these off, 
and even the carrion fly will fail to discover 
the putrid flesh, its chosen morsel. Like¬ 
wise as to the cockroach, bumble-bee, crawfish, 
and other animals. In the snail the sense of 
smell is located in the horns. In shell-fish it 
is found in the little seam of flesh near the 
parting of the shells. In worms it is located 
in little pits or depressions. Starfish can 
scent the oyster, its chosen article of food, at a 
distance of several hundred yards. 

Heaking. —The horse and deer have the 
keenest sense of hearing. Some animals, such 
as the dog, will howl with misery when certain 
notes are struck; e. g., tenor D. Birds also 
have a very delicate sense of hearing. Note 
how the thrush listens for worms in the early 
summer morning. Observe also the astound¬ 
ing accuracy with which some birds imitate 
the songs of other birds. Fishes are especially 
dull as to the sense of hearing, though 
carp in the royal park at Potsdam, in Germany, 
come to be fed at the sound of a bell. But in 
this case it is not clearly proven that the per¬ 
son who came to feed them was hidden from 
sight. Even animals so low in the scale as 
jelly-fish and medusa have organs of hearing. 
Shell-fish also hear. In the lobster and craw¬ 
fish the end-organs of hearing are found at the 
little ending branches of the leg. This is also 
the case with most insects. The capricorn 
beetle will, on hearing a sound, hold its anten- 
nules erect while intently listening for further 
developments. The mosquito hears by means 
of organs located in its hair-like legs. Some 
insects, the cricket, for example, can cer¬ 
tainly hear sounds pitched higher than the 
compass of the human ear. 

Sight. —In many animals the acuteness of 
vision is remarkable. Dogs can be taught to 
distinguish between variously colored cards. 
Insect-eating mammals have a well-developed 
color-sense. Bulls have a strong color antip¬ 
athy. Birds have the keenest sense of vision 
of all the animals. The swift will detect the 
minute insects that constitute its food as they 
crawl on the ground below. Even barn-yard 
fowls will detect with astonishing accuracy the 
difference between sand grains and crumbs of 
food. At near distances certain reptiles see 
with remarkable clearness. The chameleon is 
a striking example. Also frogs and toads use 
a keen sense of vision in capturing the insects 
they eat. Fish seem to be unable to distin¬ 
guish worms at a greater horizontal distance 
than four feet. Insects, especially those with 
compound eyes, can readily distinguish be¬ 
tween colors. John Lubbock found that if he 
brought a bee to some honey on a glass placed 
on a bit of blue paper, having also placed about 
three feet away some honey on a bit of glass 
over yellow paper, no matter how often the 
papers were changed or where placed, the bee 
would always come to the bit of honey that 


Animal Intelligence 

happened to be placed over the bit of blue 
paper. As Lubbock says, “No one can have 
the slightest doubt as to the bee accurately 
perceiving the difference between colors.” 
The water flea always prefers the yellows and 
greens to the blues and reds. In worms, eyes 
are sometimes present, but more frequently 
they are absent. In starfish, eyes frequently 
occur. In medusa they are found on the 
margin of the umbrella. In most of them, 
however, sight means merely the ability to 
distinguish between light and darkness. 

Muscle Sense. —The muscle sense is well 
developed in most animals. That is also true 
of the organic sense of hunger and thirst. Some 
animals also possess the sense of rotation. 

Memory. —Some persons are naturally slow, 
others quick, with respect to remembering 
and recalling past experiences. It does not 
follow that those who are slow are really 
inferior in mental power. Sharp, quick, 
ready boys and girls do not always make 
strong original thinkers. So some animals 
may seem to be very slow in exercising 
their powers of recollection, and yet stand 
^ather high in the scale of intelligence. In 
the first place it should be noticed that with 
animals as with men, those ideas that are 
associated with some strong feeling of pleasure 
or pain—ideas that are tinged with emotion— 
are those that are best remembered. Obser¬ 
vation plainly shows that some animals have 
remarkably tenacious memories. Even a very 
young chick once being stung by a hive bee 
will ever after avoid taking a bee into its bill, 
in this way manifesting a memory similar to 
that of a child, who after having been burnt, 
avoids the fire. Darwin’s dog recognized him 
on his return after a five years’ voyage round 
the world. Some dogs learn rapidly, but soon 
forget the tricks one has taught them. Circus- 
trained dogs are usually slow in learning, but 
are more valuable because they retain impres¬ 
sions so tenaciously. Captain Shipp gave. an 
elephant a sandwich of cayenne pepper. He 
then waited six weeks before again visiting the 
animal, and when he went into the stable he 
began to fondle the elephant, as had always 
been his custom. Watching his opportunity 
the elephant filled his trunk with water, and 
drenched the captain from head to foot. This 
seems to be an excellent example of definite 
memory of a specific occurrence. 

Reasoning. —Do animals reason? In at¬ 
tempting to answer this question we must 
clearly define what is meant by reasoning. As 
Morgan says, “If we apply the term ‘reason¬ 
ing’ to that process by which an animal, prof¬ 
iting by experience adapts his actions to some¬ 
what differing conditions, there can be no hes¬ 
itation in saying that animals do reason. ” We 
are also warranted in going further. Animals 
also draw inferences. You may have seen the 
horse you were driving make a start forward 
as he hears the whip drawn from the socket; he 
has an image of the pain caused by the sting 
of the lash even before feeling it again, and 
infers that if he does not trot faster he will 
feel the painful cut of the whip. Is the proc- 


Animal Worship 

ess going on in the mind of the horse very 
different from that of the school-boy who hears 
his teacher take the whip from its resting place 
over the blackboard? See how quickly he 
leaves off his misdemeanor, turns round in his 
seat, sits erect, seemingly focuses his attention 
on his lesson and looks innocent. I remember, 
when yet a boy, of strolling one morning along 
the banks of the White River at Indianapolis. 
Soon I noticed that a blind horse had wandered 
into the river, and, getting beyond his depth, 
was in danger of drowning; for he could not 
tell in which direction the shore lay. Men 
planning to save him were seeking for boats 
and a rope with which to go to his rescue. At 
this juncture a saddle horse which had been 
left standing in front of a store near the bank, 
hearing the piteous sounds of the blind horse, 
galloped to the water’s edge and then swam 
to the bewildered and struggling animal, tak¬ 
ing hold of the mane with his teeth, led the 
sinking horse to the opposite bank where it was 
easier to land than at the one whence he had 
come. This seems to me a mental process 
very akin to reasoning in man. 

The mental states of animals are more naive 
and not so interrelated and complex as our 
own, and can therefore be traced to their ori¬ 
gin and sources much better and more readily 
than is possible with our own activities. Mr. 
Romanes records an interesting observation of 
which one of his dogs was the subject, and 
which, since it is typical of its kind, we may 
here briefly consider. The dog was cowed 
by the sound of apples being rolled on the 
floor of the loft above the stable; but when 
Mr. Romanes took the dog up into the loft 
and let him see what was going on, he seemed 
not to be disquieted by the noise. In his index 
Mr. Romanes enters this under the heading, 
“Appreciation of cause by the dog. ” If 
the dog really perceived the relation of causa¬ 
tion as such, he had rational grounds for 
ceasing to be disquieted. Such illustrations 
as these, despite the severest criticism, seem 
to show a wonderful intelligence and even 
reasoning in animals. W. O. Krohn. 

Animals, Cruelty to, an offense against 
which societies have been formed and laws 
passed in England and other countries. The 
American society for its prevention owes its 
existence to the lifelong endeavors of Henry 
Bergh. 

Animal Worship, a practise found to pre¬ 
vail, or to have prevailed, in the most widely 
distant parts of the world, both the Old and 
the New, but nowhere to such an amazing ex¬ 
tent as in ancient Egypt, notwithstanding its 
high civilization. Nearly all the more impor¬ 
tant animals found in the country were re¬ 
garded as sacred in some part of Egypt, and 
the degree of reverence paid to them was such 
that throughout Egypt the killing of a hawk 
or an ibis, whether voluntary or not, was pun¬ 
ished with death. The worship, however, was 
not, except in a few instances, paid to them as 
actual deities. The animals were merely re¬ 
garded as sacred to the deities, and the wor¬ 
ship paid to them was symbolical. 


Anise 


Annealing 


Anise (an'is), an annual plant, a native of 
the Levant, and cultivated in Spain, France, 
Italy, Malta, etc., whence the fruit popularly 
called aniseed , is imported. It has an aromatic 
smell, and is largely employed to flavor liquors 
(aniseed or anisette), sweetmeats, etc. Star- 
anise is the fruit of an evergreen Asiatic tree, 
and is brought chiefly from China. An essen¬ 
tial oil is obtained from both kinds of anise, 
and is used in the preparation of cordials, for 
scenting soaps, etc. 

Anjou (an-zho), an ancient province of 
France, now forming the department of 
Maine-et-Loire, and parts of the departments 
of Indre-et-Loire, Mayenne, and Sarthe. Area 
about 3,000 sq. mi. In 1060 the province passed 
into the hands of the house of Gatinais, of 
which sprang Count Godfrey Y who, in 1127, 
married Matilda, daughter of Henry I of Eng¬ 
land, and so became the ancestor of the 
Plantagenet kings. Anjou remained in the 
possession of the English kings up to 1204, 
when John lost it to the French king Philip 
Augustus. In 1226 Louis VIII bestowed this 
province on his brother Charles; but in 1328 
it was remitted to the French crown. John 
I raised it to the rank of a ducal peerage, and 
gave it to his son Louis. Henceforth it re¬ 
mained separate from the French crown till 
1480, when it fell to Louis XI. 

Anna Comne na (1083-1148), daughter of 
Alexius Comnenus I, Byzantine emperor. 
After her father’s death she endeavored to se¬ 
cure the succession to her husband, Niceph- 
orus Briennius, but was baffled by his want 
of energy and ambition. She wrote (in Greek) 
a life of her father Alexius, which, in the 
midst of much fulsome panegyric, contains 
some valuable and interesting information. 
She forms a character in Sir Walter Scott’s 
Count Robert of Paris. 

Anna Ivanov na (1693-1740), empress of 
Russia; the daughter of Ivan, the elder half- 
brother of Peter the Great. She was married 
in 1710 to the Duke of Courland, in the follow¬ 
ing year was left a widow, and in 1730 as¬ 
cended the throne of the czars on the condition 
proposed by the senate, that she would limit 
the absolute power of the czars, and do noth¬ 
ing without the advice of the council com¬ 
posed of the leading members of the Russian 
aristocracy. But no sooner had she ascended 
the throne than she declared her promise null, 
and proclaimed herself autocrat of all the 
Russias. She chose as her favorite Ernest 
John von Biren (or Biron), who was soon all- 
powerful in Russia, and ruled with great 
severity. Several of the leading nobles were 
executed, and many thousand men exiled to 
Siberia. In 1737 Anna forced the Courlanders 
to choose Biren as their duke, and nominated 
him at her death regent of the empire during 
the minority of Prince Ivan (of Brunswick). 

Annap'olis, capital of Maryland, on the 
Severn, near its mouth in Chesapeake Bay. It 
contains a college (St. John’s), a state-house, 
and the U. S. naval academy. Pop. 8,402 

Annap'olis, a smalltown in Nova Scotia, 
on an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, with an im¬ 


portant herring-fishery. It is one of the oldest 
European settlements in America, dating from 
1604. 

Ann Arbor, Washtenaw co., Mich., on 
Huron ri.ver, 38 mi. w. of Detroit. Railroads: 
Michigan Central; Ann Arbor Ry. Industries: 
furniture factory, three flouring mills, two 
agricultural implement works. Surrounding 
country agricultural. It is the seat of the 
University of Michigan. Pop. 1900, 14,509. 

Annat to (Arnot'to), an orange-red coloring 
matter, obtained from the pulp surrounding 
the seeds of a shrub native to tropical America, 
and cultivated in Guiana, St. Domingo, and 
the East Indies. It is sometimes used as a dye 
for silk and cotton goods though it does not 
produce a very durable color, but it is much 
used in medicine for tinging plasters and oint¬ 
ments, and to a considerable extent by farmers 
for giving a rich color to cheese. 

Anne (1664-1714), Queen of Great Britain 
and Ireland, was born at Twickenham, near 
London. She was the second daughter of 
James II, then Duke of York, and Anne, his 
wife, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon. With 
her father’s permission she was educated ac¬ 
cording to the principles of the English Church. 
In 1683 she was married to Prince George, 
brother to King Christian Y of Denmark. On 
the arrival of the Prince of Orange in 1688, 
Anne wished to remain with her father; but 
she was prevailed upon by Lord Churchill 
(afterward Duke of Marlborough) and his wife 
to join the triumphant party. After the death 
of William III in 1702 she ascended the Eng¬ 
lish throne. Her character was essentially 
weak, and she was governed first by Marl¬ 
borough and his wife, and afterwards by Mrs. 
Masham. Most of the principal events of her 
reign are connected with the war of the Span¬ 
ish Succession. The only important acquisi¬ 
tion that England made by it was Gibraltar, 
which was captured in 1704. Another very 
important event of this reign was the union of 
England and Scotland under the name of 
Great Britain, which was accomplished in 1707. 
The reign of Anne was distinguished not only 
by the brilliant successes of the British arms, 
but also on account of the number of admi¬ 
rable and excellent writers who flourished at 
this time, among whom were Pope, Swift, and 
Addison. Anne bore her husband many chil¬ 
dren, all of whom died in infancy except one 
son, the Duke of Gloucester, who died at the 
age of twelve. 

Annealing (an-el'ing), a process to which 
many articles of metal and glass are subjected 
after making, in order to render them more 
tenacious, and which consists in heating them 
and allowing them to cool slowly. When the 
metals are worked by the hammer, or rolled 
into plates, or drawn into wire, they acquire a 
certain amount of brittleness, which destroys 
their usefulness and has to be remedied by 
annealing. The tempering of steel is one kind 
of annealing. Annealing is particularly em¬ 
ployed in glass-houses, and consists in putting 
the glass vessels, as soon as they are formed 
and while they are yet hot, into a furnace or 


Annecy 

oven, in which they are suffered to cool gradu¬ 
ally. The toughness is greatly increased by 
cooling the articles in oil. 

Annecy (an-se), an ancient town in France, 
department of Haule-Savoie, 21 mi. s. of Ge¬ 
neva; manufactures of cotton, leather, paper, 
and hardware. Pop. 9,144. 

Annel ida, an extensive division or class of 
articulate animals, so called because their 
bodies are formed of a great number of small 
rings. The earth-worm, the lobworm, the 
nereis, and the leech belong to this division. 

Anniston, a thriving town in Calhoun co., 
Ala', 15 mi. s.w. of Jacksonville. Iron mines 
and the works of the Woodstock Iron Co. are 
here. Pop. 9,695. 

Annobon' (or Annobom), a beautiful Span¬ 
ish island of western Africa, s. of the Bight 
of Biafra, about 4 mi. long by 2 mi. broad, 
and rising abruptly to the height of 3,000 feet, 
richly covered with vegetation. Pop. 3,000. 

Annonay (an-o-na), a town in southern 
France, department of Ardfcche, 37 mi. s.s.w. 
of Lyons. It is the most important town 
of Ardfcche, manufacturing paper and glove 
leather to a large extent, also cloth, felt, silk 
stuffs, gloves, hosiery, etc. There is an obelisk 
in memory of Joseph Montgolfier of balloon 
fame, a native of the town. Pop. 14,549. 

Annu'ity, a sum of money paid annually to 
a person and continuing either a certain num¬ 
ber of years, or for an uncertain period to be 
determined by a particular event, as the death 
of the recipient (or annuitant) or that of the 
party liable to pay the annuity; or the annu¬ 
ity may be perpetual. The payments are 
made at the end of each year, or semi-annu¬ 
ally, or at other periods. An annuity is 
usually raised by the present payment of a 
certain sum as a consideration whereby the 
party making the payment, or some other 
person named by him, becomes entitled to 
an annuity, and the rules and principles by 
which this present value is to be computed 
have been the subjects of careful investigation. 
The present value of a perpetual annuity is 
evidently a sum of money that will yield an 
interest equal to the annuity, and payable at 
the same periods; and an annuity of this de¬ 
scription, payable quarterly, will evidently be 
of greater value than one of the same amount 
payable annually, since the annuitant has the 
additional advantage of the interest on three 
of the quarterly payments until the expiration 
of the year. In other words, it requires a 
greater present capital to be put at interest to 
yield a given sum per annum, payable quar¬ 
terly, than to yield the same annual sum pay¬ 
able at the end of each year. The present 
value of an annuity for a limited period is a 
sum which, if put at interest, will at the end 
of that period give an amount equal to the 
sum of all the payments of the annuity and 
interest; and accordingly, if it be proposed to 
invest a certain sum of money in the purchase 
of an annuity, for a given number of years, 
the comparative value of the two may be pre¬ 
cisely estimated, the rate of interest being 
given. But annuities for uncertain periods, 


AnquetiNDuperron 

and particularly life annuities, are more fre¬ 
quent, and the value of the annuity is com¬ 
puted according to the probable duration of 
the life by which, it is limited. Such annu¬ 
ities are often created by contract, whereby 
the government or a private annuity office 
agrees, for a certain sum advanced by the pur¬ 
chaser, to pay a certain sum in yearly, quar¬ 
terly, or other periodical payments, to the 
person advancing the money, or to some other 
named by him, during the life of the annui¬ 
tant. Or the annuity may be granted to the 
annuitant during the life of some other person, 
or during two or more joint lives, or during 
the life of the longest liver or survivor among 
a number of persons named. If a person hav¬ 
ing a certain capital, and intending to spend 
this capital and the income of it during his 
own life, coqld know precisely how long he 
should live, he might lend this capital at a 
certain rate during his life, and by taking 
every year, besides the interest, a certain 
amount of the capital, he might secure the 
same annual amount for his support during 
his life in such manner that he should have 
the same sum to spend every year, and con¬ 
sume precisely his whole capital during his 
life. But since he does not know how long he 
is to live, he agrees with the government or an 
annuity office to take the risk of the duration of 
his life, and the office agrees to pay him a cer¬ 
tain annuity during his life in exchange for 
the capital which he proposes to invest in this 
way. The probable duration of his life there¬ 
fore becomes a subject of computation; and 
for the purpose of making this calculation, 
tables of longevity are made by noting the 
proportions of deaths at certain ages in the 
same country or district. In the U. S. the 
granting of annuities is conducted by private 
companies or corporations. The following are 
the approved rates of the best managed com¬ 
panies: In consideration of $1,000 paid to a 
company the annuity granted to a person aged 
40 would be $52.75; aged 45, $58.10; aged 50, 
$64.70; aged 55, $73.50; aged 60, $86.20; aged 
65, $100; aged 70, $123.45; aged 75, $145.95; 
aged 80, $180.15. The purchase of annuities, 
as a system, has never gained much foothold 
in the U. S.—the endowment plan of life in¬ 
surance, by which after the lapse of a term of 
years the insured receives a sum in bulk, being 
preferred. In England the granting of annui¬ 
ties is conducted by the government. 

An'ode, the positive pole of the voltaic 
current, being that part of the surface of a de¬ 
composing body which the electric current 
enters; opposed to cathode, the way by which 
it departs. 

Anquetil = Duperron (ank-tel-du-pa-ron), 
Abraham Hyacinthe (1731-1805), a French 
Orientalist. His zeal for the Oriental lan¬ 
guages induced him to set out for India, 
where he prevailed on some of the Parsee 
priests to instruct him in the Zend and 
Pehlevi and to give him some of the Zoroastrian 
books. In 1762 he returned to France with a 
valuable collection of MSS. In 1771 he pub¬ 
lished his Zend-Avesta, a translation of the 


Ansgar 


Ant 


Vendidad, and other sacred books, which ex¬ 
cited great sensation. His knowledge of the 
Oriental languages was by no means exact. 

Ans'gar (or Anshar) (801-805), called the 
“Apostle of the North,” was born in Picardy, 
and took the monastic vows while still in his 
boyhood. In the midst of many difficulties he 
labored as a missionary in Denmark and Swe¬ 
den; obtaining the reputation of having under¬ 
taken, if not the first, the most successful at¬ 
tempts for the propagation of Christianity in 
the North. 

An'son, George,Lord (1097-1762), celebrated 
English navigator. He entered the navy at 
an early age and became a commander in 1722, 
and captain in 1724. His adventures and dis¬ 
coveries are described in the well-known An- 
non's Voyage , compiled from materials fur¬ 
nished by Anson. 

Ansoma, New Haven co., Conn., on Nauga¬ 
tuck River, 12 mi. n.w. of New Haven. Rail¬ 
roads: Naugatuck and Berkshire division, 
consolidated system. Industries: iron foun¬ 
dry, brass and copper foundry, clock, eyelet, 
dial factories, and other smaller industries. 
Surrounding country agricultural. Was first 
settled about 1845 and became a city about 
1890. Pop. 1900, 12,681. 

Anspach (an'spaA) (or Ansbach), a town in 
Bavaria, 24 mi. s.w. of Niirnberg, Anspach 
gave its name to an ancient principality or 
rnargravate, which had a territory of about 
1,300 sq. mi., with 300,000 inhabitants, in the 
end of the eighteenth century. The last mar¬ 
grave sold his possessions in 1791 to Prussia. 
It was occupied by the French in 1806, and 
transferred by Napoleon to Bavaria. The town 
has manufactures of trimmings, buttons, 
straw-wares, etc. Pop. 14,195. 

Ant, the common name of membranous¬ 
winged insects of various genera, found in 
most temperate and tropical regions. They 
are small but powerful insects, and have long 
been noted for their remarkable intelligence 
and interesting habits. They live in com¬ 
munities regulated by definite laws, each 
member of the society bearing a well-defined 
and separate part of the work of the colony. 
Each community consists of males; of females 
much larger than the males; and of barren 
females, otherwise called neuters, workers, or 
nurses. The neuters are wingless, and the 
males and females only acquire wings for 
their “nuptial flight,” after which the males 
perish, and the few females which escape the 
pursuit of their numerous enemies, divest 
themselves of their wings, and either return 
to establish nests, or become the foundresses 
of new colonies. The neuters perform all the 
labors of the ant-hill or abode of the commu¬ 
nity; they excavate the galleries, procure food, 
and feed the larvae or young ants, which are 
destitute of organs of motion. In fine weather 
they carefully convey them to the surface for 
the benefit of the sun’s heat, and as attentively 
carry them to a place of safety either when 
bad weather is threatened, or the ant-hill is 
disturbed. In like manner they watch over 
the safety of the nymphs or pupae about to 


acquire their perfect growth. Some com¬ 
munities possess a special type of neuters, 
known as “soldiers,” from the duties that 
especially fall upon them, and from their 
powerful biting jaws. There is a very consid¬ 
erable variety in the materials, size, and form 
of ant-hills, or nests, according to the peculiar 
nature or instinct of the species. Most of 
American ants form nests in woods, fields, or 
gardens, their abodes being generally in the 
form of small mounds rising above the surface 
of the ground and containing numerous gal¬ 
leries and apartments. Some excavate nests 
in old tree trunks. Houses built by the com¬ 
mon wood-ant are frequently as large as a 
small hay-cock. Some ants live on animal 
food, very quickly picking quite clean the 
skeleton of any dead animal they may light 
on. Others live on saccharine matter, being 
very fond of the sweet substance called honey- 
dew, which exudes from the bodies of Aphi¬ 
des, or plant-lice. These they sometimes 
keep in their nests, and sometimes tend on 
the plants where they feed; sometimes they 
even superintend their breeding. By stroking 
the Aphides with their antennae they cause 
them to emit the sweet fluid, which the ants 
then greedily sip up. Various other insects 
are looked after by ants in a similar manner, 
or are found in their nests. It has been ob¬ 
served that some species, like the Sanguinary 
Ant, resort to violence to obtain working ants 
of other species for their own use, plundering 
the nests of suitable kinds of their larvae and 
pupae, which they carry off to their own nests 
to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. In 
temperate countries male and female ants 
survive, at most, till autumn, or to the com¬ 
mencement of cool weather, though a very 
large proportion of them cease to exist long 
previous to that time. The neuters pass the 
winter in a state of torpor, and of course re¬ 
quire no food. The only time when they require 
food is during the season of activity, when 
they have a vast number of young to feed. 
Some ants of Southern Europe feed on grain, 
and store it up in their nests for use when re¬ 
quired. Some species have stings as weapons, 
others only their powerful mandibles, or an 
acrid and pungent fluid (formic acid) which 
they can emit. The name ant is also given to 
the neuropterous insects otherwise called 
Termites. 

There is a family of ants which pays par¬ 
ticular funeral honors to the dead. Whenever 
one of their number is found dead the whole 
number of occupants of the ant-hill is notified, 
and they turn out en masse to convey the 
deceased member to his last resting-place. 
They proceed slowly two-by-two to the place 
where the dead is lying. Two ants take up 
the dead one and march off, followed by two 
others as mourners. These two empty-handed 
followers relieve their fellows in advance, the 
latter following behind in the place of those 
who relieve them, continuing to alternate from 
time to time. When they have reached the 
place of burial, about half the number take 
part in digging the grave. The dead body is 



mWm 

'Mwm 


mmmm 


S8lm#l 


Beautiful Goat. )• 5* Cephalophus or Bushbuek. 6. 6 Cephalophus or fierce bushbuck 






































































































































































































Antaeus 

laid in and the other half of the ants cover ii 
up. In one instance which was observed, 
about a half dozen ants did not take part 
in the ceremonies, standing idly by, and on 
these the others fell and killed them, and bur¬ 
ied them, not in separate graves, but all in 
one large pit. The ants then all paired off, 
marched back to the place where they found 
tvie dead, and after a few minutes, retired to 
their own habitations. 

There is another peculiar ant known as the 
umbrella or parasol ant on account of the cu¬ 
rious habit it has of carrying a leaf in its 
mouth. The stem of the leaf is held in the 



Umbrella Ant. 


mouth, and the palm extends back over the 
head. These leaves are employed in house 
building. In the accompanying illustration 
is shown an umbrella ant on the march. 

Antae'us, the giant son of Poseidon (Nep¬ 
tune) and Ge (the Earth), who was invincible 
so long as he was in contact with the earth. 
Heracles (Hercules) grasped him in his arms 
and stifled him suspended in the air. 

Antananarivo (an-tan-an-a-re'-vo), the capi¬ 
tal of Madagascar. It contained two royal pal¬ 
aces, immense timber structures, one of which 
has been lately surrounded with a massive 
stone veranda with lofty corner towers. It has 
manufactures of metal work, cutlery, silk, 
etc., and exports sugar, soap, and oil. Pop. 
about 100,000. 

Antarctic (ant-ark'tik), relating to. the 
southern pole or to the region near it. The 
Antarctic Circle is a circle parallel to the equa¬ 
tor and distant from the south, pole 23° 28', 
marking the area within which the sun does 
not set when on the Tropic of Capricorn. The 
Antarctic Circle has been arbitrarily fixed on 
as the limits of the Antarctic Ocean, it being 
the average limit of the pack-ice; but the 
name is often extended to embrace a much 
wider area. The lands in or near the Antarc¬ 
tic Circle are but imperfectly known, the work 
of exploration having been hitherto baffled by 
what seems an unsurmountable ice-barrier. 
Sir James Ross reached the highest south lati¬ 
tude yet attained in 1841-42, discovering Vic¬ 
toria Land, with its volcanoes, Erebus (12,400 


Antenn® 

ft.) and Terror (10,000 ft.). The South Shet¬ 
land Islands, Enderby Land, Graham’s Land, 
etc., have also been discovered in this ocean. 

Ant=eater, a name given to mammals of va¬ 
rious genera that prey chiefly on ants, but usu- 



Great Ant-eater. 


ally confined to one genus of the toothless 
order. In this genus the head is remarkably 
elongated, the jaws destitute of teeth, and the 
mouth furnished with a long extensile tongue 
covered with glutinous saliva, by the aid of 
which the animals secure their insect prey. 
The eyes are particularly small, the ears 
short and round, and the legs, especially the 
anterior, very robust, and furnished with 
long, compressed, acute nails, admirably 
adapted for breaking into the ant-hills. The 
most remarkable species is the ant-bear, a na¬ 
tive of the warmer parts of South America. 
It is from 4 to 5 feet in length from the tip of 
the muzzle to the origin of the black bushy 
tail, which is about two feet long. The body 
is covered with long hair, particularly along 
the neck and back. It is a harmless and soli¬ 
tary animal, and spends most of its time in 
sleep. Some are adapted for climbing trees in 
quest of the insects on which they feed, hav¬ 
ing prehensile tails. All are natives of South 
America. The name ant-eater is also given to 
the pangolins and to the aardvark. The 
echidna of Australia is sometimes called por¬ 
cupine ant-eate)\ 

An'telope, the name given to the members 
of a large family of Mammalia, closely re¬ 
sembling the deer in general appearance, but 
essentially different in nature from the latter 
animals. They are included with the sheep 
and oxen in the family of the Cavicornia or 
“ hollow-horned” ruminants. Their horns, un¬ 
like those of the deer, are not deciduous, but 
are permanent; are never branched, but are 
often twisted spirally, and may be borne by 
both sexes. They are found in greatest num¬ 
ber and variety in Africa. Well-known species 
are the chamois (European), the gazelle, the 
addax, the eland, the koodoo, the gnu, the 
springbok, the sasin or Indian antelope, and 
the prongbuck of America. 

Antenn® (or feelers), the anterior append¬ 
ages on the head of crustaceans, insects, and 
myriapods. The lobster has two pairs of feel¬ 
ers, while insects and myriapods have only 
one pair. The name may also be applied to 
sensory processes on the head of some marine 
worms. They are really “head-legs” modified 
for sensory purposes, and consist of a long 



Antequera 


Anthropoid Apes 


series of joints, sometimes over 100 in number. 
They are supplied with nerve branches, and 
are used by the animals for feeling their way, 
for testing surrounding objects, and apparently 
for communicating with one another. The 
olfactory function of the antennae of the cock¬ 
roach has been demonstrated, but some in¬ 
sects can smell their food even when robbed of 
their feelers. The smelling bristles of the 
blowfly occur very abundantly on the third 



joint of the antennae. Peculiar sensory cones 
and knobs occur on the antennae of some 
myriapods. The small antennae of the lobster 
bear olfactory bristles, and have an ear lodged 
at the base. And in short there are numerous 
observations to justify the general statement 
that in many cases the antennae are sensitive 
lo smell, sound, and probably taste. Deprived 
of its antennae, an ant, for instance, is pecul¬ 
iarly helpless. ■ 

Antequera (an-te-ka'ra), a city of An¬ 
dalusia, in Spain, in the province of Malaga, 
a place of some importance under the Romans, 
with a ruined Moorish castle. Manufactures 
of woolens, leather, soap, etc. Pop. 27,201. 

Ant'eros, in Greek mythology, the god of 
mutual love. According to some, however, 
Anteros is the enemy of love, or the god of 
antipathy; he was also said to punish those 
who did not return the love of others. 

Anthe'mius, a Greek mathematician and 
architect of Lydia; designed the church of St. 
Sophia at Constantinople, and is credited with 
the invention of the dome; d. a. d. 534. 

Aaithol'ogy, the name given to several 
collections of short poems which have come 
down from antiquity. The first who compiled 
a Greek Anthology was Meleager, a Syrian, 
about 60 b. c. Later collections are that of 
Constantine Cephalas, in the tenth century, 
and that of Maximus Planudes, in the four¬ 
teenth century. There are also Arabic, Per¬ 
sian, Turkish, etc., anthologies. 

An'thon, Charles, LL.D. (1797-1867), an 
American editor of classical school-books, and 
of works intended to facilitate the study of 


Greek and Latin literature. He was long a 
professor in Columbia College, New York. 

An'thony, Henry Bowen (1815-1884), born 
in Coventry, R. I. He graduated in 1833 at 
Brown University, and edited the Providence 
Journal from 1838 to 1859. He was governor of 
Rhode Island, 1849-1851, and in 1859 was 
elected as a Republican to the U. S. Senate. 
He was four times re-elected to the Senate, 
and was chosen president pro tem. of that body 
in 1863, 1869, and 1871. 

An'thony, Susan B., b. 1820, in South Ad¬ 
ams, Mass.; became an anti-slavery and total- 
abstinence orator and an advocate of female 
suffrage. 

An'thracite, glance or blind coal, a non- 
bituminous coal of a shining luster, approach¬ 
ing to metallic, and which burns without 
smoke, with a weak or no flame, and with in¬ 
tense heat. See Coal. 

An'thrax, a fatal disease to which cattle, 
horses, sheep, and other animals are subject, 
always associated with the presence of an ex¬ 
tremely minute micro-organism in the blood. 
It frequently assumes an epizootic form, and 
extends over large districts, affecting all 
classes of animals which are exposed to the 
exciting causes. It is also called splenic fever, 
and is communicable to man, appearing as 
carbuncle, malignant pustule, or wool- 
sorter’s disease. 

Anthropoid Apes, the highest and most man¬ 
like monkeys, including Gorilla, Chimpanzee, 
Orang-utan, Gibbon, and several other species. 
They are technically described by the 
Linnman title Anthropomorpha, and readily 
distinguished, as tailless, semi-erect, and 
long-armed, from the dog-like apes, which 
have also a narrow partition between the nos¬ 
trils, and also inhabit the Old World. With 
the decidedly lower flat-nosed New-World 
monkeys, there is no possibility of confusion. 
The anthropoid apes are all arboreal, and in¬ 
habit Africa, Southeastern Asia, and the Malay 
Archipelago. In all, about a dozen species 
have been described with more or less definite¬ 
ness. The family is of special interest and im¬ 
portance in connection with the views held by 
evolutionists as to the descent of man. It is 
recognized by anatomists that all the attempts 
to establish a fundamental distinction, on an¬ 
atomical grounds, between the physical struc¬ 
ture of the higher apes and that of man are 
futile. Generic differences, indeed, there are 
in abundance, but these establish only a 
difference of degree, and not of kind. Thus, 
in man, the great toe is not opposable to the 
others for grasping purposes, the angle 
between the face and the top of the skull does 
not exceed 120°, the teeth form an uninter¬ 
rupted series, and so on ; while the strong 
spines on the back of the gorilla’s neck, the 
very marked eyebrow ridges in gorilla and 
chimpanzee, the especially long arms of the 
gibbon, and the protruding jaws of all the 
anthropoids, are equally characteristic adapta¬ 
tions to different ways of life. Even in the 
minutiae of blood-vessels, muscles, nerves, and 
brain-convolutions, impartial observers have 









Anthropology 

demonstrated the closest resemblance. The 
difference of structure between the lowest 
monkeys and the higher are far greater than 
those between man and any anthropoid ape, 
the resemblance being especially obvious when 
young forms are compared. In their ex¬ 
pressions of cerebral activity, whether in¬ 
tellectual or emotional, the anthropoids come 
in some respects very near the lowest human 
tribes. 

On the other hand, while it is impossible to 
establish any fundamental distinction in phys¬ 
ical structure between Homo and the An- 
thropomorpha, there is among evolutionists an 
equal consensus of opinion as to the impossi- 


Antigonus 

bolical, mentioned or alluded to in various 
other passages both of the Old and New 
Testament 

Anticosti, an island of Canada, in the 
mouth of the St. Lawrence, 125 mi. long by 30 
mi. broad. The interior is mountainous and 
wooded, but there is much good land, and it is 
well adapted for agriculture. The fisheries 
are valuable. The population is scanty, how¬ 
ever. 

Antietam (an-te'tam), a small stream in 
Maryland which falls into the Potomac about 
50 mi. n.w. of Washington; scene of a battle 
between the Federal and Confederate armies, 
Sept. 17, 1862. The Union army numbered 




Skeletons of Anthropoid Apes Compared with that of Man. 


bility of regarding an ape of any existing 
anthropoid species as in the direct line of 
human ancestry. As regards brain-structure, 
the most man-like ape is the orang, while the 
chimpanzee has the most closely related skull, 
the gorilla the most human feet and hands, the 
gibbon the most similar chest. The study of 
anthropoid fossils has not yet discovered the 
remains of any form which can be accepted as 
the “ missing link,” although extinct anthro¬ 
poids, such as Dryopithecus, unquestionably 
serve to lessen the distance to be bridged over. 

Anthropology, the science of man and 
mankind, including the study of man’s place 
in nature, that is, of the measure of his agree¬ 
ment with and divergence from other animals; 
of his physical structure and psychological 
nature, together with the extent to which 
these act and react on each other; and of the 
various tribes of men, determining how these 
may have been produced or modified by ex¬ 
ternal conditions, and consequently taking 
account also of the advance or retrogression 
of the human race. It puts under contribu¬ 
tion all sciences which have man for their 
object, as archaeology, comparative anatomy, 
physiology, psychology, climatology, etc. See 
Ethnology. 

Antichrist, a word occurring in the first 
and second epistles of St. John, and nowhere 
else in Scripture, in passages having an evi¬ 
dent reference to a personage, real or sym- 
9 


87,000 under General McClellan while Gen. 
R. E. Lee commanded some 70,000 Confed¬ 
erate soldiers. After two days’ fighting the 
Confederates asked for an armistice to bury 
their dead and then retreated across the Po¬ 
tomac. The Union loss was about 12,500 
killed, wounded, and missing, while the Con¬ 
federates, having the advantage of shelter in 
the woods, lost about 9,000. 

Antifriction Metal, a name given to various 
alloys of tin, zinc, copper, antimony, lead, etc., 
which oppose little resistance to motion, with 
great resistance to the effects of friction, so 
far as concerns the wearing away of the sur¬ 
faces of contact. Babbitt’s metal (50 parts tin, 
5 antimony, 1 copper) is one of them. 

Antigone (an-tig'o-ne), in Greek mythology, 
the daughter of CEdipus and Jocasta, cele¬ 
brated for her devotion to her father and to her 
brother Polynices, for burying whom, against 
the decree of King Creon, she suffered death. 
She is heroine of Sophocles’s CEdipus at Colo- 
nus and his Antigone; also of Racine’s trag¬ 
edy, Les Freres Ennemis. 

Antig'onish, a town in the e. of Nova Sco¬ 
tia, in county of the same name; the seat of 
a Roman Catholic bishop, with a cathedral, 
a college, and a good harbor. Pop. 3,500. 

Antig'onus, one of the generals of Alexan¬ 
der the Great, born about 382 b. c. After the 
death of Alexander, Antigonus obtained 
Greater Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphylia as 









Antigua 

his dominion. Ptolemy, Cassander, and Ly- 
simachus, alarmed by his ambition, united 
themselves against him; and a long series of 
contests ensued in Syria, Phoenicia, Asia 
Minor, and Greece, ending in 301 b. c. with the 
battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, in which Antigonus 
was defeated and slain.— Antigonus Gon'atas, 
son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and grandson of 
the above, succeeded his father in the king¬ 
dom of Macedon and all his other European 
dominions; died after a reign of forty-four 
years, b. c. 239. 

Antigua (an-te'ga), one of the British West 
Indies, the most important of the Leeward 
group. Area 108 sq. mi. Discovered by Co¬ 
lumbus, 1493. Its shores are high and rocky; 
the surface is varied and fertile. The capi¬ 
tal, St. John, the residence of the governor of 
the Leeward Islands, stands on the shore of a 
well-sheltered harbor in the n. w. part of the 
island. The staple articles of export are sugar, 
molasses, and rum. Pop. (including Barbuda), 
34,964. 

Anti=Lebanon, the eastern of the two par¬ 
allel ranges known as the Mountains of Leba¬ 
non in Palestine. 

An' timony, a brittle metal of a bluish-white 
or silver-white color, and a crystalline or lam¬ 
inated structure. It melts at 842° F., and 
burns with a bluish-white llame. The min¬ 
eral called stibnite or antimony-glance, is a 
tri-sulphide, and is the chief ore from which 
the metal is obtained. It is found in many 
places, including Mexico, France, Spain, Hun¬ 
gary, Italy, Canada, Australia, and Borneo. 
The metal, or as it was formerly called, the 
regulus of antimony , does not rust or tarnish 
when exposed to the air. When alloyed with 
other metals it hardens them, and is therefore 
used in the manufacture of alloys, such as 
Britannia-metal, type-metal, and pewter. In 
bells it renders the sound more clear; it ren¬ 
ders tin more white and sonorous as well as 
harder, and gives to printing types more firm¬ 
ness and smoothness. The salts of antimony 
are very poisonous. The protoxide is the 
active base of tartar emetic and James’s pow¬ 
der, and is justly regarded as a most valuable 
remedy in many diseases. Yellow antimony is 
a. preparation of antimony of a deep yellow 
color, used in enamel and porcelain painting. 
It is of various tints, and the brilliancy of the 
brighter hues is not affected by foul air. 

Antino'mianisin (“opposition to the law”), 
the name given by Luther to the inference 
drawn by John Agricola from the doctrine of 
justification by faith, that the moral law is not 
binding on Christians as a rule of life. The 
term antinomian has since been applied to all 
doctrines and practises which seem to condemn 
or discountenance strict moral obligations. 
The Lutherans and Calvinists have both been 
charged with antinomianism; the former on 
account of their doctrine of justification by 
faith, the latter both on this ground and that 
of the doctrine of predestination. The charge 
is, of course, vigorously repelled by both. 

Antinous (an-tin'o-us), a young Bithynian 
whom the extreme love of Hadrian has im- 


Antipope 

mortalized. He drowned himself in the Nile 
in 122 a. d. Hadrian set no bounds to his grief 
for his loss. He gave his name to a newly- 
discovered star, erected temples to his honor, 
called a city after him, and caused him to be 
adored as a god throughout the empire. Stat¬ 
ues, busts, etc., of him are numerous. 

Antioch (an'ti-ok), a famous city of ancient 
times, the capital of the Greek kings of Syria, 
on the left bank of Orontes, about 21 mi. 
from the sea, in a beautiful and fertile plain; 
founded by Seleucus Nicator in 300 b. c., and 
named after his father Antiochus. In Roman 
times it was the seat of the Syrian governors, 
and the center of a widely-extended commerce. 
It was called the “Queen of the East,” and 
“The Beautiful.” Antioch is frequently men¬ 
tioned in the New Testament, and it was here 
that the disciples of our Saviour were first 
called Christians (Acts 11 : 26). In the first half 
of the seventh century it was taken by the Sar¬ 
acens, and in 1098 by the Crusaders. They es¬ 
tablished the principality of Antioch, of which 
the first ruler was Bohemond, and which lasted 
till 1268, when it was taken* by the Mameluke 
sultan of Egypt. In 1516 it passed into the 
hands of the Turks. The modern Antioch, or 
Antakieh, occupies but a small portion of the 
site of the ancient Antioch. Pop. est. 10,000. 
There was another Antioch, in Pisidia, at 
which Paul preached on his first missionary 
journey. 

Antiochus (an-ti'o-kus), a name of several 
Grreco-Syrian kings of the dynasty of the Se- 
leucidae, .who reigned b. c. 324-164. 

Antioquia (an-te-o-ke' a), a town of South 
America, in Colombia, on the River Cauca; 
founded in 1542. Pop. 10,000. It gives name 
to a department of the republic. Area 22,316 
sq. mi.; pop. 365,974. Capital, Medellin. 

Antip'ater, a general and friend of Philip 
of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. 
On the death of Alexander, in 323 b. c., the 
regency of Macedonia was assigned to Antipa¬ 
ter, who succeeded in establishing the Mace¬ 
donian rule in Greece on a firm footing. He 
died in b. c. 317 at an advanced age. 

An'tiphon, a Greek orator, born near 
Athens; founder of political oratory in Greece. 
His orations are the oldest extant, and he is 
said to have been the first who wrote speeches 
for hire. He was put to death for taking part 
in the revolution of b. c. 411, which established 
the oligarchic government of the Four Hun¬ 
dred. 

An tipope, the name applied to those who 
at different periods have produced a schism in 
the Catholic Church by opposing the authority 
of the pope, under the pretense that they were 
themselves popes. The Roman Church cannot 
.admit that there ever existed two popes; but 
the fact is, that in several cases both competi¬ 
tors for the papal chair (sometimes there were 
three or even four) were equally popes; that is 
to say, the claims of all were equally good. 
Each was frequently supported by whole na¬ 
tions, and the schism was nothing but the 
struggle of political interests, which induced 
particular governments to support a pope 


Antlsana 

against the pope supported by other govern¬ 
ments. The greatest schism of this kind 
lasted for fifty years — 1378-1429. 

Antisana (an-te-sa'na), a volcano in the 
Andes of Ecuador, 35 mi. e.s.e. of Quito. 
Whymper, who ascended it in 1880, makes its 
height 19,260 feet. 

Antiseptic (to rot), an agent by which the 
putrefaction of vegetable or animal matter is 
prevented or arrested. There are a great num¬ 
ber of substances having this preservative prop¬ 
erty, among which are salt, alcohol, vege¬ 
table charcoal, creosote, corrosive sublimate, 
tannic acid, sulphurous acid, sulphuric ether, 
chloroform, arsenic, wood-spirit, aloes, cam¬ 
phor, benzine, aniline, etc. The packing of 
fish in ice, and the curing of herring and 
other fish with salt, are familiar antiseptic 
processes. The different antiseptics act in 
different ways. The term is applied in a 
specific manner to that mode of treatment 
in surgery by which air is excluded from 
wounds, or allowed access only through 
substances capable of destroying the germs 
in the atmosphere on whose presence sup¬ 
puration is assumed to depend. 

Ant=Iion, the larva of a Neuropterous 
insect which in its perfect state greatly 
resembles a dragon-fly; curious on account 
of its ingenious method of catching the 
insects — chiefly ants — on which it feeds. 
It digs a funnel-shaped hole in the driest 



Ant-lion. 


and finest sand it can find, and when the 
pit is deep enough, and the sides are quite 
smooth and sloping, it buries itself at the 
bottom with only its formidable mandibles 
projecting, and waits till some luckless in¬ 
sect stumbles over the edge, when it is 
immediately seized, its juices sucked, and 
the dead body jerked from the hole. 

Antofagas'ta, a Chilean seaport on the 
Bay of Morena; and a territory of the same 
name recently taken from Bolivia. The 
territory has an area of 60,988 sq. mi., and a 
pop. of 21,213. The port is connected by rail¬ 
way with the silver mines of Caracoles, and 


Antoninus 

exports silver, copper, cubic niter, etc. Pop. 
7,946. 

Antoinette (an-twa-net), Marie (Marie An¬ 
toinette Joseph Jeanne de Lorraine) (1755- 
1793), Archduchess of Austria and Queen of 
France, the youngest daughter of the Emperor 
Francis I and of Maria Theresa, was born at 
Vienna, executed at Paris. She was married 
at the age of fifteen to the Dauphin, afterward 
Louis XVI, but her manners were ill-suited to 
the French court, and she made many enemies 
among the highest families by her contempt 
for its ceremonies, which excited her ridicule. 
The freedom of her manners, indeed, even 
after she became queen, was a cause of scan¬ 
dal. The extraordinary affair of the diamond 
necklace, in which the Cardinal Louis de 
Rohan, the great quack Cagliostro, and a cer¬ 
tain Countess de Lamotte were the chief 
actors, tarnished her name, and added force 
to the calumnies against her. Though it was 
proved in the examination which she de¬ 
manded that she had never ordered the neck¬ 
lace, her enemies succeeded in casting a 
stigma on her, and the credulous people laid 
every public disaster to her charge. There is 
no doubt she had great influence over the king, 
and that she constantly opposed all measures 
of reform. The enthusiastic reception given 
her at the guard’s ball at Versailles on Oct. 1, 
1789, raised the general indignation to the 
highest pitch, and was followed in a few days 
by the insurrection of women, and the attack 
on Versailles. When practically prisoners in 
the Tuileries it was she who advised the flight 
of the royal family in June, 1791, which ended 
in their capture and return. On Aug. 10, 
1792, she heard her husband’s deposition pro¬ 
nounced by the Legislative Assembly, and ac¬ 
companied him to the prison in the Temple, 
where she displayed the magnanimity of a 
heroine and the patient endurance of a mar¬ 
tyr. In January, 1793, she parted with her 
husband who had been condemned by the 
Convention; in August she was removed to 
the Conciergerie; and in October she was 
charged before the revolutionary tribunal with 
having dissipated the finances, exhausted the 
treasury, corresponded with the foreign ene¬ 
mies of France, and favored the domestic 
foes of the country. She defended herself 
with firmness, decision, and indignation; and 
heard the sentence of death pronounced with 
perfect calmness — a calmness which did not 
forsake her when the sentence was carried out 
the following morning. Her son, eight years 
of age, died shortly afterward, as was gen¬ 
erally believed by poison, and her daughter 
was suffered to quit France, and afterward 
married her cousin, the Duke of Angoulgme. 

Antonell 'o (of Messina), an Italian painter 
who died in the end of the sixteenth century, 
and is said to have introduced oil-painting 
into Italy (at Venice), having been instructed 
in it by John Van Eyck. 

Antoni'nus, Wall of, a barrier erected 
by the Romans across the isthmus between 
the Forth and the Clyde, in Scotland, in the . 
reign of Antoninus Pius. Its whole length 










Antoninus Pius 


Antwerp 


exceeded 27 miles. It may still be traced at 
various points, and is commonly known as 
Graham's Dyke. 

Antoni nus Pius, Titus Aurelius Fulvus 
(86-161 a. d.), Roman emperor. In a. d. 120 
he became consul, and he was one of the 
four persons of consular rank among whom 
Hadrian divided the supreme administration 
of Italy. He then went as proconsul to Asia. 
In a. d. 138 he was selected by that emperor 
as his successor, and the same year he as¬ 
cended the throne. The persecutions of the 
Christians he speedily abolished. He carried 
on but a few wars. In Britain he extended 
the Roman dominion, and by raising a new 
wall put a stop to the invasions of the Piets 
and Scots. The senate gave him the surname 
Pius, that is, dutiful or showing filial affection, 
because to keep alive the memory of Hadrian 
he had built a temple in his honor. He was 
succeeded by Marcus Aurelius, his adopted 
son. 

Antony, Mark (Marcus Antonius) (b. c. 
83-30), Roman triumvir, was connected with 
the family of Caesar by his mother. Debauch¬ 
ery and prodigality marked his youth. To es¬ 
cape his creditors he went to Greece in 58, and 
from thence followed the consul Gabinius on a 
campaign in Syria as commander of the cav¬ 
alry. He served in Gaul under Caesar in 52 
and 51. In 50 he returned to Rome to support 
the interests of Caesar against the aristocratical 
party headed by Pompey, and was appointed 
tribune. When war broke out between Caesar 
and Pompey, Antony led reinforcements to 
Caesar in Greece, and in the battle of Pharsalia 
he commanded the left wing. He afterward 
returned to Rome with the appointment of 
master of the horse and governor of Italy (47). 
In b. c. 44 he became Caesar’s colleague in the 
consulship. Soon after, Caesar was assassina¬ 
ted, and Antony would have shared the same 
fate had not Brutus stood up in his behalf. 
Antony, by the reading of Caesar’s will, and by 
the oration which he delivered over his body, 
excited the people to anger and revenge, ancl 
the murderers were obliged to flee. After 
several quarrels and reconciliations with Oc- 
tavianus, Caesar’s heir, Antony departed to 
Cisalpine Gaul, which province had been con¬ 
ferred upon him against the will of the senate. 
But Cicero thundered against him in his fa¬ 
mous Philippics; the senate declared him a 
public enemy, and intrusted the conduct of 
the war against him to Octavianus and the 
consuls Hirtius and Pansa. After a campaign 
of varied fortunes Antony fled with his troops 
over the Alps. Here he was joined by Lepidus, 
who commanded in Gaul, and through whose 
mediation Antony and Octavianus were again 
reconciled. It was agreed that the Roman 
world should be divided among the three con¬ 
spirators, who were called triumvirs. Antony 
was to take Gaul; Lepidus, Spain; and Oc¬ 
tavianus, Africa and Sicily. They decided 
upon the proscription of their mutual enemies, 
each giving up his friends to the others, the 
most celebrated of the victims being Cicero 
the orator. Antony and Octavianus departed 


in 42 for Macedonia, where the united forces 
of their enemies, Brutus and Cassius, formed 
a powerful army, which was, however, speed¬ 
ily defeated at Philippi. Antony next visited 
Athens, and thence proceeded to Asia. In Ci¬ 
licia he ordered Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, to 
apologize for her insolent behavior to the 
triumviri. She appeared in person, and her 
charms fettered him forever. He followed 
her to Alexandria, where he bestowed not even 
a thought upon the affairs of the world, till he 
was aroused by a report that hostilities had 
commenced in Italy between his own relatives 
and Octavianus. A short war followed, which 
was decided in favor of Octavianus before the 
arrival of Antony in Italy. A reconciliation 
was effected, which was sealed by the marriage 
of Antony with Octavia, the sister of Octavia¬ 
nus. A new division of the Roman dominions 
was now made (in 40), by which Antony ob¬ 
tained the east, and Octavianus the west. 
After his return to Asia, Antony gave himself 
up entirely to Cleopatra, assuming the style of 
an eastern despot, and so alienating many of 
his adherents and embittering public opinion 
against him at Rome. At length war was de¬ 
clared at Rome against the queen of Egypt, 
and Antony was deprived of his consulship and 
government. Each party assembled its forces, 
and Antony lost, in the naval battle at Actium 
(b. c. 31), the dominion of the world. He fol¬ 
lowed Cleopatra to Alexandria, and on the 
arrival of Octavianus, his fleet and cavalry 
deserted, and his infantry was defeated. De¬ 
ceived by a false report which Cleopatra had 
disseminated of her death, he fell upon his 
own sword. 

An'trim, a county of Ireland, province of 
Ulster, in the n.e. of the island. Area 762,080 
acres, of which about a third are arable. 
A range of basaltic strata stretches along the 
northern coast, of which the celebrated Giant’s 
Causeway is the most remarkable portion. 
The spinning of linen and cotton yarn, and 
the weaving of linen and cotten are the staple 
manufactures. The principal towns are Bel¬ 
fast, Ballymena, and Larne. Pop. 427,068.— 
The town of Antrim, at the north end of •Lough 
Neagh, is a small place with a population of 
2 , 020 . 

Ant'werp, the chief port of Belgium, and 
the capital of a province of the same name, on 
the Scheldt, about 50 miles from the open sea. 
It is strongly fortified, being completely sur¬ 
rounded on the land side by a semicircular 
inner line of fortifications, the defenses being 
completed by an outer line of forts and out¬ 
works. The cathedral, with a spire 400 feet 
high, one of the largest and most beautiful 
specimens of Gothic architecture in Belgium, 
contains Rubens’s celebrated masterpieces— 
the Descent from the Cross , the Elevation of 
the Cross, and The Assumption. The other 
churches of note are St. James’s, St. Andrew’s, 
and St. Paul’s, all enriched with paintings 
by Rubens, Vandyck, and other masters. 
The harbor accommodation is extensive. The 
shipping trade has greatly advanced in recent 
times, and is now very large, the goods being 


Anubis 

largely in transit. There are numerous and 
varied industries. Antwerp is mentioned as 
early as the eighth century. In the sixteenth 
century it is said to have had a population of 
200,000. The wars between the Netherlands 
and Spain greatly injured its commerce, 
which was almost ruined by the closing of the 
navigation of the Scheldt in accordance with 
the peace of Westphalia (1648). It is only in 
the present century that its prosperity has re¬ 
vived. Pop. 204,498. The province consists of 
a fertile plain 1,100 sq. mi. in area, and has a 
population of 652,061. 

Anil'bis, one of the deities of the ancient 
Egyptians, the son of Osiris by Isis. His 
office was to conduct the souls of the dead 
from this w'orld to the next. 

Anvil, an instrument on which pieces of 
metal are laid for the purpose of being ham¬ 
mered. The common smith’s anvil is gener¬ 
ally made of seven pieces; namely, the core or 
body; the four corners for the purpose of en¬ 
larging its base; the projectingend, which con¬ 
tains a square hole for the reception of a set or 
chisel to cut off pieces of iron; and the beak or 
conical end, used for turning pieces of iron into 
a circular form, etc. These pieces are each 
separately welded to the core and hammered 
so as to form a regular surface with the whole. 
When the anvil has received its due form, it is 
faced with steel, and is then tempered in cold 
water. The smith’s anvil is generally placed 
loose upon a wooden block. The anvil for 
heavy operations, such as the forging of ord¬ 
nance and shafting, consists of a huge iron 
block deeply imbedded, and resting on piles of 
masonry. 

Aor'ta, in anatomy, the great artery or 
trunk of the arterial system, proceeding from 
the left ventricle of the heart, and giving ori¬ 
gin to all the arteries except the pulmonary. 
It first rises toward the top of the breast-bone, 
when it is called the ascending aorta; then 
makes a great curve, called the transverse or 
great arch of the 
aorta, whence it 
gives off branches 
to the head and 
upper extremi¬ 
ties; thence pro¬ 
ceeding toward 
the lower ex¬ 
tremities, under 
the name of the 
descending aorta, 
it gives off 
branches to the 
trunk; and finally 
divides into the 
two iliacs, which 
supply the pelvis 
and lower ex¬ 
tremities. 

Apaches (a-pa/ 
chez), a warlike 
race of Indians 
inhabiting Arizo¬ 
na, New Mexico, and the northern states of 
Mexico. Ages ago they migrated from the 


Aphasia 

vicinity of the Great Slave Lake in Canada; 
they have become the veritable Ishmaels of 
the West. For years they carried on a guer¬ 
rilla warfare with settlers and troops. Their 
leader, Geronimo, was captured by General 
Miles and with other hostiles, kept as prisoners 
of war. Civilization is slowly benefiting the 
Apaches on the San Carlos and White Moun¬ 
tain reservations in Arizona. One highly edu¬ 
cated Apache, Antonio Apache, was one of the 
officials of the department of anthropology at 
the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 
1898. 

Ap'atite, a translucent but seldom trans¬ 
parent mineral, a compound of phosphate of 
lime with fluoride and chloride of calcium. It 
occurs principally in primitive rocks and in 
veins, extensive deposits being found in all 
parts of the world. It is now largely utilized 
as a source of artificial phosphate manures. 

Ape, a common name of a number of quad- 
rumanous animals inhabiting the Old World 
(Asia and the Asiatic islands, and Africa), and 
including a variety of species. The word ape 
was formerly applied indiscriminately to all 
quadrumanous mammals; but it is now limited 
to the anthropoid or man-like monkeys. The 
family includes the chimpanzee, gorilla, orang¬ 
outang, etc. See Anthropoid Apes. 

Apelles (a-pel'ez), the most famous of the 
painters of ancient Greece and of antiquity, 
was born in the fourth century b. c., probably 
at Colophon. Ephorus of Ephesus was his first 
teacher, but attracted by the renown of the 
Sicyonian school he went and studied at Sic- 
yon. In the time of Philip he went to Mace¬ 
donia, and there a close friendship between 
him and Alexander the Great was established. 
The most admired of his pictures was that of 
Venus rising from the sea and wringing the 
water from her dripping locks. His portrait 
of Alexander with a thunderbolt in his hand 
was no less celebrated. His renown was at its 
height about b. c. 330, and he died about the 
end of the century. Among the anecdotes 
told of Apelles is the one which gave rise to 
the proverb, “Let not the shoemaker go beyond 
his shoe.” Having heard a cobbler point out 
an error in the drawing of a shoe in one of his 
pictures he corrected it, whereupon the cob¬ 
bler took upon him to criticise the leg, and re¬ 
ceived from the artist the famous reply. 

Ap'ennines, a prolongation of the Alps, 
forming the “ backbone of Italy.” Theaverage 
height of the mountains composing the range 
is about 4,000 feet, and nowhere do they reach 
the limits of perpetual snow, though some 
summits exceed 9,000 feet in height. They 
consist almost entirely of limestone rocks, and 
are exceedingly rich in the finest marbles. On 
the south slopes volcanic masses are not un¬ 
common. Mount Vesuvius, the only active 
volcano on the continent of Europe, is an in¬ 
stance. The lower slopes are well clothed with 
vegetation, the summits are sterile and bare. 

Apha'sia, in pathology, a symptom of cer¬ 
tain morbid conditions of the nervous system, 
in which the patient loses the power of ex¬ 
pressing ideas by means of words, or loses the 






Aphrodite 


Apollonius 


appropriate use of words, the vocal organs the 
while remaining intact and the intelligence 
sound. There is sometimes an entire loss of 
words as connected with ideas, and sometimes 
only the loss of a few. In one form of the 
disease, called aphemia , the patient can think 
and write, but cannot speak; in another called 
agraphia , he can think and speak, but cannot 
express his ideas in writing. In a great major¬ 
ity of cases, where post-mortem examinations 
have been made, morbid changes have been 
found in the left frontal convolution of the 
brain. 

Aphrodite (af-ro-dl'te), the goddess of love 
among the Greeks; usually regarded as equiva¬ 
lent to the Roman Venus. A festival called 
Aphrodisia, was celebrated to her in various 
parts of Greece, but especially in Cyprus. 

Aphthae (af'the), a disease occurring espe¬ 
cially in infants, but occasionally seen in old 
persons, and consisting of small, white ulcers 
upon the tongue, gums, inside of the lips, and 
palate, resembling particles of curdled milk; 
commonly called thrush or milk thrush. 

A'pia, the chief place and trading center of 
the Samoan Islands, on the north side of the 
island of Upolu. It was the scene of a terrible 
disaster to the American and German navies 
during a hurricane. 

A'piary, a place for keeping bees. The 
apiary should be well sheltered from strong 
winds, moisture, and the extremes of heat 
and cold. The hives should face the south 
or southeast, and should be placed on shelves 
two feet above the ground, and about the same 
distance from each other. As to the form 
of the hives, and materials of which they 
should be constructed, there are great differ¬ 
ences of opinion. Wooden hives of square,box¬ 
like form are now gaininggeneral favor among 
bee keepers. They usually consist of a large 
breeding chamber below, and two sliding 
removable boxes called supers above, for the 
abstraction of honey without disturbing the 
contents of the main chamber. It is of great 
importance that the apiary should be situated 
in the neighborhood of good feeding grounds, 
such as gardens, clover fields, or heath-covered 
hills. When their stores of honey are removed 
the bees must be fed during the winter and 
part of spring with syrup or with a solution 
consisting of 2 lbs. loaf sugar to a pint of water. 
In the early spring slow and continuous feed¬ 
ing (a few ounces of syrup each day) will stim¬ 
ulate the queen to deposit her eggs, by which 
means the colony is rapidly strengthened 
and throws off early swarms. New swarms 
may make their appearance as early as May 
and as late as August, but swarming usually 
takes place in the intervening months. 

Apic'ius, Marcus Gabius, a Roman epicure 
in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, who, 
having exhausted his vast fortune on the grati¬ 
fication of his palate, and having only about 
$400,000 left, poisoned himself that he might 
escape the misery of plain diet. The book of 
cookery published under the name of Apicius 
was written by one Caelius, and belongs to a 
much later date. 


A'pis, a bull to which divine honors were 
paid by the ancient Egyptians, who regarded 
him as a symbol of Osiris. He was not suf¬ 
fered to live beyond twenty-five years, being 
secretly killed by the priests and thrown into 
a sacred well. Another bull was selected in 
his place. His birthday was annually cele¬ 
brated,' and his death was a season of public 
mourning. 

Apoc'alypse, the name frequently given to 
the last book of the New Testament, in the 
English version called the Revelation of St. 
John the Divine. It is generally believed that 
the Apocalypse was written by the apostle 
John in his old age (95-97 a. d.) in the Isle of 
Patmos, whither he had been banished by the 
Roman emperor Domitian. 

Apoc'rypha (Greek, “things concealed or 
spurious”), a term applied in the earliest 
churches to various sacred or professedly 
inspired writings, sometimes given to those 
whose authors were unknown, sometimes to 
those with a hidden meaning, and sometimes 
to those considered objectionable. The term 
is specially applied to the fourteen undermen¬ 
tioned books which were written during the 
two centuries preceding the birth of Christ: 
The first and second books of Esdras, Tobit, 
Judith, the rest of the book of Esther, the 
Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the 
son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch the 
Prophet, the Song of the Three Children, 
Susanna and the Elders, Bel and the Dragon, 
the Prayer of Manasses, and the first and 
second Books of Maccabees. 

Apollina'ris Water, a natural aerated water, 
belonging to the class of acidulated soda 
waters, and derived from the Apollinaris- 
brunnen, a spring in the valley of the Ahr, 
near the Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia, forming 
a highly esteemed beverage. 

Apol'lo, son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto, 
the twin brother of Diana. He slew the 
serpent Python on the fifth day after his 
birth; afterward, with his sister Artemis, he 
killed the children of Niobe. He destroyed 
the Cyclops, because they forged the thunder¬ 
bolts with which Zeus killed his son Aescula¬ 
pius. Apollo was originally the sun god. In 
later times the view was almost universal that 
Apollo and Helios were identical. From being 
the god of light and purity in physical sense, 
he gradually became the god of moral and 
spiritual light and purity, and political prog¬ 
ress. He came to be regarded as the god of 
song and prophecy, the institutor and guardian 
of civil and political order, and the founder of 
cities. His worship was introduced at Rome, 
probably in the time of the Tarquins. Among 
the ancient statues of Apollo that have come 
down to us, the most remarkable is the one 
called the Apollo Belvedere , from the Belvedere 
Gallery in the Vatican at Rome. 

Apollo'nius of Tyre, the hero of a tale 
which had an immense popularity in the Mid¬ 
dle Ages and which furnished the plot of 
Shakespeare’s Pericles , Prince of Tyre. The 
story, originally in Greek, first appeared in 
the third century after Christ. 


Apoplexy 

Ap'oplexy, abolition or sudden diminution 
of sensation and voluntary motion, from sus¬ 
pension of the functions of the cerebrum, re¬ 
sulting from congestion or rupture of the 
blood-vessels of the brain and the resulting 
pressure on this organ. In a complete apo¬ 
plexy the person falls suddenly, is unable to 
move his limbs or to speak, gives no proof of 
seeing, hearing, or feeling, and the breathing 
is stertorous or snoring, like that of a person 
in deep sleep. The premonitory symptoms of 
this dangerous disease are drowsiness, giddi¬ 
ness, dulness of hearing, frequent yawning, 
disordered vision, noise in the ears, vertigo, etc. 
It is most frequent between the ages of fifty 
and seventy. A large head, short neck, full 
chest, sanguine and plethoric constitution, 
and corpulency are generally considered signs 
of predisposition to it; but the state of the 
heart’s action, with a plethoric condition of 
the vascular system, has a more marked in¬ 
fluence. Out of 63 cases carefully investi¬ 
gated only 10 were fat and plethoric, 23 being 
thin, and the rest of ordinary habit. Among 
the commbn predisposing causes are long and 
intense thought, continued anxiety, habitual 
indulgence of the temper and passions, seden¬ 
tary and luxurious living, sexual indulgence, 
intoxication, etc. More or less complete re¬ 
covery from a first and second attack is com¬ 
mon, but a third is almost invariably fatal. 

Apos'tles • (literally, persons sent out), the 
twelve men whom Jesus selected to attend 
him during his ministry and to promulgate 
his religion. Their names were as follows: 
Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother; 
James, and John his brother, sons of Zebe- 
dee ; Philip ; Bartholomew ; Thomas ; Mat¬ 
thew; James, the son of Alpheus ; Leb- 
beus, his brother, called Judas; Simon, 
the Canaanite ; and Judas Iscariot. To 
these were subsequently added Matthias 
(chosen by lot in place of Judas Iscariot) 
and Paul. The Bible gives the name of 
apostle to Barnabas also, who accompanied 
Paul on his missions (Acts 14:14). In a 
wider sense those preachers who first taught 
Christianity in heathen countries are some¬ 
times termed apostles; for example, St. 
Denis, the apostle of the Gauls; St. Boni¬ 
face, the apostle of Germany; St. Augustine, 
the apostle of England; Francis Xavier, the 
apostle of the Indies; Adalbert of Prague, the 
apostle of Prussia proper. Their subsequent 
history is only imperfectly known. 

Apostles’ Creed, a well-known formula 
or declaration of Christian belief, formerly 
believed to be the work of the apostles 
themselves, but it can only be traced to the 
fourth century. 

Apothecaries’ weight, the weight used in 
dispensing drugs, in which the pound (lb.) 
is divided into 12 ounces, the ounce into 8 
drams, the dram into 3 scruples, and the 
scruple into 20 grains, the grain being equiva¬ 
lent to that in avoirdupois weight. 

Apoth'ecary, in a general sense, one who 
keeps a shop or laboratory for preparing, com¬ 
pounding, and vending medicines, and for the 


Appalachian 

making up of medical prescriptions. It is 
well known that the word “ apotheca ” signi¬ 
fied any kind of store, magazine, or warehouse, 
and that the proprietor or keeper of such a 
store was called apothecarius. The physicians 
in Africa first began to give up the prepara¬ 
tion of medicines after prescriptions to in¬ 
genious men. It is probable, therefore, that 
many Arabic terms of art were by these means 
introduced into pharmacy and chemistry, and 
have been still retained and adopted. In 
England the term was long applied (and to 
some little extent still) to a regularly licensed 
class of medical practitioners, being such per¬ 
sons as were members of, or licensed by, the 
Apothecaries’ Company in London. The 
apothecaries of London were at one time 
ranked with the grocers, with whom they 
were incorporated by James I in 1606. In 
1617, however, the apothecaries received a 
new charter as a distinct company. In the 
U. S. the several states have laws controlling 
apothecaries. 

Apotheo'sis (deification), a solemnity 
among the ancients by which a mortal was 
raised to the rank of the gods. The custom of 
placing mortals who had rendered their coun¬ 
trymen important services, among the gods, 
was very ancient among the Greeks. The 
Romans, for several centuries, deified none but 
Romulus, and first imitated the Greeks in the 
fashion of frequent apotheosis after the time 
of Caesar. From this period apotheosis was 
regulated by the decrees of the senate, and ac¬ 
companied with great solemnities. The greater 
part of the Roman emperors were dei-fied. 

Appalachian Mountains (ap-pa-la'chi-an), 
also called Alleghanies, a vast mountain 
range in N. America extending for 1,300 mi. 
from Cape Gaspe, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
s.w. to Alabama. The system has been di¬ 
vided into three great sections: the northern 
(including the Adirondacks, the Green Moun¬ 
tains, the White Mountains, etc.), from Cape 
Gaspe to New York; the central (including a 
large portion of the Blue Ridge, the Alle¬ 
ghanies proper, and numerous lesser ranges), 
from New York to the valley of the New 
River; and the southern (including the con¬ 
tinuation of the Blue Ridge, the Black Moun¬ 
tains, the Smoky Mountains, etc., from the 
New River southward. The chain consists 
of several ranges generally parallel to each 
other, the altitude of the individual moun¬ 
tains increasing on approaching the south. 
The highest peaks rise over 6,600 feet (not 
one at all approaching the snow-level), but 
the mean height is about 2,500 feet. Lake 
Champlain is the only lake of great importance 
in the system, but numerous rivers of con¬ 
siderable size take their rise here. Magnetite, 
hematite, and other iron ores occur in great 
abundance and the coal-measures are among 
the most extensive in the world. Gold, silver, 
lead, and copper are also found, but not in 
paying quantities, while marble, limestone, 
fire-clay, gypsum, and salt abound.- The 
forests covering many of the ranges yield 
large quantities of valuable timber, such as 


Appalachicola 

sugar-maple, white birch, beech, ash, oak, 
cherry-tree, white poplar, white and yellow 
pine. 

Appalachicola (chi-co'la), a river of the 
U. 8. formed by the Chattahoochee and Flint 
Rivers, which unite near the northern border 
of Florida; length about 100 mi.; flows into 
the Gulf of Mexico and is navigable. 

Apparent, in astronomy. When it is neces¬ 
sary or convenient to reduce an observed ohe- 
nomenon, either by clearing it from the effects 
of any optical delusion, or substituting for it 
the phenomenon which would have been ob¬ 
served at some more commodious station, that 
which is actually observed is called the ap- 
parent phenomenon, in opposition to that 
which results from correction or reduction. 

Appeal, in law, is the removal of a suit from 
an inferior to a superior court that the latter 
may aftirm, reverse, or alter the judgment of 
the former. 

Appendicitis is an inflammation of the ver¬ 
miform appendix. Formerly the disease was 
not known under the above name, but was 
thought to be an inflammation of that portion 
of the intestine called the ciecum, along with 
inflammatory processes of the peritoneum cov¬ 
ering the cmcum. The work of American 
physicians and surgeons, such as Pepper, Mc- 
Burney, Senn, Weaver, Keen and others, has 
put this disease on a rational and scientific 
basis, so that now it is under perfect control. 

The vermiform appendix is a functionless 
organ, and is, doubtless, a relic of a large an¬ 
cestral caecum. It is usually about three 
inches long, but may, however, be much 
shorter or much longer. Its ordinary diameter 
is about i in. but this may l«e much increased 
by distension. It may occupy almost any posi¬ 
tion in the abdominal cavity and may be ad¬ 
herent to almost any organ in said cavity. In 
about 60 per cent, of cases, however, it occu¬ 
pies one of two positions, i.e. in first case it 
takes an upward and inward direction with 
the tip pointing toward the spleen; in second 
case it lies directly behind the caecum. Both 
these positions favor the complete emptying 
of the cavity of any matter which might have 
become lodged in it. It may be located usu¬ 
ally by taking the mid-point on a line drawn 
from the anterior superior spine of the ilium 
(the prominent anterior projection of the hip¬ 
bone) to the umbilicus (navel). In 95 per cent, 
or more of cases it [is located in the right 
iliac fossa, but, rarely, it may extend across 
the pelvic cavity, and appear in the left iliac 
fossa. The name given to the mid-point on 
above line locating the appendix is McBurney’s 
point. An anatomical item of great impor¬ 
tance to be considered is that the position of 
the appendix may vary within broad limits. 

Causes. —These may be divided into two 
general classes: 

1. Predisposing. 

2. Exciting. 

Under predisposing causes we have: 

a. Anatomical and embryological relations. 
Its anatomical location at the end of the cm¬ 
cum forming a cul-de-sac permits of thicken- 


Appendicitis 

ing and concretion. Structures which remain 
as functionless vestiges of parts once useful 
have a low vitality and feeble powers of resist¬ 
ance against invasion by disease processes. 

b. Age. The two extremes of life are nota¬ 
bly exempt. More tha*n 50 per cent, of the 
cases appear between ages of 20 and 50. The 
reasons for above are purely theoretical, but 
probably have to do with position and shape 
of the appendix in the young, while in the old 
the atrophy attendant on all organs probably 
plays a role. 

c. Sex. A great disproportion exists between 
the occurrence of the disease in the sexes. 
The male suffers with appendicitis four or five 
times as frequently as the female. This has 
been explained by purely anatomical reasons, 
namely: a fold of peritoneum (the appendiculo- 
ovarian ligament) passes from the right ovary 
to the meso-appendix and carries a blood-ves¬ 
sel which enables the female appendix to with¬ 
stand invasion by disease owing to greater 
nutrition and greater physiological powers. 
Again, the male appendix is longer and slightly 
larger in diameter, hence it may be subject 
to invasion by concretions in more cases. 

d. Occupation. Persons whose work neces¬ 
sitates much heavy lifting seem more prone 
to the disease. 

e. Previous gastro-intestinal disturbances. 

Exciting Causes: 

a. Mechanical. 

1. Distension of the cmcum with gas or 
frncal matter followed by obliteration of the 
cavity of the appendix resulting in congestion, 
swelling and inflammation. 

2. Foreign bodies. These wereonce thought 
to be the chief causes of appendicitis, but it is 
shown from statistics, that they are rarely (4 
or 5 per cent, only) the direct causative factor. 
By foreign bodies we mean stones and seeds of 
various fruits, bits of bone, pins, etc. 

3. Wounds. These are of two kinds—direct 
and indirect. The former may, properly, 
come under head of foreign bodies, as, for in¬ 
stance that of a pin in the cavity of the ap¬ 
pendix causing an injury to the mucous mem¬ 
brane lining the cavity. The latter is, of course, 
due to injury directed through the abdominal 
wall, as, for instance, that following the kick 
of a horse, causing violent symptoms. 

b. Bacterial. Micro-organisms are, doubt¬ 
less, prime factors in the causation of appen¬ 
dicitis. They may act independently, but 
usually the invasion is preceded by a twist, 
constriction, the presence of a foreign body, 
or something which will bring about a condi¬ 
tion of lessened physiological resistance. In 
this condition the bacillus coli communis, a 
normal inhabitant of the intestine, exerts its 
peculiar powers. This microbe seems to have 
little or no effect on the sound mucous mem¬ 
brane, but under above circumstances it shows 
marked disease and pus producing proper¬ 
ties. 

Other micro-organisms, such as those of 
typhoi.d fever (bacillus typhosis), tuberculosis 
(bacillus tuberculosis), cholera (spirillum chol¬ 
eras), etc., may cause the disease, but about 


Appendicitis 

80 per cent, of cases are associated with the 
bacillus coli communis. 

Disease Processes (Pathology). —These 
processes are of course manifold and cannot 
be discussed here. A brief outline of the 
changes taking place is as follows: 

The primary location of the trouble is in the 
epithelial coat of the appendix. Owing to 
constriction, distension or what not, the phy¬ 
siological resistance of the appendix is im¬ 
paired. Congestion and swelling follow. Ob¬ 
literation of cavity and thickening of the'walls 
may take place, but in severer cases, necrosis 
(death of the tissue) and ulceration occur 
rapidly. This ulcerative process goes on until 
perforation of the appendicular wall takes 
place. Following close upon this we have local 
or general peritonitis (inflammation of periton¬ 
eum lining abdominal cavity) according as we 
have formation of adhesions between loops of 
mesentery. 

Symptoms. Usually we have several cardinal 
symptoms, all of which are present to a more 
or less degree. 

a. Sudden pain in abdomen. This pain is 
variable, at times being sharp, intense and 
colic-like, at others a dull ache. It is at first 
general and diffused over the abdomen. Later 
it gradually narrows down, and usually within 
thirty-six hours is localized in the right iliac 
fossa in the region of McBurney’s point. 

b. Fever. This follows rapidly upon the pain, 
and is so regular that a negative diagnosis is 
sometimes possible where intense pain with 
no fever exists. The fever may be moderate, 
(100-102°) often going to 103°. It must, of 
course, be remembered here that the pulse is 
quickened in proportion to the fever (90-110.) 

c. Gastro-intestinal disturbances. Tongue fur¬ 
red and moist. Nausea and vomiting usually 
present. Constipation usual, but diarrhoea 
may occur. 

d. Local signs. At first no distension of ab¬ 
domen takes place. On palpation (manual 
examination) two important signs are noticed, 
usually from outset—at any event, within 
twenty-four hours. 

1. Great tension of right rectus muscle 
which is found in iliac fossa. 

2. Tenderness or actual pain on pressnre 
over McBurney’s point. 

Often along with these signs are noticed a 
distinct swelling, commonly circumscribed 
and definite. 

e General signs and symptoms: 

Position of patient. Patient lies on back, 
right leg semiflexed in order to reduce tension 
and consequent pressure; bladder irritable, 
urine scanty and contains albumin and indi¬ 
can (a chemical compound indicative of fer¬ 
mentative processes in the intestine). 

Diagnosis. 

In brief, we may say that we have an indi¬ 
cation of appendicitis when we have the fol¬ 
lowing complex of symptoms: 

1. Localized pain in right iliac fossa, with 
or without swelling. 

2. Tenderness over McBurney’s point. 

3. Fever. 


Appendicitis 

4. Gastro-intestinal disturbances. 

However, we must bear in mind that many 
diseases must be differentiated from appendi¬ 
citis. Chief among them are biliary colic, 
renal colic, ovarian tumors, pelvic peritonitis, 
intussuception (slipping of one part of intes¬ 
tine into another),strangulation, pancreatitis, 
typhoid fever, and many others. 

Prognosis. 

A large proportion of all cases recover. The 
element of uncertainty, however, plays such a 
role that the surgical treatment of this disease 
has been given a great impetus. 

Usually in a case undergoing recovery the 
pain lessens in three or four days, temperature 
falls, vomiting ceases, and acute symptoms 
subside within a week or ten days. 

As a result of perforation of the appendix 
we may have local abscess formation and later 
general peritonitis. Usually the death in ap¬ 
pendicitis is a result of peritonitis. In this 
last disease lies the gravity of appendicitis. 
The onset is usually sudden and soon the char¬ 
acteristic symptoms appear. If the general 
peritoneal cavity is invaded death is almost 
certain to follow unless prompt surgical meas¬ 
ures are taken. 

The prognosis in certain cases is very differ¬ 
ent. A certain number of cases apparently 
recover, and within a few months the same 
complex of symptoms appears again. This is 
the relapsing or recurring form of appendi¬ 
citis and may recur several times. Surgical 
treatment is the only resource. 

Treatment. —The question of treatment of 
appendicitis is, of course, open to discussion. 
Two views are held according as the attendant 
is a physician or a surgeon. 

In general it may be said that there is no 
medicinal treatment for appendicitis. There 
are remedies allaying pain, but none capable 
of controlling and limiting the course of the 
disease. General measures should be adopted, 
such as rest in bed, light diet, etc. The ques¬ 
tion of giving an astringent or a purgative is 
an open one. The general rule is to adminis¬ 
ter saline cathartics in the incipient stage and 
follow this by opium, in some form or other, 
as soon as the bowels have moved freely. The 
opium relieves pain and secures rest for the 
inflamed part by preventing peristalsis (creep¬ 
ing motion peculiar to bowels) and thus less¬ 
ening the liability to perforation. Cathartics 
are contraindicated except during incipient 
stage. Even in incipient stages one must take 
care in the administration of cathartics, as 
they stimulate peristalsis and increase liabil¬ 
ity to perforation. They are also contraindi¬ 
cated in local abscess formation. If the dis¬ 
ease does not yield to the ordinary methods of 
careful nursing and rest, surgical treatment is 
indicated when by the third day the case 
shows signs of progressive lesion (structural 
change of tissue due to injury or disease). 
The technique of the operation is of no con¬ 
sequence here. The point is that an opera¬ 
tion is usually advisable when progression is 
noticed in the disease. The earlier the oper¬ 
ation the better for the patient, as the chances 


Appenzell 

of recovery are greatly lessened by the appear¬ 
ance of peritonitis. 

We must hence regard appendicitis as a 
disease of the appendix, characterized by local 
pain, tenderness, fever, gastro-intestinal dis¬ 
turbances, etc., and treated most successfully 
by surgical methods. 

R. W. Webster, M. D., Ph. D. 

Appenzell (ap'pen-tsel), a Swiss canton. 
Area 162 sq. mi. It is divided into two inde¬ 
pendent portions or half-cantons, Ausser-Rho- 
den, which is Protestant, and Inner-Rhoden, 
which is Catholic. Glaciers occupy the higher 
valleys. Flax, hemp, grain, fruit, etc., are 
produced, but the wealth of Inner-Rhoden 
lies in its herds and flocks; that of Outer-Rho- 
den in its manufactures of embroidered mus¬ 
lins, gauzes, cambrics, and other cotton stuffs; 
also of silk goods and paper. The town of 
Appenzell (German Abtenzelle, abbot’s cell) is 
the capital of Inner-Rhoden, on the Sitter, 
with about 4,300 inhabitants. Trogen is the 
capital of Outer-Rhoden, Herisau the largest 
town (pop. 11,000). Pop. of Outer-Rhoden, 
51,960; Inner-Rhoden, 12,882. 

Ap'petite, in its widest sense, means the 
natural desire for gratification, either of the 
body or the mind; but is generally applied to 
the recurrent and intermittent desire for food. 
A healthy appetite is favored by work, exer¬ 
cise, plain living, and cheerfulness; absence of 
this feeling, or defective appetite, indicates 
diseased action of the stomach, or of the nerv¬ 
ous system or circulation, or it may result 
from vicious habits. Depraved appetite, or a 
desire for unnatural food, as chalk, ashes, dirt, 
soap, etc., depends often in the case of chil¬ 
dren on vicious tastes or habits; in grown up 
persons it may be symptomatic of dyspepsia, 
pregnancy, or chlorosis. Insatiable or canine 
appetite or voracity, when it occurs in child¬ 
hood, is generally symptomatic of worms; in 
adults common causes are pregnancy, vicious 
habits, and indigestion, caused by stomach 
complaints or gluttony,' when the gnawing 
pains of disease are mistaken for hunger. 

Appia'ni, Andrea, a painter (1754-1817), 
a painter born at Milan. As a fresco-painter 
he excelled every contemporary painter in 
Italy. 

Appian Way, called Regina Viarum , the 
Queen of Roads; the oldest and most re¬ 
nowned Roman road, was constructed during 
the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus (b. c. 
313-310). It was built with large square stones 
on a raised platform, and was made direct 
from the gates of Rome to Capua, in Campania. 
It was afterward extended through Samnium 
and Apulia to Brundusium, the modern Brin¬ 
disi. It was partially restored by Pius VI, 
and in 1850-53 it was excavated by order of 
Pius IX, as far as the eleventh milestone from 
Rome. 

Appius Claudius Crassus, one of the Roman 
decemvirs, appointed b. c. 451 to draw up a new 
code of laws. He and his colleagues plotted 
to retain their power permanently, and at the 
expiry of their year of office refused to give 
up their authority. The people were incensed 


Apple 

against them, and the following circumstances 
led to their overthrow: Appius Claudius had 
conceived an evil passion for Virginia, the 
daughter of Lucius Virginius, then absent 
with the army in the war with the iEqui and 
Sabines. At the instigation of Appius, Marcus 
Claudius, one of his clients, claimed Virginia 
as the daughter of one of his own female 
slaves, and the decemvir, acting as judge, 
decided that in the meantime she should 
remain in the custody of the claimant. Vir¬ 
ginius, hastily summoned from the army, 
appeared with his daughter next day in the 
forum, and appealed to the people; but Appius 
Claudius again adjudged her to M. Claudius. 
Unable to rescue his daughter, the unhappy 
father stabbed her to the heart. The decem¬ 
virs were deposed by the indignant people b. c. 
449, and Appius Claudius died in prison or 
was strangled. 

Apple, the fruit of a well-known tree, or the 
tree itself. The apple belongs to the temper¬ 
ate regions of the globe, over which it is 
almost universally spread and cultivated. 
The tree attains a moderate height, with 
spreading branches; the leaf is ovate; and the 
flowers are produced from the wood of the 
former year, but more generally from very 



Branch of apple with young fruit, 
a.—piece of blossom. 


short shoots or spurs from wood of two years’ 
growth. The original of all the varieties of 
the cultivated apple is the wild crab, which 
has a small and extremely sour fruit, and is a 
native of most of the countries of Europe. 
The apple was probably introduced into Brit¬ 
ain by the Romans. To the facility of multi¬ 
plying varieties by grafting is to be ascribed 
the amazing extension of the sorts of apples. 
Many of the more marked varieties are known 
by general names, as pippins, codlins, rennets, 
etc. Apples for the table are characterized by 
a firm, juicy pulp, a sweetish acid flavor, regu- 


Apple of Discord 

lar form, and beautiful coloring; those for 
cooking, by the property of forming, by the 
aid of heat, into a pulpy mass of equal consist¬ 
ency, as also by their large size and keeping 
properties; apples for cider must have a con¬ 
siderable degree of astringency, with richness 
of juice. The propagation of apple-trees is 
accomplished by seeds, cuttings, suckers, 
layers, budding, or grafting, the last being 
almost the universal practice. The tree 
thrives best in a rich, deep loam or marshy 
clay, but will thrive in any soil provided it is 
not too wet or too dry. The wood of the apple- 
tree or the common crab is hard, close-grained, 
and often richly colored, and is suitable for 
turning and cabinet work. The fermented 
juice of the crab is employed in cookery and 
medicine. Cider, the fermented juice of the 
apple, is a favorite drink in many portions of 
the U. S. The designation apple, with vari¬ 
ous modifying words, is applied to a number 
of fruits having nothing in common with 
the apple proper, as alligator-apple, love-ap¬ 
ple, etc. 

Apple of Discord, according to the story in 
the Greek mythology, the golden apple thrown 
into an assembly of the gods by the goddess 
of discord (Eris) bearing the inscription “for 
the fairest.” Aphrodite (Venus), Hera (Juno), 
and Pallas (Minerva), became competitors for 
it, and its adjudication to the first by Paris so 
inflamed the jealousy and hatred of Hera to 
all of the Trojan race (to which Paris be¬ 
longed) that she did not cease her machina¬ 
tions till Troy was destroyed. 

Appleton, Outagamie co., Wis., on Fox 
River, 100 mi. n. of Milwaukee. Railroads: 
C. & N. W. (Wis. Division); C. & N. W. 
(Ashland Division); and C. M. & St. P. In¬ 
dustries: paper and pulp mills, flour mill, 
three iron foundries, two woolen mills, tile 
and sash and door factories, saw mills, plan¬ 
ing mills, machine shops, knitting works, and 
bicycle works. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. The town was first settled in 1848 and 
became a city in 1857. Pop. 1900, 15,085. 

Appleton, Charles Edward (1841-1879), 
was born at Reading, and was educated at Ox¬ 
ford and in Germany. His reading was Avide 
and varied, but he wrote little. He founded 
in 18G9 the Academy, whose special feature is 
its signed articles. He died at Luxor, in Up¬ 
per Egypt. 

Appleton, Daniel (1785-1849), the founder 
of the American publishing house of D. Ap¬ 
pleton & Co., was born at Haverhill, Mass., 
where he commenced business as a retail 
trader. He settled as a bookseller in New 
York, and gradually built up one of the larg¬ 
est businesses of its kind in the U. S. He re¬ 
tired in 1848, leaving the business to four sons 
and their descendants. The firm published, 
1857, the New American Cyclopedia, under the 
editorship of George Ripley and Charles A. 
Dana, which was completed in 1863. A new 
edition was published in 1872-76. The same 
firm has issued many scientific and educa¬ 
tional works. 


Apsis 

Appomatt ox Court=House, a village in 
Virginia, 20 mi. e. of Lynchburg. Here on 
April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to 
General Grant, and thus virtually concluded 
the Civil war. 

Appropriation. —In the U. S. no money can 
be drawn from the Treasury but in conse¬ 
quence of appropriations made by law (Con¬ 
stitution, Art. I). Under this clause it is 
necessary for Congress to appropriate money 
for the support of the Federal government, 
and in payment of claims against it. In the 
House of Representatives appropriation bills 
have precedence. 

Ap'ricot, a fruit of the plum genus which 
was introduced into Europe from Asia more 
than three centuries before Christ, and into 
England in the first half of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. It is a native of Armenia and other 
parts of Asia and also of Africa. The apricot 
is a low tree, of rather crooked growth, with 
somewhat heart-shaped leaves and sessile 
flowers. The fruit is sweet, more or less juicy, 
of a yellowish color, about the size of the 
peach, and resembling it in delicacy of flavor. 
The wood is coarsely grained and soft. Ap¬ 
ricot-trees are chiefly raised against walls, and 
are propagated by budding and grafting. 

A' pril ( “ to open,” because the buds open at 
this time), the fourth month of the year. The 
strange custom of making fools on the 1st of 
April by sending people upon errands and ex¬ 
peditions which end in disappointment, and 
raise a laugh at the expense of the person sent, 
prevails throughout A merica. It has been con¬ 
nected with the miracle plays of the Middle 
Ages, in which the Saviour was represented as 
having been sent at this period of the year, 
from Annas to Caiaphas and from Pilate to 
Herod. In France the party fooled is called 
an April fish. 

Apse, a portion of any building forming a 
termination or projection semicircular or po¬ 
lygonal in plan, and having a roof forming ex¬ 
ternally a semi-dome or semi-cone, or having 
ridges corresponding to the angles of the poly¬ 
gon; especially such a semi-circular or polyg¬ 
onal recess projecting from the east end of 
the choir or chancel of a church, in which the 
altar is placed. The apse was developed from 
the somewhat similar part of the Roman basil- 
icse, in which the magistrate sat. 

Apsis (pi. Ap'sides or Apsi'des), in astron¬ 
omy one of the two points of the orbit of a 
heavenly body situated at the extremities of 
the major axis of the ellipse formed by the or¬ 
bit, one of the points being that at which the 
body is at its greatest, and the other that at 
which it is at its least, distance from its pri¬ 
mary. In regard to the earth and the other 
planets, these two points correspond to the 
aphelion and perihelion; and in regard to the 
moon they correspond to the apogee and peri¬ 
gee. The line of the apsides has a slow, 
forward, angular motion in the plane of the 
planet’s orbit, being retrograde only in Venus. 
This in the earth’s orbit produces the anoma¬ 
listic year. 


Apteryx 


Ap'teryx,a 

nearly extinct 
genus of run-\^ \ 
ning birds, \y 
distinguished 
from the os- \ 
t r i c h e s by ^ 
having three fC 
toes with a ~- 
rudimen tary 
hallux, which 
forms a spur. 
They are na¬ 
tives of the 
south island 
of New Zea¬ 



Apteryx. 


land; are totally wingless and tailless, with 
feathers resembling hairs, about the size of a 
small goose, with long, curved beak something 
like that of a curlew. They are entirely noc¬ 
turnal, feeding on insects, worms, and seeds. 
Kiwi-kiici, from its cry, is the best known 
species. 

Apu'lia, a department or division in the 
southeast of Italy, on the Adriatic, composed 
of the provinces of Foggia, Bari, and Lecce. 
Area 8,539 sq. mi.; pop. 1,587,713. 

Aq' uamarine, a name given to some of the 
finest varieties of beryl of a sea green or 
blue color. Varieties of topaz are also so 
called. 

Aqua'rium, a vessel or series of vessels con¬ 
structed wholly or partly of glass and contain¬ 
ing salt or fresh water in which are kept living 
specimens of marine or fresh-water animals 
along with aquatic plants. In principle the 
aquarium depends on the interdependence of 
animal and vegetable life; animals consuming 
oxygen and exhaling carbonic acid, plants 
reversing the process by absorbing carbonic 
acid and giving out oxygen. The aquarium 
must consequently be stocked both with plants 
and animals, and for the welfare of both some¬ 
thing like a proper proportion should exist 
between them. The simplest form of aqua¬ 
rium is that of a glass vase; but aquariums on 
a larger scale consist of a tank or a number of 
tanks with plate-glass sides and stone floors, 
and contain sand and gravel, rocks, seaweeds, 
etc. By improved arrangements, light is ad¬ 
mitted from above, passing through the water 
in the tanks and illuminating their contents, 
while the spectator is in comparative darkness. 
Aquariums on a large scale have been con¬ 
structed in connection with public parks or 
gardens, and the name is also given to places 
of public entertainment in which large aqua¬ 
riums are exhibited. The largest aquarium in 
the world is at Castle Garden, N. Y. There 
are large aquaria at Brighton, Hamburg, and 
Paris. The Brighton Aquarium, which takes 
the lead, has forty-one tanks, containing all 
varieties of fish, from the stickleback to the 
sturgeon. Its area is 715 ft. in length by 100 
ft. in breadth. There is one tank which con¬ 
tains 110,000 gallons of water, and has a plate- 
glass front, through which the habits of very 
large fish may be studied. The Hamburg Aqua, 
rium is nearly the same size as that at Brighton 


Aqueduct 

The Paris Aquarium, belonging to the French 
Acclimatization Society, is 50 yards in length 
by about 12 in breadth, and contains 40 tanks. 
Castle Garden, N. Y., has been transformed 
into an aquarium, and has 150 tanks for 
smaller fish, while there are gigantic tanks 
for sharks and other large and dangerous fish. 
There are fish in the Royal Aquarium at St. 
Petersburg that are known by record to have 
been there 140 years. Some of these fish have 
grown to be five times as large as when they 
were placed there, while others have not 
grown at all. 

Aquarius, the water-bearer; a sign in the 
zodiac which the sun enters about January 21; 
so called from the rains which prevail at that 
season in Italy and the East. 

Aquatint, a method of etching on copper by 
which a beautiful effect is produced, resem¬ 
bling a fine drawing in sepia or Indian ink. 
The special character of the effect is the result 
of sprinkling finely powdered resin or mastic 
over the plate, and causing this to adhere by 
heat, the design being previously etched or 
being now traced out. The nitric acid acts 
only in the interstices between the particles of 
resin or mastic, thus giving a slightly granular 
appearance. 

Aqueduct, an artificial channel or conduit 
for the conveyance of water from one place to 
another; more particularly applied to struc¬ 
tures for conveying water from distant sources 
for the supply of large cities. Aqueducts were 
extensively used by the Romans, and many of 
them still remain in different places on the 
continent of Europe, some being still in use. 
The Pont du Gard in the south of France, 14 
mi. from Nismes, is still nearly perfect, and 
is a grand monument of the Roman occupation 
of that country. The ancient aqueducts were 
constructed of stone, or brick, sometimes tun¬ 
neled through hills, and carried over valleys 
and rivers on arches. The Pont du Gard is 
built of great blocks of stone; its height is 160 
ft.; length of the highest arcade, 882 ft. The 
aqueduct at Segovia, originally built by the 
Romans, has in some parts two tiers of arcades 
100 ft. high, is 2,921 ft. in length, and is one of 
the most admired works of antiquity. One of 
the most remarkable aqueducts of modern 
times is that constructed by Louis XIV for con¬ 
veying the waters of the Eure to Versailles. The 
extensive application of metal pipes has ren¬ 
dered the construction of aqueducts of the 
old type unnecessary; but what may be called 
aqueduct bridges are still frequently con¬ 
structed in connection with water works for 
the supply of towns, and where canals exist, 
canal aqueducts are common, since the water in 
a canal must be kept on a perfect level. In the 
U.S. there are some important aqueducts, as the 
Croton, about 40^ mi. long, bringing water to 
New York. The water is carried through 16 
tunnels, the total length of which is 6,841 ft., 
cut through the gneiss rock. The open cutting 
is for the most part rock work. From the 
dam to Harlem River the aqueduct is of stone, 
brick, and cement, and has a capacity of 115 
million gallons dany. The rate of flow is 





Arabia 


Aquila 

li miles per hour. There are two cast iron 
pipes two feet in diameter across the Harlem 
River, and over these one wrought iron pipe 7£ 
ft. in diameter. What is called the high 
bridge, which is over 1,450 ft. long, with eight 
arches in the river and seven on the banks, 
supports the pipe. The two receiving reser¬ 
voirs in Central Park cover 135 acres and have 
a capacity of 1,180,000,000 gallons. From these 
reservoirs the water is conveyed by two lines 
of pipe 30 inches in diameter, two of 36 inches, 
and one of 48 inches to the distributing reser¬ 
voir. 

The aqueduct or flume which conveys the 
water from the mountains to the reservoir at 
San Diego, Cal., is 35 mi. long and built 
almost wholly of redwood. It crosses 315 
streams and canons on trestles, the longest of 
which is 1,700 ft. and 85 ft. high. The timbers 
used in these trestles were put together on the 
ground and raised to their position by horse 
power. This aqueduct passes also through 
eight tunnels, the longest being 2,100 ft. 

Aquila (ak'we-la), a town in Italy, capital of 
the province of Aquila, 55 mi. n.e. of Rome. 
In 1703 and 1706 it suffered severely from 
earthquakes. Pop. 14,720. The province has 
an area of 2,509 sq. mi.; a pop. of 371,332. 

Aquinas (a-kwi'nas), St. Thomas (1227- 
1274), a celebrated scholastic divine. He died 
on his way to Lyons to attend a general coun¬ 
cil for the purpose of uniting the Greek and 
Latin Churches. He was called, after the 
fashion of the times, the angelic doctor, and was 
canonized. The most important of his numer¬ 
ous works, which were all written in Latin, 
is the Summa Theologice. 

Aquita' nia (later, Aquitaine), a Roman prov¬ 
ince in Gaul, which comprised the coun¬ 
tries on the coast from the Garonne to the 
Pyrenees, and from the sea to Toulouse. It 
was brought into connection with England by 
the marriage of Henry II with Eleanor, daugh¬ 
ter of the last Duke of Aquitaine. The title 
to the province wag for long disputed by Eng¬ 
land and France, but it was finally secured by 
the latter (1453). 

Arabesque (ar'a-besk), a species of ornamen¬ 
tation for enriching flat surfaces, often con¬ 
sisting of fanciful figures, human or animal, 



Arabesque. 


combined with floral forms. There may be 
said to be three periods and distinctive varie¬ 
ties of arabesque: (a) the Roman or Graeco- 
Roman, introduced into Rome from the East 
when pure art was declining; (b) the Arabesque 
of the Moors as seen in the Alhambra, intro¬ 
duced by them into Europe in the Middle Ages; 


(c) Modern Arabesque, which took its rise in 
Italy in the Renaissance period of art. The 
arabesques of the Moors, who are prohibited 
by their religion from representing animal 
forms, consist essentially of complicated or¬ 
namental designs based on the suggestion of 
plant-growth, combined with extremely com¬ 
plex geometrical forms. 

Ara'bi Pasha, Egyptian soldier and revolu¬ 
tionary leader, b. 1837. In September, 1881, he 
headed a military revolt, and was for a time 
virtually dictator of Egypt. Britain interfered, 
and after a short campaign, beginning with 
the bombardment of Alexandria and ending 
with the defeat of Arabi and his army at Tel- 
el-Kebir, he surrendered, and was banished to 
Ceylon. 

Ara'bia, a vast peninsula in the s.w. of 
Asia, area rather over 1,000,000 sq. mi., its pop. 
probably not more than 5,000,000. Roughly 
described, it exhibits a central table-land sur¬ 
rounded by a series of deserts, with numerous 
scattered oases, while around this is a line of 
mountains parallel to and approaching the 
coasts, and with a narrow rim of low grounds 
between them and the sea. In its general 
features Arabia resembles the Sahara, of 
which it may be considered a continuation. 
Like the Sahara it has its wastes of loose sand, 
its mountains devoid of vegetation, its oases 
with their wells and streams, their palm-groves 
and cultivated fields. By the ancients the 
whole peninsula was broadly divided into three 
great sections: Arabia Petraea (containing the 
city Petra), Deserta (desert), and Felix (happy). 
The first and last of these answer roughly to 
the modern divisions of the region of Sinai in 
the n.w. and Yemen in the s.w., while the 
name Deserta was vaguely given to the rest of 
the country. The principal divisions at the 
present are Madian in the n.w.; south of 
this, Hejaz, Assir, and Yemen, all on the 
Red Sea, the last named occupying the south¬ 
western, part of the peninsula, and comprising 
a maritime lowland on the shores of the Red 
Sea, with an elevated inland district of con¬ 
siderable breadth; Hadramaut, on the south 
coast; Oman occupying the southeast angle; 
El-Hasa and Kovei't on the Persian Gulf; 
El-Ham ad (Desert of Syria), Nefud, and Jebel 
Shammar in the north; Nejd, the Central 
Highlands, which occupies a great part of the 
interior of the country, while south of it is the 
great unexplored Dahkna or sandy desert. 
Madian belongs to Egypt, the Hejaz, Yemen, 
Bahr-el-Hasa, Kovei’t, etc., are more or less 
under the suzerainty of Turkey. The rest of 
the country is ruled by independent chiefs, 
while the title of sultan has been assumed by 
the chief of the Wahabis in Nejd, the sover¬ 
eign of Oman, and some petty princes in the 
south of the peninsula. The chief towns are: 
Mecca, the birthplace of Mohammed; Medina, 
the place to which he fled from Mecca (a. d. 
622), and where he is buried; Mocha, a sea¬ 
port celebrated for its coffee; Aden, on the 
s.w. coast, a strongly fortified garrison belong¬ 
ing to Britain; Sana, the capital of Yemen; 
and Muscat, the capital of Oman, a busy port 


























2 Ground Plan of Mosque in 

vji Cairo. 


6. Minaret of Mosque Sultan 
Hasan, at Cairo. 


Monument of the Sultan Soliman-ion-seiim 5. Ground Plan of Mosque Sinan 
at Cairo. Pascha. at Bulak, near Cairo. 


7 . Inn 7. Palace of the Great Mogul at Delhi. 


DehlL 


i. Mosque in Delhi. 














































































































































































































Arabia 


Arabia 


with a safe anchorage. The chief towns of 
the interior are Ha'il, the residence of the emir 
of Northern Nejd; Oneizah, under the same 
ruler; and Kiad, capital of Southern Nejd. 
The most flourishing portions of Arabia are 
in Oman, Hadramaut, and Nejd. In the two 
former are localities with numerous towns and 
villages and settled industrious populations 
like that of Hindustan or Europe. 

The climate of Arabia in general is marked 
by extreme heat and dryness. Aridity and 
barrenness characterize both high and low 
grounds, and the date-palm is often the only 
representative of vegetable existence. There 
are districts which in the course of the year 
are hardly refreshed by a single shower of rain. 
Forests there are few or none. Grassy pastures 
have their place supplied by steppe-like tracts, 
which are covered for a short season with aro¬ 
matic herbs, serving as food for the cattle. 
The date-palm furnishes the staple article of 
food; the cereals are wheat, barley, maize, 
and millet; various sorts of fruit flourish; 
coffee and many aromatic plants and sub¬ 
stances, such as gum-arabic, benzoin, mastic, 
balsam, aloes, myrrh, frankincense, etc., are 
produced. There are also cultivated in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the peninsula, according to 
the soil and climate, beans, rice, lentils, 
tobacco, melons, saffron, colocynth, poppies, 
olives, etc. Sheep, goats, oxen, the horse, 
the camel, ass, and mule supply man’s domestic 
and personal wants. Among wild animals are 
gazelles, ostriches, the lion, panther, hyena, 
jackal, etc. Among mineral products are salt¬ 
peter, mineral pitch, petroleum, salt, sulphur, 
and several precious stones, as the carnelian, 
agate, and onyx. 

The Arabs, as a race, are of middle stature, 
of a powerful though slender build, and have 
a skin of a more or less brownish color; in 
towns and the uplands often almost white. 
Their features are well cut, the nose straight, 
the forehead high. They are naturally active, 
intelligent, and courteous; and their charac¬ 
ter is marked by temperance, bravery, and 
hospitality. The first religion of the Arabs, 
the worship of the stars, was supplanted by 
the doctrines of Mohammedanism, which suc¬ 
ceeded rapidly in establishing itself through¬ 
out Arabia. Besides the two principal sects of 
Islam, the Sunnites and the Shiites, there also 
exists, in considerable numbers, a third Mo¬ 
hammedan sect, the Wahabis, which arose in 
the latter half of the eighteenth century, and 
for a time possessed great political importance 
in the peninsula. The mode of life of the 
Arabs is either nomadic or settled. The no¬ 
madic tribes are termed Bedouins, and among 
them are considered to be the Arabs of the 
purest blood. Commerce is largely in the 
hands of foreigners, among whom the Jews 
and Banians (Indian merchants) are the most 
numerous. 

The history of the Arabs previous to Mo¬ 
hammed is obscure. The earliest inhabitants 
are believed to have been of the Semitic race. 
Jews in great numbers migrated into Arabia 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, and, mak¬ 


ing numerous proselytes, indirectly favored 
the introduction of the doctrines of Moham¬ 
med. With his advent the Arabians uprose 
and united for the purpose of extending the 
new creed; and under the caliphs — the suc¬ 
cessors of Mohammed — they attained great 
power, and founded large and powerful king¬ 
doms in three continents. On the fall of the 
caliphate of Bagdad in 1258 the decline set in, 
and on the expulsion of the Moors from Spain 
the foreign rule of the Arabs came to an end. 
In the sixteenth century Turkey subjected 
Hejaz and Yemen, and received the nominal 
submission of the tribes inhabiting the rest of 
Arabia. The subjection of Hejaz has con¬ 
tinued down to the present day; but Yemen 
achieved its independence in the seventeenth 
century, and maintained it till 1871, when 
the territory again fell into the hands of the 
Turks. In 1839 Aden was occupied by the 
British. Oman early became virtually inde¬ 
pendent of the caliphs, and grew into a 
well-organized kingdom. In 1507 its capital, 
Maskat, or Muscat, was occupied by the Portu¬ 
guese, who were not driven out till 1659. The 
Wahabis appeared toward the end of the eight¬ 
eenth century, and took an important part in 
the political affairs of Arabia, but their prog¬ 
ress was interrupted by Mohammed Ali, pasha 
of Egypt, and they suffered a complete defeat 
by Ibrahim Pasha. He extended his power 
over most of the country, but the events of 
1840 in Syria compelled him to renounce all 
claims to Arabia. The Hejaz thus again be¬ 
came subject to Turkish sway. Turkey has 
since extended its rule not only over Yemen, 
but also over the district of El-Hasa on the 
Persian Gulf. 

The Arabic language belongs to the Semitic 
dialects, among which it is distinguished for 
its richness, softness, and high degree of de¬ 
velopment. By the spread of Islam it became 
the sole written language and the prevailing 
speech in all southwestern Asia and eastern 
and northern Africa, and for a time in south¬ 
ern Spain, in Malta, and in Sicily; and it is 
still used as a learned and sacred language 
wherever Islam is spread. Almost a third 
part of the Persian vocabulary consists of Ara¬ 
bic words, and there is the same proportion of 
Arabic in Turkish. The Arabic language is 
written in an alphabet of its own, which has 
also been adopted in writing Persian, Hindu¬ 
stani, Turkish, etc. As in all Semitic lan¬ 
guages (except the Ethiopic), it is read from 
right to left. The vowels are usually omitted 
in Arabic manuscripts, only the consonants 
being written. 

Before the time of Mohammed, poetical 
contests were held and prizes awarded for 
the best pieces. The collection called the 
Moallakdt contains seven pre-Mohammedan 
poems by seven authors. Mohammed gave 
a new direction to Arab literature. The rules 
of faith and life which he laid down were 
collected by Abu-Bekr, first caliph after his 
death, and published by Othman, the third 
caliph, and constitute the Koran —the Mo¬ 
hammedan Bible. The progress of the Arabs 


Arabian Nights 


Arago 


in literature, the arts, and sciences, may be 
said to have begun with the government of 
the caliphs of the family of the Abbassides, 
a. d. 749, at Bagdad, several of whom, as 
Harun al Rashid and A1 Mamun, were mu¬ 
nificent patrons of learning; and their example 
was followed by the Ommiades in Spain. In 
Spain important works were written on geog¬ 
raphy, history, philosophy, medicine, phys¬ 
ics, mathematics, arithmetic, geometry, and 
astronomy. Most of the geography in the Mid¬ 
dle Ages is the work of the Arabians, and their 
historians since the eighth century have 
been very numerous. The philosophy of the 
Arabians was of Greek origin, and derived 
principally from that of Aristotle. Of their 
philosophical authors the most celebrated 
are Alfarabi (tenth century), Ibn Sina or 
Avicenna (d. a. d. 1037), Alghazzali (d. 1111) 
Ibn Roslid or Averroes (twelfth century), 
called by pre-eminence, The Commentator. 
In medicine they excelled all other nations 
in the Middle Ages, and they are commonly 
regarded as the earliest experimenters in 
chemistry. Their mathematics and astron¬ 
omy were based on the works of Greek 
writers, but the former they enriched, sim¬ 
plified, and extended. It was by them that 
algebra (a name of Arabic origin) was in¬ 
troduced to the Western peoples, and the 
Arabic numerals were similarly introduced. 
Astronomy they especially cultivated, and 
observatories were erected at Bagdad and 
Cordova. The Almagest of Ptolemy, in an 
Arabic translation, was early a text-book 
among them. Among poets were Abu Nowas, 
Asmai, Abu Temmam, Motenabbi, Abul-Ala, 
Busiri, Tograi, and Hariri. Tales and romances 
in prose and verse were written. The tales of 
fairies, genii, enchanters, and sorcerers in 
particular, passed from the Arabians to the 
Western nations, as in The Thousand and One 
Nights. At the present day Arabic literature 
is almost confined to the production of com¬ 
mentaries and scholia, discussions on points 
of dogma and jurisprudence, and grammat¬ 
ical works on the classical language. There 
are a few newspapers published in Arabic. 

Arabian Nights (or The Thousand and One 
Nights ), a celebrated collection of Eastern tales, 
long current in the East, and supposed to have 
been derived by the Arabians from India, 
through the medium of Persia. They were 
first introduced into Europe in the beginning 
of the eighteenth century by means of the 
French translation of Antoine Galland. Of 
some of them no original MS. is known to 
exist; they were taken down by Galland from 
the oral communication of a Syrian friend. 
The story Which connects the tales of The 
Thousand and One Nights is as follows: The 
Sultan Shahriyar, exasperated by the faith¬ 
lessness of his bride, made a law that every one 
of his future wives should be put to death the 
morning after marriage. At length one of 
them, Shahrazad, the generous daughter of 
the grand-vizier, succeeded in abolishing the 
cruel custom. By the charm of her stories 
the fair narrator induced the sultan to defer 


her execution every day till the dawn of 
another, by breaking off in the middle of an 
interesting tale which she had begun to relate. 
In the form we possess them these tales belong 
to a comparatively late period, though the 
exact date of their composition is not known. 
Lane, who published a translation of a number 
of the tales, with valuable notes, is of the opin¬ 
ion that they took their present form some 
time between 1475 and 1525. Two complete 
English translations have recently been 
printed, giving many passages that previous 
translators had omitted on the score of mor¬ 
ality or decency. 

Arabian Sea, the part of the Indian Ocean 
between Arabia and India. 

Arabic Figures, the characters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 8, 9, 0; of Indian origin, introduced into 
Europe by the Moors. They did not come 
into general use till after the invention of 
printing. 

Aracan (ar-a-kan'), the most northern divis¬ 
ion of Lower Burmah, on the Bay of Bengal; 
Area 14,526 sq. mi.; pop. 587,518. Ceded to 
the English in 1826, as a result of the first Bur¬ 
mese war. 

Arachis (ar'a-kis), a genus of leguminous 
plants much cultivated in warm climates, and 
esteemed a valuable article of food. The most 
remarkable feature of the genus is that when 
the flower falls the stalk supporting the small, 
undeveloped fruit lengthens, and bending 
toward the ground pushes the fruit into the 
ground, when it begins to enlarge and ripen. 
The pod of arachis (popularly called ground-, 
earth-, or pea-nut) is of a pale yellow color, and 
contains two seeds the size of a hazel-nut, in 
flavor sweet as almonds, and yields when 
pressed an excellent oil. See Peanut. 

Arachnida (a-rak'ni-da), a class of animals, 
including the spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks, 
etc. They have the body divided into a num¬ 
ber of segments or somites , some of which have 
always articulated appendages (limbs, etc.). 

Arad (orod), a town of Hungary, on the 
Maros, 30 mi. n. of Temeswar, divided by 
the river into O (Old) Arad and Uj (New) 
Arad, connected by a bridge; it has a fortress, 
and is an important railway center, with a 
large trade and manufactures. Pop. Old 
Arad, 35,556; New Arad, 5,141. 

Arafat' (or Jebel er Rahmeh) ( “ Mountain of 
Mercy ”), a hill in Arabia, about 200 ft. high, 
with stone steps reaching to the summit, 
15 mi. s. e. of Mecca; one of the principal 
objects of pilgrimage among Mohammedans, 
who say that it Was the place where Adam 
first received his wife Eve, after they had 
been expelled from Paradise and separated 
from each other 120 years. A sermon delivered 
on the mount constitutes the main ceremony 
of the Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and en¬ 
titles the hearer to the name and privileges 
of a Hadji, or pilgrim. 

Ar'ago, Dominique Francois (1786-1853), a 
celebrated French scientist and statesman; 
was an investigator especially in physics and 
astronomy, made important discoveries in 
magnetism and optics, and was a skilful 


Aragon 


Araucanians 


popular writer on these subjects. As a states¬ 
man he is famous as a close friend of Napoleon 
the Great, and later as a champion of republi¬ 
can institutions and liberties. Arago gradu¬ 
ated from the polytechnic school in 1805, and 
was appointed to a commission which was 
making certain measurements of longitude 
that were to serve as the basis of a decimal 
metric system. While engaged in this work 
he was taken prisoner as a spy by the Span¬ 
iards (1808), underwent hardships and narrow 
escapes, but finally reached Marseilles, 1809. 
Arrived at Paris, he was at once elected a mem¬ 
ber of the Institute, though only 23 years old, 
was appointed a professor at the polytechnic 
school, and in 1830 became perpetual secretary 
of the Academy of Sciences and director of 
the observatory. These offices he retained 
until his death. He rendered great service to 
the science of optics, and made valuable con¬ 
tributions to meteorology, especially in con¬ 
nection with electricity. In 1829 Arago re¬ 
ceived the Copley medal from the London 
Royal Society, being the first Frenchman 
to be awarded that honor. Napoleon in¬ 
vited Arago to accompany him to the 
U. S., whither he thought of coming after 
Waterloo, to devote the rest of his life to sci¬ 
entific pursuits. Arago was urged to accom¬ 
pany him to St. Helena, but refused. In the 
Revolution of 1830, Arago supported the cause 
of the people. He was elected a member of 
the Chamber of Deputies in 1831, and there 
made many famous speeches, in behalf of 
education, science, and especially the rights of 
the people. He opposed the government mo¬ 
nopoly of railways. Arago was president of 
the Council General of the Seine until 1849, 
and was the chief instrument in the emanci¬ 
pation of slaves. He was active in the over¬ 
throw of Louis Philippe, 1848, was a member 
of the provisional government and afterward 
minister of war and marine. As a mem¬ 
ber of the executive commission he dis¬ 
played great courage in the Revolution of 
1848. He favored liberal institutions as 
exemplified in the U. S. He opposed the 
election of Louis Napoleon to the pre¬ 
sidency, and after the coup d'etat of 1857, 
refused to take oath to his government, 
remaining true to his republican prin¬ 
ciples. The last three years of his life he 
was blind. Arago was the author of about 
sixty scientific works and memoirs. 

Aragon' , kingdom of, a former province 
or kingdom of Spain, now divided into 
the three provinces of Teruel, Huesca, 
and Saragossa. Area 14,720 sq. mi. It was 
governed by its own monarchs until the 
union with Castile on the marriage of Fer¬ 
dinand and Isabella (1469). Pop. 909,261. 

Araguaya (a-ra-gwl'a), a Brazilian river, 
length, about 1,300 mi., of which over 
1,000 are navigable. 

A'ral, a salt-water lake in Asia, in 
Russian territory, about 150 mi. west of 
the Caspian Sea. Area 26,650 sq. mi. It receives 
the Amoo Daria or Oxus and the Sir Daria or 
Jaxartes, and contains a multitude of sturgeon 
10 


and other fish. It has no outlet. The Aral con¬ 
tains a large number of small islands; steamers 
have been placed on it by the Russians. 

Aramaean (or Aramaic), a Semitic language 
nearly allied to the Hebrew and Phoenician, 
anciently spoken in Syria and Palestine and 
eastward to the Euphrates and Tigris, being 
the official language of this region under the 
Persian domination. In Palestine it sup¬ 
planted Hebrew, and it was it and not the 
latter that was the tongue of the Jews in the 
time of Christ. Parts of Daniel and Ezra are 
written in Aramaic, or, as this form of it is 
often incorrectly named, Chaldee, from an old 
notion that the Jews brought it from Babylon. 
An important Aramaic dialect is the Syriac, 
in which there is an extensive Christian litera¬ 
ture. 

Aranjuez (a-ran-Zm-eth'), a small town and 
palace in Spain, 30 mi. from Madrid, with 
splendid gardens laid out by Philip II. The 
court used to reside here from Easter till the 
close of June, when the number of people 
increased from 4,000 to about 20,000. 

Arap'ahoes, a tribe of American Indians 
once located near the head-waters of the Ar¬ 
kansas and Platte rivers, not now of any im¬ 
portance. The survivors are located in the 
Indian Territory. 

Ar'arat, a celebrated mountain in Arme¬ 
nia, forming the point of contact of Russia 
with Turkey and Persia; an isolated vol¬ 
canic mass showing two separate cones known 
as the Great and Little Ararat, resting on 
a common base and separated by a deep 
intervening depression. The elevations are: 
Great Ararat, 16,916 feet; Little Ararat, 
12,840 feet; the connecting ridge, 8,780 feet. 
Vegetation extends to 14,200 feet, which 
marks the snow-line. According to tradi¬ 
tion Mount Ararat was the resting-place of 
the ark when the waters of the flood abated. 


Arauca'nians, a South American native race 
in the southern part of Chile. They are war¬ 
like and more civilized than many of the 



Araucanians. 






Araucaria 


Arcade 


native races of S. America, and maintained 
almost unceasing war with the Spaniards 
from 1537 to 1773, when their independence 
was recognized by Spain, though their territory 
was much curtailed. Their early contests 
with the Spaniards were celebrated in Ercil- 
la’s Spanish poem Araucana. With the repub¬ 
lic of Chile they were long at feud, and latterly 
had at their head a French adventurer named 
Tonneins, who claimed the title of king. In 
1882 they submitted to Chile. The Chilean 
province of Arauco receives its name from 
them. 

Arauca'ria, a genus of trees of the conifer¬ 
ous or pine order, belonging to the southern 
hemisphere. The species are large evergreen 
trees with pretty large, stiff, flattened, and 
generally imbricated leaves, verticillate spread¬ 
ing branches, and bearing large cones, each 
scale having a single large seed. Its seeds 
are eaten when roasted. The Moreton Bay 
pine, of N. S. Wales supplies a valuable tim¬ 
ber used in house and boat building, in mak¬ 
ing furniture, and in other carpenter work. 
Another species, the Norfolk Island pine, 
abounds in several of the South Sea Islands, 
where it attains a height of 220 feet with a 
circumference of 30 feet and is described as 
one of the most beautiful of trees. Its foliage 
is light and graceful, and quite unlike that of 
the Chile pine, having nothing of its stiff for¬ 
mality. Its timber is of some value, being 
white, tough, and close-grained. 

Arau'co, a province of Chile, named from 
the Araucanian Indians. Area 4,246 sq. mi.; 
pop. 73,658; capital, Lebu. 

Ar'baces, one of the generals of Sardana- 
palus, king of Assyria. He revolted and de¬ 
feated his master, and became the founder of 
the Median Empire 846 b. c. 

Arbe'la (now Erbil), a place in the Turkish 
vilayet of Bagdad, giving name to the decis¬ 
ive battle fought by Alexander the Great 
against Darius, at Gaugamela, about 20 mi. 
distant from it, Oct. 1, b. c. 331. 

Arbitra'tion, the hearing and determina¬ 
tion of a cause between parties in controversy, 
by a person or persons chosen by the parties. 
This may be done by one person, but it is 
common to choose more than one. Frequently 
two are nominated, one by each party, with a 
third, the umpire, who is called on to decide in 
case of the primary arbitrators differing. In 
such a case the umpire may be agreed upon 
either by the parties themselves, or by the ar¬ 
bitrators, when they have received authority 
from the parties to the dispute to settle this 
point. The determination of arbitrators is 
called an award. The disputes of nations were 
formerly arbitrated only by war, but in this 
regard the U. S. has set a high example to the 
world by repeatedly inviting arbitration in in¬ 
ternational disputes. Her notable triumphs 
in this respect include the Alabama, Bering 
Sea, and Venezuela boundary disputes. 

Arbor Day, a day designated by legislative 
enactment, in the different states, for the vol¬ 
untary planting of trees by the people; the 
pupils in the public schools now take part in 


the observance of the day. It was inaugurated 
in 1874 by the Nebraska state board of agricul¬ 
ture at the suggestion of Julius Sterling Mor¬ 
ton, afterwards secretary of agriculture in 
President Cleveland’s second administration. 
Nearly every one of the states has already es¬ 
tablished an annual Arbor Day, and observes 
it as a legal holiday. 

Arbor Vitae (“tree of life”), the name of sev¬ 
eral coniferous trees, allied to the cypress, with 
flattened branchlets, and small imbricated or 
scale-like leaves. The common Arbor Vitae is 
a native of N. America, where it grows to 
the height of 40 or 50 feet. The young twigs 
have an agreeable balsamic smell. The Chi¬ 
nese Arbor Vitae, common in Britain, yields a 
resin which was formerly thought to have me¬ 
dicinal virtues. 

Ar'butus, a genus of plants belonging to the 
heath order, and comprising a number of small 
trees and shrubs, natives chiefly of Europe and 
N. America. 


Arbutus, a.— fruit: b .—section of fruit. 

The trailing arbutus or May-flower of N. 
America, a plant with fragrant and beautiful 
blossoms, is of the same natural order. 

Arcade, a series of arches supported on piers 
or pillars, used generally as a screen and sup¬ 
port of a roof, or of the wall of a building, and 
having beneath the covered part an ambula¬ 
tory as round a cloister, or a footpath with 
shops or dwellings, as frequently seen in old 
Italian towns. Sometimes a porch or other 
prominent part of an important building is 
treated with arcades. 

At the present day Bologna, Padua, and Berne 
have fine examples of mediaeval arcaded streets, 
and among more modern work various streets 
in Turin, and the Rue de Rivoli, Paris, are 
lined with arcades, with shops underneath. 
In mediaeval architecture the term arcade is 
also applied to a series of arches supported on 
pillars forming an ornamental dressing or en¬ 
richment of a wall, a mode of treatment of 
very frequent occurrence in the towers, apses, 
and other parts of churches. In modern use 
the name arcade is often applied to a passage 





Arcadia 


Archery 



Arch. 


or narrow street containing shops arched 
over and covered with glass; as for example, 
the Burlington Arcade, London, and the Galle¬ 
ria Vittorio Emmanuele, in Milan. 

Arca dia, the central and most moun¬ 
tainous portion of the Peloponnesus (Morea), 
the inhabitants of which in ancient times 
were celebrated for simplicity of character 
and manners. Their occupation was almost 
entirely pastoral, and thus the country came 
to be regarded as typical of rural simplicity 
and happiness. At the present day Arcadia 
forms a nomarchy of the kingdom of Greece. 
Area 2,028 sq. mi.; pop. 148,600. 

Arch, a structure composed of separate 
pieces, such as stones or bricks, having the 
shape of truncated wedges, arranged on a 
curved line, so as to retain their position by 
mutual pressure. The separate stones which 

compose the curve of 
an arch are called vous- 
soirs or arch-stones; the 
extreme or lowest vous- 
soirsare termed spring¬ 
ers , and the uppermost 
or central one is called 
the keystone. The un¬ 
der or concave side of 
the voussoirs is called 
the intrados, and the 
upper or convex side 
theextrados, of the arch. 
The supports which af¬ 
ford resting and resisting points to the arch 
are called piers and abutments. The upper part 
of the pier or abutment where the arch rests 
—technically where it springs from —is the im¬ 
post. The span of an arch is in circular arches 
the length of its chord, and generally the 
width between the points of its opposite im¬ 
posts whence it springs. The rise of an arch 
is the height of the highest point of its intra¬ 
dos above the line of the imposts; this point is 
sometimes called the under side of the crown, 
the highest point of the extrados being the 
crown. Arches are designated in various ways, 
as from their shape (circular, elliptic, etc.), or 
from the resemblance of the whole contour of 
the curve to some familiar object (lancet arch, 
horse-shoe arch), or from the method used in 
describing the curve, as equilateral, three-cen¬ 
tered, four-centered, ogee, and the like; or 
from the style of architecture to which they 
belong, as Roman, pointed, and Saracenic 
arches. Triumphal arch, originally a simple 
decorated arch under which a victorious 
Roman general and army passed in triumph. 
At a later period the triumphal arch was a 
richly sculptured, massive, and permanent 
structure, having an archway passing through 
it, with generally a smaller arch on either side. 
The name is sometimes given to an arch, gen¬ 
erally of wood decorated with flowers or ever¬ 
greens, erected on occasion of some public re¬ 
joicing, etc. 

Archaeology, the science which takes cog¬ 
nizance of the history of nations and peoples 
as evinced by the remains, architectural, im- 
plemental, or otherwise, which belong to the 


earlier epoch of their existence. In a more 
extended sense the term embraces every 
branch of knowledge which bears on the ori¬ 
gin, religion, laws, language, science, arts, and 
literature of ancient peoples. It is to a great 
extent synonymous with prehistoric annals , as a 
large if not the principal part of its field of 
study extends over those periods in the his¬ 
tory of the human race in regard to which we 
possess almost no information derivable from 
written records. Archaeology divides the pri¬ 
meval period of the human race, more espe¬ 
cially as exhibited by remains found in Europe, 
into the Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron Age, 
these names being given in accordance with 
the materials employed for weapons, imple¬ 
ments, etc., during the particular period. 
The Stone Age has been subdivided into the 
Palaeolithic and Neolithic, the former being 
that older period in which the stone imple¬ 
ments were not polished as they are in the lat¬ 
ter and more recent period. The Bronze Age, 
which admits of a similar subdivision, is that 
in which implements were of copper or bronze. 
In this age the dead were burned and their 
ashes deposited in urns or stone chests, covered 
with conical mounds of earth or cairns of 
stones. Gold and amber ornaments appear in 
this age. The Iron Age is that in which im¬ 
plements, etc., of iron begin to appear, al¬ 
though stone and bronze implements are found 
along with them. The word age in this sense 
(as explained under Age) simply denotes the 
stage at which a people has arrived. The 
phrase “Stone Age,” therefore, merely marks 
the period before the use of bronze, the 
“Bronze Age” that before the employment of 
iron, among any specific people. 

Archangel (iirk-an'jel), a seaport, capital of 
the Russian government of same name, on the 
right bank of the northern Dwina, about 20 
mi. above its mouth in the White Sea. The 
place has some manufactures and an impor¬ 
tant trade, exporting linseed, flax, tow, tallow, 
train-oil, mats, timber, pitch and tar, etc. 
The port is closed for six months by ice. 
Archangel, founded in 1584, was long the only 
port which Russia possessed. Pop. 19,540. 
The province has an area of 831,490, sq. mi. 
Pop. 311,673. 

Archelaus (ar-ke-lfi'us), the name of several 
personages in ancient history, one of whom 
was the son of Herod the Great. He received 
from Augustus the sovereignty of Judea, Sa¬ 
maria, and Idumea. The people, tired of his 
tyrannical and bloody reign, accused him be¬ 
fore Augustus, who banished him to Gaul. 

Archer=fish, a name given to a scaly-finned 
fish, about 6 inches long, inhabiting the seas 
around Java, which has the faculty of shoot¬ 
ing drops of water to the distance of 3 or 4 
feet at insects, thereby causing them to fall 
into the water, when it seizes and devours 
them. The soft, and even the spiny portion 
of their dorsal fins are so covered with scales 
as to be scarcely distinguishable from the rest 
of the body. 

Arch'ery, the art of shooting with a bow 
and arrow. The use of these weapons in war 









Archimedean Screw 


Architecture 



Archer Fish. 


and the chase dates from the earliest antiq¬ 
uity. Ishmael, we learn from Genesis 21, 
“became an archer.” The Egyptians, Assyri¬ 
ans, Persians, and Parthians excelled in the 
use of the bow; and while the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans themselves made little use of it they 
employed foreign archers as mercenaries. 
Coming to much more recent times we find 
the American Indians exceedingly skilful 
archers. The Swiss archers generally use 
the arbalist or cross-bow. The English vic¬ 
tories of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt may 
be ascribed to the bowmen. Archery disap¬ 
peared gradually as firearms came into use, 
and as an instrument of war or the chase 
the bow is now confined to the most savage 
tribes of both hemispheres. But though the 
bow has been long abandoned among civil¬ 
ized nations as a military weapon, it is still 
cherished as an instrument of healthful recre¬ 
ation. In recent years a number of archery 
clubs have been formed in the U. S. Arch¬ 
ery has the merit of forming a sport open to 
women as well as men. 

Archime' dean Screw, a machine for rais¬ 
ing water, said to have been invented by 
Archimedes, during his stay in Egypt, for ir¬ 
rigating the land. It is formed by winding 
a tube spirally round a cylinder so as to have 



the form of a screw, or by hollowing out the 
cylinder itself into a double or triple threaded 
screw and inclosing it in a water-tight case. 
When the screw is placed in an inclined posi¬ 
tion and the lower end immersed in water, by 


causing the screw to revolve, the water may be 
raised to a limited extent. 

Archimedes (ar-ki-me'dez), a celebrated 
ancient Greek physicist and geometrician, 
born at Syracuse, in Sicily, about 287 b. c. 
He devoted himself entirely to science, and 
enriched mathematics with discoveries of the 
highest importance, upon which the moderns 
have founded their admeasurements of cur¬ 
vilinear surfaces and solids. Archimedes is 
the only one among the ancients who has left 
us anything satisfactory on the theory of 
mechanics and on hydrostatics. He first 
taught the hydrostatic principle to which his 
name is attached, “that a body immersed in 
a fluid loses as much in weight as the weight 
of an equal volume of the fluid,” and de¬ 
termined by means of it that an artist had 
fraudulently added too much alloy to a crown 
which King Hiero had ordered to be made of 
pure gold. He discovered the solution of this 
problem while,bathing; and it is said to have 
caused him so much joy that he hastened 
home from the bath undressed, and crying 
out, Eureka! Eureka! “I have found it, I 
have found it!” Practical mechanics also re¬ 
ceived a great deal of attention from Archi¬ 
medes, who boasted that if he had a fulcrum 
or standpoint he could move the world. He 
is the inventor of the compound pulley, prob¬ 
ably of the endless screw, the Archimedean 
screw, etc. During the siege of Syracuse by 
the Romans he is said to have constructed 
many wonderful machines with which he re¬ 
pelled their attacks, and he is stated to have 
set on fire their fleet by burning-glasses! At 
the moment when the Romans gained posses¬ 
sion of the city by assault (212 b. c.) tradition 
relates that Archimedes was slain while sit¬ 
ting in the market-place contemplating some 
mathematical figures which he had drawn in 
the sand. 

Architec'ture, in a general sense, is the 
art of designing and constructing houses, 
bridges, and other buildings for the purposes 
of civil life; or, that branch of the fine arts 
which has for its obfect the production of 
edifices not only convenient but characterized 
by unity, beauty, and grandeur. The first 
habitations of man were caves, huts, and 
tents. But as soon as men rose in civiliza¬ 
tion they began to build more commodious 
and comfortable habitations. They prepared 
bricks of clay or earth, which they at first 
dried in the air, but afterward baked by fire; 
and latterly they smoothed stones and joined 
them with mortar or cement. After they had 
learned to build houses, they erected temples 
for their gods on a larger and more splendid 
scale than their own dwellings. The Egyp¬ 
tians are the most ancient nation known to us 
among whom architecture had attained the 
character of a fine art. Other ancient peoples 
among whom it had made great progress were 
the Babylonians, whose most celebrated build¬ 
ings were temples, palaces, and hanging- 
gardens ; the. Assyrians, whose capital, 
Nineveh, was rich in splendid buildings; 
the Phoenicians, whose cities, Sidon, Tyre, 















Architecture 


Architecture 


etc., were adorned with equal magnificence; 
and the Israelites, whose temple was a wonder 
of architecture. But comparatively few archi¬ 
tectural monuments of these latter nations 
have remained till our day. This is not the 
case with the architecture of Egypt, however, 
of which we possess ample remains in the 
shape of pyramids, temples, sepulchres, obe¬ 
lisks, etc. The Egyptian temples had walls of 
great thickness and sloping on the outside 
from bottom to top; the roofs were flat, and 
composed of blocks of stone reaching from one 
wall or column to another. The principle of 
the arch was not emplo 3 r ed for architectural 
purposes. Statues of enormous size, sphinxes 
carved in stone, and on the walls sculptures in 
outline of deities and animals, with innumer¬ 
able hieroglyphics, are the decorative objects 
which belong to this style. In historic times 
the Greeks developed an architecture of noble 
simplicity and dignity, in part derived from 
the Egyptian. It is considered to have at¬ 
tained its greatest perfection in the age of 
Pericles, or about 4G0-430 b. c. The great 
masters of this period were Phidias, Ictinus, 
Callicrates, etc. All the extant buildings are 
more or less in ruins. The style is character¬ 
ized by beauty, harmony, and simplicit} r in 
the highest degree. The Greeks had three 
orders, called respectively the Doric, Ionic, and 
Corinthian. See articles under these names. 
Greek buildings were abundantly adorned 
with sculptures, and painting was extensively 
used, the details of the structures being 
enriched by different colors or tints. Lowness 
of roofs and the absence of arches were dis¬ 
tinctive features of Greek architecture. The 
most remarkable public edifices of the Greeks 
were temples, of which the most famous is the 
Parthenon at Athens. Their theaters were 
semicircular on one side and square on the 
other, the semicircular part being usually 
excavated in the side of some convenient hill. 
This part, the auditorium, was filled with 
concentric seats, and might be capable of con¬ 
taining 20,000 spectators. A number exist 
in Greece, Sicily, and Asia Minor, and else¬ 
where. After the death of Alexander the 
Great (323) the decline was very marked. The 
Romans early took the foremost place in the 
construction of such works as aqueducts and 
sewers, the arch being in extensive use among 
this people. As a fine art, Roman architecture 
had its origin in copies of the Greek models. 
Their number, moreover, was augmented by 
the addition of two new orders—the Tuscan 
and the Composite. Rome attained, under 
Augustus, its greatest perfection in archi¬ 
tecture. Among the great works now erected 
were temples, aqueducts, amphitheaters, mag¬ 
nificent villas, triumphal arches, monumental 
pillars, etc. The amphitheater differed from 
the theater in being a completely circular or 
rather elliptical building, filled on all sides 
with ascending seats for spectators and leav¬ 
ing only the central space, called the arena, 
for the combatants and public shows. The 
Coliseum is a stupendous structure of this 
kind. The thermce , or baths, were vast struc¬ 


tures in which multitudes of people could 
bathe at once. The excavations at Pompeii 
in particular have thrown great light on the 
internal arrangements of the Roman dwelling- 
house. After the period of Hadrian (117-138 
a. d.) Roman architecture is considered to have 
been on the decline. In Constantinople, after 
its virtual separation from the Western Empire, 
arose a style of art and architecture which 
was practised by the Greek Church during the 
whole of the Middle Ages. This is called the 
Byzantine style. The church of St. Sophia at 
Constantinople, built by Justinian (reigned 
527-505), offers the most typical specimen of 
the style, of which the fundamental princi¬ 
ple was an application of the Roman arch, 
the dome being the most striking feature of 
the building. In the most typical examples 
the dome or cupola rests on four pendentives. 

After the dismemberment of the Roman* 
Empire the beautiful works of ancient ar¬ 
chitecture were almost entirely destroyed 
by the Goths, Vandals, and other barba¬ 
rians in Italy, Greece, Asia, Spain, and 
Africa; or what was spared by them was 
ruined by the fanaticism of the Christians. 
A new style of architecture now arose, two 
forms of which, the Lombard and the Nor- 
man-Romanesque, form important phases of 
art. The Lombard prevailed in north Italy 
and south Qermany from the eighth or 
ninth to the thirteenth century (though 
the Lombard rule came to an end in 774). 
The semicircular arch is the characteristic 
feature of the Norman-Romanesque style, 
which flourished in England from the eleventh 
to the middle of the thirteenth century. With 
the Lombard-Romanesque were combined By¬ 
zantine features, and buildings in the pure 
Byzantine style were also erected in Italy, 
as the Church of St. Mark at Venice. 

The conquests of the Moors introduced a 
fresh style of architecture into Europe after 
the eighth century — the Moorish or Sara¬ 
cenic. The edifices erected by the Moors 
and Saracens in Spain, Egypt, and Tur¬ 
key, are distinguished, among other things, 
by a peculiar form of the arch, which 
forms a curve constituting more than half 
a circle or ellipse. A peculiar flowery deco¬ 
ration, called arabesque, is a common orna¬ 
ment of this style, of which the building 
called the Alhambra is perhaps the chief 
glory. 

The Germans were unacquainted with ar¬ 
chitecture until the time of Charlemagne 
(or Charles the Great, 742-814). He intro¬ 
duced into Germany the Byzantine and 
Romanesque styles. Afterward the Moor¬ 
ish or Arabian style had some influence upon 
that of the Western nations, and thus origi¬ 
nated the mixed style which maintained it¬ 
self till the middle of the thirteenth century. 
Then began the modern Gothic style, which 
grew up in France, England, and Germany. 
Its striking characteristics are its pointed 
arches, its pinnacles and spires, its large 
buttresses, clustered pillars, vaulted roofs, 
profusion of ornament, and, on the whole, its 


Architecture 


Architecture 


lofty, bold character. Its most distinctive 
feature, as compared with the Greek or the 
Egyptian style, is the predominance in it 
of perpendicular or rising lines, producing 
forms that convey the idea of soaring or 
mounting upward. Its greatest capabili¬ 
ties have been best displayed in ecclesi¬ 
astical edifices. The Gothic style is divided 
into four principal epochs : The Early 
Pointed, or general style of the thirteenth 
century; the Decorated, or style of the 
fourteenth century; the Perpendicular, prac¬ 
tised during the fifteenth and early part 
of the sixteenth centuries; and the Tudor, 
or general style of the sixteenth century. 
This style lasted in England up to the 
seventeenth century, being gradually dis¬ 
placed by that branch of the Renaissance 
or modified revival of ancient Roman archi¬ 
tecture which is known as the Elizabethan 
style , and which is perhaps more purely an Eng¬ 
lish style than any other that can be named. 
The rise of the Renaissance style in Italy 
is the greatest event in the history of archi¬ 
tecture after the introduction of the Gothic 
style. The Gothic style had been intro¬ 
duced into the country and extensively em¬ 
ployed, but had never been thoroughly 
naturalized. The Renaissance is a revival 
of the classic style based on the study of 
the ancient models; and having practically 
commenced in Florence about the beginning 
of the fifteenth century, it soon spread with 
great rapidity over Italy, and the greater 
part of Europe. The most illustrious archi¬ 
tects of this early period of the style were 
Brunelleschi, who built at Florence the dome 
of the cathedral, the Pitti Palace, etc., be¬ 
sides many edifices at Milan, Pisa, Pesaro, 
and Mantua; Alberti, who wrote an im¬ 
portant work on architecture, and erected 
many admired churches; Bramante, who 
began the building of St. Peter’s, Rome; and 
Michael Angelo, who erected its magnificent 
dome. On St. Peter’s were also employed 
Raphael, Peruzzi, and San Gallo. 

Since the Renaissance period there has been 
no architectural development requiring special 
note. In edifices erected at the present day 
some one of the various styles of architecture 
is employed according to taste. Modern dwell¬ 
ing-houses have necessarily a style of their 
own as far as stories, and apartments, and 
windows, and chimneys can give them one. 
In general the Grecian style, as handed down 
by Rome, and modified by the Italian archi¬ 
tects of the Renaissance, from its right angles 
and straight entablatures, is more convenient, 
and fits better with the distribution of our 
common edifices, than the pointed and irregu¬ 
lar Gothic. But the occasional introduction 
of the Gothic outline and the partial employ¬ 
ment of its ornaments has undoubtedly an 
agreeable effect, both in public and private 
edifices; and we are indebted to it, among 
other things, for the spire, a structure exclu¬ 
sively Gothic, which, though often misplaced, 
has become an object of general approbation, 
and a pleasing landmark to cities and villages. 


The works most characteristic of the present 
day are the grand bridges, viaducts, etc., in 
many of which iron is the sole or most charac¬ 
teristic portion of the material. The U. S., 
Canada, and the Australian colonies have 
not been backward in following the lead 
of the older countries of Europe. In America 
the increase in the number of handsome build¬ 
ings has been very noteworthy since the ter¬ 
mination of the Civil War, and the architectural 
accomplishments of the World’s Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, have never 
been excelled in any country. 

A new era has dawned in the construction 
of high buildings. “Chicago construction’’ 
is a term applied to the new method of build¬ 
ing high structures, having a steel frame 
skeleton, starting with the foundation and 
built up complete like a bridge. This method 
originated ; n Chicago. Each floor is absolutely 
independent so far as the walls and partitions 
are concerned, for the walls have nothing but 
their own weight to carry in the height of 
each story. The contractor may begin ex¬ 
terior work on the third, fifth, or any story he 
pleases, and leave the first to be enclosed after 
every other floor has been walled in and plas¬ 
tered. The steel framework is put up as 
rapidly as possible so as to get tRe roof on to 
protect the interior from the weather. Then 
the hollow tile partitions or the walls are built 
in as desired. This method of building ignores 
the massive foundations, heavy piers, the use 
of thick walls, and solid partition walls, run¬ 
ning from the foundation to the roof. In this 
system, the columns, starting from the founda¬ 
tions, can carry the floors as well as partitions 
and thus permit any arrangement of a floor 
without interfering with the construction. 
The demand for high buildings set the archi¬ 
tects to work to solve the problem of overcom¬ 
ing the instability of the original soil of 
Chicago. In Chicago construction the founda¬ 
tions are made of steel railroad rails, or “I” 
beams. First a bed of concrete is laid, and on 
this is placed a layer of rails, or beams placed 
side by side. On this bottom layer another 
layer of rails or beams is laid, crossing the 
lower members of the foundation at right 
angles. On top of the rails a cast iron plate 
is laid. This is the shoe for the steel 
column. The column is always made of 
wrought steel, and is of the same size for each 
of two stories, diminishing in size as it nears 
the roof. The entire framework is riveted to¬ 
gether with hot rivets. Every piece of exposed 
steel work is completely surrounded with some 
fire-proof material, such as blocks of tile or 
brick. 

A few words may be added on the archi¬ 
tecture of India and China. Although many 
widely differing styles are to be found in India, 
the oldest and only true native style of Indian 
ecclesiastical architecture is the Buddhist, the 
earliest specimens dating to 250 b. c. Among 
the chief objects of Buddhist art are stupas 
or topes , built in the form of large towers, 
and employed as dagobas to contain relics of 
Buddha or of some noted saint. Other works 


Archytas 

of Buddhist art are temples or monasteries 
excavated from the solid rock, and supported 
by pillars of the natural rock left in their 
places. Buddhist architecture is found in 
Ceylon, Thibet, Java, etc., as well as in India. 
The most remarkable Hindu or* Brahmanical 
temples are in southern India. They are 
pyramidal in form, rising in a series of stories. 
The Saracenic or Mohammedan architecture 
latterly introduced into India is of course of 
foreign origin. The Chinese have made the 
tent the elementary feature of their architec¬ 
ture; and of their style any one may form an 
idea by inspecting the figures which are de¬ 
picted upon common chinaware. Chinese 
roofs are concave on the upper side, as if 
made of canvas instead of wood. (For fur¬ 
ther information on the different subjects per¬ 
taining to architecture see separate articles on 
the different styles, Greek, Roman, Gothic, 
etc., and such entries as Arch, Column, Aqueduct, 
Corinthian, Doric, Ionic, Theater). 

Archytas (ar-ki' tas), an ancient Greek math¬ 
ematician, statesman, and general, who flour¬ 
ished about 400 b. c., and belonged to Taren- 
tum in southern Italy. The invention of the 
analytic method in mathematics is ascribed 
to him, as well as the solution of many geo¬ 
metrical and mechanical problems. He con¬ 
structed various machines and automata, 
among which was his flying pigeon. He was 
a Pythagorean in philosophy, and Plato and 
Aristotle are said to have been both deeply 
indebted to him. Only inconsiderable frag 
ments of his works are extant. 

Arcis=sur=Aube (ar-se-sur-ob), a small town 
of France, dep. Aube, at which, in 1814, was 
fought a battle between Napoleon and the 
allies, after which the latter marched to 
Paris. Pop. 2,928. 

Arc=light, that species of the electric light 
in which the illuminating source is the cur¬ 
rent of electricity passing between two sticks 
of carbon kept a short distance apart, one of 
them being in connection with the positive, 
the other with the negative terminal of a bat¬ 
tery or dynamo. 

Arcole (ar'ko-la), a village in north Italy, 
15 mi. s. e. of Verona, celebrated for the 
battles of Nov. 15, 16, and 17, 1796, fought be¬ 
tween the French under Bonaparte and the 
Austrians, in which the latter were defeated 
with great slaughter. 

Ar'cot, two districts and a town of India, 
within the Presidency of Madras.— North 
Arcot is an inland district with an area of 
7,256 sq. mi. The country is partly flat and 
partly mountainous, where intersected by the 
eastern GhJts. Pop. 1,817,814.— South Arcot 
lies on the Bay of Bengal, and has two seaports, 
Cuddalor and Porto Novo. Pop. 1,814,738.— 
The town Arcot is in north Arcot, on the 
Palar, about 70 mi. w. by s. of Madras. 
There is a military cantonment at 3 miles’ 
distance. Pop. 12,000. 

Arctic (ark'tik), an epithet given to the 
north pole from the proximity of the constel¬ 
lation of the Bear, in Greek called arktos. 
The Arctic Circle is an imaginary circle on 


Ardennes 

the globe, parallel to the equator, and 23° 28' 
distant from the north pole. This and its 
opposite, the Antarctic, are called the two 
polar circles. 

Arctic Ocean, that part of the water surface 
of the earth which surrounds the north pole, 
and washes the northern shores of Europe, 
Asia, and America; its southern boundary 
roughly coinciding with the Arctic Circle. It 
incloses many large islands, and contains large 
bays and gulfs which deeply indent the north¬ 
ern shores of the three continents. Its great 
characteristic is ice, which is nearly constant 
everywhere. 

Arctic Regions, the regions around the north 
pole, and extending from the pole on all sides to 
the Arctic Circle. The Arctic or North Polar 
Circle just touches the northern headlands of 
Iceland, cuts off the southern and narrowest 
portion of Greenland, crosses Fox’s Strait 
north of Hudson’s Bay, whence it goes over 
the American continent to Bering’s Strait. 
Thence it runs to Obdorsk at the mouth of the 
Obi, then crossing northern Russia, the White 
Sea, and the Scandinavian Peninsula, returns 
to Iceland. Though much skill and heroism 
have been developed in the exploration of this 
portion of the earth, there is still an area 
round the pole estimated at 2,500,000 sq. mi., 
which is a blank to geographers. Many have 
adopted the belief in the existence of an open 
polar sea about the north pole ; but this be¬ 
lief is not supported by any positive evidence. 
Valuable minerals, fossils, etc., have been dis¬ 
covered within the Arctic regions. In the 
archipelago north of the American continent 
excellent coal frequently occurs. The min¬ 
eral cryolite is mined in Greenland. Fossil 
ivory is obtained in the islands at the mouth 
of the Lena. In Scandinavia, parts of Siberia, 
and northwest America, the forest region ex¬ 
tends within the Arctic Circle. The most 
characteristic of the natives of the Arctic re¬ 
gions are the Esquimaux. The most notable 
animals are the white-bear, the musk-ox, the 
reindeer, and the whalebone whale. Fur-bear¬ 
ing animals are numerous. The most intense 
cold ever registered in those regions was 74° 
below zero F. The aurora borealis is a bril¬ 
liant phenomenon of Arctic nights. 

Arctu'rus, a fixed star of the first magni¬ 
tude in the constellation of Bootes, and 
thought by some to be the nearest to our sys¬ 
tem of any of the fixed stars. It is one of the 
stars observed to have a motion of its own, 
and is a noticeable object in the northern 
heavens. 

Ar'dea, the genus of birds to which the 
heron belongs, which includes also cranes, 
storks, bitterns, etc. 

Ardeche (ar-dash), a dep. in the south of 
France (Languedoc). Area 2,134 sq. mi. It 
is generally of a mountainous character, and 
contains the culminating point of the Ceven- 
nes. Silk and wine are produced. Annonay 
is the principal town, but Privas is the capi¬ 
tal. Pop. 375,472. 

Ardennes (ar-den'), an extensive tract of 
hilly land stretching over a large portion of the 


Ardennes 

northeast of France and the southwest of 
Belgium. Anciently the whole tract formed 
one immense forest (Arduenna Silva of Caesar); 
but though extensive districts are still under 
wood, large portions are now occupied by cul¬ 
tivated fields and populous towns. 

Ardennes (ar-den'), a frontier department 
in the northeast of France; area 2,020 sq. mi., 
partly consisting of the Forest of Ardennes. 
There are extensive slate-quarries, numerous 
iron works, and important manufactures of 
cloth, ironware, leather, glass, earthenware, 
etc. Chief towns, Mezifcres (the capital), Roc- 
roi, and Sedan. Pop. 332,759. 

Are (iir), the unit of the French land meas¬ 
ure, equal to a hundred square meters, or 
1,076.44 square feet. A hectare is 100 ares, 
equal to 2.47 acres. 

Are'ca, a genus of lofty palms with pin¬ 
nated leaves, and a drupe-like fruit enclosed 
in a fibrous rind. One species of the Coro¬ 
mandel and Malabar coasts is the common 
areca palm which yields areca or betel nuts, 
and also the astringent juice catechu. An¬ 
other is the cabbage-tree or cabbage-palm of 
the West Indies. With lime and the leaves 
of the betel-pepper, the areca-nuts when green 
form the celebrated masticatory of the East. 
They are an important article in Eastern 
trade. 

Arecibo (a-re-the'bo), a seaport town on the 
north coast of the island of Porto Rico. Pop. 
10 , 000 . 

Are'na, the inclosed space in the central 
part of the Roman amphitheaters, in which 
took place the combats of gladiators or wild 
beasts. It was usually covered with sand or 
sawdust to prevent the gladiators from slip¬ 
ping, and to absorb the blood. 

Areometer. See Hydrometer. 

Areopagus, the oldest of the Athenian 
courts of justice. It obtained its name from 
its place of meeting, on the Hill of Ares 
(Mars), near the citadel. It existed from very 
remote times, and the crimes tried before it 
were wilful murder, poisoning, robbery, arson, 
dissoluteness of morals, and innovations in 
the state and In religion. 

Arequipa (a-ra-ke'pJ), a city of Peru, 200 
mi. s. of Cuzco, situated in a fertile valley, 
7,850 feet above sea-level. Before the earth¬ 
quake of 1868, which almost totally destroyed 
it, it was one of the best-built towns of South 
America. Behind the city rises the volcano 
of Arequipa, or Peak of Mist<5 (20,328 feet). A 
considerable trade is carried on through Mol- 
lendo, which has superseded Islay as the port 
of Arequipa, and is connected with it by rail¬ 
way. Pop. 40,000. 

Arethu'sa, in Greek mythology, a daughter 
of Nereus and Doris, a nymph changed by 
Artemis into a fountain in order to free her 
from the pursuit of the river god Alpheus. 

Arezzo (a-ret'so), a city of central Italy, cap¬ 
ital of a province of the same name in Tuscany. 
It has a cathedral, containing some fine pictures 
and monuments; remains of an ancient amphi¬ 
theater, etc. It was one of the twelve chief 
Etruscan towns, and in later times fought long 


Argentine Republic 

against the Florentines, to whom it had finally 
to succumb. It is the birthplace of Maecenas, 
Petrarch, Pietro Aretino, Redi, and Vasari. 
Pop. 11,816. The province of Arezzo contains 
1,276 sq. mi. and 238,744 inhabitants. 

Ar' gal (Argol, or Tartar), a hard crust formed 
on the sides of vessels in which wine has been 
kept, red or white according to the color of the 
wine. It is an impure bitartrate of potassium, 
and is of considerable use among dyers as a 
mordant. When purified it forms cream of 
t a rt a r 

Ar'gall, Samuel (1572-1639), one of the 
early English adventurers to Virginia. He 
planned and executed the abduction of Poca¬ 
hontas, the daughter of the Indian chief Pow- 
hattan, in order to secure the ransom of 
English prisoners. He was deputy-governor 
of Virginia (1617-1619), and was accused of 
many acts of rapacity and tyranny. 

Ar'gand Lamp, a lamp named after its in¬ 
ventor, Aime Argand (1755-1803), a Swiss 
chemist and physician, the distinctive feature 
of which is a burner forming a ring or hollow 
cylinder covered by a chimney, so that the 
flame receives a current of air both on the in¬ 
side and on the outside. 

Argaum (ar-gJ' um), a village of India, in 
Berar, celebrated for the victory of General 
Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) over the Mah- 
rattas under Scindia and the Rajah of Berar, 
Nov. 29, 1803. 

Ar'gelander, Freidrich Wilhelm August 
(1799-1875), eminent German astronomer, di¬ 
rector successively of the observatories of Abo 
and of Helsingfors; appointed professor of as¬ 
tronomy at Bonn, 1837, where he superintended 
the erection of a new observatory, catalogued 
over 320,000 stars, and produced several im¬ 
portant astronomical works. 

Argensola (ar-Zien-so'lJ), • Lupercio and 
Bartolome Leonardo de, brothers, the 
“Horaces of Spain,” b. at Barbastro, in 
Aragon, the former in 1565, d. in 1613; the 
latter b. 1566, d. in 1631. Lupercio pro¬ 
duced tragedies and lyric poems ; Bartolome a 
number of poems and a history of the con¬ 
quest of the Moluccas. Their writings are 
singularly alike in character, and are reck¬ 
oned among the Spanish classics. 

Ar'gentine Republic, formerly called the 
United Provinces of La Plata, a vast country 
of South America, the total area comprising 
1,125,086 sq. mi. It comprises four great 
natural divisions: (1) the Andine region, con¬ 
taining the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, 
Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy; 
(2) the Pampas, containing the provinces of 
Santiago, Santa Fe, Cordova, San Luis, and 
Buenos Ayres; with the territories Formosa, 
Pampa, and Chaco; (3) the Argentine Mesopo¬ 
tamia, between the rivers ParanJ and Uru¬ 
guay, containing the provinces of Entre Rios 
and Corrientes, and the territory Misiones; (4) 
Patagonia, including the eastern half of Terra 
del Fuego. With the exception of the n. w., 
where lateral branches of the Andes run into 
the plain for 150 or 200 mi., and the province 
of Entre Rios, which is hilly, the character- 


Argentine Republic 


Argonauts 


istic feature of the country is the great 
monotonous and level plains called “pampas.” 
In the north these plains are partly forest- 
covered, but all the central and southern 
parts present vast treeless tracts, which afford 
pasture to immense herds of horses, oxen, 
sheep, and are varied in some places by 
brackish swamps, in others by salt steppes. 
The great water-course of the country is the 
Parand, having a length of fully 2,000 miles 
from its source in the mountains of Goyaz, 
Brazil, to its junction with the Uruguay, where 
begins the estuary of La Plata. The Parand 
is formed by the union of the Upper Parand 
and Paraguay rivers, near the n. e. corner of 
the state. Important tributaries are the Pilco- 
mayo, the Vermejo, and the Salado. The 
Parand, Paraguay, and Uruguay are valuable 
for internal navigation. Many of the streams 
which tend eastward terminate in marshes 
and salt lakes, some of which are rather ex¬ 
tensive. Not connected with the La Plata 
system are the Colorado and the Rio Negro, 
the latter formerly the southern boundary of 
the state, separating it from Patagonia. The 
source of the Negro is Lake Nahuel Huapi, in 
Patagonia (area 1,200 sq. mi.), in the midst of 
magnificent scenery. The level portions of 
the country are mostly of tertiary formation, 
and the river and coast regions consist mainly 
of alluvial soil of great fertility. In the 
pampas clay have been found the fossil re¬ 
mains of extinct mammalia, some of them of 
colossal size. 

European grains and fruits, including the 
vine, have been successfully introduced, and 
are cultivated to some extent in most parts of 
the republic, but the great wealth of the state 
lies in its countless herds of cattle and horses 
and flocks of sheep, which are pastured on the 
pampas, and which multiply there very 
rapidly. Gold, silver, nickel, copper, tin, 
lead, and iron, besides marble, jasper, precious 
stones, and bitumen, are found in the moun¬ 
tainous districts of the n. w., while petroleum 
wells have been discovered on the Rio Vermejo; 
but the development of this mineral wealth 
has hitherto been greatly retarded by the want 
of proper means of transport. As a whole 
there are not extensive forests in the state ex¬ 
cept in the region of the Gran Chaco (which 
extends also into Bolivia), where there is 
known to be 60,000 sq. mi. of timber. Thou¬ 
sands of square miles are covered with thistles, 
which grow to a great height in their season. 
Cacti also form great thickets. Peach and 
apple trees are abundant in some districts. 
The native fauna includes the puma, the 
jaguar, the tapir, the llama, the alpaca, the 
vicuna, armadillos, the rhea or nandu, a spe¬ 
cies of ostrich, etc. The climate is agreeable 
and healthy, 97° being about the highest 
temperature experienced. Rain is less fre¬ 
quent than in the United Kingdom. 

As a whole this vast country is very thinly 
inhabited, some parts of it as yet being very 
little known. The native Indians were never 
very numerous, and have given little trouble 
to the European settlers. Tribes of them, yet 


in the savage state, still inhabit the less known 
districts, and live by hunting and fishing. 
Some of the Gran Chaco tribes are said to be 
very fierce, and European travelers have been 
killed by them. The European element is 
strong in the republic, more than half the 
population being Europeans or of pure Euro¬ 
pean descent. Large numbers of immigrants 
arrive from Southern Europe, the Italians hav¬ 
ing the preponderance among those of foreign 
birth. The typical inhabitants of the pampas 
are the Oauchos, a race of half-breed cattle- 
rearers and horse-breakers; they are almost 
continually on horseback, galloping over the 
plains, collecting their herds and droves, tam¬ 
ing wild horses, or catching and slaughtering 
cattle. In such occupations they acquire a 
marvelous dexterity in the use of the lasso 
and bolas. The river La Plata was discovered 
in 1512 by the Spanish navigator, Juan Dia? 
de Solis, and the La Plata territory had been 
brought into the possession of Spain by the 
end of the sixteenth century. In 1810 the ter¬ 
ritory cast off the Spanish rule, and in 1816 
the independence of the United States of the 
Rio de la Plata was formally declared, but it 
was long before a settled government was es¬ 
tablished. The present constitution dates 
from 1853, being subsequently modified. The 
executive power is vested in a president— 
elected by the representatives of the fourteen 
provinces for a term of six years. A national 
congress of two chambers—a senate and a 
house of deputies — wields the legislative 
authority, and the republic is making rapid 
advances in social and political life. There 
are about 11,000 miles of railway constructed. 
The external commerce is important, the chief 
exports being wool, skins, and hides, live ani¬ 
mals, mutton, tallow, bones, corn, and flax. 
The imports are chiefly manufactured goods. 
The trade is largely with Britain and France, 
and is increasing rapidly. Buenos Ayres is 
the capital of the state. Other towns are Cor¬ 
dova, Rosario, La Plata (a new city), Tucu- 
man, Mendoza, and Corrientes. The popula¬ 
tion of the republic, which is rapidly increas¬ 
ing, is estimated at 4,500,000. 

Argives (ar'jivz) (or Argivi), the inhabitants 
of Argos; used by Homer and other ancient 
authors as a generic appellation for all the 
Greeks. 

Ar'gonaut, a name given to a species of 
cuttle-fishes, popularly known as the Paper 
Nautilus, or Paper Sailor. This is the animal 
so celebrated in poetry, and which formerly 
used to be regarded as sailing on the surface 
of the sea, using its two expanded arms as 
sails, and the other arms as oars—a statement 
purely fictitious and erroneous. The expanded 
arms are always clasped round the shell, and 
the creature can move only after the fashion 
of other cuttle-fishes. 

Argonauts, in the legendary history of 
Greece, those heroes who performed a hazard¬ 
ous voyage to Colchis, a far-distant country at 
the eastern extremity of the Euxine (Black 
Sea), with Jason in the ship Argo, for the pur¬ 
pose of securing a golden fleece, which was 


Argo=Navis 



Argonaut. 


preserved suspended upon a tree, and under 
the guardianship of a sleepless dragon. By 
the aid of Medea, daughter of the king of Col¬ 
chis, Jason was enabled to seize the fleece, and, 
after many strange adventures, to reach his 
home at Iolcos in Thessaly. Among the Argo¬ 
nauts were Hercules, Castor and Pollux, 
Orpheus, and Theseus. 

Argo=Navis, the southern constellation of 
the Ship, containing 9 clusters, 3 nebulae, 13 
double, and 540 single stars, of which about 64 
are visible. 

Argonne, a district of France between the 
rivers Meuse, Marne, and Aisne, celebrated 
for the campaign of Dumouriez against the 
Prussians in 1792, and for the military move¬ 
ments and actions which took place therein 
previous to the battle of Sedan, in 1870. 

Ar'gos, a town of Greece, in the northeast 
of the Peloponnesus, between the gulfs of 
iEgina and Nauplia or Argos. This town and 
the surrounding territory of Argolis were 
famous from the legendary period of Greek 
history onward, the territory containing, 
besides Argos, Mycenae, where Agamemnon 
ruled, with a kind of sovereignty, over all the 
Peloponnesus. Argolis and Corinth now form 
a monarchy of the kingdom of Greece. Area 
1,447 sq. mi.; pop. 136,081. 

Ar'gus, in Greek mythology, a fabulous 
being, said to have had a hundred eyes, placed 
by Juno to guard Io. Hence “argus-eyed,” 
applied to one who is exceedingly watchful. 

Argyle (or Argyll) (ar-gil'), a county in the 
Highlands of Scotland, consisting 'partly of 
mainland and partly of islands belonging 
to the Hebrides group, the chief of which 
are Islay, Mull, Jura, Tiree, Coll, Rum, Lis- 
more, and Colonsay, with Iona and Staffa. 
Area 3,255 sq. mi., of which the islands 
comprise about 1,000 sq. mi. The county 
is mountainous. There are several lakes, the 
principal of which is Loch Awe. Cattle and 
sheep are reared in numbers, and fishing is 
largely carried on, as is also the making of 


Aries 

whisky. There is but little arable land. The 
chief minerals are slate, marble, limestone, 
and granite. County town, Inverary; others, 
Campbelton, Oban, and Dunoon. Pop. 75,495. 

Argyle, Campbells of, a historic Scottish 
family raised to the peerage in the person 
of Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, in 1445. 
The more eminent members are: (1) Archi¬ 
bald, 2d Earl, killed at the battle of Flodden, 
1513.— Archibald, 5th Earl, was the means of 
averting a collision between the Reformers 
and the French troops in 1559; commanded 
troops at the battle of Langside; d. 1575.— 
Archibald, 8th Earl and Marquis, b. 1598; 
partisan of the covenanters; created a marquis 
by Charles I. It was by his persuasion that 
Charles II visited Scotland, and was crowned 
at Scone in 1651; tried for treason, and be¬ 
headed in 1661.— Archibald, 9th Earl, son of 
the preceding, was excluded from the general 
pardon by Cromwell in 1654. On the passing 
of the Test Act in 1681 he refused to take the 
required oath, was tried and sentenced to 
death. He escaped to Holland, was taken 
and conveyed to Edinburgh, where he was be¬ 
headed in 1685.— Archibald, 10th Earl and 1st 
Duke, son of the preceding, d. 1703; took an 
active part in the Revolution of 1688-89, which 
placed William and Mary on the throne.— John, 
2d Duke and Duke of Greenwich, son of the 
above, b. 1678, d. 1743; served at the bat¬ 
tles of Ramifies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, 
and assisted at the sieges of Lisle and Ghent. 
He was long a supporter of Walpole, but his 
political career was full of intrigue. He is 
the Duke of Argyle in Scott’s Heart of Midlo¬ 
thian. —George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke, 
Baron Sundridge and Hamilton, was b. in 
1823. In 1852 he became lord privy seal under 
Lord Aberdeen, and again under Lord Palmer¬ 
ston in 1859; postmaster-general in 1860; sec¬ 
retary for India from 1868 to 1874 ; again lord 
privy seal in 1880, but retired, being unable to 
agree with his colleagues on their Irish policy. 
He wrote the Reign of Law, Scotland as It Was 
and as It Is. Died 1900. His eldest son, the 
Marquis of Lome, married the Princess Lou¬ 
ise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, in 1871. 

Ariadne (a-ri-ad'ne), in Greek mythology, 
a daughter of Minos, king of Crete. She gave 
Theseus a clue of thread to conduct him out of 
the labyrinth after his defeat of the Minotaur. 
Theseus abandoned her on the Isle of Naxos, 
where she was found by Bacchus, who mar¬ 
ried her. 

Arica (a-re'ka), a seaport of Chile, 30 mi. 
s. of Tacna; previous to 1882 it belonged to 
Peru. It has suffered frequently from earth¬ 
quakes, being in 1868 almost entirely destroyed, 
part of it being also submerged by an earth¬ 
quake wave. Pop. about 4,000. 

Ari6ge (a-re-azh), a mountainous depart¬ 
ment of France, on the northern slopes of the 
Pyrenees, comprising the ancient countshipof 
Foix and parts of Languedoc and Gascony. 
Sheep and cattle are reared; the arable land is 
small in quantity. Chief town, Foix. Area 
1,890 sq. mi.; pop. 1891, 22,749. 

Aries (a'ri-ez) (the Ram), a northern con- 




Arion 


Aristophanes 


stellation of 156 stars, of which 50 are 
visible. It is the first of the twelve signs 
in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the 
vernal equinox, about the 21st of March. The 
first point in Aries is that where the equator 
cuts the ecliptic in the ascending node, and 
from which the right ascensions of heavenly 
bodies are reckoned on the equator, and their 
longitudes upon the ecliptic. Owing to the 
precession of the equinoxes the sign Aries no 
longer corresponds with the constellation Aries, 
which it did 2,000 years ago. 

Ari'on, an ancient Greek poet and musi¬ 
cian, born at Methymna, in Lesbos, flourished 
about b. c. 625. A fragment of a hymn to 
Poseidon, ascribed to Arion, is extant. 

Arios'to, Ludoyi'co (1474-1583), one of the 
most celebrated poets of Italy, b. at Reg¬ 
gio, in Lombardy. His lyric poems in the 
Italian and Latin languages, distinguished for 
ease and elegance of style, introduced him to 
the notice of the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, son 
of Duke Ercole I of Ferrara. He began and 
finished, in ten or eleven years, his immortal 
poem, the Orlando Furioso , which was pub¬ 
lished in 1515, and immediately became highly 
popular. At Ferrara he employed himself 
in the composition of his comedies, and in 
putting the last touches to his Orlando. 
The Orlando Furioso is a continuation of the 
Oi'lando Innamorata of Bojardo, details the 
chivalrous adventures of the paladins of the 
age of Charlemagne, and extends to forty-six 
cantos. 

Arista, Mariano (1802-1855), Mexican gen¬ 
eral, born in the state of San Luis Potosi, died 
on board the British steamer Tagus. He took 
part in the war that established Mexican inde¬ 
pendence, was a successful military leader, and 
in 1886 was second in command to General 
Santa Anna. He commanded at Palo Alto 
and Resaca de 14 Palma in the war between 
Mexico and the U. S. He was appointed 
minister of war in 1848. In 1850 General Arista 
became president of Mexico, which office he 
resigned Jan. 6, 1853. Soon afterward Arista 
was banished, and died in exile. In 1881 his 
remains were sent to Mexico. 

Aristaeus, in Greek mythology, son of 
Appollo and Cyrene, the introducer of bee¬ 
keeping. 

Aristarchus (a-ris-tar' kus), an ancient Greek 
grammarian, b. at Samothrace b. c. 160, 
d. at Cyprus b. c. 88. He criticised Homer’s 
poems with the greatest acuteness and ability. 
His edition of Homer furnished the basis of 
all subsequent ones. 

Aristarchus, an ancient Greek astronomer 
belonging to Samos, flourished between 280 
and 264 b. c., and first asserted the revolution 
of the earth about the sun, also regarded as 
the inventor of the sun-dial. 

Aris'teas, a personage of ancient Greek 
legend, represented to have lived over many 
centuries, disappearing and reappearing by 
turns. 

Aristides, surnamed “the Just” (d. 468 
b. c.), a celebrated Athenian statesman and 
military commander. At the time of the Per¬ 


sian invasian under Darius, Aristides was one 
of the leaders of the Athenians. Owing to his 
influence and persuasion the chief command 
was given to Miltiades instead of changing 
daily among the ten generals as had been cus¬ 
tomary. To this fact was due in great meas¬ 
ure the important victory at Marathon (490). 
The next year (489 b. c.) Aristides was ap¬ 
pointed archon (chief magistrate), but his 
rival Themistocles managed to secure his 
ostracism on the pretext that he was becom¬ 
ing dangerous to the democracy (483). In 
connection with this incident is told the fa¬ 
miliar story of Aristides’s writing his own 
name on the shell for an illiterate citizen who 
wanted to vote for his ostracism, and gave as 
his only reason that he was tired of hearing 
Aristides called the Just. Such was his un¬ 
selfish patriotism that during his exile he 
sought to unite the Grecian cities against the 
coming Persian invasian, and before the battle 
of Salamis (480) went to Themistocles and gave 
him his hearty support. He assisted in plan¬ 
ning the engagement and himself took part 
in it. He afterward commanded the Athe¬ 
nian forces. When the Delian League was 
formed, certain states having become offended 
at the arrogance of Pausanias, they decided to 
form a confederation under the hegemony ol 
Athens. Aristides was assigned the difficult 
task of adjusting the relations of the several 
members and assessing the expenses of the 
Persian war. When Themistocles was sus¬ 
pected, he did not join the prosecution, and 
after his rival’s banishment always “spoke of 
him with admiration and respect.’’ Aristides 
was so poor at his death that he was buried at 
public cost, but from a grateful country his 
children received dowries and a landed estate. 

Aristip'pus, a disciple of Socrates, and 
founder of a philosophical school among the 
Greeks, which was called Cyrenaic , from his 
native town Cryene, in Africa; flourished 380 
b. c. His moral philosophy differed widely 
from that of Socrates, and was a science of re¬ 
fined voluptuousness. His fundamental prin¬ 
ciple was, that all human sensations may be 
reduced to two, pleasure and pain. Pleasure 
is a gentle, and pain a violent emotion. All 
living beings seek the former and avoid the 
latter. Happiness is nothing but a continued 
pleasure, composed of separate gratifications; 
and as it is the object of all human exertions we 
should abstain from no kind of pleasure. Still 
we should always be governed by taste and 
reason in our enjoyments. His doctrines were 
taught only by his daughter Arete, and his 
grandson Aristippus the younger, by whom 
they were systematized. 

Aristogeiton (gi'ton), a citizen of Athens, 
whose name is rendered famous by a con¬ 
spiracy (514 b. c.) formed in conjunction with 
his friend Harmodius against the tyrants Hip- 
pias and Hipparchus, the sons of Pisistratus. 
Both Aristogeiton and Harmodius lost their 
lives through their attempts to free the country, 
and were reckoned martyrs of liberty. 

Aristophanes (tof'a-nez) (444-380 b. c.), the 
greatest comic poet of ancient Greece, born 


Aristotle 


Arithmetic 


at Athens. He appeared as a poet in b. c. 427, 
and having indulged in some> sarcasms on the 
powerful demagogue Cleon, was ineffectually 
accused by the latter of having unlawfully 
assumed the title of an Athenian citizen. He 
afterward revenged himself on Cleon in his 
comedy of the Knights , in which he himself 
acted the part of Cleon. The names of his 
extant plays are Acharnians , Knights , Clouds , 
Wasps, Peace , Birds , Lysistrata , Thesmopho- 
riazusce, Frogs , Ecclesiazusce and Plutus. 

Aristotle (384-322 b. c.), the greatest of 
ancient philosophers, founder of the Peripa¬ 
tetic School, the last and greatest of the fa¬ 
mous trio of Greek philosophers which in¬ 
cluded the names of Socrates and Plato. At 
the age of 17 Aristotle went to study at Athens, 
where he remained for 20 years. He was a 
favorite pupil of Plato, who called him “the 
intellect of his school.” He remained a warm 
admirer of Plato, though opposed to his philo¬ 
sophical teaching. About 343 Aristotle be¬ 
came the teacher of Alexander the Great. 
After the conquest of Persia, Alexander pre¬ 
sented him with nearly a million dollars. He 
also aided his scientific researches greatly by 
sending him a specimen of any plant or ani¬ 
mal found on his expeditions that was un¬ 
known in Greece. This friendship led the 
Athenians to accuse Aristotle of favoring Mac¬ 
edonia, and he was forced to flee to Chalcis, 
on the island of Euboea, where he died. While 
at Athens Aristotle taught in the Lyceum, a 
gymnasium near the city, by which title the 
school is sometimes referred to. The name 
“Peripatetic” is due to the fact that he walked 
up and down (Gk. peripatein ) while teaching. 
It was his custom to instruct his more inti¬ 
mate pupils in the problems of philosophy dur¬ 
ing the forenoon, and in the evening he gave 
public lectures to the people on less weighty 
subjects. Only a portion of Aristotle’s writ¬ 
ings has come down to us. , Of his pre¬ 
served works the most important are: Logic , 
Rhetoric , Poetics , Physics , Metaphysics , Eth¬ 
ics , Psychology , Politics , History of Animals , 
Meteorology. He was the creator of natural 
science. He was the first to divide the ani¬ 
mal kingdom into classes, and came near dis¬ 
covering the circulation of the blood. Aris¬ 
totle’s moral and political philosophy is based 
on the peculiarities of the human organism, 
and all science must be based on logic, the 
science of thought. To him is due the famous 
syllogism, the simplest form that an argument 
may assume. He was the first to distinguish 
the substance of things from their accidental 
characteristics; i.e. matter and form. He es¬ 
tablished the so-called “cosmological argu¬ 
ment” for the existence of God. This is, 
in substance, that everything in the world has 
a finite cause, and back of the long succession 
of finite causes there must be an infinite being, 
a first something, absolute reason, God. One 
of the problems of the ancient schools of phi¬ 
losophy was the attainment of the highest 
possible happiness. This Aristotle finds to be in 
the intelligent useof the reasoning powers, and 
it is the possession of these which distinguishes 


man from the beasts. Before the eleventh cen¬ 
tury Aristotle was but little known to the 
Christian world, although prized by the Ara¬ 
bians for three centuries prior to this. For 
four centuries he remained the authority of 
the Christian thinkers, but gradually his teach¬ 
ings became distorted and misunderstood. 
With the revival of learning his works were 
carefully studied and correctly interpreted, 
and their effect is felt in all subsequent phi¬ 
losophy, notably in Bacon, Kant, Spinoza, and 
Descartes. 

Arithmetic, is primarily the science of 
numbers. As opposed to algebra it is the 
practical part of the science. Although the 
processes of arithmetical operations are often 
highly complicated, they all resolve them¬ 
selves into the repetition of four primary 
operations — addition, subtraction, multiplica¬ 
tion, and division. Of these the two latter are 
only .complex forms of the two former, and 
subtraction again is merely a reversal of the 
process of addition. Little or nothing is 
known as to the origin and invention of arith¬ 
metic. Some elementary conception of it is 
in all probability coeval with the first dawn of 
human intelligence. In consequence of their 
rude methods of numeration, the science made 
but small advance among the ancient Egj p- 
tians, Greeks, and Romans, and it was not 
until the introduction of the decimal scale of 
notation and the Arabic or rather Indian, 
numerals into Europe that any great progress 
can be traced. In this scale of notation every 
number is expressed by means of the ten 
digits—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, C, 7, 8, 9, 0, by giving each 
digit a local as well as its proper or natural 
value. The value of every digit increases in a 
tenfold proportion from the right toward the 
left; the distance of any figure from the right 
indicating the power of 10, and the digit itself 
the number of those powers intended to be ex¬ 
pressed; thus, 3464=3000 -}- 400 -{— 60 -f- 4 = 3 X 
10 3 -J- 4 X 10 2 4- 6 X 10 -f- 4. The earliest arith¬ 
metical signs appear to have been hieroglyph- 
ical, but the Egyptian hieroglyphics were 
too diffuse to be of any arithmetical value. 
The units were successive strokes to the num¬ 
ber required, the ten an open circle, the 
hundred a curled palm-leaf, the thousand a 
lotus flower, ten thousand a bent finger. The 
letters of the alphabet afforded a convenient 
mode of representing figures, and were used 
accordingly by the Chaldeans, Hebrews, and 
Greeks. The first nine letters of the Hebrew 
alphabet represented the units; the second 
nine, tens; the remaining four, together with 
five repeated with additional marks, hun¬ 
dreds ; the same succession of letters with 
added points was repeated for thousands, tens 
of thousands, and hundreds of thousands. 
The Greeks followed the same system up to 
tens of thousands. They wrote the different 
classes of numbers in succession as we do, and 
they transferred operations performed on units 
to numbers in higher places; but the use of 
different signs for the different ranks clearly 
shows a want of full perception of the value of 
place as such. They adopted the lette* - M as 


Arithmetical 


Ark 


a sign for 10,000 and by combining this mark 
with their other numerals they could note 
numbers as high as 100,000,000. ‘ The Roman 
numerals which are still used in marking 
dates or numbering chapters were almost use¬ 
less for purposes of computation. Prom one 
to four were represented by vertical strokes I, 
II, III, IIII, five by V, ten by X, fifty by L, 
one hundred by C, five hundred by D, a 
thousand by M. These signs were derived 
from each other according to particular rules; 
thus, V was the half of X; L was likewise the 
half of C; M was artistically written M, and 
I) became five hundred. CCI represented 
5,000. They were also compounded by 
addition and subtraction; thus, IV stood for 
four, VI for six, XXX for thirty, XL for forty, 
LX for sixty. Arithmetic is divided into 
abstract and practical; the former comprehends 
notation, numeration, addition, subtraction, 
multiplication, and division, measures and 
multiples, fractions, powers and roots; the 
latter treats of the combinations and practical 
applications of these and the so-called rules , 
such as reduction, compound addition, sub¬ 
traction, multiplication, and division, propor¬ 
tion, interest, profit and loss, etc. Another 
division is integral and fractional arithmetic, 
the former treating of integers, or whole num¬ 
bers, and the latter of fractions. Decimal 
fractions were invented in the sixteenth 
century, and logarithms, embodying the last 
great advance in the science, in the seven¬ 
teenth century. 

Arithmet'ical, pertaining to arithmetic or 
its operations. Arithmetical mean , the middle 
term of three quantities in arithmetical 
progression, or half the sum of any two pro¬ 
posed numbers; thus 11 is the arithmetical 
mean to 8 and 14. Arithmetical progression , a 
series of numbers increasing or decreasing by 
a common difference, as 1,3, 5, 7, etc. Arith¬ 
metical signs, certain symbols used in arithmetic, 
and indicating processes or facts. The com¬ 
mon signs used in arithmetic are the fol¬ 
lowing: signifying that the numbers be¬ 

tween which it is placed are to be added; — 
that the second is to be subtracted from the 
first; X that the one is to be multiplied by the 
other; -*- that the former is to be divided by 
the latter; = signifies that the one number is 
equal to the other; :, : are the signs placed 

between the members of a proportional series, 
as 4 : 6 : : 8 : 12. A period placed to the left 
of a series of figures indicates that they are 
decimal fractions. 

Arizona, a territory of the U. S., containing 
113,020 sq. mi. Its breadth is about 335 mi., 
length about 390 mi. The surface consists of 
elevated table-lands intersected by mountains 
and interspersed with valleys. The soil 
is - rich. The agricultural and horticultural 
products are principally alfalfa, grain, po¬ 
tatoes, sorghum, apricots, peaches, grapes, 
apples, oranges, lemons, pears, plums, figs, 
almonds, dates, etc. The precious metals are 
gold, silver, copper, lead, and limestone. The 
mineral output for 1896 aggregated $13,978,- 
263.20. The stock industry is one of consider¬ 


able proportions. For 1896 it gave a return of 
$2,757,287.50. Arizona possesses valuable for¬ 
ests which cover an area of 10,000 sq. mi. Its 
plains sustain large herds of cattle and sheep. 
The climate varies from the temperate in the 
northern portion of the territory to a semi- 
tropical in the southern. The air is dry and 
pure. Manufacturing is carried on in a lim¬ 
ited way. Twelve railroads are operated in 
the territory with a total mileage of 1,295,928. 
The names of the different railroads are as 
follows; Atlantic & Pacific; Southern Pa¬ 
cific; Arizona & New Mexico; Central Ari¬ 
zona; Arizona <fc Southeastern; Maricopa & 
Phoenix; New Mexico & Arizona. The Santa 
Fe, Prescott & Plicenix; The United Verde 
& Pacific; Globe, Gila Valley & Northern; 
Phoenix, Tempe & Mesa; and The Congress 
Gold Mine Railroad. A conservative estimate 
of the taxable property of the territory is 
at least $90,000,000. There are five national 
banks in Arizona with a paid-up capital of 
$400,000 and a surplus of about $84,180. 
There are seven banks organized under the 
incorporation laws of the territory, and one 
private bank. There are, on reservations 
within the borders of the territory, as near 
as can be ascertained, 38,000 Indians. For 
these people the government has established 
Indian schools which have produced good 
results. Considerable attention is given to 
education in general, and the manner in 
which the normal and public schools are car¬ 
ried on is meritorious. The University of 
Arizona, located at Tucson, was established in 
1885 and is now in a flourishing condition. 
The number of public schools in the terri¬ 
tory is 223. The whole amount expended for 
school purposes during 1896 was nearly $250,- 
000, and the valuation of school property was 
$500,000. The library at the University of 
Arizona contains about 700 volumes and re¬ 
ceives the principal educational publications. 
The penal, charitable, and reformatory insti¬ 
tutions of the territory are three in number: 
the insane asylum, the Territorial prison, and 
the reform school. There are various church 
organizations with property of considerable 
value. The social advancement in the last 
lew years has been very great. The news¬ 
paper field of Arizona is well occupied, there 
being a newspaper published in every county. 
There is scarcely a town of 300 inhabitants in 
which there is not a weekly newspaper. The 
total number of papers in the territory is 
35, of which 8 are daily, 26 weekly, and one 
monthly. Arizona has twelve counties. The 
principal towns are Prescott, the seat of the 
capital: Tucson, a Mexican town; Yuma; Tomb¬ 
stone; Phoenix; Saint John; Clifton; Globe; 
and Mineral Park. It was first visited by the 
Spaniards in 1570. From 1821 to 1848 it was 
a part of Mexico when it passed to the U. S. 
by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1863 
it was organized into a territory. In 1900 the 
population was 122,212. 

Ark, the name applied in our translation of 
the Bible to the boat or floating edifice in 
which Noah resided during the flood or del- 


Arkansas 


Arkansas 


uge; to the floating vessel of bulrushes in 
which the infant Moses was laid ; and to the 
chest in which the tables of the law were 
preserved — the ark of the covenant. 

Arkansas (ar'-kan-sa), one of the southwest¬ 
ern states of the U. S. with an area of 52,198 
sq. mi. It is bounded n. by Missouri; e. by 
Tennessee and Mississippi, from which it is 
separated by the Mississippi River; s. by Louis¬ 
iana; and w. by the Indian territory. It be¬ 
longs to the great basin of the Mississippi, being 
watered by that river, and by several of its main 
tributaries, which are all more or less naviga¬ 
ble. Of these the principal are the St. Francis, 
in the north east; the White River with its afflu¬ 
ents, the Cache, Little Red, and Black rivers 
in the north; and notably the Arkansas, which, 
entering the state at Fort Smith, traverses it 
in a southeasterly direction until it joins the 
Mississippi at Napoleon. The southern part of 
the state is watered by the Washita in the 
east, and by a bend of the Red River in the 
west. The eastern part of the state, bordering 
on the Mississippi, is low and swampy, and 
is annually overflowed. Westward the coun¬ 
try gradually attains a greater elevation, pas¬ 
sing off into hills and undulating prairies, 
which lead up to the Ozark Mountains, be¬ 
yond which, again, an elevated plain stretches 
toward the Rocky Mountains. The Ozark 
Mountains do not exceed 2,000 feet in height, 
and the only other great masses of elevation 
are the Black Hills and the Washita Hills. 

Soil .—In the eastern part of the state lies a 
strip of rich, alluvial, swampy land which ex¬ 
tends as far west as Crowley’s Ridge. The 
lower Arkansas River also traverses a similar 
low and wet tract. In the southern half of the 
state are great areas of loamy land interspersed 
with tracts of lead clay and hills of iron ore. 
There are great silty prairies west of Crowley’s 
Ridge; in the west and northwest are prairies 
of red loam, and in the north is the Ozark 
mountain region. In many regions coal comes 
to the surface of the ground and is being 
worked to some extent; the quality is very 
good. Silver, galena, and zinc are abundant, 
as also are iron ores. There are many stone 
quarries in the state which yield novaculate 
hone stone. 

Vegetation. — Extensive forests of valuable 
timber are found in the hill country and oc¬ 
casionally in the bottom-lands of Arkansas. 
About one fourth of the area of the state is 
covered with yellow-pine timber land. Along 
the lakes and bayous are dense forests of cy¬ 
press. The other timber trees are several spe¬ 
cies of oak, red cedar, black walnut, tupelo 
gum, cherry, maple, black locust, sassafras, 
red mulberry, and osage orange. There are 
also ash, hickory, gum, beech, pecan, syca¬ 
more, elm, cottonwood, and hackberry trees; 
also the holly, willow, catlep, box elder, but¬ 
ternut, palmetto, dogwood, plum, hornbeam, 
ironwood, mockery nut, juniper and laurel. 
There are also extensive canebrakes in the 
lowlands. There are some wild fruit and ber¬ 
ries, as the paw-paw, persimmon, haw, whor¬ 
tleberry, wild plum, and chinquapin. Apples, 


peaches, pears, plums, apricots, cherries, nec¬ 
tarines, grapes, blackberries, and strawberries 
are of fine quality and abundant. Arkansas 
is rich in cereals and Indian corn. There are 
over thirty varieties of grasses in Arkansas, 
the hay crop being more important than that 
of any other southern state. Cotton is the 
staple product and is grown on the lowlands 
and on the hills. 

Climate. —On the whole, Arkansas has a very 
fine climate, although malarial fevers and ex¬ 
treme heat are to be encountered in the 
marshy and flat districts. In the northwest¬ 
ern part of the state the mean annual tem¬ 
perature is about 01°, and the annual rainfall 
about 55 inches. In the western part of the 
state the rainfall is about 41 inches. The east¬ 
ern part of the state is hot, and in the swampy, 
overflowed lands there is considerable fever 
and ague and sometimes yellow fever. The 
climate is noted for the relief it gives to peo¬ 
ple afflicted with pulmonary diseases. Hot 
Springs, Ark., is a popular resort for invalids 
during the winter season. 

Manufactures. —There are many mills for 
the sawing of lumber and kindred opera¬ 
tions, and mills for the extraction of cotton¬ 
seed oil are being established very rapidly. 

History .—This region was formerly a part 
of ffle French colony of Louisiana which was 
purchased by the U. S. in 1803. The ear¬ 
liest French settlement was made at Arkan¬ 
sas Post in 1685. Arkansas was organized 
as a territory in 1819 and became a state in 
1836. This was one of the seceding states in 
1861 and on its soil were fought many of the 
battles. The principal towns are Little Rock, 
the capital, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Texar- 
cana, Helena and Ft. Smith. The population 
in 1900 was 1,311,564, of which over 300,000 
were colored. 

Governors .—James S. Conway, 1836; 
Archibald Yell, 1840; Samuel Adams, 1844; 
Thomas S. Drew, 1844; John S. Roane, 1848; 
Elias N. Conway, 1852; Henry M. Rector, 1860; 
Harris Flanagin, 1862; Isaac Murphy, 1864; 
Powell Clayton, 1868; Orzo H. Hadley, 1871; 
Elisha Bayter, 1872; Augustus H. Garland, 
1874; William R. Miller, 1877; Thomas J. 
Churchill, 1881; James H. Berry, 1883; Simon 
P. Hughes, 1885; James P. Eagle, 1889; 
W. M. Fishback, 1893; J. P. Clarke, 1895; D. 
W. Jones 1896-1901; Jefferson Davis, 1901. 

Arkansas City, Cowley co., Kan., on Ar¬ 
kansas and Walnut rivers. Railroads; Santa 
Fe; Missouri Pacific; St. L. & S. F.; and 
Northwestern. Industries: railroad shops, 
three flouring mills, two- iron foundries, 
chair, mattress, and other factories. There 
is some natural gas in the vicinity, not 
extensively developed. Arkansas City has 
been for many years the outfitting point for 
the various reservations in Oklahoma and 
Indian Territory. The town was first settled 
in 1869 by the Norton Colony and became a 
city in 1870. Pop. 1900, 6,140. 

Arkansas, a river of the U. S., which gives 
its name to the above state, the largest afflu¬ 
ent of the Mississippi after the Missouri. It 



Arkwright 


Armadillo 


rises in the Rocky Mountains, about lat. 39° 
n. Ion. 107° w., Hows in a general southeast¬ 
erly direction through Colorado, Kansas, the 
Indian Territory, and falls into the Mississippi. 
Length 2,170 mi. 

Ark'wright, Richard (1732-1792), famous 
for his inventions in cotton-spinning, was born 
at Preston, in Lancashire. The youngest of 
thirteen children, he was bred to the trade of 
a barber. When about thirty-five years of age 
he gave himself up exclusively to the subject 
of inventions for spinning cotton. The thread 
spun by Hargreaves’s jenny could not be used 
except as weft, being destitute of the firmness 
or hardness required in the longitudinal 
threads or warp. But Arkwright supplied this 
deficiency by the invention of the spinning - 
frame , which spins a vast number*of threads of 
any degree of fineness and hardness, leaving 
the operator merely to feed the machine with 
cotton and to join the threads when they hap¬ 
pen to break. His invention introduced the 
system of spinning by rollers, the carding, or 
roving, as it is technically termed (that is, the 
soft, loose strip of cotton), passing through one 
pair of rollers, and being received by a second 
pair, w r hich are made to revolve with (as the 
case may be) three, four, or five times the veloc¬ 
ity of the first pair. By this contrivance the 
roving is drawn out into a thread of the desired 
degree of tenuity and hardness. His inven¬ 
tions being brought into a pretty advanced 
state, Arkwright removed to Nottingham in 
1763 in order to avoid the attacks of the same 
lawless rabble that had driven Hargreaves out 
of Lancashire. Here his operations were at 
first greatly fettered by a want of capital; but 
two gentlemen of means having entered into 
partnership with him, the necessary funds 
were obtained, and Arkwright erected his first 
mill, which was driven by horses, at Notting¬ 
ham, and took out a patent for spinning by 
rollers in 17G9. As the mode of working the 
machinery by horse-power was found too ex¬ 
pensive he built a second factory on a much 
larger scale at Cromford, in Derbyshire, in 1771, 
the machinery of which was turned by a 
water-wheel. Having made several additional 
discoveries and improvements in the proc¬ 
esses of carding, roving, and spinning, he 
took out a fresh patent for the whole in 1775, 
and thus completed a series of the most ingen¬ 
ious and complicated machinery. Notwith¬ 
standing a series of lawsuits in defense of his 
patent rights, and the destruction of his prop¬ 
erty by mobs, he amassed a large fortune. He 
was knighted by George III in 1786. 

Arle (arl), a town of southern France, dep. 
Bouches du Rhone, 17 mi. s.e. of Nismes. It 
was an important town at the time of Caesar’s 
invasion, and under the later emperors it be¬ 
came one of the most flourishing towns on the 
further side of the Alps. It still possesses 
numerous ancient remains, of which the most 
conspicuous are those of a Roman amphithea¬ 
ter, which accommodated 24,000 spectators. 
It has a considerable trade, manufactures of 
silk, etc., and furnishes a market for the sur¬ 
rounding country. Pop. 13,291. 


Arlington, Alexandria co., Va., a few miles 
from Washington city, on the opposite bank 
of the Potomac. Close by lies the famous 
“Arlington Heights,’’ the country-seat of Gen. 
R. E. Lee, which vr.s confiscated by the gov¬ 
ernment after the .o,r. but was restored to 
his family subseque&.lly. Pop. 3,200. 

Arlington, Middlesex co., Mass., 6 mi. from 
Boston, scat of Mount Hope Hospital for the 
Insane. It has several small factories and a 
savings bank. Pop. 8,603. 

Arm, the upper limb in man, connected 
with the thorax or chest by means of the 
scapula or shoulder-blade, and the clavicle or 
collar-bone. See Anatomy. 

Arma'da, the Spanish name for any large 
naval force; usually applied to the Spanish 
fleet vaingloriously designated the Invincible 
Armada, intended to act against England 
a. d. 1588. It was under the command of 
the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, and consisted 
of 130 great war vessels, larger and stronger 
than any belonging to the English fleet, 
with 30 smaller ships of war, and carried 
19,925 marines, 8,460 sailors, 2,088 slaves, 
and 2,630 cannons. It had scarcely quitted 
Lisbon on May 29, 1588, when it was shattered 
by a storm, and had to be refitted in Corunna. 
It was to co-operate with a land force collected 
in Flanders under the Prince of Parma, and 
to unite with this it proceeded through the 
English Channel toward Calais. In its prog¬ 
ress it was attacked by the English fleet un¬ 
der Lord Howard, who, with his lieutenants 
Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, endeavored by 
dexterous seamanship and the discharge of 
well directed volleys of shot to destroy or cap¬ 
ture the vessels of the enemy. The great 
lumbering Spanish vessels suffered severely 
from their smaller opponents, which most of 
their shot missed. Arrived at length off Dun¬ 
kirk, the armada was becalmed, thrown into 
confusion by fire-ships, and many of the 
Spanish vessels destroyed or taken. The Duke 
of Medina-Sidona, owing to the severe losses, 
at last resolved to abandon the enterprise, and 
conceived the idea of reconveying his fleet to 
Spain by a voyage round the north of Great 
Britain; but storm after storm assailed his 
ships, scattering them in all directions and 
sinking many. Some went down on the cliffs 
of Norway, others in the open sea, others 
on the Scottish coast. About thirty vessels 
reached the Atlantic Ocean, and of these 
several were driven on the coast of Ireland and 
wrecked. In all, seventy-two large vessels and 
over 10,000 men were lost. 

Armadil lo, a 
toothless mam¬ 
mal, peculiar to 
South America, 
consi sting of 
various species, 
belonging to a 
family inter¬ 
mediate be¬ 
tween the sloths 
and ant-eaters. Armadillo. 

They are covered with a hard, bony shell, 



Armagh 


Armenia 


divided into belts, composed pf small separate 
plates like a coat of mail, flexible everywhere 
excepton theforehead,shoulders,and haunches, 
where it is not movable. The belts are con¬ 
nected by a membrane, which enables the 
animal to roll itself up like a hedgehog. These 
animals burrow in the earth, where they lie 
during the daytime, seldom going abroad ex¬ 
cept at night. They are of different sizes; the 
largest being 3 feet in length without the tail, 
and the smallest only 10 inches. They subsist 
chiefly on fruits and roots, sometimes on in¬ 
sects and flesh. They are inoffensive, and 
their flesh is esteemed good food. 

Armagh (ar-ma'), a county of Ireland, in 
the province of Ulster. Area 328,086 acres, 
of which about half is under tillage. The 
manufacture of linen is carried on very exten¬ 
sively. Armagh, Lurgan, and Portadown are 
the chief towns. Pop. 143,056.— The county 
town, Armagh, formerly a Parliamentary 
borough, is situated partly on a hill, about 
half a mile from the Callan. It has a Prot¬ 
estant cathedral crowning the hill, a Gothic 
building dating from the eighth century, re¬ 
paired and beautified recently; a new Roman 
Catholic cathedral in the pointed Gothic style, 
and various public buildings. It is the see 
of an archbishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, who is primate of all Ireland, and is 
a place of great antiquity. Pop. 1891, 8,303. 

Armagnac(ar-ma-nyak), an ancient territory 
of France, in the province of Gascony, some of 
the counts of which hold prominent places in 
the history of France. 

Ar' mature, a term applied to the piece of 
soft iron which is placed across the poles of 
permanent or electro-magnets for the purpose 
of receiving and concentrating the attractive 
force. In the case of permanent magnets it 
is also important for preserving their magnet¬ 
ism when not in use, and hence is sometimes 
termed the keeper. It produces this effect in 
virtue of the well-known law of induction, by 
which the armature, when placed near or 
across the poles of the magnet, is itself con¬ 
verted into a temporary magnet with reversed 
poles, and these, reacting upon the permanent 
magnet, keep its particles in a state of con¬ 
stant magnetic tension, or in other words, in 
that constrained position which is supposed to 
constitute magnetism. A horseshoe magnet 
should therefore never be laid aside without 
its armature; and in the case of straight-bar 
magnets two should be placed parallel to each 
other, with their poles reversed, and a keeper 
or armature across them at both ends. The 
term is also applied to the core and coil of 
the electro-magnet, which revolves before the 
poles of the permanent magnet in the mag¬ 
neto-electric machine. 

Arme' nia, a mountainous country of western 
Asia,not now politically existing, but of great 
historical interest, as the original seat of one of 
the oldest civilized peoples in the world. It is 
now shared between Turkey, Persia, and Russia. 
It has an area of about 137,000 sq. mi., and is 
intersected by the Euphrates, which divides 
it into the ancient divisions, Armenia Major 


and Armenia Minor. The country is an ele¬ 
vated plateau, inclosed on several sides by the 
ranges of Taurus and Anti-Taurus, and partly 
occupied by other mountains, the loftiest of 
which is Ararat. Several important rivers 
take their rise in Armenia; namely, the Kur 
or Cyrus, and 
its tributary 
the A r as or 
Araxes, flow¬ 
ing east to the 
Caspian Sea; 
the Halys or 
Kizil - Irmak, 
flowing north 
to the Black 
Sea; and the 
Tigris and 
Euphrates, 
which flow 
into the Per¬ 
sia n Gulf. 

The chief 
lakes are Van 
and U r u m i - Armenian, 

yah. The climate is rather severe. The 
soil is on the whole productive, though in 
many places it would be quite barren were it 
not for the great care taken to irrigate it. 
Wheat, barley, tobacco, hemp, grapes, and 
cotton are raised; and in some of the valleys 
apricots, peaches, mulberries, and walnuts are 
grown. The inhabitants are chiefly of the 
genuine Armenian stock, a branch of the 
Aryan or Indo-European race; but besides 
them, in consequence of the repeated subju¬ 
gation of the country, various other races 
have obtained a footing. The total number 
of Armenians is estimated at 2,000,000, of 
whom probably one-half are in Armenia. The 
remainder, like the Jews, are scattered over 
various countries, and being strongly addicted 
to commerce, play an important part as mer¬ 
chants. They retain, however, in their dif¬ 
ferent colonies their distinct nationality. Little 
is known of the early history of Armenia, 
but it was a separate state as early as the 
eighth century b. c., when it became sub¬ 
ject to Assyria, as it did subsequently to the 
Medes and the Persians. It was conquered by 
Alexander the Great in 325 b. c., but re¬ 
gained its independence about 190 b. c. Its 
king Tigranes, son-in-law of the celebrated 
Mithridates, was defeated by the Romans un¬ 
der Lucullus and Pompey about 69-66 b. c., 
but was left on the throne. Since then its 
fortunes have been various under the Romans, 
Parthians, Byzantine emperors, Persians, Sar¬ 
acens, Turks, etc. A considerable portion of 
it has been acquired by Russia in the present 
century, part of this in 1878. 

The Armenians received Christianity as 
early as the second century. During the 
Monophysitic disputes they held with those 
who rejected the twofold nature of Christ, 
and being dissatisfied with the decisions of 
the Council of Chalcedon (451) they separated 
from the Greek Church in 536. The popes 
have at different times attempted to gain them 








Armentteres 

over to the Roman Catholic faith, but have 
not been able to unite them permanently and 
generally with the Roman Church. There 
are, however, small numbers here and there 
of United Armenians, who acknowledge the 
spiritual supremacy of the pope, agree in their 
doctrines with the Catholics, but retain their 
peculiar ceremonies and discipline. But the 
far greater part are yet Monophysites, and 
have remained faithful to their old religion 
and worship. Their doctrine differs from the 
orthodox chiefly in their admitting only one 
nature in Christ, and believing the Holy Spirit 
to proceed from the Father alone. Their sac¬ 
raments are seven in number. They adore 
saints and their images, but do not believe in 
purgatory. Their hierarchy differs little from 
that of the Greeks. The Catholicus, or head 
of the church, has his seat at Etchmiadzin, a 
monastery near Erivan, the capital of Russian 
Armenia, on Mount Ararat. Turkish Armenia 
has been the scene of repeated massacres and 
outrages on Christians, evoking the indigna¬ 
tion of the civilized world. 

The Armenian language belongs to the Indo- 
European family of languages, and is most 
closely connected with the Iranic group. The 
Old Armenian or Haikan language, which is 
still the literary and ecclesiastical language, is 
distinguished from the new Armenian, the 
ordinary spoken language, which contains a 
large intermixture of Persian and Turkish 
elements. The most flourishing period of Ar¬ 
menian literature extended from the fourth to 
the fourteenth century. It then declined, but 
a revival began in the seventeenth century, 
and at the present day wherever any extensive 
community of Armenians have settled they 
have set up a printing-press. The Armenian 
Bible, translated from the Septuagint by Isaac 
or Sahak, the patriarch, early in the fifth cen¬ 
tury, is a model of the classic style. 

Armentieres (ar-man-tyar),a town in France, 
dep. Nord, 10 mi. w. n. w. of Lille, on the 
Lys. The town has extensive manufactures 
of linen and cotton goods and an extensive 
trade. Pop. 26,614. 

Armida (ar-me'-da), a beautiful enchantress 
in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, who succeeds in 
bringing the hero, Rinaldo, with whom she 
had fallen violently in love, to her enchanted 
gardens. Here he completely forgets the high 
task to which he had devoted himself, until 
messengers from the Christian host, having 
arrived at the island, Rinaldo escapes with 
them by means of a powerful talisman. In 
the sequel Armida becomes a Christian. 

Armin'ius, an ancient German hero cele¬ 
brated by his fellow-countrymen as their 
deliverer from the Roman yoke; b. about 
18-16 b. c., assassinated a. d. 19. He served in 
the Roman army, and was raised to the rank 
of eques. Returning home he found the Roman 
governor, Quintilius Varus, making efforts to 
Romanize the German tribes near the Rhine. 
He completely annihilated the army of Varus, 
consisting of three legions, in a three days’ 
battle fought in the Teutoburg forest. After 
many years’ resistance to the power of the em¬ 
it 


Arms 

pire he drew upon himself the hatred of his 
countrymen by aiming at the regal authority, 
and was assassinated. 

Armistice, a mutual agreement to suspend 
hostilities between two armies or nations at 
war. It is generally proposed when an en¬ 
deavor to form a treaty of peace is being made, 
and sometimes when both parties are ex¬ 
hausted. The desire of an armistice for a 
temporary purpose—such as to bury the dead 
after the battle—is indicated by the hoisting 
of a white flag. 

Armitage, Edward, an English historical 
painter, born in London, 1817. He is best 
known by his allegorical picture of Britannia 
and Columbia relieving Chicago. 

Armor'ica (“upon the sea”), a name an¬ 
ciently applied to all northwestern Gaul, lat¬ 
terly limited to what is now Brittany. Hence 
Armoric is one name for Breton or the language 
of the inhabitants of Brittany, a Celtic dialect 
closely allied to Welsh. 

Arms and Armor. —The former term is ap¬ 
plied to weapons of offense, the latter to the 
various articles of defensive covering used in 
war and military exercises, especially before 
the introduction of gunpowder. Weapons of 
offense are divisible into two distinct sections 
—firearms, and arms used without gunpowder 
or other explosive substance. The first arms 
of offense would probably be wooden clubs; 
then would follow wooden weapons made more 
deadly by means 
of stone or bone, 
stone axes, slings, 
bows and arrows 
with heads of flint 
or bone, and after- 
ward various 
weapons of bronze. 

Subsequently a va¬ 
riety of arms of 
iron and steel were 
introduced, which Armor and Horse Armor. 

comprised the sword, javelin, pike, spear or 
lance, dagger, axe, mace, chariot scythe, etc.; 
with a rude artillery consisting of catapults, 
ballistae, and battering-rams. From the de¬ 
scriptions of Homer we know that almost all 
the Grecian armor, defensive and offensive, in 
his time was of bronze; though iron was some¬ 
times used. The lance, spear, and javelin were 
the principal weapons of this age among the 
Greeks. The bow is not often mentioned. 
Among ancient nations the Egyptians seem to 
have been most accustomed to the use of the 
bow, which was the principal weapon of the 
Egyptian infantry. Peculiar to the Egyptians 
was a defensive weapon intended to catch and 
break the sword of the enemy. With the 
Assyrians the bow was a favorite weapon; 
but with them lances, spears, and javelins 
were in more common use than with the 
Egyptians. Most of the large engines of war — 
chariots with scythes projecting at each side 
from the axle, catapults, and ballistae — seem to 
have been of Assyrian origin. During the his¬ 
torical age of Greece the characteristic weapon 
was a heavy spear from 21 to 24 feet in length. 





Arms 

The sword used by the Greeks was short, and 
was worn on the right side. The Roman sword 
was from 22 to 24 inches in length, straight, 
two-edged, and obtusely pointed, and as by the 
Greeks was worn on the right side. It was 
used principally as a stabbing weapon. It was 
originally of bronze. The most characteristic 
weapon of the Roman legionary soldier, how¬ 
ever, was the pilum, which was a kind of pike 



1, 2, Early Greek. 3, Greek. 4, 5, llornan. 6, Barbarian. 

or javelin, C feet or more in length. The pi¬ 
lum was sometimes used at close quarters, but 
more commonly it Avas thrown. The favorite 
weapons of the ancient Germanic races were 
the battle-axe, the lance or dart, and sword. 
The weapons of the Anglo-Saxons were spears, 
axes, swords, knives, and maces or clubs. The 
Normans had similar weapons, and were well 
furnished with archers and cavalry. The cross¬ 
bow was a comparatively late invention intro¬ 
duced by the Normans. Gunpowder was not 
used in Europe to discharge projectiles till the 
beginning of the fourteenth century. Cannon 
are first mentioned in England in 1338, and 
there seems to be no doubt that they were used 
by the English at the siege of Cambrai in 1339. 
The projectiles first used for cannon were of 
stone. Hand firearms date from the fifteenth 
century. At first they required two men to 
serve them, and it was necessary to rest the 
muzzle on a stand in aiming and firing. The 
first improvement was the invention of the 
match-lock, about 1476; this was followed by 
the wheel-lock, and about the middle of the 
seventeenth century by the flint-lock, which 
was in universal use until it was superseded 
by the percussion-lock, the invention of a 
Scotch clergyman early in the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury. The needle-gun dates from 1827. The 
only important weapon not a firearm that has 
been invented since the introduction of gun¬ 
powder is the bayonet, which is believed tp 


Arms 

have been invented about 1650. See Gannon, 
Musket, Rifle, etc. 

Some kind of defensive covering was prob¬ 
ably of almost as early invention as weapons 
of offense. The principal pieces of defensive 
armor used by the ancients were shields, 
helmets, cuirasses, and greaves. In the ear¬ 
liest ages of Greece the shield is described as 
of immense size, but in the time of the Pelo¬ 
ponnesian war (about b. c. 420) it was much 
smaller. The Romans had two sorts of 
shields: the scutum, a large, oblong, rectan¬ 
gular, highly convex shield, carried by the 
legionaries; and the parma, a small, round, or 
oval flat shield, carried by the light-armed 
troops and the cavalry. In the declining days 
of Rome the shields became larger and more 
varied in form. The helmet was a character¬ 
istic piece of armor among the Assyrians, 
Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. Like ail other 
body armor it was usually made of bronze. 
The helmet of the historical age of Greece was 
distinguished by its lofty crest. The Roman 
helmet in the time of the early emperors fit¬ 
ted close to the head, and had a neck-guard 
and hinged cheek-pieces fastened under the 
chin, and a small bar across the face for a visor. 
Both Greeks and Romans wore cuirasses, at 
one time of bronze, but latterly of flexible 
materials. Greaves for the legs were worn by 
both, but among the Romans usually on one 
leg. The ancient Germans had large shields 
of plaited osier covered with leather; after¬ 
ward their shields were small, bound with 
iron, and studded with bosses. The Anglo- 
Saxons had round or oval shields of wood, cov¬ 
ered with leather, and having a boss in the 
center; and they had also corselets, or coats 
of mail, strengthened with iron rings. The 
Normans were well protected by mail; their 
shields were somewhat triangular in shape, 
their helmets conical. In Europe generally 
metal armor was used from the tenth to the 
eighteenth century, and at first consisted of a 
tunic made of iron rings firmly sewn flat upon 
strong cloth or leather. The rings were after¬ 
ward interlinked one with another so as to 
form a garment of themselves, called chain - 
mail. Great variety is found in the pattern of 
the armor, and in some cases small pieces of 
metal were used instead of rings, forming 
what is called scale-armor. A suit of armor con¬ 
sisting of larger pieces of metal, called plate- 
armor, was now introduced, and the whole 
body came to be incased in a heavy metal 
covering. The various forms of ring or scale 
armor were gradually superseded by the 
plate-armor, which continued to be worn 
until long after the introduction of firearms 
and field artillery. A complete suit of armor 
was an elaborate and costly equipment, con¬ 
sisting of a number of different pieces, each 
with its distinctive name. In modern Euro¬ 
pean armies the metal cuirass is still to some 
extent in use, the cuirassiers being heavy 
cavalry; and it is said that this piece of 
armor proves a useful defense against rifle 
bullets. During all the time that the use of 
heavy armor prevahecj, the horsemen, who 





















Armstrong 

alone were fully armed, formed the principal 
strength of armies; and infantry were gener¬ 
ally regarded as of hardly any account. Eng¬ 
land was, however, an exception, as the 
English archers were almost at all times, be¬ 
fore the invention of gunpowder, an impor¬ 
tant and sometimes the chief force in the 
army. The bow ( long-bow ) of the English 
archers was from 5 to 6 feet in length, and 
the arrow discharged from it was itself a yard 
long. The long-bow continued in general use 
in England till the end of the reign of Eliza¬ 
beth, and even as late as 1627 there was a 
body of English archers in the pay of Riche¬ 
lieu at the siege of La Rochelle. 

Armstrong, John (1758-1843), soldier, b. 
in Carlisle, Pa. In 1775, while a student at 
Princeton, he enlisted in a Pennsylvania regi¬ 
ment, and was appointed aide to Gen. Hugh 
Mercer. Afterward he became aide to General 
Gates, with the rank of major, serving in the 
campaign against Burgoyne and in the South. 
On March 10, 1783, an anonymous notice was 
circulated among the officers, urging the troops 
to lay down their arms, and complaining of the 
neglect of Congress to give proper attention to 
their condition. This paper is known as the 
“Newburg Memorial;” in later years Major 
Armstrong confessed that he was the author. 
When the army disbanded Armstrong returned 
to Carlisle, and soon afterward was made 
secretary of state, and later adjutant-general 
of Pennsylvania. Armstrong married a sister 
of Robert R. Livingston, of New York, re¬ 
moved to that state, and settled on a farm in 
the old Livingston manor, 1789. In 1800 he 
was elected to the U. S. Senate, and in 1804 
was appointed minister to France; later he 
became minister to Spain. In 1810 he re¬ 
turned to New York. During the war of 1812 
he was made brigadier-general, and in 1813 
was appointed secretary of war. He resigned 
in September, 1814. He published a Histwy of 
the War of 1812, and a Review of General Wil¬ 
kinson's Memoirs. 

' Armstrong, William George, engineer and 
mechanical inventor, born at Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, 1810. Among his early inventions were 
the hydro-electric machine, a powerful ap¬ 
paratus for producing frictional electricity, 
and the hydraulic crane. In 1846 the Elswick 
works, near Newcastle, were established for 
the manufacture of his cranes and other heavy 
iron machinery, and these works are now 
among the most extensive of their kind. Here 
the first rifled ordnance gun which bears his 
name was made in 1854. (See next article.) 
His improvements in the manufacture of guns 
and shells led to his being appointed engineer 
of rifled ordnance under government, and 
he was knighted in 1858. This appointment 
came to an end in 1863, since which time his 
ordnance has taken a prominent place in the 
armaments of different countries. He was 
raised to the peerage as Baron Armstrong 
in 1887. 

Armstrong Gun, a kind of cannon, so-called 
from its inventor, made of wrought-iron, prin¬ 
cipally of spirally-coiled bars, so disposed as 


Army 

to bring the metal into the most favorable 
position for the strain to which it is to be ex¬ 
posed, and occasionally having an inner tube 
or core of steel, rifled with numerous shallow 
grooves. The size of these guns ranges from 
the smallest field-piece to pieces of the highest 
caliber. The projectile is coated with lead, 
and inserted into a chamber behind the bore. 
This the explosion drives forward, compress¬ 
ing its soft coating into the grooves, so as to 
give it a rotary motion, and at the same time 
obviate windage. Both breech-loading and 
muzzle-loading Armstrong guns are made. 

Army, a body of armed men, so organized 
and disciplined as to act together, be mutually 
reliant, and perform in unison the evolutions 
of the march and battle-field according to 
the absolute will of one man. An army is a 
movable engine composed of a vast number of 
individual parts or powers, arranged so as not 
only to act in concert, but to exert their whole 
aggregate force in any direction and upon any 
point which may be ordered or required. The 
organization of an army is of two kinds,— 
tactical and administrative. The former en¬ 
ables the leader of an army to transmit his 
orders to three or four subordinate command¬ 
ers, who pass them on to three or four others 
under them, until, through a regular chain of 
responsibility,the original impulse is communi¬ 
cated to the private soldier. The latter, in a 
similar manner, divides the army into groups 
of gradually decreasing size, so that the men 
may be efficiently paid, fed, clothed, and 
armed. The present article will treat only of 
the constitution and establishment of armies, 
and indicate their gradual historical develop¬ 
ment. Technical terms generally, as well as 
all the component elements of the army, in 
personnel and material, and the organization 
and duties of the troops, will be found noticed 
under their proper headings; the tactical po¬ 
sitions of an army are defined below. 

Ancient Armies. —The earliest regular mili¬ 
tary organization is attributed to Sesostris, 
who flourished in Egypt about sixteen cen¬ 
turies b. c. This extraordinary conqueror 
divided Egypt into thirty-six military prov¬ 
inces, and established a sort of militia, or 
warrior caste, to each member of 'which he 
allotted lands for the support of himself and 
his family. After him, little further progress 
was made in military art until the Persian 
Empire arose. Its soldiers introduced the 
mass-formation, with cavalry in intervals of 
squares; but the most important feature of 
the Persian organization was the establish¬ 
ment of what was practically a standing army, 
divided as garrisons throughout the con¬ 
quered provinces, and under the control of 
military governors distinct from the satraps. 
In time of war this standing army was aug¬ 
mented by a general levy which included the 
tributary nations, and therefore resulted in a 
heterogeneous collection of barbarous and un¬ 
disciplined peoples; a source of weakness 
which caused the defeat of Xerxes’s numer¬ 
ically powerful army. In Greece, it was 
not a standing army, but a sort of national 


Army 

militU. that gained Marathon, Plataea, and 
Mycale. The leading men in each state paid 
attention to organization and tactics in a way 
nevei before seen. The Lacedaemonians in¬ 
vented the phalanx, a particular mass- 
formation for foot-soldiers; and to this the 
Athenians added lighter troops to cover the 
front and harass the enemy in march. Their 
caval *y also were efficient and alert. The 
Thebins introduced the column formation, 
which., being deeper and narrower than the 
phalan.r, was intended to pierce the enemy’s 
line at some one point, and throw them into 
confusion. Philip, the father of Alexander 
the Great, established in Macedonia the 
world's second standing army; and, as a 
furthor change, made the phalanx deeper and 
more massive than it had been among the 
Lacecsemonians. He brought into use the 
Macedonian pike, a formidable weapon 24 
feet iri length. With a phalanx sixteen ranks 
in depth, six rows of men could present the 
points of these long pikes protruding in front 
of the front rank, forming a bristling array of 
steel terrible to encounter. Meanwhile, a more 
western power was developing what was per¬ 
haps the most perfect organization in the 
annals of military history. The Romans 
initiated changes in army matters which have 
had a wide-spread influence throughout the 
civilized world. About the period 200 b. c., 
every Roman, from the age of 17 to 46, was 
liable to be called upon to serve as a soldier; 
the younger men were preferred, but all were 
available up to the middle time of life. They 
went through a very severe course of drill and 
discipline, to fit them alike for marching, 
fighting, camping, working, carrying, and 
other active duties. The Roman legion, in its 
best days, excelled all other troops alike in 
discipline and in esprit. So long as none but 
freemen were enlisted, the position of a legion¬ 
ary was one of honor; but when it became 
necessary to supply the armies of ambitious 
leaders with large drafts of slaves and crimi¬ 
nals, the character of the body naturally fell 
with that of the individual. With a gradual 
laxity in discipline, the decline of the Roman 
power commenced. The undercurrent of in¬ 
subordination resulted in reverses, and though 
discipline was revived spasmodically under 
great commanders, it ultimately died out. 

Medieval Armies .— With the decline of the 
Roman power, all that remained of scientific 
warfare was lost for a time. The northern in¬ 
vaders made little use of tactics, but relied 
chiefly on their personal bravery, and on the 
impetuosity and weight of their attack in 
column. The army, among the Franks and 
Germans, was the nation. Kings and generals 
were intrusted in time of war with an abso¬ 
lute power, which the nation resumed with 
the return of peace. The conquerors of the 
Roman Empire at first recognized no superior 
save the community, of which all conquests 
were the property; individual chiefs reward¬ 
ing their own followers with gifts of the lands 
they had helped to conquer. The growth of a 
feeling that such gifts could be revoked, and 


Army 

that they implied an obligation to future ser¬ 
vice, marks the beginning of the Feudal Sys¬ 
tem, under which national armies disappeared, 
and each baron had a small army composed of 
his own militia or retainers, available for bat¬ 
tle at short notice. The contests of these 
small armies, sometimes combined and some¬ 
times isolated, make up the greater part of 
the wars of the Middle Ages. Of military 
tactics or strategy there was very little; the 
campaigns were desultory and indecisive; and 
the battles were gained more by individual 
valor than by any well-concerted plan. The 
Crusades effected some improvements in all 
these respects. The forces which went to the 
Holy Land were at first mere armed mobs, 
upheld by fanaticism, but ignorant of all dis¬ 
cipline, and under leaders destitute alike of 
forethought and powers of combination. The 
reverses they sustained, however, showed the 
necessity for some organization, and the ex¬ 
tended service called attention to and de¬ 
veloped the value of the foot-soldiers. The 
invention of gunpowder effected much less 
change, during the Middle Ages, than is gen¬ 
erally supposed. When men could fight at a 
greater distance than before, and on a system 
which brought mechanism to the aid of valor, 
everything connected with the military art 
underwent a revolution. The art of making 
good cannon and hand-guns grew up grad¬ 
ually, like other arts; and armies long con¬ 
tinued to depend principally on the older 
weapons,—spears, darts, arrows, axes, maces, 
swords, and daggers. Each knight sought 
how he could best distinguish himself by per¬ 
sonal valor; and sometimes it happened that 
the fate of a battle was allowed to depend on 
a combat between two knights. 

Modern Armies. — The Turkish Janissary 
force, the earliest standing army in Europe, 
was fully organized in 1362; but the formation 
of standing armies among Western powers, 
which may be said to have introduced the. 
modern military system, dates from the es¬ 
tablishment of compagnies d'ordonnance by 
Charles VII of France, nearly a century later. 
These companies of men-at-arms amounted, 
with their attendants, to 9,000 men; and to 
them the king afterward added 16,000 franc- 
archers, largely recruited from the merce¬ 
naries which growing wealth and luxury had 
developed. Monarchs contracted with power¬ 
ful nobles to raise, by enlistment, regiments, 
which were now broken up into squadrons or 
battalions as tactical units, the regiment re¬ 
maining the administrative unit. Between the 
beginning of the sixteenth and the end of the 
eighteenth centuries, the proportion of the 
musketeers gradually increased; the pike was 
abandoned for the bayonet,and even the cavalry 
were taught to rely more on their fire than on 
the effect of their charge. The improvements 
in weapons naturally affected the formation. 
During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) Gus- 
tavus Adolphus and Wallenstein adopted oppo¬ 
site modes of dealing with masses of infantry; 
the former spread them out to a great width, 
and only six ranks in depth; whereas the lat- 


Army 


Army 

ter adopted a narrower front, with a depth of 
twenty to thirty ranks. In Louis XIV’s reign, 
the prolonged wars introduced the larger 
grouping in brigades and divisions. Frederick 
the Great, in the next century, reduced the 
depth of his infantry formation to three ranks, 
and introduced a most rigid and exact system 
of tactics and drill. He greatly improved the 
cavalry tactics, and restored to this arm a reli¬ 
ance on the effect of a rapid charge, while the 
introduction of horse artillery added to its 
power. 

The French Revolution effected almost as 
great changes in the military as in the polit¬ 
ical organization of Europe. The struggle from 
which France emerged victorious in 1797 had 
exhausted even the enormous levies which had 
fed her armies for the previous five years; and 
in 1798 a law was passed establishing compul¬ 
sory military service. Every citizen was 
declared liable to five years’ service, and all 
between the ages of 20 and 25 were enrolled. 
The immense advantage which this terrible 
power gave Napoleon, compelled other nations 
to follow the example of France, and in Eu¬ 
rope voluntary enlistment has since survived 
in England alone. In spite of the strength 
which Prussia mustered under Bliicher, the 
teaching of Sadowa and the events of 1870 and 
1871 were required to induce the other powers 
to follow her example. Now, in most nations 
will be found an army of reserve, intended to 
augment the standing army, or first fighting 
line, from a peace to a war strength, and consist¬ 
ing of two classes—those waiting for an im¬ 
mediate call to arms, if required, and those 
constituting the militia or second line of re¬ 
serves—the entire effective military power of 
the state. The principles of organization were 
also modified in the large armies which took 
the field in the beginning of the century. In 
1792, mixed divisions, composed of all arms, 
had been introduced, and in 1804 Napoleon or¬ 
ganized, under his marshals, corps d'armee, 
each in itself a complete army. A smaller 
force taking the field consisting of one corps 
or less, is generally called an expeditionary 
force. It should perhaps be added that a 
corps d'armee takes up on the line of march 
from 20 to 30 miles, the actual rate of march¬ 
ing may be stated at from 1 to 2 miles an hour, 
even this rate being dependent on the state of 
the roads and any circumstances (such as an 
excessive proportion of guns) that may impede 
a column of march. 

U. S. Army .—By the constitution of the U. S. 
the president is commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy of the Union, and Congress has 
power to raise and support armies, to regulate 
them, and to provide for executing the laws 
of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel 
invasions. The military history of the U. S. 
begins with the army of Washington, and the 
growth has been spasmodic. In 1790, the 
army as fixed by act of Congress, consisted of 
1,216 men. In 1861, at the commencement of 
the Civil War, the regular force amounted to 
only 14,000 men. In April of that year, Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln called out 75,000 volunteers for 


three months, and in May, 42,000. In July 
two calls of 500,000 each were authorized by 
Congress, and it was found necessary to intro¬ 
duce conscription. In October, 1863, a levy of 
300,000 was ordered, and in the following Febru¬ 
ary a call for 500,000 was made. In the early 
part of 1865 two levies amounting in all to 
500,000 were made, but were only partially car¬ 
ried out on account of the cessation of hostili¬ 
ties. Thus the total number of men in the 
army between April, 1861, and April, 1865, 
amounted to 2,759,050. The Southern states 
during this time raised an army of about 
1,100,000 men, and thus in the whole U. S. 
was raised the enormous army of nearlv 
4,000,000 men. The army reorganization bill 
passed by Congress in 1901 provided for a stand¬ 
ing army of 58,000 men as the minimum, but 
the President is empowered to raise it to 100,- 
000 if necessary. The army previously was 
limited to 25,000 men. The U. S. is divided 
into the following military Departments: De- 
partmentof the East, headquarters Longlsland, 
New York harbor; Department of the Lakes, 
headquarters Chicago; Departmentof the Gulf, 
headquarters Atlanta, Ga.; Department of 
Dakota, headquarters St. Paul; Departmentof 
Missouri, headquarters Omaha; Department of 
Colorado, headquarters Denver; Department 
of Columbia, headquarters Vancouver’s Bar¬ 
racks, Washington; Department of California, 
headquarters San Francisco. The Hawaiian 
Islands are included in the Department of 
California; the Island of Puerto Rico consti¬ 
tutes the Department of Puerto Rico, head¬ 
quarters San Juan. During the time of 
military occupation by the United States of 
Cuba it constitutes a grand military division 
with headquarters at Havana. The Philip¬ 
pine Islands constitute the Department of the 
Pacific, with headquarters at Manila. In 
addition to the regular army nearly every 
state and territory has an organized militia 
force, organized and governed in each state by 
special statute laws. On January 1, 1898, the 
total organized militia in the United States 
comprised 9,196 officers and 105,166 men. Fol¬ 
lowing are the numbers of men that have been 
enrolled in the various wars in which the 
United States have been engaged, the numbers 
for the Revolution being only approximate. 
During this war there were about 232,000 con¬ 
tinental troops and 145,000 state troops, militia, 
etc., making a total of about 337,000. These 
figures, however, are not reliable, because a 
great many served more than one term and 
some served as many as four terms. During 
the war of 1812 there were enrolled, including 
regulars and militia, 471,622 men. In the 
Mexican War there were enrolled a total of 
116,321 men, of whom 42,545 were in the reg¬ 
ular army, In the Civil War the total num¬ 
ber of Union troops were 2,326,168, of whom 
67,000 were regulars and about 179,000 were 
colored. The total 'number enrolled in the 
Spanish-American War was 274,717, of whom 
55,682 were regulars and 10,189 were colored 
troops. The actual strength of the army com¬ 
missioned and enlisted at the beginning of the 


Army 

war with Spain was 2,143 officers and 2C,040 
men. 

The yearly salaries of officers is as follows: 
major-general, $7,500; brigadier-general, $5,- 
500; lieutenant-colonels, $3,000, which is raised 
$300 every five years until they have served fif¬ 
teen years, when it is raised $100, making a 
total of $4,000 after twenty years of service; 
■major, $2,500, which is raised $250 every five 
years; captains, mounted, $2,000, raised $200 
every five years for twenty years; captains, not 
mounted, $1,800, raised $180 every five years 
for twenty years; first lieutenant, mounted, 
$1,000, raised $160 every five years for twenty 
years; first lieutenant, not mounted, $1,500, 
raised $150 every five years for twenty years; 
second lieutenant, mounted, $1,500, raised $150 
every five years for twenty years; second lieu¬ 
tenant, not mounted, $1,400, raised $140 every 
five years for twenty years. 

British Army .— According to the system of 
localization commenced in 1872, the United 
Kingdom is divided into 10 military districts, 
6 of which are in England, 3 in Ireland, while 
Scotland makes one by itself. Aldershot, 
Woolwich, Chatham, and the Curragh are not 
included in any of these districts. In each 
district a general officer has command of all 
the forces within it, including the militia 
and volunteers. These districts are subdi¬ 
vided into 70 sub-districts called infantry bri¬ 
gade districts, of which 54 are in England, 8 
in Scotland, and 8 in Ireland. Each brigade 
consists of 2 battalions of the line, a brigade 
depot, 2 battalions of militia, besides the re¬ 
serve of the district. The terms of enlistment 
are either for 12 years’ army service (long serv¬ 
ice), or for 7 years’ army service and 5 years’ 
reserve service (short service). After 12 years’ 
service in the army a soldier may be permitted 
to re-engage for another 9 years, and after the 
completion of the whole period of 21 years’ 
service is entitled to be discharged with a 
pension. British soldiers under the rank of a 
commissioned officer receive payment varying 
from one shilling a day, which is the pay of a 
private in an infantry regiment, up to 6 shil¬ 
lings a day, the pay of a regimental sergant- 
major in the Royal Engineers. According to 
the regulations now in force, first commissions 
are given to successful candidates at the Civil 
Service Commissioners’ open examinations; to 
university students or lieutenants of militia 
who pass certain examinations; or to non¬ 
commissioned officers specially recommended; 
while promotion is regulated by seniority prin¬ 
cipally, but partly by selection. The military 
strength of the British army in 1897 was: reg¬ 
ular troops enrolled, home and colonial, 154,- 
000; grand war total, 570,634. 

Germany .— By the imperial constitution of 
1871, the Prussian obligation to serve iri the 
army is extended to the whole empire. Every 
German capable of bearing arms must serve in 
the army or navy for 12 years — 7 in the stand¬ 
ing army (3 with the colors, and 4 in the 
reserve), and 5 in the landwehr; or corre¬ 
sponding periods in the fleet and seewehr. 
Afterward he is enrolled in the landsturm 


Army 

until 42 years of age. In the infantry, how¬ 
ever, many of the more intelligent men are 
subjected to only 2 years’ training; and “one- 
year volunteers ” are passed into the reserve 
at the end of their first year, on condition of 
passing certain examinations, and bearing the 
expense of their clothing, equipment, etc., for 
the year. In the German organization the 
territorial system is carried out thorough!}'. 
The army consists of 18 army corps, 13 of 
which are Prussian; and each of these is 
raised, recruited, and stationed witliin a par¬ 
ticular district. These corps districts are di¬ 
vided into divisional and brigade districts, 
which are subdivided into landwehr battalion 
districts, and these in turn into company dis¬ 
tricts, so that every village has its definite 
place. Each line regiment (3 battalions) draws 
its recruits from an allotted district, and passes 
its time-expired men into the landwehr regi¬ 
ment (2 battalions) of the same district. After 
the exemptions common to all countries have 
been granted, the ballot allows a margin of 
about 10 per cent.; those who draw the fortu¬ 
nate numbers passing at once into the Ersatz 
reserve, which receive no training, but may be 
called upon to replace casualties in the field. 

France .— A law passed in 1872 enacted that 
every Frenchman, with a few specified excep¬ 
tions, unless serving in the navy, was liable to 
personal service in the army, and forbade sub¬ 
stitution. The period of liability extended to 
20 years, of which 5 were spent in the act¬ 
ive army, 4 in the reserve of the active 
army, 5 in the territorial army, and 6 in 
the reserve of the territorial army. The ex¬ 
pense of keeping up such an establishment in 
peace, however, led to the division of the re¬ 
cruits by ballot into two classes, one of which 
served the full 5 years in the active army, 
while the other was sent home after 6 
months’ or a year’s training. One-year volun¬ 
teers were also accepted; but so many men 
joined in that capacity, that, in 1887, a bill 
was brought before the French legislature 
abolishing the privilege. In the same year an 
Army Reorganization Bill was introduced, re¬ 
ducing the period of service with the colors 
to 3 years, and proposing a large addition to 
the establishment; the object of the changes 
being to materially add to the number of effi¬ 
cients without increasing the military budget. 
By the law of 1873, France is divided, for mili¬ 
tary purposes, into. 18 regions, each occupied 
by' a corps cTarmee, containing 2 divisions of 
infantry, 1 brigade of cavalry, 1 of artillery, 
1 battalion of engineers, and 1 squadron of 
the military train, and retaining its organi¬ 
zation permanently in peace and in war. The 
corps are not permanently localized, but fre¬ 
quently change stations; and in time of war 
the region in which a corps happened to be 
stationed would be drawn on for reserves and 
stores. 

Austria .— The military forces of the Austro- 
Hungarian empire are divided into the stand¬ 
ing army, the landwehr, and the landsturm. 
All subjects are liable to service, and those 
exempted on physical grounds pay a fine pro- 


Arnica 


Army 

portionate to their means. In principle every 
qualified man must serve three years with 
the colors, 4 in the reserve, 5 in the land- 
wehr, and, by a law passed in 1886, 12 in 
the landsturm, from which, in time of war, 
men may be drafted into the landwehr; and 
men who have passed through the regular 
army will be liable for service in the land¬ 
sturm as officers or non-commissioned officers 
till the age of sixty. In practise, however, 
financial considerations cause the division of 
recruits into three classes: about 95,000 an¬ 
nually form the first class, trained as above; 
nearly 10,000 are drawn to supply the Ersatz 
reserve; and all the remainder are passed at 
once into the landwehr, there to serve their 
12 years. The regiments of the standing 
army are under the control of the minister of 
war of the empire, while the landwehr is con¬ 
trolled by the Austrian and Hungarian minis¬ 
ters of national defense. There is no per¬ 
manent corps organization, the division being 
the principal unit; but in war, 3 infantry 
divisions, with a proportion of cavalry and a 
regiment of artillery, would be joined to form 
a corps. 

Russia. —Universal liability to service has 
been established since 1870, but, although pro¬ 
hibited, the purchase of exemption has hitherto 
been permitted, at a fixed rate of 800 roubles 
(about $635). The period of service is J5 
years; 6 in active service (2 generally on 
furlough), and 9 in the reserve. The Russian 
military forces are composed of regular and 
irregular troops, and militia, only called out to 
repel invasions. Every man not in the army 
or reserve belongs to the militia up to his 
fortieth year. The country has been divided 
into 15 military districts, with sub-districts 
and “circles” as in Germany. The number of 
army corps is 17, with the army of the 
Caucasus (7 divisions of infantry and 1 of 
cavalry) in addition. The irregular troops are 
supplied by the Cossacks, who give military 
service in lieu of taxes, and comprise about 
190,000 men, chiefly cavalry. The want of 
barrack accommodation leads to a great deal 
of billeting, and many men stationed in 
country districts see their officers only in 
summer, when they are assembled for training 
in large standing camps. 

Italy. —The Sardinian law of conscription 
forms the basis of the Italian military system, 
and all are liable from eighteen to forty. Sub¬ 
stitution is allowed in the case of brothers, and 
one-year volunteers are accepted. Contingents 
are divided by lot into two classes, one enjoying 
unlimited furlough, and the other serving 8 
years in the army, 4 in the active militia, 
and the rest of their time in the local militia. 
In infantry regiments 3, in cavalry regiments 
5 years only are served with the colors; the re¬ 
mainder, as a rule, being spent on furlough. 
The kingdom is divided into five “zones,” and, 
in direct opposition to the Prussian principle, 
recruits are drawn from all zones for each regi¬ 
ment. 

Of the other military powers of Europe, the 
army of Belgium, including the staff and all 


arms, rank and file, number about 50,000 men, 
besides the Garde Civique, 40,000; Denmark, 
50,000, including the extra reserve of 14,000; 
Netherlands, 6,000 in Europe, and 31,000 in 
the East Indies; Spain, 145,000, with 40,000 in 
the colonies; Sweden, 40,000, besides the con¬ 
scription troops, 135,000, and the militia, 
16,000; in Norway the troops of the line are 
about 12,000 in peace, and in time of war not 
more than 18,000 without the consent of the 
Storthing; Switzerland, 117,000, and., the land¬ 
wehr 4,000; Turkey can be raised by mo¬ 
bilization to 475,000. 

Army Worm, the very destructive larva 
of a moth so called from its habit of march¬ 
ing in compact bodies of enormous number, 
devouring almost every green thing it meets. 
It is about 1£ in. long, greenish in color, with 
black stripes, and is found in various parts 
of the world, but is particularly destructive in 
North America. The larva of a European 
two-winged fly is also called army worm. 

Arndt (arnt), Ernst Moritz, German 
patriot and poet; b. 1769, d. 1860. He was 
appointed professor of history at Griefswald 
in 1806, and stirred up the national feel¬ 
ing against Napoleon in his work Geist der 
Zeit (Spirit of the Time). In 1812-13 he zeal¬ 
ously promoted the war of independence by 
a number of pamphlets, poems, and spirited 
songs, among which it is sufficient to refer to 
his Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland? Der Gott, 
der Eisen wachsen lies , and Was blasen die trom- 
petenf Ilusaren heraus! which were caught up 
and sung from one end of Germany to the 
other. 

Arne (arn), Thomas Augustine (1710-1778), 
English composer. To him the British owe 
the national air, Rule Britannia, originally 
given in a popular piece called the Masque of 
Alfred. 

Arn'hem (or Arnheim), a town in Holland, 
province of Gelderland, 18 mi. s.w. of Zutphen, 
on the right bank of the 
Rhine. It manufactures 
cabinet wares, mirrors, 
carriages, mathematical 
instruments, etc.; has 
paper-mills, and its trade 
is important. In 1795 it 
was stormed by the 
French, who were driven 
from it by the Prussians 
in 1813. Pop. 46,233. 

Ar'nica, a genus of 
plants, consisting of some 
twelve species, one of 
which is found in Cen¬ 
tral Europe and in the 
Western states. It has a 
perennial root, a s t em 
about two feet high, bear¬ 
ing on the summit flowers 
of a dark golden yellow. 

In every part of the plant 
there is an acrid resin 
and a volatile oil, and in the flowers an acrid 
bitter principle called arnicin. The root con¬ 
tains also a considerable quantity of tannin. 



Arno 


Arnold 


A tincture of it is employed as an external ap¬ 
plication to wounds and bruises. 

Ar'no, a river of Italy which rises in the 
Etruscan Apennines, makes a sweep to the 
south and then trends westward, divides Flor¬ 
ence into two parts, washes Pisa, and falls 
4 mi. below it, into the Tuscan Sea, after a 
course of 130 mi. 

Arnold, Arthur (b. 1833), an English editor 
and statesman, brother of Sir Edwin Arnold. 
He edited the London Echo , a liberal news¬ 
paper, became connected with the London 
Telegraph , and entered Parliament in 1880. 
He has written From the Levant, and has also 
published two novels. 

Arnold, Benedict (1741-1801), b. in Nor¬ 
wich, Conn.; d. in London. He had a com¬ 
mon school education, and went to New 
Haven and conducted a book and drug store. 
He visited Honduras, where he fought a duel 
with an English captain, provoked by the 
captain’s reflections on New England. In 
1707, he married Miss Margaret Mansfield. 
After the battle of Lexington, Arnold was 
sent by Massachusetts to lead an expedition 
for the capture of Crown Point and Ticon- 
deroga, and on his way thither met Col. 
Ethan Allen with a company of soldiers de¬ 
voted to the same purpose. Allen took the 
lead, to which he was entitled, and captured 
Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. Four days 
later Arnold captured St. John’s. In the 
autumn of the same year Washington dis¬ 
patched Arnold with 1,100 men to assist in 
capturing Quebec. On December 31 he was 
joined by the corps of General Montgomery, 
and a combined attack was made. The 
American army was defeated, Montgomery 
killed, and Arnold’s leg fractured. Congress 
promoted him to the rank of brigadier-general. 
On Oct. 11, 1776, he fought a naval battle 
with a force of the British, during which he 
ran his own vessel ashore, burnt her, and with 
his other ships retreated to Ticonderoga. In 
1777, congress appointed five major-generals 
for the army, all of whom were juniors of 
Arnold. He was stung by this injustice, and 
Washington wrote to assure him that he 
would endeavor to remedy “the error.” On 
presenting his claims for advancement in 
rank, Congress voted him thanks, but did 
not promote him. Arnold resigned, but his 
resignation was not accepted. At that time 
Washington urged Congress to send Arnold 
north to head off General Burgoyne. Arnold 
consented to serve. He joined Gen. Philip 
Schuyler, and led an expedition to relieve 
Fort Stanwix, then besieged by a force of 
British and Indians. He returned to the 
main army, and took part in the first battle 
of Bemis Heights, October 19, 1777. Arnold 
then joined General Washington, andsoon after 
Congress sent him his commission as major- 
general. In June, 1778, he was appointed to 
the command of Philadelphia. He became 
involved in quarrels with the authorities of 
Pennsylvania. He was tried by court-martial 
but was acquitted of intentional wrong-doing, 
though in some respects his conduct was de¬ 


clared improper. The sentence was that he 
should receive a reprimand from the com¬ 
mander-in-chief. Washington discharged this 
duty with considerable reluctance, and assured 
him of his continued esteem and the high esti¬ 
mate he placed on his services. Arnold’s first 
wife had died recently, and he married Miss 
Margaret Shippen, a daughter of Chief Justice 
Shippen of Pennsylvania. Through this mar¬ 
riage he was brought into connection with 
several Tory families, and a correspondence 
was opened with Sir Henry Clinton. In 1780 
Arnold visited the camp of Washington, and 
was tendered the command of the left wing 
of the army. He declined on the pretense 
of inability to perform service in the field, 
on account of the wound received at Saratoga. 
Instead he desired the command at West 
Point, on which he entered'in 1780. Arnold's 
treachery became manifest through the cap¬ 
ture of Major Andre, and he escaped to New 
York City. He was compensated with a Brit¬ 
ish brigadier-general’s commission and a sum 
of money. Early in 1781, at the head of a 
British force, he led a raid into Virginia, 
and made an attack on New London. He 
went to London in 1783. In 1797 the British 
Government gave him 13,400 acres of land in 
Canada. All his sons received commissions 
in the British army. But Arnold was despised 
and shunned even by the British, and died in 
obscurity. 

Arnold, Edwin, Sir, a British poet, San¬ 
skrit scholar, and journalist, b. 1833. In 
1861 he joined the editorial staff of the Daily 
Telegraph, with which he has ever since been 
connected. He is author of poems, narrative 
and lyrical, numerous translations from the 
Greek and Sanskrit; The Light of Ada, a 
poem presenting the life and teaching of Gua- 
tama, the founder of Buddhism; Pearls of the 
Faith; Lotus and Jewel; etc. 

Arnold, Isaac Newton (1815-1884), b. in 
Oswego co., N. Y., Avas admitted to the bar 
in 1835. He moved to Chicago, of which, in 
1837, he became the first city clerk. In 1843-43 
he was a member of the Illinois legislature, 
and again in 1856. He served in Congress as a 
Republican 1860-65. In 1867 he published The 
Life of Abraham Lincoln, and in 1880 The Life 
of Benedict Arnold. He was for several years 
president of the Chicago Historical Society, 
and published pamphlets on the early history 
of Illinois. 

Arnold, Matthew (1833-1888), English 
critic, essayist, and poet, was b. at Laleham, 
near Staines, being a son of Dr. Arnold of 
Rugby. He was the author of many essays 
and poems of much merit. 

Arnold, Thomas (1795-1843), an English ed¬ 
ucator. In 1838 he was appointed head-master 
of Rugby School. His success was remark¬ 
able. Not only did Rugby School become 
crowded beyond any former precedent, but the 
superiority of Dr. Arnold’s system became so 
generally recognized that it may be justly said 
to have done much for the general improve¬ 
ment of the public schools of England. In 
1841 he was appointed professor of modern 


Arnsberg 

history at Oxford. His chief works are his 
edition of Thucydides, his Roman History, and 
his Sermons. 

Arnsberg (arnz'ber^), a town in Prussia, 
prov. Westphalia, capital of the government 
of same name, on the Ruhr. Pop. 6,733.— 
The government of Arnsberg has an area of 
2,972 sq. mi., and a population of 1,189,688. 

Ar'nulf, great grandson of Charlemagne, 
elected king of Germany a. d. 887; invaded 
Italy, captured Rome, and was crowned em¬ 
peror by the pope (896); d. a. d. 899. 

Aromatics, drugs, or other substances 
which yield a fragrant smell, and often a 
warm, pungent taste, as calamus, ginger, cin¬ 
namon, cassia, lavender, rosemary, laurel, 
nutmegs, cardamoms, pepper, pimento, cloves, 
vanilla, saffron. Some of them are used me¬ 
dicinally as tonics, stimulants, etc. 

Arpad (ar-pad') (870-907), the hero of Hun 
garian ballad and romance, founder of the 
kingdom of Hungary. The Arpad dynasty 
reigned till 1301. 

Arpino (ar-pe'no), a town of southern Italy, 
province of Caserta, celebrated as the birth¬ 
place of Caius Marius and Cicero. It manu 
factures woolens, linen, paper, etc. Pop. 
11,535. 

Ar'quebus, a hand-gun; a species of fire¬ 
arm resembling a musket, anciently used. It 
was fired from a forked rest, and sometimes 
cocked by a wheel, and carried a ball that 
weighed nearly two ounces. A larger kind used 
in fortresses carried a heaver shot. 

Ar'rah, a town of British India, in Shahabad 
district, Bengal, rendered famous during the 
mutiny of 1857 by the heroic resistance of a 
body of twenty civilians and fifty Sikhs, cooped 
up within a detached house, to a force of 3,000 
sepoys, who were ultimately routed and over¬ 
thrown by the arrival of a small European re¬ 
inforcement. Pop. 42,998. 

Ar'ran, an island of Scotland, in the Firth 
of Clyde, part of Bute county. Area 165 sq. mi. 
It is of a wild and romantic appearance, par¬ 
ticularly the northern half, where the island 
attains its loftiest summit in Goatfell, 2,866 
feet high. The geology of Arran has attracted 
much attention, as furnishing within a com¬ 
paratively narrow space distinct sections of 
the great geological formations; while the 
botany possesses almost equal interest, both in 
the variety and the rarity of many of its plants. 

Arras (a-rii), a town of France, capital of 
the department Pas-de-Calais, with several 
handsome squares and a citadel, cathedral, 
public library, botanic garden, museum, and 
numerous flourishing industries. In the Mid¬ 
dle Ages it was famous for the manufacture of 
tapestry, to which the English applied the 
name of the town itself. Pop. 27,041. 

Arrest of Judgment, in law, the staying 
or stopping of a judgment after verdict, for 
causes assigned. Courts have .power to arrest 
judgment for intrinsic causes appearing upon 
the face of the record; as when the declaration 
varies from the original writ; when the ver¬ 
dict differs materially from the pleadings; or 
when the case laid in the declaration is not 


Arsenic 

sufficient in point of law to found an action 
upon. 

Ar'ria, the heroic wife of a Roman named 
Caecina Paetus. Paetus was condemned to 
death in 42 a. d., for his share in a conspiracy 
against the emperor Claudius, and was encour¬ 
aged to suicide by his wife, who stabbed her¬ 
self and then handed the dagger to her husband 
with the words, “It does not hurt, Paetus ! ’’ 

Arrowroot, a starch largely used for food 
and for other purposes. Arrowroot proper is 
obtained from the rhizomes or root-stocks of 
several species of plants, and perhaps owes its 
name to the scales which cover the rhizome, 
which have some resemblance to the point of 
an arrow. Some, however, suppose that the 



Arrowroot. 


name is due to the fact of the fresh roots be¬ 
ing used as an application against wounds 
inflicted by poisoned arrows, and others say 
that arrow is a corruption of ara, the Indian 
name of the plant. Brazilian arrowroot or 
tapioca meal, is got from the large, fleshy roof 
of another variety, after the poisonous juic» 
has been got rid of; and Oswego arrowroot 
from Indian corn. 

Ar'ru(or Aroo) Islands, a group belonging 
to the Dutch, s. of western New Guinea, and 
extending from north to south about 127 mi. 
They are composed of coralline limestone, 
nowhere exceeding 200 feet above the sea, and 
are well wooded and tolerably fertile. The 
natives belong to the Papuan race, with an 
intermixture of foreign blood, and are partly 
Christians. The chief exports are trepang, 
tortoise-shell, pearls, mother-of-pearl, and edi¬ 
ble birds’-nests. Pop. of group about 20,000. 

Ar' senic, a metallic element of very common 
occurrence, being found in combination with 
many of the metals in a variety of minerals. 
It is of a dark-gray color, and readily tar¬ 
nishes on exposure to the air, first changing to 
yellow, and finally to black. In hardness it 
equals copper; it is extremely brittle, and very 
volatile, beginning to sublime before it melts. 







Arsinoe 

It burns with a blue flame, and emits a smell 
of garlic. It forms alloys with most of the 
metals. Combined with sulphur it forms or- 
piment and realgar, which are the yellow and 
red sulphides of arsenic. With oxygen, ar¬ 
senic forms two compounds, the more im¬ 
portant of which is arsenious oxide or arsenic 
trioxide, which is the white arsenic , or simply 
arsenic of the shops. It is usually seen in 
white, glassy, translucent masses, and is ob¬ 
tained by sublimation from several ores con¬ 
taining arsenic in combination with metals, 
particularly from arsenical pyrites. Of all 
substances arsenic is that which has most fre¬ 
quently occasioned death by poisoning, both 
by accident and design. The best remedies 
against the effects of arsenic on the stomach are 
hydrated sesquioxide of iron or gelatinous hy¬ 
drate of magnesia, or a mixture of both, with 
copious draughts of bland liquids of a muci¬ 
laginous consistence, which serve to procure its 
complete ejection from the stomach. Oils and 
fats generally, milk, albumen, wheat-flour, 
oatmeal, sugar or syrup, have all proved use¬ 
ful in counteracting its effect. Like many 
other virulent poisons it is a safe and useful 
medicine, especially in skin diseases, when ju¬ 
diciously employed. It is used as a flux for 
glass, and also for forming pigments. The 
arsenite of copper and a double arsenite and 
acetate of copper (emerald green) are largely 
used by painters; they are also used to color 
paper-hangings for rooms, a practise not un¬ 
accompanied with considerable danger, espe¬ 
cially if flock-papers are used or if the room is a 
confined one. Arsenic has been too frequently 
used to give that bright green often seen in col¬ 
ored confectionery, and to produce a green dye 
for articles of dress and artificial flowers. 

Arsin'oe, a city of ancient Egypt on Lake 
Mceris, said to have been founded about b. c. 
2300, but renamed after Arsinoe, wife and 
sister of Ptolemy II, of Egypt, and called also 
Crocodilopolis, from the sacred crocodiles kept 
at it. 

Ar'son, in common law, the malicious burn¬ 
ing of a dwelling-house or outhouse of another 
man. which by the common law is felony, and 
which, if homicide result, is murder. Also, 
the wilful setting fire to any church, chapel, 
warehouse, mill, barn, agricultural produce, 
ship, coal-mine, and the like. In the U. S. 
and Great Britain it is a considerable aggrava¬ 
tion if the burning is to defraud insurers. 

Art, in its most extended sense, as distin¬ 
guished from nature on the one hand and from 
science on the other, has been defined as every 
regulated operation or dexterity by which or¬ 
ganized beings pursue ends which they know 
beforehand, together with the rules and the 
result of every such operation or dexterity. In 
this wide sense it embraces what are usually 
called the useful arts. In a narrower and 
purely aesthetic sense it designates what is 
more specifically termed the fine arts, as archi¬ 
tecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry. 
The useful arts have their origin in positive 
practical needs, and restrict themselves to sat¬ 
isfying them. The fine arts minister to the 


Arteries 

sentiment of taste through the medium of the 
beautiful in form, color, rhythm, or harmony. 
See Painting , Sculpture, etc. In the Middle 
Ages it was common to give certain branches 
of study the name of arts. 

Artaxerx'es (“the mighty”), the name of 
several Persian kings.— 1. Artaxerxes, sur- 
named Longimanus, succeeded his father, 
Xerxes I, b. c. 465. He subjected the rebel¬ 
lious Egyptians, terminated the war with 
Athens, governed his subjects in peace, and 
d. b. c. 425.—2. Artaxerxes, surnamed 
Mnemon, succeeded his father, Darius II, in 
the year 405 b. c. After having vanquished 
his brother Cyrus he made war on the Spar¬ 
tans, who had assisted his enemy, and forced 
them to abandon the Greek cities and islands 
of Asia to the Persians. On his death, b. c. 
359, his son Ochus ascended the throne under 
the name of—3. Artaxerxes Ochus (359 to 
339 b. c.). After having subjected the Phoe¬ 
nicians and Egyptians, and displayed great 
cruelty in both countries, he was poisoned by 
his general Bagoas. 

Artemis, an ancient Greek divinity, iden 
tified with the Roman Diana. She was the 
daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto (or Latona), 
and was the twin sister of Apollo, born in the 
island of Delos. Sheds variously represented 
as a huntress, with bow and arrows; as a god¬ 
dess of the nymphs, in a chariot drawn by four 
stags; and as the moon goddess, with the cres¬ 
cent of the moon above her forehead. She 
was a maiden divinity, never conquered by 
love, except when Endymion made her feel 
its power. She demanded the strictest chas¬ 
tity from her worshipers, and she is repre¬ 
sented as having changed Actaeon into a stag, 
and caused him to be torn in pieces by his 
own dogs, because he had secretly watched 
her as she was bathing. 

Artemi sia, Queen of Caria, in Asia Minor, 
about 352-350 b. c., sister and wife of Mauso- 
lus, to whom she erected in her capital Hali¬ 
carnassus, a monument called the Mausoleum, 
which was reckoned among the seven wonders 
of the world. 

Artemi'sium, a promontory in Euboea, an 
island of the Aegean, near which several naval 
battles between the Greeks and Persians were 
fought, b. c. 480. 

Ar' tennis Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) 
(1834-1867), an American humorist, b. at Wa¬ 
terford, Maine, d. at Southampton, England. 
Originally a printer, he became editor of pa¬ 
pers in Ohio, where his humorous letters be¬ 
came very popular. He subsequently lec¬ 
tured on California and Utah in the U. S. and 
in England, where he contributed to Punch. 
His writings consist of letters and papers by 
Artemus Ward, a pretended exhibitor of wax 
figures and wild beasts, and are full of drollery 
and eccentricity. 

Ar'teries, the system of cylindrical vessels 
or tubes, membranous, elastic, and pulsatile, 
which convey the blood from the heart to all 
parts of the body, by ramifications which as 
they proceed diminish in size and increase in 
number, and terminate in minute capillaries 


Artesian Wells 


Arthur 


uniting the ends of the arteries with the be¬ 
ginnings of the veins. See Anatomy. 

Arte'sian Wells, so called from the French 
province of Artois, where they appear to have 
been first used on an extensive scale, are per¬ 
pendicular borings into the ground through 
which water rises to the surface of the soil, 
producing a constant flow or stream, the ulti¬ 
mate sources of supply being higher than the 
mouth of the boring, and the water thus rising 
by the well-known law. They are generally 
sunk in valley plains and districts where the 
lower previous strata are bent into basin¬ 
shaped curves. The rain falling on the out¬ 
crops of these, saturates the whole porous bed, 
so that when the bore reaches it the water by 
hydraulic pressure rushes up toward the level 
of the highest portion of the strata. The sup¬ 
ply is sometimes so abundant as to be used 
extensively as a moving power, and in arid 
regions for fertilizing the ground, to which 
purpose artesian springs have been applied 
from a very remote period. Thus many arte¬ 
sian wells have been sunk in the Algerian Sa¬ 
hara which have proved an immense boon to 
the district. The water of most of these is 
potable, but a few are a little saline, though 
not to such an extent as to influence vegeta¬ 
tion. The hollows in which London and Paris 
lie are both perforated in many places by bor¬ 
ings of this nature. One of the most celebrated 
artesian wells is that of Grenelle, near Paris, 
1,798 feet deep, completed in 1841, after eight 
years’ work. One of the deepest is at Rochefort, 
in France, 2,765 feet. Wells of great depth are 
also found in America. As the temperature 
of water from great depths is invariably higher 
than that at the surface, artesian wells have 
been made to supply warm water for heating 
manufactories, greenhouses, hospitals, fish¬ 
ponds, etc. The oil wells of America are of 
the same technical description. These wells 
are now made with larger diameters than 
formerly, and altogether their construction 
has been rendered much more easy in mod¬ 
ern times. 

The process of boring artesian wells, drive- 
wells, oil, or gas-wells has become a distinct 
branch of hydraulic engineering. In driving 
a tube well either a horse-power machine or a 
steam engine is used as power. A hole is 
bored for some distance and cased with an 
iron pipe which is driven into the hole by 
means of a drill-rod which may be lengthened 
from time to time by screwing sections onto 
it. The drill-rods are made of iron pipe, and 
about every 30 feet in the hollow drill-rod is a 
valve which opens from underneath. In the 
drill at the bottom of the rod is a hole, and as 
the drill is lifted and dropped alternately by 
the mechanism on the ground, water is poured 
into the well, forming a slush of the crushed 
earth, clay, or gravel, which enters the drill 
rod through a hole in the drill. When the 
drill is lifted the rods containing the water 
and slush are raised, the drill is dropped sud¬ 
denly and the slush and water pass into the 
next section above through the valves, which 
close when the drill is again raised. Thus the 


drillings are lifted to the surface and are 
there discharged. As fast as the drill crushes 
its way deeper into the earth, iron casing is 
driven down. A pump is always attached to 
the head of the apparatus and started when 
water is reached. The sand in the gravel bed 
is pumped out, thus forming a reservoir in the 
clean gravel. Another method is known as 
the rolling and jetting process. This com¬ 
bines the principles of hydraulic mining and 
the diamond drill. A diamond drill cuts its 
way into the earth and rock by revolving a 
drill point studded with black diamonds. In 
the rolling and jetting system used, the cutter 
is a section of pipe on the lower end of which 
teeth are cut. This is revolved in the ground 
by a machine which grips the pipe. Jets of 
water are forced down inside of the pipe, the 
water rushes out from under the cutter’s teeth 
and returns to the surface on the outside of 
the pipe, thus forming a water cushion be¬ 
tween the pipe and the earth and lessening 
the friction. Whenever a material is struck 
which is too hard to be cut by the steel cutter, 
a cutter set with black diamonds is used. 
Enormous augers, which bore holes from 8 
to 30 inches in diameter, are used to sink 
shallow wells. Wells more than CO feet deep 
are almost universally bored with well-driving 
machinery. In boring shallow wells a large 
auger is fixed to the end of a vertical shaft 
and twisted around. Such wells are cased 
with stone or brick. 

Arteveld (Artevelde)(ar' te-velt, ar' te-vel-de), 
the name of two men distinguished in the 
history of the Low Countries. 1. Jacob van, 
a brewer of Ghent, b. about 1300; was se¬ 
lected by his fellow townsmen to lead them in 
their struggles against Count Louis of Flan¬ 
ders. In 1338 he was appointed captain of 
the forces of Ghent, and for several years ex¬ 
ercised a sort of sovereign power. A proposal 
to make the Black Prince, son of Edward III 
of England, governor of Flanders, led to an 
insurrection, in which Arteveld lost his life. 
(1345). 2. Philip, son of the former, at the 

head of the forces of Ghent, gained a great vic¬ 
tory over the Count of Flanders, Louis II, and 
for a time assumed the state of a sovereign 
prince. Arteveld fell with 25,000 Flemings at 
Rooseboke in 1382. 

Arthur, Chester Alan (1830-1886), twenty- 
first president of the U. S.; the son of Scottish 
parents, his father being pastor of Baptist 
churches in Vermont and New York. He 
chose law as a profession, and practised in 
New York. As a politician he became a leader 
in the Republican party. During the Civil 
War he was energetic as quartermaster general 
of New York in getting troops raised and 
equipped. He was afterward collector of cus¬ 
toms for the port of New York. In 1880 he 
was elected vice-president, succeeding as 
president on the death of Garfield in 188i. 

Ar'thur, King, an ancient British hero of 
the sixth century, son of Uther Pendragon, 
and the Princess Igerna, wife of Gorlois, duke 
of Cornwall. He married Guinevere (or Gi- 
nevra); established the famous order of the 


Arthur 


Artifical Limbs 


Round Table; and reigned twelve years in 
peace. After this he conquered Denmark, 
Norway, and France, and went to Rome. 
While away, Modred, his nephew, stirred up 
his subjects to rebellion. He subdued the reb¬ 
els, but died in consequence of his wounds, on 
the island of Avalon. The story of Arthur is 
supposed to have some foundation in fact. 

Arthur, Timothy S. (1809-1885), born in Or¬ 
ange co., N. Y. He wrote many popular do¬ 
mestic tales, and founded Arthur' 1 8 Home Mag¬ 
azine. 

Arthur’s Seat, a picturesque hill near Ed¬ 
inburgh, Scotland; altitude 822 feet. It is 
composed of a diversity of eruptive rocks, 
with some interposed and uptilted sediment¬ 
ary ones; and derives its name from the 
legendary King Arthur. 

Artichoke, a well-known plant somewhat 
resembling the thistle, with large, divided, 
prickly leaves. The erect flower-stem ter¬ 
minates in a large, round head of numerous 


Artichoke. 



imbricated oval, spiny scales which surround 
the flowers. The fleshy bases of the scales, 
with the large receptacle, are the parts that 
are eaten. The Jerusalem artichoke is a spe¬ 
cies of sunflower, whose roots are used like 
potatoes. 

Articles, The Thirty-nine, of the Church 
of England, a statement of the particular 
points of doctrine, thirty-nine in number, main¬ 
tained by the English Church; first promul¬ 
gated by a convocation held in London in 1562- 
63, and confirmed by royal authority; founded 
on, and superseding, an older code issued in 
the reign of Edward VI. They were ratified 
anew in 1604 and 1628. All candidates for 
ordination must subscribe to these articles. 
This formulary is now accepted by the Epis¬ 
copalian Churches of Scotland, Ireland, and 
America. 

Articula'ta, the third great section of the 
animal kingdom, according to the arrange¬ 
ment of Cuvier, including all the inverte¬ 
brates with the external skeleton forming 
a series of rings articulated together and 
enveloping the body, distinct respiratory 
organs, and an internal ganglionated nerv¬ 
ous system along the middle line of the 


body. They are divided into five classes. 
The first four classes are now commonly 
placed together under the name of Arthrop- 
oda , and the whole are sometimes called 
Arthrozoa. 

Articula'tion, in anatomy a joint; the join¬ 
ing or juncture of the bones. This is of three 
kinds: 1, a movable connection, such as the 
ball-and-socket joint; 2, immovable connec¬ 
tion, as by suture, or junction by serrated 
margins; 3, union by means of another sub¬ 
stance, by a cartilage, tendon, or ligament. 

Artificial Limbs are made principally of 
extra fine close-grained wood of the English 
weeping willow. Within the last few years 
aluminum has come into use to a considerable 
extent and is particularly valuable on account 
of its lightness, strength, and non-corrosive 
quality. When made of wood, the piece is 
first turned in the lathe to the general shape of 
a leg or arm and then hollowed out until the 
shell is from one fourth to five eighths of an 
inch thick. It is then whittled down to the 
general shape required, when the proper angles 
and depression in the top of the inside portion 
are cut so that it will exactly fit the stump for 
which it is intended. Upon the accuracy of 
this fit depends the comfort which the wearer 
will take with it. The foot is Avhittled out by 
hand entirely, and fastened to the leg by means 
of a hinge, and the more expensive pieces 
have another hinge fitted up for the toes. 
When the amputation is above the knee an¬ 
other hinge is prepared 
for the knee-joint so that 
the leg will swing readily 
in walking. After the 
wooden pieces have been 
completed and polished a 
fine piece of rawhide is 
shrunk over them and 
fastened by means of glue. 

As it dries it shrinks and 
adds much strength, and 
does not increase the 
weight materially. The 
bottom of the foot is made 
of soft rubber for the pur¬ 
pose of giving a natural 
spring in walking. After 
the leg has been painted 
it is ready for use. Limbs 
are attached usually by 
means of leather bands 
which may be laced tight, 
or they are held up by 
straps running over the 
shoulders like suspenders. Arms are often 
so fitted that the hand may be unscrewed 
and a knife or fork, or hair brush, made espe¬ 
cially for the purpose, can be put in its place. 
Deformed feet are often pieced out with blocks 
of wood whittled to the proper shape. An 
ordinary artificial hand of the best make is 
worth about $100, legs from $50 to $125, and 
arms from $50 to $150. Under the general 
head of the manufacture of artificial limbs is 
included the manufacture of ears, fingers and 
noses. A nose for instance is first molded 












Artillery 


Asben 


in the proper shape from papier macJie. It 
is then waxed and varnished to the tint of 
the complexion of the noseless person. It is 
fastened on by means of a pair of spectacles 
to the nose piece, to which it is firmly at¬ 
tached, or where the remaining stump is 
large enough, it is clamped in place. Ears are 
made in the same way but are more dif¬ 
ficult to attach. They are usually attached 
by means of small springs which fit into the 
ear duct. Artificial eyes are made of glass. 
First a bulb is blown from molten glass and 
when cold one side is carefully broken off 
so as to leave a shell, the edges of which 
are blunted by melting. The proper size of 
eye is secured by measurement and the eye 
designed is worked by placing the bulb over a 
Bunsen burner so that its upper surface will 
just touch the flame. In this way little sticks 
of varied colored glass are worked into the 
eye design. Great skill is required to made 
the iris and the retina of the proper color and 
shape. 

ArtilTery, all sorts of great guns, cannon, or 
ordnance, mortars, howitzers, machine-guns, 
etc., together with all the apparatus and 
stores thereto belonging, which are taken into 
the field, or used for besieging and defending 
fortified places. The improvements and alter¬ 
ations in artillery and projectiles have of late 
years been extraordinary. The most impor¬ 
tant modern improvement in artillery, be¬ 
sides the increase in size, is the general 
adoption of rifled ordnance, breech-loaders, 
and machine-guns. See Cannon and other 
articles. The name artillery is also given to 
the land troops by whom these arms are served, 
whether they accompany an army in the field, 
take part in sieges, or occupy fixed posts. 

Artois (ar-twa), a former province of France, 
anciently one of the seventeen provinces of the 
Netherlands, now almost completely included 
in the department of Pas de Calais. 

Arts, the name given to certain branches of 
study in the Middle Ages, originally called the 
“liberal arts” to distinguish them from the 
“servile arts” or mechanical occupations. 
These arts were usually given as grammar, 
dialectics, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geom¬ 
etry, and astronomy. Hence originated the 
terms “art classes,” “degrees in arts,” 
“Bachelor of Arts.” “Master of Arts,” etc., 
still in common use in universities, the faculty 
of arts being distinguished from those of di¬ 
vinity, law, medicine, or science. 

Arundelian Harbles, a series of ancient 
sculptured marbles discovered by William 
Petty, who explored the ruins of Greece at the 
expense of and for Thomas Howard, earl of 
Arundel, who lived in the time of James I and 
Charles I, and was a liberal patron of schol¬ 
arship and art. After the Restoration they 
were presented by the grandson of the col¬ 
lector to the University of Oxford. Among 
them is the Parian Chronicle, a chronological 
account of the principal events in Grecian, and 
particularly in Athenian history, during a pe¬ 
riod of 1,318 years, from the reign of Cecrops 


(b. c. 1450) to the a.:chonship of Diognetus 
(b. c. 264). 

Aruwimi, a large river of equatorial Africa, 
a tributary of the Congo, which it enters from 
the north. 

Arval Brothers, a college or company of 
twelve members elected for life from the high¬ 
est ranks in ancient ^tome, so called from 
offering annually public sacrifices for the 
fertility of the fields. 

Arvic'ola, a genus of rodent animals, sub¬ 
order Mice. It includes the water-vole (or 
water-rat), and the field-vole or short-tailed 
field-mouse. 

A'ryan (or Indo-European Family of Lan¬ 
guages). See Indo-European Family. 



As, a Roman weight of 12 oz., answer¬ 
ing to the libra or pound, and equal to 
237.5 grains avoirdupois, or 327.1873 grams, 
French measure. In the most ancient times 
of Rome the copper or bronze coin which was 
called as, actually weighed an as, or a pound, 
but in 264 b. c. it was reduced to 2 oz., in 217 
to 1 oz., and in 191 to £ oz. 

A'sa, great grandson of Solomon and third 
king of Judah. He died after a prosperous 
reign of 41 years. 

Asafet'ida (asa- 
foetida), a fetid inspis¬ 
sated sap from Central 
Asia, the so 1 i d i fi e d 
juice of a large um¬ 
belliferous plant. It is 
used in medicine as an 
anti - spasmodic, and 
in cases of flatulency, 
in hysteric parox¬ 
ysms, and other nerv¬ 
ous affections. Not¬ 
withstanding its very 
disagreeable odor it is 
used as a seasoning in 
the East, and some¬ 
times in Europe. 

A'saph, a L ev i t e 
and psalmist appoint¬ 
ed by David as leading Ferula Asafetida. 
chorister in the divine services. He founded 
a school of poets and musicians, which were 
called, after him, “ the sons of Asaph.” 

Asarabac'ca, a small, hardy European plant. 
Its leaves are acrid, bitter, and nauseous, and 
its root is extremely acrid. Both the leaves 
and root were formerly used as an emetic. 
The Canada snake-root is found in the west¬ 
ern states. 

Asben (Air, or Ahir), a kingdom of Africa, 





Asbestos 


Ascension 


in the Sahara. The inhabitants are Tuaregs 
|or Berbers), with an admixture of negro blood. 
They live partly in villages, partly as nomads. 
It is nominally ruled over by a sultan, who 
resides in the capital, Agades. Pop. about 
60,000. 

Asbes'tos (asbestus), a remarkable and 
highly useful mineral, a fibrous variety of 
several members of the hornblende family, 
composed of separable filaments, with a silky 
luster. The fibers are sometimes delicate, 
flexible, and elastic; at other times stiff and 
brittle. It is incombustible, and anciently 
was wrought into a soft, flexible cloth, which 
was used as a shroud for dead bodies. Some 
varieties are compact and take a fine polish, 
others are loose, like flax or silky wool. 
Mountain-wood is a variety presenting an ir¬ 
regular filamentous, structure, like wood. 
Mock-cork, mountain-leather, fossil-paper , and 
fossil-flax, are varieties. 

Asbestos is always found in connection with 
a hard, crystal-like substance. The veins of 
asbestos as found in the mines are from two to 
four inches in thickness and separated by thin 
layers of hornblende crystals. The nearer to 
the surface the veins run the coarser are the 
fibers and therefore the less valuable. The 
most improved quarrying machinery is used 
in mining asbestos. Holes are drilled in long 
rows into the sides of the cliffs by means of 
steam drills. These holes are then loaded 
with dynamite and exploded simultaneously 
by electricity, thus a whole section of an as¬ 
bestos cliff is broken off in one lump. The 
workmen break out as much of the pure as¬ 
bestos as possible and convey it by means of 
trucks to the “ cob house.” Here the asbestos 
is separated from the pieces of rock and placed 
in rough bales and shipped to the factory. 
The proportion of asbestos in the amount of 
material quarried is about 1 to 25. As asbes¬ 
tos comes from the mines it is in small lumps 
of a greenish or yellowish hue and the edges 
are furred with loose fibers. The best grades 
of asbestos are nearly white. Another impor¬ 
tant item is the length of the fibers, the long¬ 
est being the most valuable. After the asbes¬ 
tos, roughly baled, reaches the factory, it is 
dumped into hoppers of powerfully built ma¬ 
chines and there crushed through a series of 
rolls until the fibers are separated into fluffy 
masses when it passes out into a separator 
where the small pieces of stone and dirt are 
extracted. The short fibers are taken out and 
sent to the pulp mill where they are ground 
up fine for the manufacture of solid packing 
for steam pistons, mill-board, and other com¬ 
modities. The long fibers are gathered to¬ 
gether, carded, and spun into yarn, just like 
cotton or wool, after which the substance may 
be woven into cloth as desired. Asbestos 
cloth is of a dirty white color and has a soapy 
feeling. 

Asbestos has been known for ages as moun¬ 
tain cork or mountain leather, but its geological 
history and formation is still a matter of con¬ 
jecture. Its attributes, too, have been known; 
but until about twenty years ago, very little 


practical use has been made of the substance. 
To-day it forms one of the giant industries of 
the U. S. The uses of asbestos are many and 
varied. Ground fine and combined with col¬ 
ors and oils in a certain manner it makes a 
paint. Roofs are made by treating strong can¬ 
vas with a combination of asbestos and felt, 
and backing it with manilla paper. It is ex¬ 
tensively used for roofs of factories, railroad 
shops, bridges, and other places where there is 
danger of fire. Steam-pipes are covered with 
asbestos, and asbestos cement is used for hot- 
blast pipes and fire-heated surfaces. It is 
used for locomotive pistons, valve-stems, and 
oil pumps. It is made into ropes and mill- 
boards, and in some states, theaters are re¬ 
quired to use an asbestos drop curtain to 
protect the audience in case of a fire in the 
scenery. Iron and glass workers use mittens 
knit from asbestos yarn. Asbestos soldering 
blocks are used by goldsmiths. Asbestos, in 
combination with rubber, is much used as an 
electrical insulator. Asbestos cloth is used 
for acid filters in all sorts of chemical proc¬ 
esses for the reason that no acid will eat it. 
Asbestos is found in Italy and Canada, and 
rich deposits have recently been found in 
Wyoming, California, and Montana. At pres¬ 
ent Canada is the principal source of supply. 
A good asbestos mine is considered to be worth 
more than a gold mine; and as new uses for 
the substance are found, it becomes more 
valuable. 

Asbjornsen (as'byeurn-sen), Peter Kris¬ 
ten, b. 1812, cl. 1885, a distinguished Nor¬ 
wegian naturalist and collector of the popular 
tales and legends, fairy stories, etc., of his 
native country. 

Asbury Park, a small town on the coast of 
New Jersey, a great summer resort, its popula¬ 
tion being in summer increased from 4,000 to 
20,000 or 25,000. 

Asbury, Francis (1745-1846), M. E. bishop, 
b. in Handsworth, England, d. in Spottsyl- 
vania, Ya. He was the first bishop of the M. E. 
church ordained in this country. He came as 
a missionary to this country, 1771, and was 
made general assistant to John Wesley. In 
1777 the ministersof his church,at a conference 
in Maryland, decided that they should return 
to Europe; Asbury, alone, chose to remain. 
He was unanimously elected bishop and conse¬ 
crated by Doctor Coke, 1784, with a fixed salary 
of $64 per year. His annual travels extended 
from Canada to the Mississippi River. 

As'calon (or Ash'kelon), a ruined town of 
Palestine, on the seacoast, 40 mi. w. s. w. of 
Jerusalem. It was occupied by the Crusaders 
under Richard I after a great battle with Sal- 
adin (1192). 

Asca' nius, the son of iEneas and Creusa, and 
the companion of his father’s wanderings from 
Troy to Italy. 

Ascen'sion (discovered on Ascension Day), 
an island of volcanic origin belonging to 
Britain, near the middle of the South Atlantic 
Ocean, 800 mi. n. w. of St. Helena. Area about 
86 sq. mi.; pop. 165. It is retained by Brit¬ 
ain mainly as a station at which ships may 


Ascension 


Ashantee 


touch for stores. It has a steam factory, naval 
and victualing yards, hospitals, and* a coal 
depot. 

Ascension, Right, of a star, in astronomy, 
the arc of the equator intercepted between the 
first pointof Aries and that point of the equator 
which comes to the meridian at the same in¬ 
stant with the star. 

Ascension Day, the day on which the ascen¬ 
sion of the Saviour is commemorated, often 
called Holy Thursday; a movable feast, always 
falling on the Thursday but one before Whit¬ 
suntide. 

Ascham (as'kam), Roger (1515-1568), a 
learned Englishman, born in Yorkshire. He 
became Latin secretary to Edward VI and 
also to Mary. Was preceptor to Elizabeth dur¬ 
ing her girlhood and her secretary after she 
ascended the throne. In 1544 he wrote a book 
in praise of his favorite amusement and exer¬ 
cise—archery. In 1563-68 he wrote his School¬ 
master, a treatise on the best method of teach¬ 
ing children Latin. His life was written by 
Dr. Johnson to accompany an edition of his 
works published in 1769. 

Aschersleben (ash'erz-la-ben), a town of 
Prussian Saxony, in the district of Magde¬ 
burg, near the junction of the Eine with the 
Wipper. Industries: woolens, machinery, and 
metal goods, sugar, paper, etc. Pop. 21,519. 

Ascid'ia, the name given to the “Sea-squirts” 
or main section of the Tunicata, molluscous 
animals of low grade, resembling a double¬ 
necked bottle, of a 
leathery or gristly na¬ 
ture, foun d at low-water 
mark on the sea-beach, 
and dredged from deep 
water attached to 
stones, shells, and fixed 
objects. One of the 
prominent openings ad¬ 
mits the food and the 
water required in res- 

Compound Ascidian. pi ration, the other is 
the excretory aperture. A single ganglion rep¬ 
resents the nervous system, placed between the 
two apertures. Male and female reproductive 
organs exist in each ascidian. They pass 
through peculiar phases of development, the 
young ascidian appearing like a tadpole-body. 
They may be single or simple, social or com¬ 
pound. 

Ascle'piades (-dez), the name of a number 
of ancient Greek writers—poets, grammarians, 
etc. — of whom little is known, and also of 
several ancient physicians, the most celebrated 
of whom was Asclepiades, of Bithynia, who 
acquired considerable repute at Rome about 
the beginning of the first century b. c. 

Ascie'pias (or Swallow-wort), a genus of 
plants, the type and the largest genus of the 
natural order Asclepiadacem. Most of the spe¬ 
cies are North American herbs, having oppo¬ 
site, alternate, or verticillate leaves. Many of 
them possess powerful medicinal qualities. 
One is diaphoretic and sudorific, and has the 
singular property of exciting general perspira¬ 
tion without increasing in any sensible degree 



the heat of the body; another is emetic, and 
its roots are frequently sent to England as 
ipecacuanha; the roots of a third are famed 
for diaphoretic properties. 

As'coli (or Ascoli Piceno), a town in middle 
Italy, capital of the province of the same 
name. Pop. 11,199. The province has an 
area of 809 sq. mi.; a pop. of 222,146. 

As'gard (lit. gods’ yard, or the abode of the 
gods), in Scandinavian mythology, the home of 
the gods or HJsir, rising, like the Greek Olym¬ 
pus, from midgard, or the middle world, that 
is, the earth. 

Ash, a genus of deciduous trees, having im¬ 
perfect flowers and a seed-vessel prolonged 
into a thin wing at the apex. There are a 
good many species, chiefly indigenous to Eu¬ 
rope and North America. It is one of the 
most useful trees on account of its hard, 
tough wood and the rapidity of its growth. 
There are many varieties of it, as the weeping 
ash, the curled-leaved ash, the entire-leaved 
ash, etc. The flowering, or manna-ash, is a 
native of the south of Europe and Palestine. 
It yields the substance called manna, which is 
obtained by making incisions in the bark, 
when the juice exudes and hardens. Among 
the American species are the white ash, with 
lighter bark and leaves; the red or black ash, 
with a brown bark; the black ash, the blue 
ash, the green ash, etc. They are alt valuable 
trees. The mountain-ash or rowan belongs to 
a different order. 

Ash (Ashes), the incombustible residue of 
organic bodies (animal or vegetable) remaining 
after combustion; in common usage, any in¬ 
combustible residue of bodies used as fuel; as 
a commercial term, the word generally means 
the ashes of vegetable substances, from which 
are extracted the alkaline matters called pot¬ 
ash, pearl-ash, kelp, barilla, etc. 

Ashan'go, a region in the interior of South¬ 
ern Africa, belonging now to the French. The 
inhabitants belong to the Bantu stock, and 
among them are a dwarfish people, the Obongo, 
said to be about 4£ feet high at most. 

Ashanti, a kingdom of West Africa, in 
the interior of the Gold Coast. Area about 
70,000 sq. mi. Gold is abundant, being found 
either in the form of dust or in nuggets. The 
Ashantis are warlike and ferocious, with a 
love of shedding human blood amounting to a 
passion, human sacrifices being common. The 
government is a despotic monarchy. The 
chief town is Coomassie, which, before being 
burned down in 1874, was well and regularly 
built with wide streets, and had from 70,000 to 
100,000 inhabitants. The British first came in 
contact with the Ashantis in 1807, and hos¬ 
tilities continued, off and on, till l"826, when 
they were driven from the seacoast. Imme¬ 
diately after the transfer of the Dutch settle¬ 
ments on the Gold Coast to Britain in 1872 — 
when the entire coast remained in British 
hands—the Ashantis reclaimed the sover¬ 
eignty of the tribes round the settlement of 
Elmina. This brought on a sanguinary war, 
leading to a British expedition in 1874, in 
which Coomassie was captured, and British 



Ashburton Treaty 

supremacy established along the Gold Coast. 
In 1896 another expedition became necessary 
and was successfully concluded. King Prem- 
peh was deposed and imprisoned and the 
country annnexed. They rebelled again in 
1900, but were defeated. 

Ash'burton Treaty, a treaty concluded at 
Washington, 1842, by Daniel Webster and Lord 
Ashburton. It defined the n. e. boundaries 
between the U. S. and Canada. 

Asheville, Buncombe co., N. C., near 
French, Broad, and Swannanoa rivers, 140 mi. 
e. of Knoxville. Railroad: Southern. Indus¬ 
tries: cotton mills, flouring mill, two iron 
foundries, cigar and furniture factories, and 
saw mill. Surrounding country mostly agri¬ 
cultural. The town was first settled in 1794, 
and was then called Morris, but was shortly 
afterward changed to its present name in 
honor of Governor Ashe. Was incorporated 
in 1833. Pop. 1900, 14,694. 

Ashland, Schuylkill co., Pa., 120 mi. s.w. of 
Philadelphia. Railroads: Philadelphia & 
Reading, and Lehigh Valley. Industries: 
steam pump works, flour mill, two iron foun¬ 
dries, two screen factories, three planing- 
mills, shoe and shirt factories, and powder- 
mill. Surrounding country partly agricul¬ 
tural, largely anthracite coal mining. The 
town was first settled in 1847 and became a 
borough in 1857. Pop. 1900, 6,438. 

Ashland, Ashland co., Wis., on Lake Su¬ 
perior, has rapidly increased in population; a 
prosperous town. Pop. 1900, 13,074. 

Ashton=under=Lyon, a town of Lancashire, 
England. The chief employment is the cotton 
manufacture and iron-works. Pop. 10,494. 

Ashtabula, Ashtabula co., Ohio, on Lake 
Erie, 55 mi. e. of Cleveland. Railroads: L. S. 
& M. S.; N. Y. C. & St. L.; and Pennsylvania. 
Industries: tool works, three flouring mills, 
two iron foundries, and fifteen factories. 
Natural gas in vicinity. Surrounding country, 
agricultural. Is a great receiving port for 
iron ore. The town was first settled in 1801 
and became a city in 1892. Population 1900, 
12,949. 

Ash “Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so 
called from a custom in the Western Church 
of sprinkling ashes that day on the heads of 
penitents, then admitted to penance. The 
period at which the fast of Ash-Wednesday 
was instituted is uncertain. 

Asia, the largest of the great divisions of 
the earth. Area est. at 17,296,000 sq. mi., 
about a third of all the land of the earth’s sur¬ 
face. On three sides, n., e., and s., the ocean 
forms its natural boundary, while in the w. the 
frontier is marked mainly by the Ural Moun¬ 
tains, the Ural River, Caspian Sea, the Cauca¬ 
sus, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the 
Suez Canal, and the Red Sea. There is no 
proper separation between Asia and Europe, 
the later being really a great peninsula of the 
former. Asia, though not so irregular in 
shape as Europe, is broken in the s. by three 
great peninsulas, Arabia, Hindustan, and Far¬ 
ther India, while the e. coast presents penin¬ 
sular projections and islands, forming a series 


Asia 

of sheltered seas and bays, the principal pen¬ 
insulas being Kamtchatka and Corea. The 
principal islands are those forming the Malay 
or Asiatic Archipelago, which stretch round 
in a wide curve on the s. e. of the continent. 
Besides the larger islands—Sumatra, Java, 
Borneo, Celebes, Mindanao, and Luzon (in the 
Philippine group)—there are countless smaller 
islands grouped round these. Other islands 
are Ceylon, in the s. of India; the Japanese 
islands and Sakhalin on the e. of the conti¬ 
nent; Formosa, s. e. of China; Cyprus, s. of 
Asia Minor; and New Siberia and Wrangell 
Land, in the Arctic Ocean. 

Political Divisions .—A large portion of Asia 
is under the dominion of European powers. 
Russia possesses the whole of Northern Asia 
(Siberia) and a considerable portion of Central 
Asia, together with a great part of ancient 
Armenia, on the s. of the Caucasus (pop. 16,- 
000,000); Turkey holds Asia Minor, Syria, and 
Palestine, part of Arabia, Mesopotamia, etc. 
(pop. 16,000,000); Great Britain rules over 
India, Ceylon, a part of the Indo-Chinese Pen¬ 
insula (Upper and Lower Burma ) and several 
other possessions (pop. 290,000,000); France 
has acquired a considerable portion of the 
Indo-Chinese Peninsula, and has one or two 
other settlements (pop. 18,000,000); while to 
Holland belong Java, Sumatra, and other is¬ 
lands, and to the United States the Philippine 
Islands. The chief independent states are the 
Chinese Empire (pop. 386,000,000), Japan (pop. 
40,000,000), Siam (pop. 6,000,000). Afghanistan 
(pop. 5,000,000), Baluchistan, Persia (pop. 7,- 
000,000), and the Arabian states (pop. 3,000,- 
000). The most important of the religions 
of Asia are the Brahmanism of India, the 
creeds of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao-tse in 
China, and the various forms of Mohammed¬ 
anism in Arabia, Persia, India, etc. Prob¬ 
ably more than half of the whole popula¬ 
tion profess some form of Buddhism. Sev¬ 
eral native Christian sects are found in India, 
Armenia, Kurdistan, and Syria. 

Surface, Rivers, and Lakes .—The mountain 
systems of Asia are of great extent, and their 
culminating points are the highest in the 
world. The greatest of all is the Himalayan 
system, which lies mainly between Ion. 70° 
and 100° e. and lat. 28° and 37° n. It extends, 
roughly speaking, from northwest to southeast, 
its total length being about 1,500 mi., forming 
the northern barrier of Hindustan. The loft¬ 
iest summits are Mount Everest, 29,002 feet 
high, another peak 28,265, and Kinchinjinga, 
28,156. The principal passes, which rise to 
the height of 18,000 to 20,000 feet, are the high¬ 
est in the world. A second great mountain 
system of Central Asia, connected with the 
northwestern extremity of the Himalayan sys¬ 
tem by the elevated region of Pamir, is the 
Thian-Shan system, which runs northeastward 
for a distance of 1,200 mi. In this direction, 
the Altai, Sayan, and other ranges continue the 
line of elevations to the northeastern coast. A 
northwestern continuation of the Himalayas 
is the Hindu Kush, and farther westward a 
connection may be traced between the Hima- 







TYPES OF ASIATIC RACES. I. Jukagire from Kolima. 
Utshur). 9. Chinese Woman. 10. Chinaman.^ ^-.Singhalese 


Uisnurj, 9. V-niucac vvuuiau. 

Yoman. 19. Wedda (Ceylon). 20 


CS. 1. Jukagire from Kolima. 2. Ostjakin (Tinbak). 3. Mon 
>. Chinaman. 11. Singhalese (Ceylon). 12. Man of Kashmir. 
». Woman and Child of Nigrito (Philippine Islands). 21. Japa 


Mongolian, Karakalmuc 
iinir. 13. Iranian, Persia 
Japanese. 22. Japanese 












ladshput (Radshputana). 5. Turk, Kirghiz. 6. Tungusin, Tsha^ogirin. 7. Jakutin of Utshur. 8 Tibetanian 
Malayans. 15. Malayans (Philippine Islands. 16. Tuda (Nilgiri, India). 17. Andamenian. 18. Andamenian 
i. 23. Man of Ivinkiu. 24. Corean. 25. Ainu (Jesso). 


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RELIEF MAP OF ASIA 












Asia 


Asia 


layan mass and the Elburz range (18,460 ft.), 
south of the Caspian, and thence to the moun¬ 
tains of Kurdistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor. 
There are vast plateaus and elevated valley re¬ 
gions connected with the great central moun¬ 
tain systems, but large portions of the conti¬ 
nent are low and fiat. Thibet forms the most 
elevated table-land in Asia, its mean height 
being estimated at 15,000 feet. On its south is 
the Himalayan range, while the Kuen-Lun 
range forms its northern barrier. Another 
great but much lower plateau is that which 
comprises Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Per¬ 
sia, and which to the northwest joins into the 
plateau of Asia Minor. The principal plain of 
Asia is that of Siberia, which extends along 
the north of the continent and forms an im¬ 
mense alluvial tract sloping to the Arctic 
Ocean. Vast swamps or peat-mosses called 
tundras cover large portions of this region. 
Southwest of Siberia, and stretching east¬ 
ward from the Caspian, is a low-lying tract 
consisting, to a great extent, of steppes and 
deserts, and including in its area the Sea of 
Aral. In the east of China there is an alluvial 
plain of some 200,000 sq. mi. in extent; in Hin¬ 
dustan are plains extending for 2,000 mi. along 
the south slope of the Himalayas; and between 
Arabia and Persia, watered by the Tigris and 
Euphrates, is the plain of Mesopotamia or As¬ 
syria, one of the richest in the world. Of the 
deserts of Asia the largest is that of Gobi (Ion. 
90°-120° e., lat. 40°-48° n.), large portions of 
which are covered with nothing but sand or 
display a surface of bare rock. An almost con¬ 
tinuous desert region may also be traced from 
the desert of North Africa through Arabia 
(which is largely occupied by bare deserts), 
Persia, and Beluchistan to the Indus. 

Some of the largest rivers of Asia flow north¬ 
ward to the Arctic Ocean—the Obi, the Yeni¬ 
sei, and the Lena. The Hoang-Ho, and Yang- 
tse, and the Amoor, are the chief of those 
which flow into the Pacific. The Ganges, 
Brahmaputra, Irawaddy, and Indus empty into 
the Indian Ocean. The Persian Gulf receives 
the united waters of the Euphrates and the Ti¬ 
gris. There are several systems of inland drain¬ 
age, large rivers falling into lakes which have 
no outlet. 

The largest lake of Asia (partly also Euro¬ 
pean) is the Caspian Sea, which receives the 
Kur from the Caucasus (with its tributary the 
Aras from Armenia), and the Sefid Rucl and 
other streams from Persia (besides the Volga 
from European Russia, and the Ural, which is 
partly European, partly Asiatic). The Caspian 
lies in the center of a great depression, being 
83 feet below the level of the Sea of Azof. East 
from the Caspian is the Sea of Aral, which, like 
the Caspian, has no outlet, and is fed by the 
rivers Amoo Daria (Oxus) and Syr Daria. Still 
farther east, to the north of the Thian-Shan 
Mountains, and fed by the Hi and other streams, 
is Lake Balkash, also without an outlet and 
very salt. Other lakes having no communica¬ 
tion with the ocean are Lob Nor, in the desert 
of Gobi, receiving the river Tarim,and the Dead 
Sea, far below the level of the Mediterranean, 


and fed by the Jordan. The chief fresh-water 
lake is Lake Baikal, in the south of Siberia, 
between Ion. 104° and 110° e., a mountain lake 
from which Yenisei draws a portion of its 
waters. 

Geology .—Geologically speaking large areas 
of Asia are of comparatively recent date, the 
lowlands of Siberia, for instance, being sub¬ 
merged during the tertiary period, if not more 
recently. Many geologists believe that subse¬ 
quently to the glacial period there was a great 
sea in Western Asia, of which the Caspian and 
Aral Seas are the remains. The desiccation 
of Central Asia is still going on, as is also 
probably the upheaval of a great part of the 
continent. The great mountain chains and 
elevated plateaus are of ancient origin, how¬ 
ever, and in them granite and other crystalline 
rocks are largely represented. Active volca¬ 
noes are only met with in the extreme east 
(Kamtchatka) and in the Eastern Archipelago. 
From the remotest times Asia has been cele¬ 
brated for its mineral wealth. In the Altai 
and Ural Mountains gold, iron, lead, and 
platinum are found; in India and other parts 
rubies, diamonds, and other gems are, or have 
been, procured; salt in Central Asia; coal in 
China, India, Central Asia, etc.; petroleum in 
the districts about the Caspian and in Bur- 
mah; bitumen in Syria; while silver, copper, 
sulphur, etc., are found in various parts. 

Climate .—Every variety of climate may be 
experienced in Asia, but as a whole it is 
marked by extremes of heat and cold and by 
great dryness, this in particular being the 
case with vast regions in the center of the 
continent and distant from the sea. The 
great lowland region of Siberia has a short 
but very hot summer, and a long but intensely 
cold winter, the rivers and their estuaries be¬ 
ing fast bound with ice, and at a certain depth 
the soil is hard frozen all the year round. 
The northern part of-China to the east of 
Central Asia has a temperate climate with a 
warm summer, and in the extreme north a 
severe winter. The districts lying to the south 
of the central region, comprising the Indian 
and Indo-Chinese peninsulas, southern China, 
and the adjacent islands, present the char¬ 
acteristic climate and vegetation of the 
southern temperate and tropical regions modi¬ 
fied by the effects of altitude. Some locali¬ 
ties in Southeastern Asia have the heaviest 
rainfall anywhere known. As the equator is 
approached the extremes of temperature di¬ 
minish till at the southern extremity of the 
continent they are such as may be experi¬ 
enced in any tropical country. Among cli¬ 
matic features are the monsoons of the Indian 
Ocean and the eastern seas, and the cyclones 
or typhoons, which are often very destructive. 

Vegetation .—The plants and animals of North¬ 
ern and Western Asia generally resemble those 
of similar latitudes in Europe (which is really 
a prolongation of the Asiatic continent), dif¬ 
fering more in species than in genera. The 
principal mountain trees are the pine, larch, 
and birch; the willow, alder, and poplar 
are found in lower grounds. In the central 


Asia 


Asia 


region European species reach as far as the 
western and central Himalayas, but are rare 
in the eastern. They are here met by Chinese 
and Japanese forms. The lower slopes of the 
Himalayas are clothed almost exclusively with 
tropical forms. Higher up, between 4,000 and 
10,000 feet, are found all the types of trees and 
plants that belong to the temperate zone, 
there being extensive forests of conifers. 
Here is the native home of the deodar cedar. 
The southeastern region, including India, the 
Eastern Peninsula, and China, with the is¬ 
lands, contains a vast variety of plants useful 
to man and having here their original habitat, 
such as the sugar-cane, rice, cotton, and in¬ 
digo, pepper, cinnamon, cassia, clove, nutmeg, 
and cardamoms, banana, cocoa-nut, areca and 
sago palms; the mango and many other fruits, 
with plants producing avast number of drugs, 
caoutchouc and gutta-percha. The forests of 
India and the Malay Peninsula contain oak, 
teak, sal, and other timber woods, besides bam¬ 
boos, palms, sandal-wood, etc. The palmyra 
palm is characteristic of southern India; while 
the talipot palm flourishes on the western 
coast of Hindustan, Ceylon, and the Malay 
Peninsula. The cultivated plants of India 
and China include wheat, barley, rice, maize, 
millet, sorghum, tea, coffee, indigo, cotton, 
jute, opium, tobacco, etc. In north China 
and the Japanese islands large numbers of 
deciduous trees occur, such as oaks, maples, 
limes, walnuts, poplars, and willows, the gen¬ 
era being European, but the individual species 
Asiatic. Among cultivated plants are wheat, 
and in favorable situations, rice, cotton, the 
vine, etc. Coffee, rice, maize, etc., are ex¬ 
tensively grown in some of the islands of the 
Asiatic-Archipelago. In Arabia and the warmer 
valleys of Persia, Afghanistan, and Beluchis- 
tan, aromatic shrubs are abundant. Over 
large parts of these regions the date-palm 
flourishes and affords a valuable article of 
food. Gum-producing acacias are, with the 
date-palm, the commonest trees in Arabia. 
African forms are found extending from the 
Sahara along the desert region of Asia. 

Zoology .—Nearly all the mammals of Eu¬ 
rope occur in Northern Asia, with numerous 
additions to the species. Central Asia is 
the native land of the horse, the ass, the ox, 
the sheep, and the goat. Both varieties of 
the camel, the single and the double humped, 
are Asiatic. To the inhabitants of Thibet 
and the higher plateaus of the Himalayas 
the yak is what the reindeer is to the tribes 
of the Siberian plain, almost their sole wealth 
and support. The elephant, of a different 
species from that of Africa, is a native of 
tropical Asia. The Asiatic lion, which in¬ 
habits Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Belu- 
chistan, and some parts of India, is smaller 
than the African species. Bears are found 
in all parts, the white bear in the far north, 
and other species in the more temperate 
and tropical parts. The tiger is the most 
characteristic of the larger Asiatic carniv¬ 
ora. It extends from Armenia across the 
entire continent, being absent, however, from 


the greater portion of Siberia and from the 
high table-land of Tibet; it extends also into 
Sumatra, Java, and Bali. In Southeastern 
Asia and the islands we find the rhinoceros, 
buffalo, ox, deer, squirrels, porcupines, etc. 
In birds nearly every order is represented. 
Among the most interesting forms are the 
hornbills, the peacock, the Impey pheasant, 
the tragopan or horned pheasant, and other 
gallinaceous birds, the pheasant family beini>- 
very characteristic of Southeastern Asia. It 
was from Asia that the common domestic 
fowl was introduced into Europe. The trop¬ 
ical parts of Asia abound in monkeys, of which 
the species are numerous. Some are tailed, 
others, such as the orang, are tailless, but 
none have prehensile tails like the Ameri¬ 
can monkeys. In the Malay Archipelago 
marsupial animals, so characteristic of Aus¬ 
tralia, first occur in the Moluccas, and Cele¬ 
bes, while various mammals common in 
the western part of the Archipelago are 
absent. A similar transition toward the Aus¬ 
tralian type takes place in the species of 
birds. Of marine mammals the dugong is 
peculiar to the Indian Ocean; in the Ganges 
is found a peculiar species of dolphin. At the 
head of the reptiles stands the Gangetic croco¬ 
dile, frequenting the Ganges and other large 
rivers. Among the serpents are the cobra 
da capello, one of the most deadly snakes 
in existence; there are also large boas and 
pythons, besides sea and freshwater snakes. 
The seas and rivers produce a great variety 
of fish. The Salmonidae are found in the 
rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Two 
rather remarkable fishes are the climbing 
perch and the archer-fish. The well-known 
goldfish is a native of China. 

Population .—Asia is mainly peopled by races 
belonging to two great ethnographic types, 
the Caucasic or fair type, and the Mongolia 
or yellow. To the former belong the Aryan 
or Indo-European, and the Semitic races, both 
of which mainly inhabit the southwest of the 
continent; to the latter belong the Malays and 
Indo-Chinese in the southeast, as well as the 
Mongolians proper (Chinese, etc.), occupying 
nearly all the rest of the continent. To 
these may be added certain races of doubtful 
affinities, as the Dravidians of southern In¬ 
dia, the Cingalese of Ceylon, the Ainos of 
Yesso, and some negro-like tribes called 
Negritos, which inhabit Malacca and the 
interior of several of the islands of the 
Eastern Archipelago. The total population 
is estimated at about 800,000,000, or more 
than half that of the whole world. 

History .—Asia is generally regarded as the cra¬ 
dle of the human race. It possesses the oldest 
historical documents, and next to the immedi¬ 
ately contiguous kingdom of Egypt, the oldest 
historical monuments in the world. The Old 
Testament contains the oldest historical rec¬ 
ords which we have of any nation in the form 
of distinct narrative. The period at which 
Moses wrote was probably 1,500 or 1,600 years 
before the Christian era. His and the later 
Jewish writings confine themselves almost ex- 



* * 









































































































































































































































































































































































Asia 


Askew 


clusively to the history of the Hebrews; but in 
Babylonia, as in Egypt, civilization had made 
great advances long before this time. The 
earliest seat of the Aryan race was probably on 
the banks of the Oxus. Hence, perhaps from 
the pressure of the Mongolian tribes to the 
north, they sprbad themselves to the southeast 
and southwest, finally occupying northern In¬ 
dia, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, 
and spreading into Europe, perhaps about 
2000-1500 13. c. In China authentic history 
extends back probably to about 1000 b. c., 
with a long preceding period of which the 
names of dynasties are preserved without 
chronological arrangement, The kingdoms of 
Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia, alter¬ 
nately predominated in Southwestern Asia. In 
regard to the history of these monarchies much 
light has been obtained from the decipherment 
of the cuneiform inscriptions. The arms of the 
Pharaohs extended into Asia, but their con¬ 
quests there were short-lived. From Cyrus 
(b. c. 559), who extended the empire of Persia 
from the Indus to the Mediterranean, while 
his son, Cambyses, added Egypt and Lybya to 
it, to the conquest of Alexander (b. c. 330), 
Persia was the dominant power in Western 
Asia. Alexander’s great empire became broken 
up into separate kingdoms, which were finally 
absorbed in the Roman Empire, and this ulti¬ 
mately extended to the Tigris. Soon after the 
most civilized portions of the three continents 
had been reduced under one empire, the great 
event took place which forms the dividing line 
of history—the birth of Christ and the spread 
of Christianity. In a. d. 226 a protracted strug¬ 
gle began between the newer Persian Empire 
and the Romans, which lasted till the advent 
of Mohammed and the conquests of the Arabi¬ 
ans. Persia was the first great conquest of 
Mohammed’s followers. Syria and Egypt soon 
fell before their arms, and within forty years 
of the celebrated flight of Mohammed from 
Mecca (the Hejira ), the sixth of the caliphs, or 
successors of the Prophet, was the most power¬ 
ful sovereign of Asia. The Mongols next be¬ 
came the dominant race. In 999 Mahmud, 
whose father, born a Turkish slave, became 
governor of Ghazni, conquered India, and es¬ 
tablished his rule. The dynasty of the Seljuk 
Tatars was established in Aleppo, Damascus, 
Iconium, and Kharism, and was distinguished 
for its struggles with the Crusaders. Othman, 
an emir of the Seljuk sultan of Iconium, estab¬ 
lished the Ottoman Empire in 1300. About 
1220 Genghis Khan, an independent Mongol 
chief, made himself master of Central Asia, 
conquered Northern China, overran Turkestan, 
Afghanistan, and Persia; his successors took 
Bagdad and extinguished the caliphate. In 
Asia Minor they overthrew the Seljuk dynasty. 
One of them, Timur or Tamerlane, carried fire 
and sword over Northern India and Western 
Asia, defeated and took prisoner Bajazet, the 
descendant of Othman (1402), and received 
tribute from the Greek emperor. The Otto¬ 
man Empire soon recovered from the blow in¬ 
flicted by Timur, and Constantinople was taken 
and the Eastern Empire finally overthrown by 


the Sultan Mohammed II in 1453. China re¬ 
covered its independence about 1368 and was 
again subjected by the Manchu Tatars (1618— 
45), soon after which it began to extend its em¬ 
pire over Central Asia. Siberia was conquered 
by the Cossacks on behalf of Russia (1580-84). 
The same country effected a settlement in the 
Caucasus about 1786, and has since continued 
to make steady advances into Central Asia. 
The discovery by the Portuguese of the passage 
to India by the Cape of Good Hope led to their 
establishment on the coast of the peninsula 
(1498). They were speedily followed by the 
Spanish, Dutch, French, and British. The 
struggle between the two last powers for the 
supremacy of India was completed by the de¬ 
struction of the French settlements (1760-65). 
France has recently acquired an extensive ter¬ 
ritory in Farther India. At present the forms 
of government in Asia range from the primitive 
rule of the nomad sheik to the despotism of 
China. India has been brought by Britain 
directly under European influence, and Japan 
is freely modeling her institutions on those of 
the West. 

Asia, Central, a designation loosely given to 
the regions in the center of Asia east of the 
Caspian, also called Turkestan, and formerly 
Tartary. The eastern portion belongs to China, 
the western now to Russia. Russian Central 
Asia comprises the Kirghiz Steppe (Uralsk, 
Turgai, Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, etc.), and 
what is now the government-general of Turkes¬ 
tan, besides the territory of the Turkomans, 
or Transcaspia and Merv. Russia has thus ab¬ 
sorbed the' old khanate of Khokand and part 
of Bokhara and Khiva, and controls the vassal 
territories of Bokhara and Khiva, the southern 
boundary being the Persian and Afghan fron¬ 
tiers. 

Asia Minor, the most westerly portion of 
Asia, being the peninsula lying w. of the 
Upper Euphrates, and forming part of Asiatic 
Turkey. It forms an extensive plateau, with 
lofty mountains rising above it, the most ex¬ 
tensive ranges being the Taurus and Anti- 
Taurus, which border it on the s. and s.e., 
and rise to over 10,000 ft. There are numer¬ 
ous salt and fresh-water lakes. The chief 
rivers are the Kizil-Irmak (Halys), Sakaria 
(Sangarius), entering the Black Sea; and the 
Sarabat (Hermus) and Menderes (Maeander), 
entering the TEgean. The coast regions are 
generally fertile, and have a genial climate; 
the interior is largely arid and dreary. Valu¬ 
able forests and fruit-trees abound. Smyrna 
is the chief town; Anatolia is an equivalent 
name. 

Askabad', the administrative center of the 
Russian province of Transcaspia, situated in 
the Akhal Tekke oasis, and occupied by Sko- 
beleff in January, 1881, after the sack of Geok 
Tepe. Its distance from Merv is 232 mi., from 
Herat 388 mi. 

As'kew, Anne (1521-1546), a victim of re¬ 
ligious persecution. She was a daughter of Sir 
William Askew of Lincolnshire, and was mar¬ 
ried to a wealthy neighbor named Kyme, who, 
irritated by her Protestantism, drove her from 


Asmannshausen 


Asphalt 


his house. In London she spoke against the 
dogmas of the old faith, and was condemned 
to death as a heretic. 

As'mannshausen (-hou-zn), a Prussian vil¬ 
lage on the Rhine, in the district of Wiesba¬ 
den, celebrated for its wine. Many prefer the 
red wine of Asmannshausen to the best Bur¬ 
gundy, but it retains its merits for three or 
four years only. 

Asnieres (iin-yar), a town on the Seine, of 
from 6,000 to 7,000 inhabitants, a favorite boat¬ 
ing resort with the Parisians. 

Asp (Aspic), a species of viper found in 
Egypt, resembling the cobra de capello or 
spectacle-serpent of the East Indies, and hav¬ 
ing a very venomous bite. When approached 
or disturbed it elevates its head and body, 
swells out its neck, and appears to stand erect 
to attack the aggressor. Hence the ancient 
Egyptians believed that the asps were guardi¬ 
ans of the spots they inhabited, and the figure 
of this reptile was adopted as an emblem of 
the protecting genius of the world. The bal¬ 
ancing motions made by it in the endeavor to 
maintain the erect attitude have led to the 
employment of the asp as a dancing serpent 
by the African jugglers. Cleopatra is said to 
have committed suicide by means of an asp’s 
bite. The name asp is also given to a viper 
common on the continent of Europe. 

Aspar'agus, a plant, the young shoots of 
which, cut as they are emerging from the 
ground, are a favorite culinary vegetable. In 
Greece, and especially in the southern steppes 
of Russia and Poland, it is found in profusion; 
and its edible qualities were esteemed by the 
ancients. It is mostly boiled and served with- 



Asparagus. a—Upper end of stem, showing leaves, 
b—Young shoot. 

out admixture, and eaten with butter and 
salt. The plants should remain three years in 
the ground before they are cut; after which, 
for ten or twelve years, they will continue to 
atford a regular annual supply. The beds are 
protected by straw or litter in winter. 


Aspa'sia, a celebrated lady of ancient 
Greece, b. at Miletus, in Ionia, but passed a 
great part of her life at Athens, where her 
house was the general resort of the most dis¬ 
tinguished men in Greece. She won the af¬ 
fection of Pericles, who united himself to 
Aspasia as closely as was permitted by the 
Athenian law, which declared marriage with a 
foreign woman illegal. She had a son by Per¬ 
icles, who was legitimated (b. c. 430) by a 
special decree of the people. 

As' pen, or trembling poplar, a species of pop¬ 
lar indigenous to Britain and to most mountain¬ 
ous regions throughout Europe and Asia. It 
is a beautiful tree of rapid growth and ex¬ 
tremely hardy, with nearly circular-toothed 



Branch of Aspen, a—Catkin. 


leaves, smooth on both sides, and attached to 
footstalks so long and slender as to be shaken 
by the slightest wind; wood, light, porous, soft, 
and of a white color, useful for various pur¬ 
poses. 

Aspen, Pitkin co., Colo., situated on Castle 
Creek at an elevation of 7,700 ft. above the sea 
level, 60 mi. w. by s. of Leadville. It is in 
the center of a rich lead and silver mining 
country. Railroads: D. & R. G., and Colo. 
Midland. Pop. 1900, 3,309. 

As'pern and Esslingen (es'ling-en), two vil¬ 
lages east of Vienna, and on the opposite bank 
of the Danube; celebrated as the chief con¬ 
tested positions in the bloody but undecisive 
battle fought between the Archduke Charles 
and Napoleon I, May 21 and 22, 1809, when it 
was estimated that the Austrians lost a third 
of their army, and the French no less than 
half. 

Asphalt, Asphartum, the most common 
variety of bitumen: also called mineral pitch. 
Asphalt is a compact, glossy, brittle, black 
or brown mineral, which breaks with a pol¬ 
ished fracture, melts easily with a strong, 
pitchy odor when heated, and when pure 
burns without leaving any ashes. It is found 
in the earth in many parts of Asia, Europe, 
and America, and in a soft or liquid state on 
the surface of the Dead Sea, which from this 
circumstance was called Asphaltites. It is of 
organic origin, the asphalt of the great Pitch 
Lake of Trinidad being derived from bitumi¬ 
nous shales, containing vegetable remains in 
the process of transformation. Asphalt is 
produced artificially in making coal gas. Dur- 









Asphalte Rock 


Ass 


ing the process much tarry matter is evolved 
and collected in retorts. If this be distilled, 
naphtha and other volatile matters escape, and 
asphalt is left behind. The asphaltum is dug 
out of the lake with mattocks and picks, 
molded into buckets, and taken directly to 
the vessel fo? shipmen . Crude asphaltum 
cannot be used in paving streets but must be 
put through a refining process which con¬ 
sists principally of a slow application of heat 
and precipitation. It takes three tons of the 
crude material to make two tons of refined 
asphalt. The first step in the refining process 
is to place the asphaltum in great tanks and 
melt it down. It is necessary that the mate¬ 
rial be stirred continually during this process. 
A certain proportion of the residuum of petro¬ 
leum is put into the asphaltum to act as a flux 
and melt the substance at a lower temperature 
than it otherwise would melt; thus all of the 
oils in the asphaltum are saved. This mix¬ 
ture when done is called the “ paving cement.” 
While this process is going on, sharp, clean 
sand is being heated to about 300 degrees in 
large revolving drums. This sand is mixed in 
a certain proportion with the above mixture, 
to both of which is then added a certain pro¬ 
portion of carbonate of lime. The three sub¬ 
stances are then mixed by means of a number 
of iron arms revolving at a very high speed. 
The whole mixture, known as a “street mix¬ 
ture,” is then taken to the street to be laid as 
pavement. 

Before the street is ready for the asphalt 
there must be done a certain amount of pre¬ 
liminary work. The street must be carefully 
graded to within eight or nine inches of the 
proposed finished surface. It is necessary 
that the sub-grade be very solid and rolled 
with a steam roller. Upon this foundation is 
laid a six-inch bed of hydraulic cement con¬ 
crete, made of cement, clean, sharp sand, and 
broken stone. This, too, must be well rammed 
and rolled. Upon the efficiency of this pre¬ 
liminary work depends the value of the pave¬ 
ment when completed. The asphalt is usually 
laid on in two courses; the first, a cushion coat 
and then a surface coat. The asphalt “street 
mixture” is applied when it is at a tempera¬ 
ture of about 250 or 300 degrees. The cushion 
coat is usually from one-half to one inch thick, 
and the surface coat is thick enough to make 
the entire sheet of asphalt two and one-half 
inches thick. The hot mixture is dumped 
into the street and spread evenly from curb 
to curb with hot rakes. Iron tampers and 
smoothers, also heated, smooth and finish the 
surface, which is then rolled with a hand- 
roller, then a five-ton, and last with a ten-ton 
roller. The street mixture contains from 13 
to 20 per cent, of asphaltic cement, from 82 to 
65 per cent, of clean, selected sand, and from 
5 to 15 per cent, of pulverized carbonate of 
lime. The surface coat is sprinkled with a 
small amount of hydraulic cement before the 
heavy rollers are passed over it. 

Asphalte (or Asphalt) Rock, a limestone 
impregnated with bitumen, found in large 
quantities in various localities in Europe, as 


in the Yal de- Travers, Neuchatel, Switzer¬ 
land; in the department of Ain in France; in 
Alsace, Hanover, Holstein, Sicily, etc. These 
rocks contain a variable quantity of bitumen 
(from 7 or 8 to 20 or 30 per cent.) naturally dif¬ 
fused through them. The Yal de Travers as¬ 
phalt was discovered in 1710. Since then other 
asphalte-rocks, as well as artificial prepara¬ 
tions made by mixing bitumen, gas-tar, pitch, 
or other materials, with sand, chalk, etc., have 
been brought into competition with it. From 
1880 to 1890, inclusive, there were 6,803,054 sq. 
yds. of Trinidad asphalt paving laid in the U. S. 

Asphodel, a genus of plants, consisting 
of perennials, with fasciculated fleshy roots, 
flowers arranged in racemes, six stamens in¬ 
serted at the base of the perianth, a sessile 
almost spherical ovary with two cells, each 
containing two ovules; fruit a capsule with 
three cells, in each of which there are, as a 
rule, two seeds. They are fine garden plants, 
native of Southern Europe. The king’s spear 
has yellow flowers, blossoming in June. An¬ 
other species, which attains a height of 5 ft., 
is cultivated in Algeria and elsewhere, its tu¬ 
bercles yielding a very pure alcohol, and the 
residue, together with the stalks and leaves, 
being used in making pasteboard and paper. 

Asphyx'ia, literally, the state of a living 
animal in which no pulsation can be perceived, 
but the term is more particularly applied to a 
suspension of the vital functions from causes 
hindering respiration. The normal accompa¬ 
niments of death from asphyxia are dark fluid 
blood, a congested brain and exceedingly con¬ 
gested lungs, the general engorgement of the 
viscera, and an absence of blood from the left 
cavities of the heart while the right cavities 
and pulmonary artery are gorged. The resto¬ 
ration of asphyxiated persons has been suc¬ 
cessfully accomplished at long periods after 
apparent death. The attempt should be made 
to maintain the heat of the body and to secure 
the inflation of the lungs as in the case of the 
apparently drowned. 

As'pinwall. See Colon. 

As'pirator, an instrument used to promote 
the flow of a gas from one vessel into another 
by means of a liquid. The simplest form of 
aspirator is a cylindrical vessel containing 
water, with a pipe at the upper end which 
communicates with the vessel containing the 
gas, and a pipe at the lower end also, with a 
stop-cock and with its extremity bent up. By 
allowing a portion of the water to run off by 
the pipe at the lower part of the aspirator, a 
measured quantity of air or other gas is sucked 
into the upper part. 

Aspromon'te, a mountain of Italy in the 
s.w. of Calabria, where Garibaldi was wounded 
and taken prisoner with the greater part of 
his army, in August, 1862. 

As'rael, the Mohammedan angel of death, 
who takes the soul from the body. 

Ass, a species of the horse genus, supposed 
by Darwin to have sprung from the wild va¬ 
riety found in Abyssinia; by some writers to 
be a descendant of the onager, or wild ass, in¬ 
habiting the mountainous deserts of Tartary, 


Assam 


Assaying 


etc.; and by others to have descended from 
the kiang or djiggetai of s.w. Asia. Both in 
color and size the ass is exceedingly variable, 
ranging from dark gray and reddish brown to 
white, and from the size of a Newfoundland 
dog in North India to that of a good-sized 
horse. In the s.w. countries of Asia and in 
Egypt, in some districts of Southern Europe, 
as in Spain, and in Kentucky and Peru, great 
attention has been paid to selection and inter¬ 
breeding, with a result no less remarkable 



The Ass. 


than in the case of the horse. Thus in Syria 
there appear to be four distinct breeds: a 
light and graceful animal used by ladies, an 
Arab breed reserved for the saddle, an ass of 
heavier build in use for plowing and draft 
purposes, and the large Damascus breed. The 
male ass is mature at two years of age, the 
female still earlier. The teeth of the young 
ass follow the same order of appearance and 
renewal as those of the horse. The life of the 
ass does not usually exceed thirty years. It is 
in general much healthier than the horse, and 
is maintained in this condition by a smaller 
quantity and coarser quality of food; it is su¬ 
perior to the horse in its ability to carry heavy 
burdens over the most precipitous roads, and 
is in no respect its inferior in intelligence. 
The skin is used as parchment to cover drums, 
etc., and in the East is made into shagreen. 
The hybrid offspring of the horse and the 
female ass is the hinny, that of the ass and 
the mare is the mule ; but the latter is by far 
the larger and more useful animal. Asses’ 
milk, long celebrated for its sanative qualities, 
more closely resembles that of a woman than 
any other. It is very similar in taste, and 
throws up an equally fluid cream, which is 
not convertible into butter. 

Assam'., a chief province of British India; 
area 49,004 sq. mi. The climate is marked by 
great humidity, and malarious diseases are 
common in the low grounds; otherwise it is 
not unhealthy. The whole province, except 


the cultivated area, may be designated as 
forest, the trees including teak, sal, sissoo, the 
date and sago palm, the areca palm (the betel- 
nut tree), the Indian fig-tree, etc. The article 
of most commercial importance is tea, the 
yield of which is now over 60,000,000 lbs. 
annually. Other crops raised are rice, Indian 
corn, pulse, oil-seeds, sugar-cane, hemp, jute, 
potatoes, etc. In the jungles and forests roam 
herds of elephants, the rhinoceros, tiger, buf¬ 
falo, leopard, bear, wild hog, jackal, fox, goat, 
and various kinds of deer. Among serpents 
are the python and the cobra. Pheasants, 
partridges, snipe, wild peacock, and many 
kinds of water-fowl abound. Coal, petroleum, 
and limestone are found in abundance, iron is 
smelted to a small extent, gold-dust is met 
with, lime is exported to Bengal. Pop 5,476,- 
833, about 3,362,000 of whom are Hindus, 
1,517,000 Mohammedans, 8,000 Christians. In 
1826 Assam became a possession of Britain. 
The largest town is Sylhet (pop. 14,000). 

Assassins, an Asiatic order or society hav¬ 
ing the practise of assassination as its most 
distinctive feature, founded by Hassan Ben 
Sabbah, a dai or missionary of the heterodox 
Mohammedan sect, the Ismaelites. The society 
grew rapidly in numbers, and in 1090 the 
Persian fortress of Alamut fell into their hands. 
Other territories were added, and the order be¬ 
came a recognized military power. Upon a 
select band fell the work of assassination, to 
which they were stimulated by the intoxicating 
influences of hashish. From the epithet hash- 
ishim (hemp-eaters) which was applied to the 
order, the European word assassin has been 
derived. Hassan, after a long and prosperous 
reign, died in 1124. Most of his successors 
died violent deaths at the hands of relatives or 
dependents. After withstanding the sultans 
Noureddin and Saladin, and making themselves 
feared by the Crusaders, the Assassins were 
overcome by the Tatar leader, Hulaku. The 
last chief, Rokneddin, was killed for an act of 
treachery subsequent to his capture, and his 
death was followed by a general massacre of 
the assassins, in which 12,000 perished. Dis¬ 
persed bands led a roving life in the Syrian 
mountains, and it is alleged that in the Druses 
and other small existing tribes their descend¬ 
ants are still to be found. 

Assaye (Assye) (as-sl'), a village in Southern 
India, in Hyderabad, where Wellington gained 
a famous victory in 1803. The victory, how¬ 
ever, cost him more than a third of his men. 

Assaying, the estimation of the amount of 
pure metal, and especially of the precious 
metals, in an ore or alloy. In the case of sil¬ 
ver the assay is either by the dry or by the wet 
process. The dry process is called cupellation 
from the use of a small and very porous cup. 
called a cupel, formed of well-burned and 
finely ground bone-ash made into a paste with 
water. The cupel, being thoroughly dried, is 
placed in a fire-clay oven about the size of a 
drain-tile, with a flat sole and arched roof, and 
with slits at the sides to admit air. This oven, 
called a muffle, is set in a furnace, and when it 
is at a red heat the assay, consisting of a small 














Assignats 


Assumpsit 


weighed portion of the alloy wrapped in sheet- 
lead, is laid upon the cupel. The heat causes 
the lead to volatilize or combine with the other 
metals, and to sink with them into the cu¬ 
pel, leaving a bright globule of pure metal¬ 
lic silver, which gives the amount of silver 
in the alloy operated on. In the wet process 
the alloy is dissolved in nitric acid, and to 
the solution are added measured quantities of 
a solution of common salt of known strength, 
which precipitates chloride of silver. The 
operation is concluded when no further precip¬ 
itate is obtained on the addition of the salt so¬ 
lution, and the quantity of silver is calculated 
from the amount of salt solution used. An 
alloy of gold is first cupeled with lead as 
above, with the addition of three parts of sil¬ 
ver for every one of gold. After the cupella- 
tion is finished, the alloy of gold and silver is 
beaten and rolled out into a thin plate, which 
is curled up by the fingers into a little spiral or 
cornet. This is put into a flask with nitric 
acid, which dissolves away the silver and 
leaves the cornet dark and brittle. After 
washing with water the cornet is boiled with 
stronger nitric acid to remove the last traces of 
silver, well washed, and then allowed to drop 
into a small crucible, in which it is heated, 
and then it is weighed. The assay of gold, 
therefore, consists of two parts: cupellation, by 
which inferior metals (except silver) are re¬ 
moved; and quartation, by which the added 
silver and any silver originally present are got 
rid of. The quantity of silver added has to be 
regulated to about three times that of the gold. 
If it be more the cornet breaks up, if it be less 
the gold protects small quantities of the silver 
from the action of the acid. Where, as in 
some gold-manufactured articles, these meth¬ 
ods of assay cannot be applied, a streak is 
drawn with the article upon a touchstone, con¬ 
sisting of coarse-grained Lydian quartz satu¬ 
rated with bituminous matter, or of black ba¬ 
salt. The practised assayer will detect ap¬ 
proximately the richness of the gold from the 
color of the streak, which may be further sub¬ 
jected to an acid test. 

Assignats (as-e-nya), the name of the na¬ 
tional paper currency in the time of the 
French Revolution. Assignats to the value of 
$80,000,000 were first struck off by the Con¬ 
stituent Assembly, with the approbation of 
the king, April 19, 1790, to be redeemed with 
the proceeds of the sale of the confiscated 
goods of the church. August 27 of the same 
year, Mirabeau urged the issuing of $400,000,- 
000 of new assignats, which caused a dispute 
in the assembly. Yergasse and Dupont, who 
saw that the plan was an invention of Clavi&re 
for his own enrichment, particularly distin¬ 
guished themselves as the opponents of the 
scheme. Mirabeau’s exertions, however, were 
seconded by Pethion, and $160,000,000 more 
were issued. They were increased by degrees 
to $9,115,600,000, and their value rapidly de¬ 
clined. In the winter of 1792-93 they lost 30 
per cent., and in spite of the law to compel 
their acceptance at their nominal value they 
continued to fall till in the spring of 1796 


they had sunk to one three-hundred-and-forty* 
fourth their nominal value. This deprecia¬ 
tion was due partly to the want of confidence 
in the stability of the government, partly to 
the fact that the coarsely executed and easily 
counterfeited assignats were forged in great 
numbers. They were withdrawn by the 
Directory from the currency, and at length re¬ 
deemed by mandats at one thirtieth of their 
nominal value. 

Assiniboi'a, the smallest of the four dis¬ 
tricts into which a portion of the northwestern 
territories of Canada was divided in 1882. Some 
coal is mined. Area 89,535 sq. mi.; pop. 1891, 
30,374. Capital, Regina, on the Canadian Pa¬ 
cific railway, which intersects the district. 

Assiniboine, a river of Canada, which flows 
through Manitoba and joins the Red River at 
Winnipeg, about 40 mi. above the entrance of 
the latter into Lake Winnipeg, after a some¬ 
what circuitous course of about 500 mi. from 
the west and northwest. Steamers ply on it 
for over 300 mi. 

Assisi (as-se'se), a small town in Italy, in 
the province of Umbria, 20 mi. n. of Spoleto, 
the see of a bishop, and famous as the birth¬ 
place of St. Francis d’Assisi. The splendid 
church built over the chapel where the saint 
received his first impulse to devotion, is one of 
the finest remains of mediaeval Gothic archi¬ 
tecture. 

Association of Ideas, the term used in psy¬ 
chology to comprise the conditions under which 
one idea is able to recall another to conscious¬ 
ness. Recently some psychologists have been 
disposed to classify these conditions under two 
general heads; the law of contiguity, and the 
law of association. The first states the fact 
that actions, sensations, emotions, and ideas, 
which have occurred together, or in close suc¬ 
cession, tend to suggest each other when any 
one of them is afterward presented to the 
mind. The second indicates that present ac¬ 
tions, sensations, emotions, or ideas tend to 
recall their like from among previous experi¬ 
ences. Other laws have at times been enunci¬ 
ated, but they are reducible to these; thus, the 
“law of contrast or contrariety” is properly a 
case of contiguity. On their physical side 
the principles of association correspond with 
the physiological facts of re-excitation of the 
same nervous centres, and in this respect they 
have played an important part in the endeavor 
to place psychology upon a basis of positive 
science. The laws of association, taken in 
connection with the law of relativity, are held 
by many to be a complete exposition of the 
phenomena of intellect. 

Assouan (as-so-an') (or Essouan), a town of 
Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, 
below the first cataract. The granite quarries 
of the Pharaohs, from which were procured 
the stones for the great obelisks and colossal 
statues of ancient times, are in the neighbor¬ 
hood. Pop. about 6,000; trade in dates, senna, 
etc. 

Assump'sit, in common law, an action to 
recover compensation for the non-performance 
of a parole promise; that is, a promise not con- 


Assyria 


Assyria 


tained in a deed under seal. Assumpsits are 
of two kinds, express and implied. The former 
are where the contracts are actually made in 
word or writing; the latter are such as the law 
implies from the justice of the case; e. g., em¬ 
ployment to do work implies a promise to pay. 

Assyr'ia (the Asshur of the Hebrews, Athurd 
of the ancient Persians), an ancient monarchy 
in Asia. Area about 100,000 sq. mi.; surface 
partly mountainous, hilly,or undulating, partly 
a portion of the fertile Mesopotamian plain. 
The numerous remains of ancient habitations 
show how thickly this vast flat must have once 
been peopled; now, for the most part, it is a 
mere wilderness. The chief cities of Assyria 
in the days of its prosperity were Nineveh, 
the site of which is marked by mounds oppo¬ 
site Mosul (Nebi Yunus and Koyunjik), Calah 
or Kalakh (the modern Nimrud), Asshur or A1 
Asur (Kalah Sherghat), Sargina (Khorsabad), 
and Arbela (Arbil). 

Much light has been thrown on the history 
of Assyria by the decipherment of the cunei¬ 
form inscriptions obtained by excavation. 
The assertion of the Bible that the early in¬ 
habitants of Assyria went from Babylon is in 
conformity with the traditions of later times, 
and with inscriptions on the disinterred As¬ 
syrian monuments. For a long period the 
country was subject to governors appointed 
by the kings of Babylon, but about b. c. 1500 
it became independent. About the end of the 
fourteenth century its king, Shalmaneser, is 
said to have founded the city of Kalakh (or 
Calah); his son, Tiglath-ninip, conquered the 
whole of the valley of the Euphrates. The 
five following reigns were chiefly occupied by 
wars with the Babylonians. About 1120 Tig- 
lath-Pileser 1, one of the greatest of the sov¬ 
ereigns of the first Assyrian monarchy, as¬ 
cended the throne, and carried his conquests 
to the Mediterranean on the one side and to 
the Caspian and the Persian Gulf on the other. 
At his death there ensued a period of decline, 
which lasted over 200 years. Under Assur- 
nazir-pal, who reigned from 884 to 859 b. c., 
Assyria once more advanced to the position of 
the leading power in the world, the extent of 
his kingdom being greater than that of Tig- 
lath-Pileser. The magnificent palaces, tem¬ 
ples, and other buildings of his reign prove 
the advance of the nation in wealth, art, and 
luxury. In 859 he was succeeded by his son 
Shalmaneser II, whose career of conquest was 
equally successful. He reduced Babylon to a 
state of vassalage, and came into hostile con¬ 
tact with Benhadad and Hazael of Damascus, 
and with Ahab and Jehu of Israel, from 
whom he exacted tribute, as also from the 
kings of Tyre and Sidon. The old dynasty 
came to an end in the person of Assurnirari 
II, who was driven from the throne by a 
usurper, Tiglath-Pileser, in 745, after a strug¬ 
gle of some years. No sooner was this able 
ruler firmly seated on the throne than he made 
an expedition into Babylonia, followed by an¬ 
other to the east in 744. A year later he de¬ 
feated the confederate princes of Armenia, 
Syria, etc., and advancing against Syria, over¬ 


threw the ancient kingdoms of Damascus and 
Hamath, and placed his vassal Hosea on the 
throne of Samaria. A protracted campaign 
in Media (737-735), another in Armenia, and 
the expedition into Syria mentioned in 2 
Kings 10, are among the most important 
events of the latter years of his reign. Tiglath- 
Pileser carried the Assyrian arms from Lake 
Van on the north to the Persian Gulf on the 
south, and from the confines of India on the 
east to the Nile on the west. He was, how¬ 
ever, driven from his throne by Shalmaneser 
IY (727), who blockaded Tyre for five years, 
invaded Israel, and besieged Samaria, but died 
before the city was reduced. His successor, 
Sargon (722-705), a usurper, claimed descent 
from the ancient Assyrian kings. After tak¬ 
ing Samaria, he overthrew the combined forces 
of Elam (Susiana) and Babylon. The revolted 
Armenians had also more than once to be put 
down. In 710 Merodach-Baladan was driven 
out of Babylonia by Sargon, after holding it 
for twelve years as an independent king, and 
being supported by the rulers of Egypt and 
Palestine; his allies were also crushed, Judah 
was overrun, and Ashdod leveled to the 
ground. Sargon latterly crossed over and 
took Cyprus. He was murdered, being suc¬ 
ceeded by Sennacherib, one of his younger 
sons, in 705. Sennacherib at once had to take 
up arms against Merodach-Baladan, who had 
again obtained possession of Babylon. He de¬ 
feated Hezekiah and his Egyptian and Ethio¬ 
pian allies, and forced him to pay tribute, 
after which he returned to Assyria to overawe 
the Babylonians, Elamites, and the northern 
hill tribes. In 681 he was murdered by his 
two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, but 
they were defeated by their brother, Esar- 
haddon, who then mounted the throne, fixed 
his residence at Babylon, and made it his capi¬ 
tal. Egypt was reduced to a state of vassal- 
age, the Ethiopian ruler, Tirhakah, being 
driven out and the land divided into twenty 
separate kingdoms. In 652 a general insur¬ 
rection broke out, headed by Sammughes, 
governor of Babylonia, and including Babylo¬ 
nia, Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia. Egypt was 
the only power, however, which regained its 
independence. Though the king’s character 
was marked by cruelty and sensuality, he was 
a zealous patron of the arts and learning. He 
died in 625, and was succeeded by his son, 
Assur-emid-ilin (or Sarakos), under whom 
Babylon definitely threw off the Assyrian 
yoke. The capital, Nineveh, was captured 
and burned by the allied forces of the Medes 
and Babylonians, about 607 or 606 b.c. Assyria 
now fell partly to Media, partly to Babylonia, 
and afterward formed with Babylonia one of 
the satrapies of the Persian Empire. In 312 
b.c. it became part of the kingdom of the 
Seleucklae; later on it came under Parthian 
rule, and was more than once a Roman pos¬ 
session. For a long period it was under the 
caliphs of Bagdad. In 1638 the Turks wrested 
it from the Persians, and it has continued 
under their dominion since that date. 

The original inhabitants of Assyria and 


Assyria 


Assyrlofogy 


Babylonia are known as Accadians (or Sumer¬ 
ians). They belonged to the Turanian or Ural- 
Altaic race, and were, therefore, of the same 
stock as that from which the Finns, Turks, 
and Magyars have descended. In early times 
a Semitic race of people spread themselves 
over the country, and mingled with or sup¬ 
planted the original inhabitants, while their 
language took the place of the Accadian, the 
latter becoming a dead language. These later 
Assyrians were thus akin to the Hebrews, 
Phoenicians, and modern Arabians. Their 
language differed little from the Babylonian, 
and both retained traces of the influence of 
the earlier Accadian. Assyrian is closely allied 
to Hebrew and Phoenician, and changed lit¬ 
tle throughout the 1,500 years during which 
we can trace it in the inscriptions. It contin¬ 
ued to be written with the cuneiform or ar¬ 
rowheaded character down to the third cen¬ 
tury b. c. The greater part of the Assyrian 
literature was stamped in minute characters 
on baked bricks, the subjects comprising 
hymns to the gods, mythological and epic 
poems, and works on history, chronology, as¬ 
trology, law, etc. After Assur, the chief god, 
came twelve chief deities, including Anu, the 
father of the gods: Bel, the lord of the world; 
Hea, the lord of the sea; Sin, the moon-god; 
Shamas, the sun-god; Istar, a powerful goddess 
with various attributes; Ninip, god of hunting 
(the man-bull); Nergal, god of war (the man- 



The God Nergal (British Museum). 

lion); etc. A number of spirits, good and evil, 
presided over the minor operations of nature. 
There were set forms regulating the worship 
of all the gods and spirits, and prayers to each 
were inscribed on clay tablets.with blanks for 
the names of the persons using them. 

The Assyrians were far advanced in art and 
industry, and in civilization in general. They 
constructed large buildings, especially palaces 
of brick, burned or sun-dried, stone, alabaster 
slabs for lining and adorning the walls inter¬ 
nally and externally, and timber for pillars 
and roofs. These alabaster slabs were elabo¬ 
rately sculptured with designs serving to throw 
much light on the manners and customs of 
the people. The palaces were raised on high 
terraces, and often comprised a great number 
of apartments; there were no windows, light 
being obtained by carrying the walls up to a 


certain height and then raising on them pillars 
to support the roof and admit light and air. 
The Assyrian sculptures, as a rule, were in 
relief, figures in the full round being the 
exception. More than three quarters of the 
reliefs are of warlike scenes; hunting scenes 
are also favorite subjects. The vestiges of 
Assyrian painting consist chiefly of fragments 
of stucco and glazed tiles. In these, traces 
of Egyptian influence are to be found, but 
the Assyrian figure type is for the most part 
of a more voluptuous and vigorous fullness 
than the Egyptian. They understood and 
applied the arch; constructed tunnels, aque¬ 
ducts, and drains; used the pulley, the lever, 
and the roller; engraved gems in a highly 
artistic way; understood the arts of inlaying, 
enameling, and overlaying with metals; 
manufactured porcelain, transparent and col¬ 
ored glass; were acquainted with the lens; 
and possessed vases, jars and other dishes, 
bronze and ivory ornaments, bells, gold ear¬ 
rings and bracelets of excellent design and 
workmanship. Their household furniture also 
gives a high idea of their skill and taste. The 
cities of Nineveh, Assur, and Arbela had each 
their royal observatories, superintended by 
astronomers-royal, who had to send in their 
reports to the king twice a month. At an 
early date the stars were numbered and 
named; a calendar was formed, in which the 
year was divided into twelve months (of thirty 
days each), called after the zodiacal signs; but 
as this division, was found to be inaccurate an 
intercalary month was added every six years. 
The week was divided into seven days, the 
seventh being a day of rest; the day was di¬ 
vided into twelve periods of two hours each, 
each of these being subdivided into sixty 
minutes, and these again into sixty seconds. 
Eclipses were recorded from a very remote 
epoch, and their recurrence roughly deter¬ 
mined. The principal astronomical work, 
called the Illumination of Bel, was inscribed on 
seventy tablets, and went through numerous 
editions, one of the latest being in the British 
Museum. It treats among other things of 
comets, the polar star, the conjunction of the 
sun and moon, and the motions of Venus and 
Mars. 

Assyriology, the department of knowledge 
which deals with Assyrian antiquities and 
history, is entirely a modern study. Until 
1842 the materials for Assyrian history were 
derived from the Jewish records of the Old 
Testament and from such comparatively late 
writers as Herodotus and Ctesias. In 1843-46 
M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, made 
the first explorations at Koyunjik and Khorsa- 
bad, and the objects thus obtained were trans¬ 
ported to the Louvre. In 1845 and in 1849 
valuable researches were conducted by Mr. 
Layard, and subsequently continued by the 
British Museum trustees. Later researches 
were instituted by the proprietors of the Daily 
Telegraph, and then by the government, in 
which Mr. George Smith met with consider¬ 
able success. More recently Mr. Rassam has 
carried on the work of discovery. In the de- 







Astarte 


Astrabad 


cipherment and translation of the cuneiform 
inscriptions among the most distinguished 
names are those of Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. 
H. Fox Talbot, Mr. George Smith, M. Jules 
Oppert, Dr. Schrader, Dr. Hincks, Rev. A. H. 
Sayce, Mr. Le Page Renouf, Prof. Terrien de 
la Couperie, Mr. Boscawen, and Mr. Pinches. 

Astar'te, a Syrian goddess, probably corre¬ 
sponding to the Semele of the Greeks and the 
Axhtaroth of the Hebrews, and representing 
the productive power of nature. She was a 
moon-goddess. Some regard her as correspond- 
ing with Hera {Juno), and others with Aphro¬ 
dite. 

As'ter, a genus of plants, comprehending 
several hundred species, mostly natives of 
North America, although others are widely 
distributed. Many are cultivated as orna¬ 
mental plants. Asters generally flower late in 
the season, and some are hence called Michael¬ 
mas or Christmas Daisies. The China Aster 
is a very showy annual, of which there are 
many varieties. 

Aste'ria, a name applied to a variety of 
corundum, which displays an opalescent star 
of six rays of light when cut with certain pre¬ 
cautions; and also to the cat's-eye, which con¬ 
sists of quartz, and is found especially in 
Ceylon. 

As'teroids (or Planetoids), a numerous group 
of very small planets revolving round the sun 
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, re¬ 
markable for the eccentricity of their orbits 
and the large size of their angle of inclination 
to the ecliptic. The diameter of the largest 
is not supposed to exceed 450 mi., while most 
of the others are very much smaller. They 
number over 270, and new members are be¬ 
ing constantly discovered. Ceres, the first of 
them, was discovered Jan. 1, 1801, and within 
three years more Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were 
seen. The extraordinary smallness of these 
bodies, and their nearness to each other, gave 
rise to the opinion that they were but the 
fragments of a planet that had formerly ex¬ 
isted and had been brought to an end by some 
catastrophe. For nearly forty years investi¬ 
gations were carried on, but no more planets 
were discovered till Dec. 8, 1845, when a fifth 
planet in the same region was discovered. 
The rapid succession of discoveries that fol¬ 
lowed was for a time taken as a corroboration 
of the disruptive theory, but the breadth of 
the zone occupied makes the hypothesis of a 
shattered planet more than doubtful. Their 
mean distances from the sun vary between 
200,000,000 and 300,000,000 mi.; the periods of 
revolution, between 1,191 days (Flora) and 2,868 
(Hilda). Their eccentricities and inclinations 
are on the average greater than those of the 
earth, but their total mass does not exceed 
one fourth that of the earth. 

Asthma (ast'ma), difficulty of respiration 
returning at intervals, with a sense of stric¬ 
ture across the chest and in the lungs, a 
wheezing, hard cough at first, but more free 
toward the close of each paroxysm, with a 
discharge of mucus, followed by a remission. 
Asthma is essentially a spasm of the muscular 


tissue which is contained in the smaller bron¬ 
chial tubes. It generally attacks persons ad¬ 
vanced in years, and seems, in some instances, 
to be hereditary. The exciting causes are va¬ 
rious— accumulation of blood or viscid mucus 
in the lungs, noxious vapors, a cold and foggy 
atmosphere, or a close, hot air, flatulence, 
accumulated faeces, violent passions, organic 
diseases in the thoracic viscera, etc. By far 
the most important part of the treatment 
consists in the obviating or removing the sev¬ 
eral exciting causes. It seldom proves fatal 
except as inducing dropsy, consumption, etc. 

Asti (as'te), a town of Northern Italy, prov¬ 
ince of Alessandria, 28 mi. e.s.e. of Turin. In 
the Middle Ages it was one of the most power¬ 
ful republics of Northern Italy. It was the 
birthplace of Alfieri, the poet, whose statue 
adorns the principal square. A favorite wine 
is produced in the neighborhood. Pop. 17,340. 

Astig'matism, a malformation, congenital 
or accidental, of the lens of the eye, in conse¬ 
quence of which the individual does not see 
objects in the same plane, although they may 
really be so. It is due to the degree of con¬ 
vexity of the horizontal and vertical merid¬ 
ians being different., so that corresponding 
rays, instead of converging into one point, 
meet at two foci. 

Astor, John Jacob (1763-1848), an American 
capitalist, b. near Heidelberg, Germany; d. 
at New York. In 1783 he emigrated to the 
U. S., settled at New York, and became ex¬ 
tensively engaged in the fur trade. In 1811 
the settlement of Astoria, founded by him, 
near the mouth of the Columbia River, was 
formed to serve as a central depot for the fur 
trade between the lakes and the Pacific. He 
subsequently engaged in various speculations, 
and died worth $20,000,000, leaving $400,000 to 
found the Astor Library in New York. This 
institution is contained in a splendid building, 
enlarged in 1859 at the cost of his son, and 
comprises about 260,000 volumes. His de¬ 
scendants are the principal ground landlords 
of the city of New York. 

Astor, William (1792-1875), son of John 
Jacob Astor, carried on the enormous business 
interests of his father and is said to have 
left $50,000,000. He added $200,000 to his fa¬ 
ther’s bequest for a public library. He was 
known as the landlord of New York, from the 
extent of his property in that city. 

Astor, William Waldorf, b. 1848, son of 
J. J. Astor. Elected to state legislature, 1877, 
and to state senate in 1879. Was envoy and 
minister plenipotentiary to Italy, 1882-85. He 
inherited the greater part of the enormous 
Astor estate in 1890. He is now living in Eng¬ 
land. 

Astoria, Clatsop co., Ore., U. S., on the 
Columbia River, with numerous salmon-can¬ 
ning establishments. Pop. 1900, 8,381. 

Astrabad', a town of Persia, capital of a 
province of the same name on the Caspian. 
It was formerly the residence of the Kajar 
princes, the ancestors of the present Persian 
dynasty. It is very unhealthy, and has been 
called the City of the Plague. Pop. est. 16,500, 


Astraea 


Astronomy 


Astrse'a, in Greek mythology, the daughter 
of Zeus and Themis, and goddess of justice. 
During the Golden Age she dwelt on earth, 
but on that age passing away she withdrew 
from the society of men and was placed among 
the stars, where she forms the constellation 
Virgo. The name was given to one of the as¬ 
teroids, discovered in 1845. It revolves around 
the sun in 1,511.10 solar days, and is about 2£ 
times the distance of the earth from the sun. 

Astragalus, the upper bone of the foot 
supporting the tibia; the huckle, ankle, or 
sling bone. It is a strong, irregularly shaped 
bone, and is connected with the others by 
powerful ligaments. 

Astrakhan (as-tra-Ztan'), a Russian city, 
capital of government of same name. The 
manufactures are large and increasing, and 
the fisheries (sturgeon, etc.) very important. 
It is the chief port of the Caspian, and 
has regular steam communication with the 
principal towns on its shores. Pop. 57,704, 
composed of various races. The government 
has an area of 85,000 sq. mi. It consists almost 
entirely of two vast steppes, separated from 
each other by the Volga, and forming for the 
most part arid sterile deserts. Pop. 706,840. 

Astrakhan, a name given to sheep-skins 
with a curled, woolly surface obtained from a 
variety of sheep found in Bokhara, Persia, 
and Syria; also a rough fabric with a pile in 
imitation of this. 

Astrin'gent, a medicine which contracts 
the organic textures and canals of the body, 
thereby checking or diminishing excessive dis¬ 
charges. The chief astringents are the mineral 
acids, alum, lime-water, chalk, salts of copper, 
zinc, iron, lead, silver; and among vegetables, 
catechu, kino, oak-bark, and galls. 

Astrology, literally, the science or doc¬ 
trine of the stars. The name was formerly 
used as equivalent to astronomy, but is now 
restricted in meaning to the pseudo-science 
which pretends to enable men to judge of the 
effects and influences of the heavenly bodies 
on human and other mundane affairs, and to 
foretell future events by their situations and 
conjunctions. As usually practised the whole 
heavens, visible and invisible, was divided by 
great circles into twelve equal parts, called 
houses. As the circles were supposed to remain 
immovable every heavenly body passed through 
each of the twelve houses every twenty-four 
hours. The portion of the zodiac contained in 
each house was the part to which chief atten¬ 
tion was paid, and the position of any planet 
was settled by its distance from the boundary 
circle of the house, measured on the ecliptic. 
The houses had different names and different 
powers, the first being called the house of life, 
the second the house of riches, the third of 
brethren, the sixth of marriage, the eighth of 
death, and so on. The part of the heavens 
about to rise was called the ascendant , the 
planet within the house of the ascendant being 
lord of the ascendant. The different aspects of 
the planets were of great importance. To cast 
a person's nativity (or draw his horoscope ) was 
to find the position of the heavens at the in¬ 


stant of his birth, which being done, the astrol¬ 
oger, who knew the various powers and influ¬ 
ences possessed by the sun, the moon, and the 
planets, could predict what the course and 
termination of that person’s life would be. 
The temperament of the individual was as¬ 
cribed to the planet under which he was born, 
as saturnine from Saturn, jovial from Jupiter, 
mercurial from Mercury, etc., words which are 
now used with little thought of their original 
meaning. The virtues of herbs, gems, and 
medicines were supposed to be due to their rul¬ 
ing planets. 

Astronomy is that science which investi¬ 
gates the motions, distances, magnitudes, and 
various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. 
That part of the science which gives a descrip¬ 
tion of the motions, figures, periods of revolu¬ 
tion, and other phenomena of the heavenly 
bodies is called descriptive astronomy; that part 
which teaches how to observe the motions, 
figures, periodical revolutions, distances, etc., 
of the heavenly bodies, and how to use the 
necessary instruments, is called practical as¬ 
tronomy; and that part which explains the 
causes of their motions, and demonstrates the 
laws by which those causes operate, is termed 
physical astronomy. Recent years have added 
two new fields of investigation which are full 
of promise for the advancement of astronom¬ 
ical science. The first of these—celestial pho¬ 
tography —has furnished us with invaluable 
light-pictures of the sun, moon, and other bod¬ 
ies, and has recorded the existence of myriads 
of stars invisible even by the best telescopes; 
while the second, spectrum analysis, reveals to 
us a knowledge of the physical constituents of 
the universe, telling us for instance that in the 
sun (or his atmosphere) there exist many of 
the elements familiar to us on the earth. It 
has also been applied to the determination of 
the velocity with which stars are approaching 
to, or receding from, our system; and to the 
measurement of movements taking place 
within the solar atmospheric envelopes. From 
analysis of some of the unresolved nebulae the 
inference is drawn that they are not star- 
swarms but simply cosmical vapor; whence a 
second inference results favorable to the hy¬ 
pothesis of the gradual condensation of nebulae, 
and the successive evolutions of suns and sys¬ 
tems. 

The most remote period to which we can 
go back in tracing the history of astronomy 
refers us to a time about 2500 b. c., when the 
Chinese are said to have recorded the simul¬ 
taneous conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, 
and Mercury with the moon. This remarkable 
phenomenon is found, by calculating back¬ 
ward, to have taken place 2400 b.c. Astron¬ 
omy has also an undoubtedly high antiquity 
in India. The mean annual motion of Jupiter 
and Saturn was observed as early as 3002 years 
b. c.; tables of the sun, moon, and planets were 
formed, and eclipses calculated. In the time 
of Alexander the Great, the Chaldeans or 
Babylonians had carried on astronomical ob¬ 
servations for 1,900 years. They regarded 
comets as bodies traveling in extended orbits, 


Astronomy 

and predicted their return; and there is reason 
to believe that they were acquainted with the 
true system of the universe. The priests of 
Egypt gave astronomy a religious character; 
but their knowledge of the science is testified 
to only by their ancient zodiacs and the posi¬ 
tion of their pyramids with relation to the 
cardinal points. It was among the Greeks that 
astronomy took a more scientific form. Tha¬ 
les of Miletus (b. 639 b. c.) predicted a solar 
eclipse, and his successors held opinions which 
are in many respects wonderfully in accordance 
with modern ideas. Pythagoras (500 b. c.) pro¬ 
mulgated the theory that the sun is the center 
of the planetary system. Great progress was 
made in astronomy under the Ptolemies, and 
we find Timochares and Aristyllus employed 
about 300 b. c. in making useful planetary 
observations. But Pristarchus of Samos (b. 
267 b. c.) is said, on the authority of Archi¬ 
medes, to have far surpassed them, by teaching 
the double motion of the earth around its axis 
and around the sun. A hundred years later 
Hipparchus determined more exactly the 
length of the solar year, the eccentricity of 
the ecliptic, the precession of the equinoxes, 
and even undertook a catalogue of the stars. 
It was in the second century after Christ that 
Claudius Ptolemy, a famous mathematician of 
Pelusium in Egypt, propounded the system 
that bears his name; viz., that the earth was 
the center of the universe, and that the sun, 
moon, and planets revolved around it in the 
following order: nearest to the earth was the 
sphere of the moon; then followed the spheres 
of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and 
Saturn; then came the sphere of the fixed stars; 
these were succeeded by two crystalline spheres 
and an outer sphere named the primum mobile 
or first motion, which last was again circum¬ 
scribed by the ccelum empyreum, of a cubic 
shape, wherein happy souls found their abode. 
The Arabs began to make scientific astro¬ 
nomical observations about the middle of the 
eighth century, and for 400 years they prose¬ 
cuted the science with assiduity. Ibn-Yunis 
(1000 a. d.) made important observations of the 
disturbances and eccentricities of Jupiter and 
Saturn. In the sixteenth century Nicholas 
Copernicus, b. in 1473, introduced the sys¬ 
tem that bears his name, and which gives to 
the sun the central place in the solar system, 
and shows all the other bodies, the earth in¬ 
cluded, revolving around him. This arrange¬ 
ment of the universe came at length to be 
generally received on account of the simplicity 
it substituted for the complexities and contra¬ 
dictions of the theory of Ptolemy. The obser¬ 
vations and calculations of Tycho Brahe, a 
Danish astronomer, b. in 1546, continued 
over many years, were of the highest value, 
and "claim for him the title of regenerator of 
practical astronomy. His assistant and pupil, 
Kepler, b. in 1571, was enabled, principally 
by the aid he received from his master’s 
labors, to arrive at those laws which have 
made his name famous: 1, That the planets 
move, not in circular, but in elliptical orbits, 
of which the sun occupies a focus. 2, That 
13 


Astronomy 

the radius vector, or imaginary straight line 
joining the sun and any planet, moves over 
equal spaces in equal times. 3, That the 
squares of the times of the revolutions of the 
planets are as the cubes of their mean distances 
from the sun. Galileo, who died in 1642, ad¬ 
vanced the science by his observations and by 
the new revelations he made through his tele¬ 
scopes, which established the truth of the 
Copernican theory. Newton, b. in 1642, car¬ 
ried physical astronomy suddenly to com¬ 
parative perfection. Accepting Kepler’s laws 
as a statement of the facts of planetary motion 
he deduced from them his theory of gravita¬ 
tion. • The science was enriched toward the 
close of the eighteenth century by the dis¬ 
covery by Herschel of the planet Uranus and 
its satellites, the resolution of the Milky Way 
into myriads of stars, and the unraveling of 
the mystery of nebulae and of double and 
triple stars. The splendid analytical re¬ 
searches of Lalande, Lagrange, Delambre, 
and Laplace mark the same period. The 
nineteenth century opened with the discovery 
of the first four minor planets; and the exist¬ 
ence of another planet (Neptune) more distant 
from the sun than Uranus, was, in 1845, simul¬ 
taneously and independently predicted by Le- 
verrier and Adams. Of late years the sun 
has attracted a number of observers, the 
spectroscope and photography having been 
especially fruitful in this field of investiga¬ 
tion. From recent transit observations the 
former calculated distance of the sun has been 
corrected, and is now given as 92,560,000 mi. 
An interesting recent discovery is that of the 
two satellites of Mars. The existence of an 
intra-Mercurial planet, which has been named 
Vulcan, has not yet been verified. Much valu¬ 
able work has of late been accomplished in as¬ 
certaining the parallax of fixed stars. 

The objects with which astronomy has 
chiefly to deal are the earth, the sun, the 
moon, the planets, the fixed stars, comets, 
nebulae, and meteors. The stellar universe is 
composed of an unknown host of stars, many 
millions in number, the most noticeable of 
which have been formed into groups called con¬ 
stellations. The nebulae are cloud-like patches 
of light scattered all over the heavens. Some 
of them have been resolved into star-clusters, 
but many of them are but masses of incandes¬ 
cent gas. A favorite theory regarding the 
fixed stars is that they form a system to which 
our sun belongs, and that many of the nebulae 
are similar systems situated far outside of our 
own. The fixed stars preserve, at least to un¬ 
aided vision, an unalterable relation to each 
other, because of their vast distance from the 
earth. Their apparent movement from east 
to west is the result of the earth’s revolution 
on its axis in twenty-four hours from west to 
east. The planets have not only an apparent, 
but also a real and proper motion, since, like 
our earth, they revolve around the sun in their 
several orbits and periods. The nearest of 
these bodies to the sun — unless the hypothet¬ 
ical Vulcan really exists — is Mercury. Venus, 
the second planet from the sun, is the bright- 


Asturia 

est and most beautiful of all the planets. The 
Earth is the first planet accompanied by a sat¬ 
ellite or moon. Mars , the next planet, has two 
satellites, as already mentioned. Its surface 
has a variegated character, and the existence 
of land, water, snow, and ice has been assumed. 
The Asteroids , of which over 270 have been 
observed, form a broad zone of small bodies 
circulating in the space between Mars and Ju¬ 
piter. Jupiter, the largest planet of the sys¬ 
tem, has four satellites, discovered by Galileo, 
and is marked by dark bands or belts on each 
side of the equator. Saturn, with his eight 
moons, and his broad thin rings with edges 
turned toward the planet, is, perhaps, the 
most striking telescopic object in the heavens. 
Uranus —discovered by Herschel in 1781 — is 
accompanied by four satellites. Neptune, the 
farthest removed from the sun, has one sat¬ 
ellite, the motion of which is retrograde. Be¬ 
sides the planets, quite a number of comets 
are known to be members of the solar system. 
The physical constitution of these bodies is 
still one of the enigmas of astronomy. The 
observation of meteors has recently attracted 
much attention. They most frequently occur 
in the autumn, and have been supposed to be 
the debris of comets. See articles, Earth, Sun, 
Moon, Planet, Comet, Stars, Mercury, Venus, 
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Asteroids. 

Astu'ria(or The Asturias), a Spanish prin¬ 
cipality, now forming the province of Oviedo, 
on the north coast of Spain; an Alpine region, 
with steep and jagged mountain ridges, valu¬ 
able minerals, luxuriant grazing lands, and 
fertile, well-watered valleys. The hereditary 
prince of Spain has borne since 1388 the title 
of Prince of the Asturias. 

Asty'ages (-jez), the last king of the Medes, 
(593-558 b.c.), deposed by Cyrus, an event which 
transferred the supremacy from the Medes to 
the Persians. 

Asuncion (ii-soon' se-on) (or Nuestra Senora 
de la Asuncion), the chief city of Paraguay. It 
was founded in 1536 on the feast of the As¬ 
sumption. Its trade is mostly in the yerba 
tea, hides, tobacco, oranges, etc. It was taken 
and plundered by the Brazilians in 1869, and 
some of the leading buildings still remain in a 
half-ruined condition. A railway runs for a 
short distance into the interior. Pop. 24,838. 

Atacama (a-ta-ka'ma), a desert region on the 
west coast of South America belonging to Chile. 
It forms the chief mining district of Chile, 
there being here rich silver mines, while gold is 
also found as well as argentiferous lead, copper, 
nickel, cobalt, and iron; with guano on the 
coast. The northern portion, till recently, be¬ 
longed to Bolivia. The Chilean prov. of Ata¬ 
cama has an area of 43,180 sq. mi., and a pop. 
of 66,067. 

Ataca'mite, a mineral consisting of a com¬ 
bination of the protoxide and chloride of cop¬ 
per, occurring abundantly in some parts of 
South America, as at Atacama, whence it has 
its name. It is worked as an ore in South 
America, and is exported to England. 

Atahual'pa, the last of the Incas, succeeded 


Athaliah 

his father in 1529 on the throne of Quito, while 
his brother Huascar obtained the kingdom of 
Peru. They soon made war against each 
other, when the latter was defeated, and his 
kingdom fell into the hands of Atahualpa. 
The Spaniards, with Pizarro at their head, in¬ 
vaded Peru, and advanced to Atahualpa’s 
camp. Atahualpa was captured, and despite 
the payment of a vast ransom in gold, was 
executed (1533). 

Atalan' ta, in the Greek mythology, a famous 
huntress of Arcadia. She was to be obtained 
in marriage only by him who could outstrip 
her in a race, the consequence of failure being 
death. One of her suitors obtained from Aph¬ 
rodite (Venus) three golden apples, which he 
threw behind him, one after another, as he 
ran. Atalanta stopped to pick them up, and 
was not unwillingly defeated. There was an¬ 
other Atalanta belonging to Boeotia, who can¬ 
not very well be distinguished, the same stories 
being told about both. 

Ataxy (Ataxia), in medicine, irregularity in 
the animal functions, or in the symptoms of a 
disease. See Locomotor ataxy. 

Atchafalay'a (“Lost Water ”), a river of the 
U. S., an outlet of the Red River which 
strikes off before the junction of that river 
with the Mississippi, flows southward, and 
enters the Gulf of Mexico by Atchafalaya 
Bay. Its length is 250 mi. 

Atchison, Atchison co., Kan., on the Mis¬ 
souri, about 47 mi. from Kansas City, an 
important railway center with an increas¬ 
ing trade. Pop. 1900, 15,722. 

A'te, among the Greeks, the goddess of 
hate, injustice, crime, and retribution, daugh¬ 
ter of Zeus according to Homer, but of Eris 
(Strife) according to Hesiod. 

Atesh'ga (the place of fire), a sacred place 
of the Guebres or Persian fire-worshipers, on 
the peninsula of Apsheron, on the w. coast 
of the Caspian, visited by large numbers 
of pilgrims, who bow before the sacred flames 
which issue from the bituminous soil. 

Athabas'ca, a river, lake, and district of 
Canada. Lake Athabasca, or Lake of the 
Hills, is about 190 mi. s.s.e. of the Great 
Slave Lake, with which it is connected by 
means of the Slave River, a continuation 
of the Peace. It is about 200 mi. in length 
from east to west, and about 35 mi. wide 
at the broadest part, but gradually narrows 
to a point at either extremity. The dis¬ 
trict of Athabasca, formed in 1882, lies im¬ 
mediately e. of British Columbia, and n. of 
Alberta. Area about 122,000 sq. mi. It is 
intersected by the Athabaska and the Peace 
Rivers, and as yet has a scanty population. 
The name is also given to a family of In¬ 
dians. 

Athali'ah, daughter of Ahab, king of Is¬ 
rael, and wife of Joram, king of Judah. 
After the death of her son Ahaziah, she 
opened her way to the throne by the murder 
of forty-two princes of the royal blood. She 
reigned six years; in the seventh the high 
priest Jehoiada placed Joash, the young son 


Athelney 

of Ahaziah, who had been secretly pre¬ 
served, on the throne of his father, and 
Athaliah was slain. See 2 Kings 8: 9, 11. 

Ath'elney, formerly an island in the midst 
of fens and marshes, now drained and culti¬ 
vated, in Somersetshire, England, about 7 mi. 
s.e. of Bridgewater. Alfred the Great took 
refuge in it during a Danish invasion, and 
afterward founded an abbey there. 

Ath'elstan, King of England, b. 895, d. 941, 
succeeded his father, Edward the Elder, in 
925. He was victorious in his wars with the 
Danes of Northumberland and the Scots, by 
whom they were assisted. After a single over¬ 
throw of his enemies at Brunanburgh he gov¬ 
erned in peace and with great ability. 

Athe'na(or Athene), a Greek goddess, the 
representative of the intellectual powers; the 
daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Metis. Accord¬ 
ing to the legend, before her birth Zeus swal¬ 
lowed her mother, and Athena afterward 
sprang from the head of Zeus. She slew Pallas 
and Enceladus. In all representations she is 
the symbol of the thinking faculty, the god¬ 
dess of wisdom, science, and art. As a war¬ 
rior she is represented completely armed, her 
head covered with a gold helmet. As the god¬ 
dess of peaceful arts she appears in the dress 
of a Grecian matron. To her insignia belong 
the JEgis, the Gorgon’s head, the round Argive 
buckler. All Attica, but particularly Athens, 
was sacred to her, and she had numerous 
temples there. 

Athenaeum, the temple of Athena (or Mi¬ 
nerva), at Athens, frequented by poets, learned 
men, and orators. The same name was given 
at Rome to the school which Hadrian estab¬ 
lished on the Capitoline Mount for the pro¬ 
motion of literary and scientific studies. In 
modern times the same name is given to 
literary clubs and establishments connected 
with the sciences. 

Ath'ens, anciently the capital of Attica and 
center of Greek culture, now the capital of the 
kingdom of Greece. It is situated in the cen¬ 
tral plain of Attica, about 4 miles from the 
Saronic Gulf (or Gulf of iEgina), an arm of the 
iEgean Sea running in between the mainland 
and the Peloponnesus. It is said to have been 
founded about 1550 b.c. by Cecrops, the myth¬ 
ical Pelasgian hero, and to have borne the 
name Cecropia until under Erechtheus it re¬ 
ceived the name of Athens in honor of Athene. 
The Acropolis, an irregular oval crag 150 ft. 
high, with a level summit 1,000 ft. long by 500 
in breadth, was the original nucleus of the city. 
The three chief eminences near the Acropolis 
—the Areopagus to the northwest, the Pnyx 
to the southwest, and the Museum to the south 
of the Pnyx—were thus included within the 
city boundary as the sites of its chief public 
buildings. On the east ran the Ilissus and on 
the west the Cephissus, while to the south¬ 
west lay three harbors, Phalerum, the Pirteus, 
and Munychia. At the height of its prosper¬ 
ity the city was connected with its harbors by 
three massive walls. The architectural de¬ 
velopment of Athens may be dated from the 
rule of the Pisistratides (560-510 b.c.), who are 


Athens 

credited with the foundation of the temple of 
the Olympian Zeus, completed by Hadrian 
seven centuries later, the erection of the Py th- 
ium and of the Lyceum; also the Academy 
and the building of the Agora, Senate-house, 
Tholus, and Prytanium. With the foundation 
of Athenian democracy under Clisthenes, the 
Pnyx or place of public assembly, with its 
semicircular area and cyclopean wall, first be¬ 
came of importance, and a commencement 
was made to the Dionysiac theater (theater of 
Dionysus, or Bacchus) on the south side of the 
Acropolis. After the destruction wrought by 
the Persians in 480 b.c., Themistocles recon¬ 
structed the city upon practical lines andwitli 
a larger area, enclosing the city in new walls 
7£ miles in circumference, erecting the north 
wall of the Acropolis, and developing the mari¬ 
time resources of the Piraeus; while Cimon 
added to the southern fortificationsof the Acrop¬ 
olis, planted the Agora with trees, laid out 
the Academy, and built the Theseum. Under 
Pericles the highest point of artistic develop¬ 
ment was reached. An Odeium was erected 
on the east of the Dionysiac theater for the 
recitations of rhapsodists and musicians; and 
with the aid of the architects, Ictinus and Mnes- 
icles, and of the sculptor Phidias, the Acropolis 
was perfected. Covering the whole of the 
western end rose the Propylaea, of Pentelic 
marble and consisting of a central portico with 
two wings in the form of Doric temples. In 
the interval between the close of the Pelopon¬ 
nesian war and the battle of Chaeronea few ad¬ 
ditions were made. Then, however, the long 
walls and Piraeus, destroyed by Lysander, were 
restored by Conon, and under the orator Ly- 
curgus the Dionysiac temple was completed, 
the Panathenaic stadium commenced, and the 
choragic monuments of Lysicrates and Thrasyl- 
lus erected. Later on Ptolemy Philadelphus 
gave it the Ptolemaeum near the Theseum, 
Attalus I, the stoa northeast of the Agora, Eu- 
menes II, that near the great theater, and An- 
tiochus Epiphanes carried on the Olympium. 
Under the Romans it continued a flourishing 
city, Hadrian in the second century adorning 
it with many new buildings. But after a time 
Christian zeal, the attacks of barbarians, 
and robberies of collectors made sad inroads 
among the monuments. About 420 a.d. pa¬ 
ganism was totally annihilated at Athens, and 
when Justinian closed even the schools of the 
philosophers, the reverence for buildings asso¬ 
ciated with the names of the ancient deities 
and heroes was lost. The Parthenon was 
turned into a church of the Virgin Mary, and 
St. George stepped into the place of Theseus. 
Finally, in 1456, the place fell into the hands 
of the Turks. The Parthenon became a 
mosque, and in 1687 was greatly damaged by 
an explosion at the siege of Athens by the Ve¬ 
netians. Enough, however, remains of it and 
of the neighboring structures to abundantly 
attest the splendor of the Acropolis; while of 
the other buildings of the city, the Theseum 
and Horologium, or Temple of the Winds, are 
admirably preserved, as also are the Pnyx, 
Panathenaic stadium, etc. Soon after the 


Athens 

commencement of the war of liberation in 
1821, the Turks surrendered Athens, but cap¬ 
tured it again in 1826-27. It was then aban¬ 
doned until 1830. In 1835 it became the royal 
residence, and made rapid progress. The 
modern city mostly lies northward and east¬ 
ward from the Acropolis. Among the princi¬ 
pal buildings are the royal palace, the univer¬ 
sity, the academy, public library, theater, and 
observatory. The university was opened in 
1836, and has 1,400 students. There are valu¬ 
able museums, in particular the National 
Museum and that in the Polytechnic School. 
These are constantly being added to by exca¬ 
vations. There are four foreign archaeolog¬ 
ical institutes, the French, German, American, 
and British. Street railroads have been made 
in the principal streets, and the city is con¬ 
nected by railway (6 miles) with its port, the 
Piraeus. Pop. 85,000. 

Athens, Athens co. O., on the Hocking 
River, the seat of the Ohio University, which 
was founded in 1804. Pop. 3,066. 

Athens, Clark co., Ga., on the Oconee 
River, is the seat of the Georgia University, 
which was founded in 1801. Pop. 10,245. 

Athletes (ath'lets), combatants who took 
part in the public games of Greece. The pro¬ 
fession was an honorable one; tests of birth, 
position, and character were imposed and 
crowns, statues, special privileges, and pen¬ 
sions were among the rewards of success. 

Athol, Worcester co., Mass., on Miller River; 
large manufactures of woolen and boots and 
shoes; 28 mi. from Worcester. Pop. 7,061. . 

Athletic Sports. —Although this term is un¬ 
doubtedly derived from the ancients, the deri¬ 
vation does not exactly indicate its present 
meaning, inasmuch as our modern athletes 
are distinctly defined to be amateurs, in 
contradistinction to professionals. In fact 
the former pursue the agonistic art, and 
should be styled “agonistics,” if we maybe 
allowed to invent such a word, rather than 
athletes. How the pastime came to be thus 
named in Britain some thirty years ago, it 
is hard to say. Till about 1860, all exer¬ 
cises wherein the feet played the principal 
part were rightly styled “ pedestrianism.” 
Up to that period all prizes, whether con¬ 
tended for by amateurs or professionals, were 
invariably in money. As the practise of the 
pastime, however, rapidly spread among the 
former, it was naturally found they were loth 
to compete on the same terms with, and for 
similar trophies as, the latter. Hence arose 
the modern definition of an amateur athlete; 
viz., “any person who has never competed 
in an open competition, or for public money, 
or for admission money, or with profession¬ 
als for a prize, public money, or admission 
money; nor has ever at any period of his life 
taught or assisted in the pursuit of athletic 
exercises, as a means of livelihood; nor is a 
mechanic, artisan, or laborer.” The moment 
this definition was brought into force a wide 
barrier arose between the two -classes, and 
amateurs ceased to compete for money prizes 
among themselves, or against professionals, 


Atlantic City 

on any terms, unless they were willing to 
forfeit their status. 

Athor (Hathor or Het-her), an Egyptian god¬ 
dess, identified with Aphrodite (or Venus). Her 
symbol was the cow bearing on its head the 
solar disc and hawk-feather plumes. Her chief 
temple was at Denderah, From her the third 
month of the Egyptian year derived its name. 

A'thos (now Hagion Or os or Monte Santo , 
that is, Holy Mountain), a mountain 6,700 ft. 
high in European Turkey, terminating the 
most eastern of the three peninsulas jutting 
into the Archipelago. The name, however, is 
frequently applied to the whole peninsula, 
which is about 30 mi. long by 5 broad. It is 
covered with forests, and plantations of olive, 
vine, and other fruit trees. The Persian fleet 
under Mardonius was wrecked here in 493 b. c., 
and to avoid a similar calamity Xerxes caused 
a canal, of which traces may yet be seen, to be 
cut through the isthmus that joins the penin¬ 
sula to the mainland. On the peninsula there 
are situated about twenty monasteries and a 
multitude of hermitages, which contain from 
6,000 to 8,000 monks and hermits of the order 
of St. Basil. The libraries of the monasteries 
are rich in literary treasures and manuscripts. 
Every nation belonging to the Greek Church 
has here one or more monasteries of its own, 
which are annually visited by pilgrims. The 
various religious communities form a species 
of republic, paying an annual tribute of nearly 
$20,000 to the Turks, and governed by a synod 
of twenty monastic deputies and four presi¬ 
dents, meeting weekly. At the present day no 
Mohammedan, except the Aga Bostanji, who 
acts as an intermediary between the monks 
and the sultan, can settle on the peninsula. 
The revenue of the community is derived from 
pilgrims, and from a considerable trade in amu¬ 
lets, rosaries, crucifixes, images, and wooden 
furniture. 

Atit'lan, a lake and mountain of Central 
America in Guatemala. The lake is about 24 
mi. long and 10 broad; the mountain is an act¬ 
ive volcano 12.160 ft. high. 

Atkinson, Edward, b. at Brookline, Mass., 
1827. He has written extensively on economic 
subjects, and is considered a high authority 
on questions of this character. He has writ¬ 
ten several articles on the silver question and 
on imperialism. 

AtHan'ta, Fulton co., Ga., is an important 
railway center; carries on a large trade in 
grain, paper, cotton, flour, and especially to¬ 
bacco, and possesses flour mills, paper mills, 
iron works, etc. Here are Atlanta University 
for colored male and female students, a theo¬ 
logical college, a medical college, etc. Atlanta 
suffered severely during the Civil War. Pop. 
1900, 89,872. 

Atian'tes (or Telamones), in architecture, 
male figures used in place of columns or pilas¬ 
ters for the support of an entablature or 
cornice. Female figures so employed are 
termed caryatides. 

Atlantic City, Atlantic co., N. J., on Atlan¬ 
tic Ocean, 60 mi. s.e. of Philadelphia. Rail 
roads: West Jersey; Camden & Atlantic; and 


Atlantic Ocean 

Atlantic City. Surrounding country agricul-* 
tural. It is a winter and summer health and 
pleasure resort, and has an elevated board 
walk 40 ft. wide and 4 mi. long. Population 
1900, 27 838. 

Atlantic Ocean, the vast expanse of sea lying 
between the west coasts of Europe and Africa 
and the east coasts of North and South Amer¬ 
ica, and extending from the Arctic to the 
Antarctic Ocean; greatest breadth, between 
the west coast of Northern Africa and the east 
coast of Florida, 4,150 mi.; least breadth, 
between Norway and Greenland, 930 mi.; 
superficial extent, 25,000,000 sq. mi. The 
principal inlets and bays are Baltin’s and Hud¬ 
son’s Bays, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean 
Sea, the North Sea (or German Ocean), the Bay 
of Biscay, and the Gulf of Guinea. The prin¬ 
cipal islands north of the equator are Iceland, 
the Faroe and British Islands, the Azores, 
Canaries, and Cape Verd Islands, Newfound¬ 
land, Cape Breton, and the West India Islands; 
and south of the equator, Ascension, St. Hel¬ 
ena, and Tristan da Cunha. 

The great currents of the Atlantic are the 
Equatorial Current (divisible into the Main, 
Northern, and Southern Equatorial Currents), 
the Gulf-stream, the North African and Guinea 
Current, the Southern Connecting Current, the 
Southern Atlantic Current, the Cape Horn 
Current, Kennel’s Current, and the Arctic 
Current. The current system is primarily set 
in motion by the trade-winds which drive the 
water of the intertropical region from Africa 
toward the American coasts. The Main Equa¬ 
torial Current, passing across the Atlantic, is 
turned by the S. American coast, along which 
it runs at a rate of 30 to 50 miles a da} r , till, 
having received part of the North Equatorial 
Current, it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Issuing 
thence between Florida and Cuba under the 
name of the Gulf-stream, it flows with a gradu¬ 
ally expanding channel nearly parallel to the 
coast of the U. S. It then turns northeastward 
into the mid-Atlantic, the larger proportion of 
it passing southward to the east of the Azores 
to swell the North African and Guinea Current 
created by the northerly winds off the Portu¬ 
guese coast. The Guinea Current, which takes 
a southerly course, is divided into two on arriv¬ 
ing at the region of the northeast trades, part 
of it flowing east to the Bight of Biafra and 
joining the South African feeder of the Main 
Equatorial, but the larger portion being carried 
westward into the North Equatorial drift. 
Kennel’s Current, which is possibly a continu¬ 
ation of the Gulf-stream, enters the Bay of 
Biscay from the west, curves round its coast, 
and then turns northwest toward Cape Clear. 
The Arctic Current runs along the east coast 
of Greenland (being here called the Greenland 
Current), doubles Cape Farewell, and flows up 
toward Davis’s Strait; it then turns to the 
south along the coasts of Labrador and the 
U. S., from which it separates the Gulf-stream 
by a cold band of water. Immense masses of 
ice are borne south by this current from the 
Polar seas. In the interior of the North At¬ 
lantic there is a large area comparatively free 


Atlantic Telegraph 

from currents, called the Sargasso Sea, from 
the large quantity of sea-weed (of the genus 
Sargassuvi ) which drifts into it. A similar 
area exists in the South Atlantic. In the South 
Atlantic, the portion of the Equatorial Current 
which strikes the American coast below Cape 
St. Roque flows southward at the rate of from 
12 to 20 miles a day along the Brazil coast 
under the name of the Brazil Current. It then 
turns eastward and forms the South Connect¬ 
ing Current, which, on reaching the South 
African coast, turns northward into the Main 
and Southern Equatorial Currents. Besides 
the surface currents, an under current of cold 
water flows from the poles to the equator, and 
an upper current of warm water from the 
equator toward the poles. 

The greatest depth yet discovered is north of 
Porto Rico, in the West Indies, namely 27,- 
360 feet. Cross-sections of the North Atlantic 
between Europe and America show that its bed 
consists of two great valleys lying in a north 
and south direction, and separated by a ridge, 
on which there is an average depth of 1,600 or 
1,700 fathoms, while the valleys on either 
side sink to the depth of 3,000 or 4,000 fathoms. 
A ridge, called the Wymile- Thomson Riclge , 
with a depth of little more than 200 fathoms 
above it, runs from near the Butt of Lewis 
to Iceland, cutting off the colder water of 
the Arctic Ocean from the warmer water of the 
Atlantic. The South Atlantic, of which the 
greatest depth yet found is over 3,000 fathoms, 
resembles the North Atlantic in having an 
elevated plateau or ridge in the centre with a 
deep trough on either side. The saltness and 
specific gravity f the Atlantic gradually di¬ 
minish from the tropics to the poles, and also 
from within a short distance of the tropics to 
the equator, in the neighborhood of the 
British Isles the salt has been stated at one 
thirty-eighth of the weight of the water. The 
North Atlantic is the greatest highway of 
ocean traffic in the world. It is also a great 
area of submarine communication, by means 
of the telegraphic cables that are laid across 
its bed. 

Atlantic Telegraph. — J. J. Craven’s experi¬ 
ment in 1847 led to the laying of a gutta-per¬ 
cha cable between New York and Jersey City, 
1848. In 1850 an experimental line was laid 
across the English Channel, followed (1851) 
by a permanent cable. The plan to connect 
a line of fast steamers with a cable carried 
across the Island of St. Johns was next at¬ 
tempted. The New York, Newfoundland, & 
London Telegraph Co. began operations to 
connect St. Johns, Newfoundland, with tele¬ 
graphic lines in the U. S. and British America. 
The first attempt to lay a cable (1855) across 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence failed. Another at¬ 
tempt (1856) succeeded. The idea of carrying 
the cable across the ocean originated with Mr. 
Cyrus W. Field of New York (1854). Mr. 
Field went to London (1856) and in face of 
many difficulties, organized the first Atlantic 
Telegraph Co., himself subscribing more than 
one fourth the capital, $1,750,000. To this 
company were given all the privileges con- 


Atlantis 

ferred on the old company. The govern¬ 
ments of Great Britain and the U. S. gave 
substantial aid, and furnished ships for laying 
the cable. The Niagara and Agamemnon 
sailed west from Valentia, Ireland, Aug. 7, 
1857, each bearing 1,250 mi. of the cable. 
The Niagara paid her portion out as she went. 
On August 11, 280 mi. out, the cable snapped, 
the end sinking in 2,000 fathoms of water, and 
the ships returned to Portsmouth. The same 
ships left Valentia again, June 10, 1858, for a 
second trial, submersion to begin in mid¬ 
ocean, one ship going east, the other west. 
On the 29th a double break occurred, 144 mi. of 
cable being lost. Even directors now lost 
faith. Still they prosecuted the work. July 
29 the cable was again lowered in mid-ocean, 
this time with success. The Agamemnon ar¬ 
rived at Valentia, Ireland, August 6, and the 
Niagara at Trinity Bay, N. P. about the same 
time, both having successfully lowered their 
portion of the cable. August 17 the following 
message was flashed through the ocean: “ Eu¬ 
rope and America are united by telegraph. 
Glory be to God in the highest; on earth peace 
and good-will toward men.” The Newfound¬ 
land station was connected with the general 
telegraph system of America, and the station 
at Valentia with the general system of Europe. 
This cable continued in good working order 
until Sept. 1, 1858. 

From 1858-1864 Mr. Field was busy raising 
new capital. The Telegraph Construction and 
Maintenance Co. was formed. This company 
constructed cable much thicker and more 
costly than the other. The Great Eastern was 
enlisted in the laying, and steamed away from 
Valentia, July 23, 1865. The cable snapped, 
August 2, and the end-sunk in 2,000 fathoms 
of water 1,064 mi. from land. Dredging to 
bring up the end proved unavailing and the 
Great Eastern returned. A new capital was 
raised and a new cable weighing 500 pounds 
per mi. less was made. July 13, 1866, the 
Great Eastern again left Valentia accompa¬ 
nied by the steamers Terrible , Midway , and 
Albany. The route chosen was midway be¬ 
tween the cables of 1858 and 1865. Success 
attended this attempt and the Great Eastern 
reached Heart’s Content, N. F., July 27. The 
end of the 1865 cable was raised September 1, 
spliced with additional lengths, and laid to 
Heart’s Content. Thus a second line of com¬ 
munication was established between America 
and Ireland. These two cables have been 
kept in good working order, and the heavy 
expenditures have yielded good dividends. 

Atlan'tis, an island which, according to 
Plato, existed in the Atlantic over against the 
Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), was 
the home of a great nation, and was finally 
swallowed up by the sea. The legend has 
been accepted by some as fundamentally true; 
but others have regarded it as the outgrowth 
of some early discovery of the New World. 

At'las, an extensive mountain system in 
North Africa, starting near Cape Nun on the 
Atlantic Ocean, traversing Morocco, Algiers, 
and Tunis, and terminating on the coast of 


Atmosphere 

the Mediterranean; divided generally into two 
parallel ranges, running w. to e., the Greater 
Atlas lying toward the Sahara and the Lesser 
Atlas toward the Mediterranean. The prin¬ 
cipal chain is about 1,500 mi. long, and the 
principal peaks rise above or approach the line 
of perpetual congelation; Miltsin in Morocco 
being 11,500 feet high, and another peak in 
Morocco 11,500 feet high. The highest ele¬ 
vations are perhaps over 13,000 feet. Silver, 
antimony, lead, copper, iron, etc., are among 
the minerals. The vegetation is chiefly Euro¬ 
pean in character, except on the low grounds 
and next the desert. 

Atlas, in Greek mythology, the name of a 
Titan whom Zeus condemned to bear the 
vault of heaven. The same name is given to 
a collection of maps and charts, and was first 
used by Gerard Mercator in the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, the figure of Atlas bearing the globe 
being given on the title-pages of such works. 

At'mosphere, primarily the gaseous envel¬ 
ope which surrounds the earth; but the term 
is applied to that of any orb. The atmos¬ 
phere of the earth consists of a mass of gas ex¬ 
tending to a height variously estimated at from 
45 to 212 mi., and pressing on every part of the 
earth’s surface with a pressure of about 15 
(14.73) lbs. per sq. in. The existence of this 
atmospheric pressure was first proved by Tor¬ 
ricelli, who thus accounted for the rush of a 
liquid to fill a vacuum, and who, working out 
the idea, produced the first barometer. The 
average height of the mercurial column, coun¬ 
terbalancing the atmospheric weight at the 
sea-level, is a little less than 30 in.; but the 
pressure varies from hour to hour, and roughly 
speaking, diminishes geometrically with the 
arithmetical increase in altitude. Of periodic 
variations there are two maxima of daily 
pressure occurring, when the temperature is 
about the mean of the day, and two minima, 
when it is at its highest and lowest respect¬ 
ively; but the problems of diurnal and sea¬ 
sonal oscillations have yet to be fully solved. 
The pressure upon the human body of average 
size is no less than 14 tons, but as it is ex¬ 
erted equally in all directions no inconven¬ 
ience is caused by it. It is customary to take 
the atmospheric pressure as the standard for 
measuring other fluid pressures; thus the steam 
pressure of 30 lbs. per sq. in. on a boiler is 
spoken of as a pressure of two atmospheres. 

The atmosphere, first subjected to analysis 
by Priestley and Scheele in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, consists of a mixture 
of oxygen and nitrogen in the almost constant 
proportion of 20.81 volumes of oxygen to 79.19 
volumes of nitrogen, or, by weight, 23.01 parts 
of oxygen to 76.99 of nitrogen. The gases are 
associated together, not as a chemical com¬ 
pound, but as a mechanical mixture. Upon 
the oxygen present depends the power of the 
atmosphere to support combustion and respi¬ 
ration, the nitrogen acting as a diluent to pre¬ 
vent its too energetic action. Besides these 
gases, the air contains aqueous vapor in vari¬ 
able quantity, ozone, carbonic acid gas, traces 
of ammonia, and,-in towns, sulphuretted hydro- 


Attar 


Atmospheric Electricity 

gen and sulphurous acid gas. After thunder¬ 
storms, nitric acid is also observable. In addi¬ 
tion to its gaseous constituents the atmosphere 
is charged with minute particles of organic 
and inorganic matter. 

Atmospheric Electricity, the electricity 
manifested by the atmosphere, and made 
sensibly observable in the lightning flash. 

Atmospheric Railway. See Pneumatic Dis¬ 
patch. 

Atomic Theory, a theory as to the existence 
and properties of atoms; especially, in chemis¬ 
try, the theory accounting for the fact that in 
compound bodies the elements combine in cer¬ 
tain constant proportions, by assuming that 
all bodies are composed of ultimate atoms, the 
weight of which is different in different kinds 
of matter. It is associated with the name of 
Dalton, who systematized and extended the 
imperfect results of his predecessors. On its 
practical side the atomic theory asserts three 
Laics of Combining Proportions: 1, the Law 
of Constant or Definite Proportions, teaching 
that in every chemical compound the nature 
and proportion of the constituent elements are 
definite and invariable; thus, water invariably 
consists of 8 parts by weight of oxygen to 1 
part by weight of hydrogen; 2, the Law of 
Combination in Multiple Proportions, accord¬ 
ing to which the several proportions in which 
one element unites with another invariably 
bear toward each other a simple relation; 
thus, 1 part by weight of hydrogen unites with 
8 parts by weight of oxygen to form water, 
and with 1C parts (i. e., 8 X 2) of oxygen to 
form peroxide of hydrogen; 3, the Law of 
Combination in Reciprocal Proportions, that 
the proportions in which two elements com¬ 
bine with a third also represent the proportions 
in which, or in some simple multiple of which, 
they will themselves combine; thus, in olefiant 
gas, hydrogen is present with carbon in the pro¬ 
portion of 1 to 6; and in carbonic oxide, oxygen 
is present with carbon in the proportion of 8 
to C, 1 to 8 being also the proportions in which 
hydrogen and oxygen combine with each other. 
The theory that these propoi'tional numbers are, 
in fact, nothing else but the relative weights 
of atoms so far accounts for the phenomena 
that the existence of these laws might have 
been predicted by the aid of the atomic hy¬ 
pothesis long before they were actually dis¬ 
covered by analysis. In themselves, however, 
the laws do not prove the theory of the exist¬ 
ence of ultimate particles of matter of a cer¬ 
tain relative weight; and although many 
chemists, even without expressly adopting the 
atomic theory itself, have followed Dalton in 
the use of the terms atom and atomic weight, in 
preference to proportion , combining proportion, 
equivalent, and the like, yet in using the word 
atom it should be held in mind that it merely 
denotes the proportions in which elements 
unite. These will remain the same whether 
the atomic hypothesis which suggested the 
employment of the term be true or false. Dal¬ 
ton supposed that the atoms of bodies are 
spherical, and invented certain symbols to rep¬ 


resent the mode in which he conceived they 
might combine. 

Atoms, according to the hypothesis of some 
philosophers, the primary parts of elementary 
matter not further divisible. The principal 
theorists of antiquity upon the nature of atoms 
were Moschus of Sidon, Leucippus (510 b. c.), 
Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. These 
philosophers explained all phenomena on the 
theory of the existence of atoms possessing 
various properties and motions, and are hence 
sometimes called Atomists. Among the mod¬ 
erns, Gassendi illustrated the doctrine of Epi¬ 
curus. Descartes formed from this his system 
of the vortices. Newton and Boerhaave sup¬ 
posed that the original matter consists of hard, 
ponderable, impenetrable, inactive, and immu¬ 
table particles, from the variety in the com¬ 
position of which the variety of bodies origi¬ 
nates. According to Boscovich every atom is 
an indivisible point possessing position, mass, 
and potential force or capacity for attraction 
and repulsion. Upon the discovery of Helm¬ 
holtz that a vortex in a perfect liquid pos¬ 
sesses certain permanent characteristics, Sir 
W. Thomson has based a theory that atoms 
are vortices in a homogeneous, incompressible, 
and frictionless fluid. As to chemical atoms, 
see Atomic Theory. 

Atreus (at' rus), in Greek mythology, a son of 
Pelops and Hippodamla, grandson of Tantalus 
and progenitor of Agamemnon. He succeeded 
Eurystheus, his father-in-law, as king of My¬ 
cenae, and in revenge for the seduction of his 
wife by his brother Thyestes gave a banquet 
at which the latter partook of the flesh of his 
own sons. Atreus was killed by iEgisthus, a 
son of Thyestes. The tragic events connected 
with this family furnished materials to some 
of the great Greek dramatists. 

At'rophy, a wasting of the flesh due to 
some interference with the nutritive processes. 
It may arise from a variety of causes, such as 
permanent, oppressive, and exhausting pas¬ 
sions, organic disease, a want of proper food or 
of pure air, suppurations in important organs, 
copious evacuations of blood, saliva, semen, 
etc., and it is also sometimes produced by 
poisons; for example, arsenic, mercury, lead, 
in miners, painters, gilders, etc. In old age 
the whole frame except the heart undergoes 
atrophic change, and it is of frequent occur¬ 
rence in infancy as a consequence of improper, 
unwholesome food, exposure to cold, damp, or 
impure air, etc. Single organs or parts of the 
body may be affected irrespective of the gen¬ 
eral state of nutrition; thus local atrophy may 
be superinduced by palsies, the pressure of 
tumors upon the nerves of the limbs, or by 
artificial pressure, as in the feet of Chinese 
ladies. 

At'ropos, the eldest of the Fates, who cuts 
the thread of life with her shears. 

Att'alus, the names of three kings of ancient 
Pergamus, 241-133 b. c., the last of whom be¬ 
queathed his kingdom to the Romans. They 
were all patrons of art and literature. 

Attar, in the East Indies, a general term 
for a perfume from flowers; in Europe, gener- 


Attenuation 


Auburn 


ally used only of the attar or otto of roses , an 
essential oil made from the hundred-leaved or 
cabbage rose, damask rose, or musk rose, etc., 
100,000 roses yielding only 180 grains of attar. 
Cashmere, Shiraz, and Damascus are celebrated 
for its manufacture, and there are extensive 
rose farms in the valley of Kezanlik in Rou- 
melia and at Ghazipur in Benares. The oil is 
at first greenish, but afterward it presents 
various tints of green, yellow, and red. It is 
concrete at all ordinary temperatures, but be¬ 
comes liquid about 84° F. It is frequently 
adulterated with the oils of rhodium, sandal¬ 
wood, and geranium, with the addition of cam¬ 
phor or spermaceti. 

Atten' uation, in brewing, the change which 
takes place in the saccharine wort during fer¬ 
mentation by the conversion of sugar into alco¬ 
hol and carbonic acid, with diminution of spe¬ 
cific gravity. 

Attic, an architectural term variously used. 
An Attic base is a peculiar kind of base, used 
by the ancient architects in the Ionic order, 
and by Palladio and some others in the Doric. 
An Attic story is a low story in the upper part 
of a house rising above the main portion of 
the building. In ordinary language an attic 
is an apartment lighted by a window in the 
roof. 

At'tica, a state of ancient Greece, the cap¬ 
ital of which, Athens, was once the first city 
in the world. Now a province of Greece. 
Pop. 185,364. 

At'ticus, Titus Pomponius (109-32 b. c.), 
a Roman of great wealth and culture. He so 
identified himself with Greek life and litera¬ 
ture as to receive the surname Atticus. Sulla 
and the Marian party, Caesar and Pompey, 
Brutus and Antony, were alike friendly to him, 
and he was in favor with Augustus. Of his 
close friendship with Cicero proof is given in 
the series of letters addressed to him by Cicero. 

At'tila, the famous leader of the Huns, was 
the son of Mundzuk, and the successor, in 
conjunction with his brother Bleda, of his 
uncle Rhuas. The rule of the two leaders 
extended over a great part of Northern Asia 
and Europe, and they threatened the Eastern 
Empire, and twice compelled the weak Theo¬ 
dosius II to purchase an inglorious peace. At- 
tila caused his brother Bleda to be murdered, 
444, and in a short time extended his domin¬ 
ion over all the peoples of Germany. Attila 
died on the night of his marriage with Hilda 
(or Ildico), 453, either from the bursting of a 
biood-vessel or by her hand. The description 
that Jornandes has left us of him is in keep¬ 
ing with his Kalmuck-Tartar origin. He had 
a large head, a flat nose, broad shoulders, and a 
short and ill-formed body; but his eyes were 
brilliant, his walk stately, and his voice strong 
and well-toned. 

Attleborough, Bristol co., .Mass. Pop. 11,- 
335 

Attraction, the tendency of all material 
bodies, whether masses or i>articles, to ap¬ 
proach each other, to unite, and to remain 
united. It was Newton that first adopted the 
theory of a universal attractive force, and de¬ 


termined its laws. When bodies tend to come 
together from sensible distances the tendency 
is termed either the attraction of gravitation , 
magnetism ., or electricity , according to circum¬ 
stances; when the attraction operates at insen¬ 
sible distances it is known as adhesion with re¬ 
spect to surfaces; as cohesion with respect to 
the particles of a body; and as affinity when 
the particles of different bodies tend together. 
It is by the attraction of gravitation that all 
bodies fall to the earth when unsupported. 

At'tribute in philosophy, a quality or prop¬ 
erty of a substance, as whiteness or hardness. 
A substance is known to us only as a conge¬ 
ries of attributes. In the fine arts an attribute 
is a symbol regularly accompanying and mark¬ 
ing out some personage. Thus the caduceus, 
purse, winged hat, and sandals are attributes 
of Mercury, the trampled dragon of St. George. 

Attwood, George (1745-1807), an English 
mathematician, best known by his invention, 
called after him Attwood's Machine , for verify¬ 
ing the laws of falling bodies. It consists es¬ 
sentially of a freely moving pulley over which 
runs a fine cord with two equal weights sus¬ 
pended from the ends. A small, additional 
weight is laid upon one of them, causing it to 
descend with uniform acceleration. Means 
are provided by which the added weight can 
be removed at any point of the descent, thus 
allowing the motion to continue from this point 
onward with uniform velocity. 

Aube (6b), a northeastern French depart¬ 
ment. Area 2,351 sq. mi.; pop. 257,374. The 
surface is undulating and watered by the 
Aube, etc. The n. and n.w. districts are 
bleak and infertile, the southern districts re¬ 
markably fertile. A large extent of ground is 
under forests and vineyards, and the soil is ad¬ 
mirable for grain, pulse, and hemp. The chief 
manufactures are worsted and hosiery. Troyes 
is the capital. The river Aube, which gives 
name to the department, rises in Haute-Marne, 
flows n.w., and after a course of 113 mi. joins 
the Seine. 

Auber (o-bar), Daniel Francis Esprit 
(1782-1871), a French operatic composer. He 
was originally intended for a mercantile 
career, but devoted himself to music, study¬ 
ing under Cherubini. His first great suc¬ 
cess was his opera La Bergere Chatelaine , 
produced in 1820. In 1822 he had asso¬ 
ciated himself with Scribe as librettist, and 
other operas now followed in quick succes¬ 
sion. Chief among them were Masaniello 
or La Muette de Portici (1828), Fra JDiavolo 
(1830), Lestocq (1834), L'Ambassadrice (1836), 
Le Domino Noir (1837), Les Diamants de la 
Couronne (1841), Marco Spada (1853), La Fiancee 
du Roi de Garbe (1864). Despite his success 
in Masaniello , his peculiar field was comic 
opera, which, bearing strongly the stamp of 
French national character, won him a high 
place. 

Auburn, Cayuga co., N. Y., on Owasco out¬ 
let, 2 mi. n. of Owasco Lake. Railroads: 
N. Y. C., & H. R. Ry.; Lehigh Valley (Au¬ 
burn division). Industries: agricultural ma¬ 
chinery and implements, three flouring mills, 


Auburn 


Augeas 


two iron foundries, two woolen mills, three 
shoe factories, carpet and bicycle factories, 
and a number of others. Located at Au¬ 
burn is one of the three state prisons, which 
was built in 1817, and the Auburn Theological 
Seminary. The town was first settled in 1792 
and became a city in 1848. Population 1900, 
30,345. 

Auburn, Androscoggin co., Me., a com¬ 
mercial center on Androscoggin river. Pop. 

12,951. 

Aubusson (o-bii-son), a town of the interior 
of France, dep. Creuse, celebrated for its car¬ 
pets. Pop. 6,723. 

Auch (osh), a town of s. w. France, capital of 
dep. Gers; the seat of an archbishop, with one 
of the finest Gothic cathedrals in France; 
manufactures linens, leather, etc. Pop. 9,670. 

Auck'land, a town of New Zealand, situ¬ 
ated on Waitemata Harbor, one of the finest 
harbors of New Zealand. It has a large trade, 
there being connection with the chief places 
on the island by rail, and regular communica¬ 
tion with the other ports of the colony, Aus¬ 
tralia, and Fiji by steam. It was formerly the 
capital of the colony. Pop., including sub¬ 
urbs, 57,048. The provincial district of Auck¬ 
land forms the northern part of North Island, 
with an area of 36,000 sq. mi.; pop. 112,000. 
The surface is very diversified; volcanic phe¬ 
nomena are common, including geysers, hot 
lakes, etc.; rivers are numerous; wool, timber, 
kauri-gum, etc., are exported. Much gold has 
been obtained in the Thames Valley and else¬ 
where. 

Auction is a public sale to the party offer¬ 
ing the highest price where the buyers bid 
upon each other, or to the bidder who first ac¬ 
cepts the terms offered by the vendor where 
he sells by reducing his terms until some one 
accepts them. The latter form is known as a 
Dutch Auction. A sale by auction must be con¬ 
ducted in the most open and public manner 
possible; and there must be no collusion on the 
part of the buyers. Puffing or mock bidding 
to raise the value by apparent competition is 
illegal. 

Aude (od), a maritime department in the s. 
of France. Area 2,437 sq. mi. The wines, 
especially white, bear a good name; olives and 
other fruits are also cultivated. The manufac¬ 
tures are varied; the trade is facilitated by the 
Canal du Midi. Carcassonne is the capital; 
other towns are Narbonne and Castelnaudary. 
Pop. 332,080. The river Aude rises in the 
eastern Pyrenees, and flowing nearly parallel 
to the Canal du Midi falls into the Mediterra¬ 
nean, after a course of 130 mi. 

Au'diphone, an acoustic instrument by 
means of which deaf persons are enabled to 
hear. It consists essentially of a fan-shaped 
plate of hardened caoutchouc, which is bent 
to a greater or less degree by strings, and is 
very sensitive to sound-waves. When used 
the up edge is pressed against the upper front 
teeth, with the convexity outward, and the 
sounds being collected are conveyed from the 
teeth to the auditory nerve without passing 
through the external ear. 


Auditorium Building, Chicago. This build¬ 
ing includes the Auditorium which has a per¬ 
manent seating capacity of over 4,000, which 
can be increased for conventions, etc., to about 
8,000. It has the most costly stage and organ 
in the world, recital hall with a seatingcapac- 
ity of over 500; the business portion with stores 
and 136 offices; tower observatory to which the 
public are admitted; the U. S. signal service 
occupies the 17th, 18th, and 19th floors of the 
tower; the hotel has 400 guest rooms and a din¬ 
ing room 175 ft. long, a banquet hall, on which 
$30,000 was expended for decorating, built of 
steel trusses, spanning 120 ft. over the Audito¬ 
rium. This building was started in January, 
1887, and finished in October, 1889. It covers 
about one and a half acres, and has a street 
frontage of 710 ft. The height of the main 
building is 145 ft., total height of tower 270 ft. 
The entire weight of the building is 110,000 
tons. There are 25 mi. of gas and water pipe, 
230 mi. of electric wire and cable, 11 mi. of 
steel cable for moving scenes on the stage, 
electric dynamos and hydraulic motors, and 
26 hydraulic lifts for moving stage platforms. 

Audran (o-driin), a family of celebrated 
French engravers. The most noted were 
Gerard (1640-1703); Benoit (1661-1721); Claude 
'pare (1592-1677); Claude fils (1640-84); Germain 
(1631-1710); Jean (1667-1756). 

Au'dubon, John James .(1780-1851), an 
American naturalist of French extraction. He 
was educated in France, and studied painting 
under David. In 1798 he settled in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, but having a great love for ornithology, 
he set out, in 1810, with his wife and child, de¬ 
scended the Ohio, and for many years roamed 
the forests in every direction drawing the 
birds which he shot. In 1826 he went to 
England, exhibited his drawings in Liverpool, 
Manchester, and Edinburgh, and finally pub¬ 
lished them in an unrivaled work of double- 
folio size, with 435 colored plates of birds the 
size of life ( The Birds of America, 4 vols., 1827- 
39), with an accompanying text ( Ornithological 
Biography, 5 vols., 8 vo., partly written by Prof. 
Macgillivray). On his final return to America 
he labored with Dr. Bachman on a finely illus¬ 
trated work entitled The Quadrupeds of 
America (1843-50, 3 vols.). He d. at New York. 

Auerbach (ou'er-bak), Berthold (1812-1882), 
a distinguished German author of Jewish ex¬ 
traction. He abandoned the study of Jewish 
theology in favor of philosophy, publishing in 
1836 his Judaism and Modern Literature and a 
translation of the works of Spinoza with critical 
biography. His later works were tales or 
novels and his Village Tales of the Black Forest, 
as well as others of his writings, have been 
translated into several languages. Other works: 
Barfussell; Joseph im Scanee; Edelweiss; Auf der 
Hohe; Das Landhaus am Rhein; Waldfried; 
Brigitta. 

Augeas (a-je'as), a fabulous king of Elis, in 
Greece, whose stable contained 3,000 oxen, and 
had not been cleaned for thirty years. Her¬ 
cules undertook to clear away the filth in one 
day in return for a tenth part of the cattle, 
and executed the task by turning the river 


Augite 


Augustus 


Alpheus through it. Augeas, having broken 
the bargain, was deposed and slain by Her¬ 
cules. 

Augite (a'jlt) (or Pyroxene), a mineral of the 
hornblende family, an essential component of 
many igneous rocks, such as basalt, green¬ 
stone, and* porphyry, A transparent green 
variety found at Zillerthal, in the Tyrol, is 
used in jewelry. 

Augsburg (ougz' bur7i), a city of Bavaria, 
renowned commercial center in the Middle 
Ages, and is still an important emporium of 
south German and Italian trade. Industries: 
cotton spinning and weaving, dyeing, woolen 
manufacture, machinery and metal goods, 
books and printing, chemicals, etc. The 
Emperor Augustus established a colony here 
about 12 b. c. In 1276 it became a free city, 
and besides being a great mart for the com¬ 
merce between the north and south of Europe 
it was a great center of German art in the Mid¬ 
dle Ages. It early took a conspicuous part in 
the Reformation. In 1806 it was incorporated 
in Bavaria. Pop. 65,476. 

Augur, Christopher Colon, b. 1821, in New 
York, graduated at West Point in 1843, served 
in the Mexican War and on the frontier, and 
was made a brigadier-general of volunteers in 
November, 1861. He fought at Cedar Moun¬ 
tain and at the siege of Port Hudson, and 
received the brevet of major-general for dis¬ 
tinguished services in the field in 1865. In 
1885 he was retired under the rule. 

Au'gurs, a board or college of diviners who, 
among the Romans, predicted future events 
and announced the will of the gods from the 
occurrence of certain signs. These consisted 
of signs in the sky, especially thunder and 
lightning; signs from the flight and cries of 
birds; from the feeding of the sacred chickens; 
from the course taken or sounds uttered by 
various quadrupeds or by serpents; from acci¬ 
dents or occurrences, such as spilling the salt, 
sneezing, etc. The answers of the augurs, as 
well as the signs by which they were governed, 
were called auguries , but bird-predictions were 
properly termed auspices. Nothing of conse¬ 
quence could be undertaken without consult¬ 
ing the augurs, and by the mere utterance of 
the words alio die meet on another day”) they 
could dissolve the assembly of the people and 
annul all decrees passed at the meeting. 

Au'gust, the eighth month from January. 
It was the sixth of the Roman year, and hence 
was called Sextilis till the Emperor Augustus 
affixed to it his own name. 

Augusta (ou-gus'ta) (or Agos'ta), a seaport 
in the s.e. of Sicily, 12 mi. n. of Syracuse. It 
exports salt, oil, honey, etc. Pop. 13,286. 

Augusta, Kennebec co., Me., on Kennebec 
river, 6 mi. n. of Gardiner. Railroads: Maine 
Central & Augusta, Hallowell & Gardiner 
Electric road. Industries: large cotton mills, 
sash and door factories, lumber, and fiber. 
Surrounding country agricultural. The town 
was first settled in 1754. It was an Indian 
trading post in 1628, known asCushnoe, and in 
1754 it became an outport of the Plymouth 
Company, known as Fort Western. The town 


was incorporated as Hallowell in 1771, and the 
name changed to Harrington in 1797, and the 
same year the name was changed to Augusta. 
Augusta was made the capital of Maine in 1827 
and became a city in 1849. Population 1900, 
11,683. 

Augusta, Richmond co., Ga., on the left 
bank of the Savannah River, 231 mi. from its 
mouth; well built, and connected with the 
river by high-level canals; an important manu¬ 
facturing center, having cotton mills, machine 
shops, and railroad works, etc. Pop, 39,441. 

Au'gustine, Aurelius Augustinus, St. 
(354-430), a renowned father of the Christian 
Church. He was a man of great enthusiasm, 
powerful intellect, and wielded a powerful in¬ 
fluence. His writings are partly autobiograph¬ 
ical, partly polemical, homiletic, or exegetical. 

Au'gustine (or Austin, St.), the Apostle of 
the English, flourished at the close'of the sixth 
century, was sent with forty monks by Pope 
Gregory I to introduce Christianity into Saxon 
England, and was kindly received by Ethelbert, 
king of Kent, whom he converted, baptizing 
10,000 of his subjects in one day. In acknowl¬ 
edgment of his tact and success Augustine re¬ 
ceived the archiepiscopal pall from the pope, 
with instructions to establish twelve sees in his 
province, but he could not persuade the Brit¬ 
ish bishops in Wales to unite with the new 
English Church. He d. in 604 or 605. 

Augus'tulus, Romulus, the last of the 
Western Roman emperors; reigned for one 
year (475-76), when he was overthrown by 
Odoacer and banished. 

Augustus, Caius Julius Caesar Octavi- 
anus, originally called Caius Octavius, Roman 
emperor, was the son of Caius Octavius and 
Atia, a daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius 
Caesar. He was b. 63 b. c., and d. a. d. 14. 
He returned to Rome to claim Caesar’s property 
and avenge his death, and now took, accord¬ 
ing to usage, his uncle’s name with the sur¬ 
name Octavianus. He got himself chosen 
consul in 43. Soon after the first triumvirate 
was formed between him and Antony and 
Lepidus, and this was followed by the con¬ 
scription and assassination of 300 senators and 
2,000 knights of the party opposed to the trium¬ 
virate. Next year Octavianus and Antony de¬ 
feated the republican army under Brutus and 
Cassius at Philippi. The victors now divided 
the Roman world between them, Octavianus 
getting the West, Antony the East, and Lep¬ 
idus Africa. Sextus Pompeius, who had 
made himself formidable at sea, had now to 
be put down; and Lepidus, who had hitherto 
retained an appearance of power, was de¬ 
prived of all authority (b. c. 36) and retired 
into private life. Antony and Octavianus 
now shared the empire between them; but 
while the former, in the East, gave himself 
up to a life of luxury, and alienated the 
Romans by his alliance with Cleopatra and 
his adoption of Oriental manners, Octavianus 
skillfully cultivated popularity, and soon de¬ 
clared war ostensibly against the queen of 
Egypt. The naval victory of Actium, in which 
the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra was defeated, 


Augustus II 


Aumale 


made Octavianus master of the world, b. c. 31. 
He returned to Rome b. c. 20, celebrated a 
splendid triumph, and caused the Temple of 
Janus to be closed in token of peace being re¬ 
stored. Gradually all the highest offices of 
state, civil and religious, were united in his 
hands, and the new title of Augustus was also 
assumed by him, being formally conferred 
by the senate in b. c. 27. Under him success¬ 
ful wars were carried on in Africa and Asia 
(against the Parthians), in Gaul and Spain, in 
Pannonia, Dalmatia, etc.; but the defeat of 
Varus by the Germans under Arminius with 
the loss of 3 legions, a. d. 9, was a great 
blow to him in his old age. He adorned Rome 
in such a manner that it was said, “He found 
it of brick, and left it of marble.” The people 
erected altars to him, and, by a decree of the 
senate, the month Sextilis was called Augus¬ 
tus (our August). Vergil and Horace were be¬ 
friended by him, and their works and those of 
their contemporaries are the glory of the Augus¬ 
tan Age. His death, which took place at Nola, 
plunged the empire into the greatest grief. 
He was thrice married, but had no son, and 
was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, whose 
mother, Livia, he had married after prevailing 
on her husband to divorce her. 

Augustus II (1670-1733) (or Frederick- 
Augustus I), elector of Saxony and king of 
Poland, second son of John George III, elector 
of Saxony, b. at Dresden, d. at Warsaw, Po¬ 
land. He succeeded his brother in the elec¬ 
torate in 1694, and the Polish throne hav¬ 
ing become vacant, in 1696, by the death of 
John Sobieski, Augustus presented himself as 
a candidate for it and was successful. He 
joined with Peter the Great in the war against 
Charles XII of Sweden. In 1704 he was 
deposed, and two years later formally resigned 
the crown to Stanislaus I. In 1709, after the 
defeat of Charles at Pultowa, the Poles re¬ 
called Augustus, who united himself anew with 
Peter. The death of Charles XII put an end 
to the war, and Augustus concluded a peace 
with Sweden. Augustus now gave himself 
wholly up to voluptuousness and a life of 
pleasure. The Poles yielded but too readily to 
the example of their king, and the last years 
of his reign were characterized by boundless 
luxury and corruption of manners. The Count¬ 
ess of Konigsmark bore him the celebrated 
commander Marshal Saxe (Maurice of Saxony). 

Augustus HI (1696-1763) (or Frederick- 
Augustus II), elector of Saxony and king of 
Poland, son of Augustus II, b. at Dresden, 
succeeded his father as elector in 1733, and 
was chosen king of Poland through the influ¬ 
ence of Austria and Russia. - He distinguished 
himself by the splendor of his feasts and 
the extravagance of his court. During the 
first Silesian war he formed a secret alliance 
with Austria. The consequence was that dur¬ 
ing the second Silesian war Frederick the 
Great of Prussia pushed on into Saxony, and 
occupied the capital, from which Augustus 
fled. By the peace of Dresden, 1745, he was 
reinstated in the possession of Saxony. In 
1756 he was involved anew in a war against 


Prussia. When Frederick declined his pro¬ 
posal of neutrality he left Dresden, and entered 
the camp at Pirna, where 17,000 Saxon troops 
were assembled. Frederick surrounded the 
Saxons, who were obliged to surrender, and 
Augustus lied to Poland. On the threat of 
invasion by Russia he returned to Dresden, 
where he died. His son, Frederick Christian, 
succeeded him as elector of Saxony, and Stan¬ 
islaus Poniatowski as king of Poland. 

Auk, a name of certain swimming birds, 
including the great auk, the little auk, the 
puffin, etc. The genus auks proper, contains 
only two species, the great auk and the razor¬ 
bill. The great auk or gair-fowl, a bird about 
3 feet in length, used to be plentiful in north¬ 
erly regions, and also visited the British 
shores, but has become extinct. Some seventy 
skins, about as many eggs, with bones repre¬ 
senting perhaps a hundred individuals, are 
preserved in various museums. Though the 
largest species of the family, the wings were 
only 6 inches from the carpal joint to the tip, 
totally useless for flight, but employed as fins 
in swimming, especially under water. The 
tail was about 3 inches long; the beak was 
high, short, and compressed; the head, neck 
and upper parts were blackish; a large spot 
under each eye, and most of the under parts 
white. Its legs were placed so far back as to 
cause it to sit nearly upright. The razor-bill is 
about 15 inches in length, and its wings are suf¬ 
ficiently developed to be used for flight. Thou¬ 
sands of these birds are killed on the coast of 
Labrador for their breast feathers which are 
warm and elastic. 

Aulic, in the old German Empire, one of the 
two supreme courts of the German Empire, 
the other being the court of the imperial 
chamber. It had not only concurrent juris¬ 
diction with the latter court, but in many 
cases exclusive jurisdiction, in all feudal proc¬ 
esses and in criminal affairs, over the im¬ 
mediate feudatories of the emperor and in 
affairs which concerned the imperial govern¬ 
ment. The title is now applied in Germany in 
a general sense to the chief council of any de¬ 
partment,— political, administrative, judicial, 
or military. 

Au'Iis, in ancient Greece, a seaport in Bceo- 
tia, on the strait called Euripus, between 
Boeotia and Euboea. See Iphigenia. 

Aumale (o-mal), a small French town, depart¬ 
ment of Seine Inferieure, 35 mi. n.e. of Rouen, 
which has given titles to several notables in 
French history. Jean d’Arcourt, eighth 
Count d’Aumale, fought at Agincourt, and 
defeated the English at Gravelle (1423). 
Claude II, Due d’Aumale, one of the chief 
instigators of the Massacre of St. Bartholo¬ 
mew, was killed 1573. Charles de Lorraine, 
Due d’Aumale, was an ardent partizan of the 
League in the politico-religious French wars 
of the sixteenth century. Henri-Eugene- 
Piiilippe Louis d’Orleans, Due d’Aumale, 
son of Louis Philippe, king of the French, 
b. in 1822. In 1847 he succeeded Marshal 
Bugeaud as governor general of Algeria, 
where he had distinguished himself in the war 


Aurangabad 


Aurora Borealis 


against Abd-el-Kader. After the revolution of 
1848 he retired to England; but he returned 
to France in 1871, and was elected a member 
of the assembly; became inspector-general of 
the army in 1S79, and was expelled along with 
the other royal princes in 1886. He is author 
of a History of the House of Conde, several pam¬ 
phlets, etc. 

Aurangabad', a town of India, in the terri¬ 
tory of the Nizam of Haidarabad, 175 mi. 
from Bombay. It contains a ruined palace of 
Aurengzebe and a mausoleum erected to the 
memory of his favorite wife. It was formerly 
a considerable trading center, but its commer¬ 
cial importance decreased when Haidarabad 
became the capital of the Nizam. Pop. 20,- 
500. 

Aure'lian, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus 
(212-275), emperor of Rome, of humble origin, 
rose to the highest rank in the army, and on 
the death of Claudius II (270) was chosen em¬ 
peror. He delivered Italy from the barba¬ 
rians, and conquered the famous Zenobia, 
queen of Palmyra. He followed up his vic¬ 
tories by the reformation of abuses, and the 
restoration throughout the empire of order 
and regularity. He lost his life by assassina¬ 
tion, when heading an expedition against the 
Persians. 

Aure' lius Antoni' uus,Marcus(121-180a.d.), 
often called simply Marcus Aurelius, Roman 
emperor and philosopher, son-in-law, adopted 
son, and successor of Antoninus Pius, suc¬ 
ceeded to the throne 161. Brought up and 
instructed by Plutarch’s nephew, Sextus, the 
orator Herodes Atticus, and L. Volusius Meci- 
anus, the jurist, he had become acquainted 
with learned men, and formed a particular 
love for the Stoic philosophy. A war with 
Parthia broke out in the year of his accession, 
and did not terminate till 166. In 169 Yerus 
died, and the sole command of the war de¬ 
volved on Marcus Aurelius, who prosecuted it 
with the utmost rigor, and nearly extermi¬ 
nated the Marcomanni. After this victory the 
Marcomanni, the Quadi, as well as the rest of 
the barbarians, sued for peace. The sedition 
of the Syrian governor Avidius Cassius, with 
whom Faustina, the empress, was in treason¬ 
able communication, called off the emperor 
from his conquests, but before he reached 
Asia the rebel was assassinated. Aurelius re¬ 
turned to Rome, after visiting Egypt and 
Greece, but soon new incursions of the Mar¬ 
comanni compelled him once more to take the 
field. He defeated the enemy several times, 
but was taken sick at Sirmium, and d. at 
Yindobona (Yienna). His only extant work is 
the Meditations , written in Greek, and which 
has been translated into most modern lan¬ 
guages. Aurelius was one of the best em¬ 
perors ever Rome saw, although his philoso¬ 
phy and the magnanimity of his character 
did not restrain him from the persecution of 
the Christians, whose religious doctrines he 
was led to believe were subversive of good 
government. 

Au'rengzebe (-zeb) (“ornament of the 


throne”), one of the greatest of the Mogul em¬ 
perors of Hindustan, b. in October, 1618 or 
1619. In his twentieth year he raised a body 
of troops by his address and good fortune, and 
obtained the government of the Deccan. He 
murdered his relatives one after the other, 
and in 1659 ascended the throne. Two of his 
sons, who endeavored to form a party in their 
own favor, he caused to be arrested and put to 
death by slow poison. He conquered Golconda 
and Bijapur, and drove out, by degrees, the 
Mahrattas from their country. After his death 
the Mogul Empire declined. 

AuriHac (6-re-yak), a town of France, capital 
of the dep. Cantal, in a valley watered by the 
.Jordanne, about 270 mi. s. of Paris, well built, 
with wide streets; copper works, paper works, 
manufactures of lace, tapestry, leather, etc. 
Pop. 13,727. 

Aurochs (a'roks), a species of wild bull or 
buffalo, the urus of Caesar, bison of Pliny, the 
European bison, Bos or Bonassus Bison of mod¬ 
ern naturalists. This animal was once abun¬ 
dant in Europe, but were it not for the protec¬ 
tion afforded by the emperor of Russia to a few 
herds which inhabit the forests of Lithuania it 
would soon be extinct. 

Auro'ra, in classical mythology, the god¬ 
dess of the dawn, daughter of Hyperion 
and Theia, and sister of Helios and Selene (Sun 
and Moon). She was represented as a charm¬ 
ing figure, “rosy-fingered,” clad in a yellow 
robe, rising at dawn from the ocean and driv¬ 
ing her chariot through the heavens. Among 
the mortals whose beauty captivated the god¬ 
dess, poets mention Orion, Tithonus, and 
Cephalus. 

Aurora, Kane co., Ill., on Fox River, 38 mi. 
w. of Chicago. Railroads: C., B. & Q.; C. & N. 
W.; and E. J. & E. R. R. Industries: railroad 
shops, one flouring mill, five iron foundries, 
one cotton mill, stove works, two corset facto¬ 
ries, and one carriage factory. Surrounding 
country agricultural. The settlement was first 
known as McCarty’s Mills, the name “ Aurora ” 
being adopted late in 1837. A post-office was 
first established in 1837, with Burr Winton as 
postmaster. The first church organization was 
the M. E. in 1837. First school taught in 
spring of 1836, and first bridge built the same 
year. Aurora Beacon, established in 1846, and 
still flourishing, oldest paper in this section. 
The site of Aurora was once included in an 
Indian reservation. When Joseph McCarty 
arrived in April, 1834, he found a large Potta¬ 
watomie village on the west bank of the river, 
the head of the tribe being the noted chief 
Waubonsie. The first physician, Dr. Daniel 
Eastman, came in 1835. Joseph G. Stolp, still 
a resident, settled in 1837, and that fall built a 
wool-carding shop. He became a heavy manu¬ 
facturer of woolen goods, continuing until 1886. 
Aurora became a city in 1857. Population 
1900, 24,147. 

Auro'ra Borea'Iis, a luminous meteoric 
phenomenon appearing in the north, most fre¬ 
quently in high latitudes, the corresponding 
phenomenon in the southern hemisphere being 



TYPES OF AUSTRALIAN RACES, i. Fiji Islanders. 2. Tasmanians. 3. South Australians. 4. Maori (New 
Zealand) 5 New Britons. 6. Samoa Islanders. 7. Natives of New Ireland (Buk Islands). 8. Carolina Islanders 
( Ponope). o 5 Admiralty Islanders. 10. Tonga Islanders. 11. Natives of New Ireland. 12. Woman of Samoa Island, 
Papua. 13, 14. Marshal Islanders, Man and Wife (Jaluit). 







Auscultation 


Australia 


called Aurora Australis , and both being also 
called Polar Light , Streamers, etc. The north¬ 
ern aurora has been far the most observed and 
studied. It usually manifests itself by streams 
of light ascending toward the zenith from a 
dusky line of cloud or haze a few degrees above 
the horizon, and stretching- from the north 
toward the west and east, so as to form an arc 
with its ends on the horizon, and its different 
parts and rays are constantly in motion. Some¬ 
times it appears in detached places; at other 
times it almost covers the whole sky. It as¬ 
sumes many shapes and a variety of colors, 
from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood 
color;-and in the northern latitudes serves to 
illuminate the earth and cheer the gloom of 
the long winter nights. The appearance of 
the aurora borealis so exactly resembles the 
effects of artificial electricity that there is 
every reason to believe that their causes are 
identical. When, electricity passes through 
rarefied air it exhibits a diffused luminous 
stream which has all the characteristic appear¬ 
ances of the aurora, and hence it is highly 
probable that this natural phenomenon is occa¬ 
sioned by the passage of electricity through the 
upper regions of the atmosphere. The influ¬ 
ence of the aurora upon the magnetic needle 
is now considered as an ascertained fact, and 
the connection between it and magnetism is 
further evident from the fact that the beams 
or coruscations issuing from a point in the 
horizon west of north are frequently observed 
to run in the magnetic meridian. What are 
known as magnetic storms are invariably con¬ 
nected with exhibitions of the aurora, and with 
spontaneous galvanic currents in the ordinary 
telegraph wires; and this connection is found 
to be so certain that, upon remarking the dis¬ 
play of one of the three classes of phenomena, 
we can at once assert that the other two are 
also observable. The aurora borealis is said to 
be frequently accompanied by sound, which is 
variously described as resembling the rustling 
of pieces of silk against each other, or the 
sound of wind against the flame of a candle. 
The aurora of the southern hemisphere is quite 
a similar phenomenon to that of the north. 

Ausculta'tion, a method of distinguishing 
the state of the internal parts of the body, par¬ 
ticularly of the thorax and abdomen, by ob¬ 
serving the sounds arising in the part, either 
through the immediate application of the ear 
to its surface, or by applying the stethoscope 
to the part, and listening through it. Auscul¬ 
tation may be used with more or less advan¬ 
tage in all cases where morbid sounds are 
produced, but its general applications are: the 
auscultation of respiration; the auscultation of 
the voice; auscultation of coughs; auscultation 
of sounds foreign to all these, but sometimes 
accompanying them; auscultation of the actions 
of the heart; obstetric auscultation. The parts 
when struck also give different sounds in 
health and disease. 

Aus' pices, among the ancient Romans were 
strictly omens or auguries derived from birds, 
though the term was also used in a wider sense. 
Nothing of importance was done without 


taking the auspices, which, however, simply 
showed whether the enterprise was likely to 
result successfully or not, without supplying 
any further information. Magistrates pos¬ 
sessed the right of taking the auspices, in 
which they were usually assisted by an augur. 
Before a war or campaign a Roman general 
always took the auspices, and hence the opera¬ 
tions were said to be carried out “under his 
auspices.” See Augurs. 

Aus'sag, a town in Bohemia, near the junc- 
tion of the Bila with the Elbe, 42 mi. n.n.w. ot 
Prague; has large manufactures of woolens, 
chemicals, etc. Pop. 10,524. 

Aus'ten, Jane (1775-1317), English novelist. 
Her principal novels are, Sense and Sensibility; 
Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; 
Northanger Abbey; and Persuasion. Her novels 
are marked by ease, nature, and a complete 
knowledge of the domestic life of the English 
middle classes of her time. 

Aus'terlitz, a town with 3,452 inhabitants, 
in Moravia, 10 mi. e. of Briinn, famous for the 
battle of Dec. 2, 1805, fought between the 
French (70,000 in number) and the allied Aus¬ 
trian and Russian armies (95,000). The decis¬ 
ive victory of the French led to the Peace of 
Pressburg between France and Austria. 

Aus'tin, capital of the state of Texas. 
There is a state university and other institu¬ 
tions, and a splendid capitol built of red 
granite. Pop. 1900, 22,258. 

Austin, John (1790-1859), an English writer 
on jurisprudence. From 1826 to 1835 he filled 
the chair of jurisprudence at London Univer¬ 
sity. His fame rests solely on his great works: 
The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), 
and Lectures on Jurisprudence (1861-63). 

AustraSasia, a division of the globe usu¬ 
ally regarded as comprehending the islands 
of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New 
Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon 
Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, the Ad¬ 
miralty Islands, New Guinea, and the Arru 
Islands, besides numerous other islands and 
island groups. Area 3,259,199 sq. mi.; pop. 
1891, 4,285,297. It forms one of three portions 
into which some geographers have divided 
Oceania, the other two being Malaysia and 
Polynesia. 

Australia (old¬ 
er name, New 
Holland), the 
largest island in 
the world, a sea- 
girt continent, 
lying between the 
Indian and Pa¬ 
cific oceans, s.e. 
of Asia. It is sep¬ 
arated from New 
Guinea on the 
north by Torres 
Strait, from Tas¬ 
man i a on the 
south by Bass 
Strait. It is di¬ 
vided into two un¬ 
equal parts by the 








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Copyright, 1901, by Hand, McNally Si Co. , ^Engravers, Chicago. 

longitude Eastl2oVrom Greenwich. 


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REUFF MAP OF AUSTRALIA. 









Australia 


Australia 


Tropic of Capricorn, and consequently belongs 
partly to the South temperate, partly to the 
Torrid Zone 

Surface , Rivers and Lakes .—Although there 
are numerous spacious harbors on the coasts, 
there are few remarkable indentations; the 
principal being the Gulf of Carpentaria on the 
n., the Great Australian Bight and Spencer’s 
Gulf on the s. The chief projections are Cape 
York Peninsula and Arnhem Land in the n. 
Parallel to the n.e. coast runs the Great Bar¬ 
rier Reef for 1,000 miles. In great part the e. 
coast is bold and rocky. Part of the s. coast 
is low and sandy, and part presents cliffs sev¬ 
eral hundred feet high. The n. and w. coasts 
are generally low with some elevations at in¬ 
tervals. 

The interior is largely composed of rocky 
tracts of barren plains with little or no water. 
The whole continent forms an immense plat¬ 
eau, highest in the east, low in the center and 
with a narrow tract of land usually interven¬ 
ing between the elevated area and the sea. 
The base of the table-land is granite, which 
forms the surface-rock in a great part of the 
southwest, and is common in the higher 
grounds along the east side. Secondary (cre¬ 
taceous) and tertiary rocks are largely devel¬ 
oped in the interior. Silurian rocks occupy a 
large area in South Australia, on both sides of 
Spencer Gulf. The mountainous region in the 
southeast and east is mainly composed of vol¬ 
canic, Silurian, carbonaceous, and carbonifer¬ 
ous rocks yielding good coal. The highest 
and most extensive mountain system is a belt 
about 150 mi. wide skirting the whole eastern 
and southeastern border of the continent. A 
part of it, called the Australian Alps, in the 
southeast, contains the highest summits in 
Australia; Mount Kosciusko (7,175 ft.), Mount 
Clarke (7,256) and Mount Townsend (7,353). 
West of the Dividing Range are extensive 
plains or downs admirably adapted for pas¬ 
toral purposes.. The deserts and scrubs which 
occupy large areas of the interior, are a char¬ 
acteristic feature of Australia. The former 
are destitute of vegetation, or are clothed only 
with a coarse spiny grass that affords no sus¬ 
tenance to cattle or horses; the latter are com¬ 
posed of a dense growth of shrubs and low trees. 

The rivers in Australia are nearly all sub¬ 
ject to great irregularities in volume, many of 
them at one time showing a channel in which 
there is merely a series of pools, while at 
another they inundate the whole adjacent 
country. The chief is the Murray, which, 
with its affluents, the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan 
and Darling, drains a great part of the interior 
west of the Dividing Range, and falls into the 
sea on the south coast (after entering Lake 
Alexandrina). Its greatest tributary is the 
Darling. 

On the east coast are the Hunter, Clarence, 
Brisbane, Fitzroy, and Burdekin; on the west, 
the Swan, Murchison, Gascoyne, Ashburton, 
and DeGrey; on the north, the Fitzroy, Vic¬ 
toria, Flinders and Mitchell. A considerable 
r iver of the interior is Cooper’s Creek, or the 
garcoo, which falls into Lake Eyre, one of a 


group of lakes on the south side of the conti¬ 
nent, having no outlet and accordingly salt. 
The principal of these are Lake Eyre, Torrens 
and Gairdner, all of which vary in size and 
saltness according to the season. Another 
large salt lake of little depth, Lake Amadeus, 
lies a little west of the center of Australia. 

Climate .—The climate of Australia is gener¬ 
ally hot and dry, but very healthy. In the 
tropical portions there are heavy rains, and in 
most of the coast districts there is a sufficiency 
of moisture, but in the interior the heat and 
drought are extreme. Considerable portions 
now devoted to pasturage are liable at times 
to suffer from drought. At Melbourne the 
mean temperature is about 56°, at Sydney 
about 63°. The southeastern settled districts 
are at times subject to excessively hot winds 
from the interior, which cause great discom¬ 
fort, and are often followed by a violent cold 
wind from the south (“southerly bursters”). 
In the mountainous and more temperate parts 
snow-storms are common in winter (June, July 
and August). 

Vegetation .—The Australian flora presents 
peculiarities which mark it off by itself in a 
very decided manner. Many of the most 
striking features have an unmistakable rela¬ 
tion to the general dryness of the climate. 
The trees and bushes have for the most part a 
scant foliage, presenting little surface for 
evaporation, or thick leathery leaves well fit¬ 
ted to retain moisture. The most widely- 
spread types of Australian vegetation are the 
various kinds of gum-tree, the shea-oak, the 
acacia or wattle, the grass-tree, many varieties 
of proteaceaa, and a great number of ferns and 
tree ferns. Of the gum-tree there are found 
upward of 150 species, many of which are of 
great value. Individual specimens of the 
“ peppermint” have been found to measure 
from 480 to 500 ft. in height. As timber trees 
the most valuable members of this genus are 
the red-gum, the timber of which is hard, 
dense and almost indestructible. A number 
of the gum-trees have deciduous bark. The 
wattle or acacia includes about 300 species, 
some of them of considerable economic value, 
yielding good timber or bark for tanning. The 
most beautiful and most useful is that known 
as the golden wattle, which in spring is 
adorned with rich masses of fragrant yellow 
blossom. Palms—of which there are 24 spe¬ 
cies all except the cocoa palm peculiar to Aus¬ 
tralia—are confined to the s. and e. coasts. In 
the “scrubs” already mentioned hosts of 
densely inter-twisted bushes occupy extensive 
areas. The mallee scrub is formed by a spe¬ 
cies of dwarf eucalyptus, the mulga scrub by 
aspeces of thorny acacia. A plant which 
covers large areas in the arid regions is the 
spinifex or porcupine grass, a hard, coarse 
and excessively spiny plant, which renders 
traveling difficult, wounds the feet of horses 
and is utterly uneatable by any animal. Aus¬ 
tralia possesses great numbers of turf-forming 
grasses, such as the kangaroo-grass, which 
survives even a tolerably protracted drought. 
The native fruit trees are few and unimpor- 


Australia 


Australia 


tant, and the same may be said of the plants 
yielding roots used as food. The vine, the 
olive, and the mulberry thrive well, and quan¬ 
tities of wine are now produced. The cereals 
of Europe and maize are extensively culti¬ 
vated and large tracts of country, particularly 
Queensland, are under the sugar-cane. 

Zoology .—The Australian fauna is almost 
unique in its character. Its great feature is 
the nearly total absence of all the forms of 
mammalia which abound in the rest of the 
world, their place being supplied by a great 
variety of marsupials—these animals being 
nowhere else found, except in the opossums of 
America. There are about 110 kinds of mar¬ 
supials (of which the kangaroo, wombat, ban¬ 
dicoot and phalangers or opossums, are the 
best known varieties), over 20 kinds of bats, a 
wild dog (the dingo) and a number of rats and 
mice. Two extraordinary animals, the platy¬ 
pus, or water-mole of the colonist (Ornitho- 
rhynchus) and the porcupine ant-eater (Ech¬ 
idna) constitute the lowest order of mammals 
(Monotremata) and are confined to Australia. 
Their young are produced from eggs. Aus¬ 
tralia now possesses a large stock of domestic 
animals which thrive there remarkably well. 
The breed of horses is excellent. Horned cat¬ 
tle and sheep are largely bred, the first attain¬ 
ing a great size, while the sheep improve in 
fleece and their flesh in flavor. There are up¬ 
ward of 650 different species of birds, the 
largest being the emu, or Australian ostrich, 
and a species of cassowary. Peculiar to the 
country are the black swan, the honey-sucker, 
the lyre bird, the brush turkey, and other 
mound-building birds, the bower birds, etc. 
The parrot tribe preponderates over most other 
groups of birds on the continent. There are 
many reptiles, the largest being the alligator, 
found in some of the northern rivers. There 
are upward of 60 different species of snakes, 
some of which are very venomous. Lizards, 
frogs and insects are also numerous in various 
parts. The seas, rivers and lagoons abound 
in fish of numerous varieties, and other aquatic 
animals, many of them peculiar. Whales and 
seals frequent the coasts. On the n. coasts are 
extensive fisheries of trepang, much visited by 
native traders from the Indian Archipelago. 
Some animals of European origin, such as the 
rabbit and the sparrow, have developed into 
real pests in several of the colonies. 

Population. — The total population of the 
commonwealth of Australia, including the 
Island of Tasmania, estimated June 30, 1899, 
3,710,471. According to the census of 1891 
there were about 30,000 aborigines. The 
natives of Australia belong to the Australian 
negro stock and are sometimes considered the 
lowest as regards intelligence in the whole 
human family. They are of a dark brown, or 
black color, curly, but not woolly hair, of 
medium size, but inferior muscular develop¬ 
ment. In the settled parts of the continent 
they are inoffensive, and rapidly dying out. 
They have no fixed habitations; in the sum¬ 
mer they live almost entirely in the open air, 
and in the more inclement weather they shel- 
14 


ter themselves with bark erections of the 
rudest construction. They have no cultiva¬ 
tion and no domestic animals. Their food 
consists of such animals as they can kill, and 
no kind of living creature seems to be rejected 
—snakes, lizards, frogs and even insects being 
eaten, often half raw. They are ignorant of 
the potter’s art. In their natural condition 
they wear little or no clothing. The women 
are regarded merely as slaves and are fright¬ 
fully maltreated. They have no religion; they 
practice polygamy, and are said to sometimes 
resort to cannibalism, but only in exceptional 
circumstances. They are occasionally em¬ 
ployed by the settlers in light kinds of work, 
and as horse-breakers; they dislike continu¬ 
ous occupation and soon give it up. The 
weapons of all the tribes are generally similar, 
consisting of spears, shields, boomerangs, 
wooden axes,’clubs and stone hatchets. Of 
these the boomerang is the most singular, 
being an invention confined to the Australians. 
There are large numbers of Chinese in the 
commonwealth. 

Commerce and Industry. —Pastoral, agricul¬ 
tural pursuits and mining are the chief occu¬ 
pations of the people, though in recent years 
manufactures and handicrafts have employed 
constantly increasing numbers. Australia 
contains vast quantities of mineral wealth. 
Foremost come its rich and extensive deposits 
of gold, which since the precious metal was 
first discovered in 1851, have produced a total 
of more than $1,500,000,000. The greatest 
quantity has been obtained in Victoria, but 
New South Wales and Queensland have also 
yielded a considerable amount. Australia 
also possesses silver, copper, tin, lead, zinc, 
antimony, mercury, plumbago, besides coal 
and iron. Various precious stones are found, 
as the garnet, ruby, sapphire and some dia¬ 
monds. The building stone comprises granite, 
limestone, marble and sandstone. 

For sheep rearing and the growth of wool 
Australia is unrivaled and its production is 
constantly on the increase. Next to wool 
come in importance gold, tin, copper, wheat, 
preserved meats, tallow, hides and skins, cot¬ 
ton, tobacco, cigars, and wine as the most im¬ 
portant items of export. The chief imports 
consist of textile fabrics, clothing, machinery 
and metal goods. 

History .—It is doubtful when Australia 
was first discovered. Between 1531 and 
1542 the Portuguese published the existence 
of a land which they called Great Java, and 
which corresponded to Australia, and probably 
the first discovery of the country was made by 
them early in the sixteenth century. The 
first authenticated discovery is said to have 
been made in 1601, by a Portuguese named 
Manoel Godinho de Eredia. In 1606 Torres, 
a Spaniard, passed through the strait that now 
bears his name, between New Guinea and 
Australia. Between this period and 1628 a 
large portion of the coast line of Australia 
had been surveyed by various Dutch naviga¬ 
tors. In 1664 the continent was named New 
Holland by the Dutch government. In 168$ 


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Australia 

Dampier coasted along part of Australia, and 
about 1700 explored a part of the w. and n. w. 
coasts. In 1770 Cook carefully surveyed the e. 
coast, named a number of localities, and took 
possession of the country for Britain. He was 
followed by Bligh in 1789, who carried on a 
series of observations on the n.e. coast, add¬ 
ing largely to the knowledge already obtained 
of this new world. Colonists had now arrived 
on the soil, and a penal settlement was formed 
(1788) at Port Jackson. In this way was laid 
the foundation of the future colony of New 
South Wales. The Moreton Bay district 
(Queensland) was settled in 1825; in 1835 the 
Port Philip district. In 1851 the latter dis¬ 
trict was erected into a separate colony under 
the name of Victoria. Previous to this time 
the colonies both of Western Australia and of 
South Australia had been founded — the 
former in 1829, the latter in 1836, The latest 
of the colonies is Queensland, which only took 
an independent existence in 1859. The dis¬ 
covery of gold in abundance took place in 1851, 
and caused an immense excitement and great 
influx of immigrants. The population was 
then only about 350,000, and was slowly in¬ 
creasing ; but the discovery of the precious 
metal started the country on that career of 
prosperity which has since been almost unin¬ 
terrupted. Convicts were long sent to Austra¬ 
lia from the mother country, but transporta¬ 
tion to New South Wales practically ceased in 
1840, and the last convict vessel to West Aus¬ 
tralia arrived in 1868. Altogether about 70,000 
convicts were landed in Australia (besides al¬ 
most as many in Tasmania). 

The record of interior exploration forms an 
interesting part of Australian history. This 
has been going on since early in the century, 
and is yet far from complete. There is still a 
large area of the continent of which little or 
nothing is known, comprising especially a 
vast territory belonging to Western Australia, 
and a portion of South Australia. Among the 
men who have won fame in the field of Aus¬ 
tralian exploration are Oxley (1817-23), who 
partly explored the Lachlan and Macquarie, 
discovered the Brisbane, etc. ; Hume and 
Hovell (1824), who crossed what is now the 
colony of Victoria from north to south; Cun¬ 
ningham (1827), who discovered the Darling 
Downs; Sturt (1828—29), who examined the 
Macquarie, part of Darling, and the Murrum- 
bidgee, which he traced to the Murray, sailing 
down the latter to Lake Alexandrina, in 1844 
penetrating to near the middle of the con¬ 
tinent from the south; Mitchell (1831-36) made 
extensive explorations in N. S. Wales and 
Victoria; M’Millan (1839) explored and trav¬ 
ersed Gippsland; Eyre (1840) traveled by 
the coast from Adelaide to King George’s 
Sound; Leichhardt in 1844-45 traveled from 
Brisbane to Port Essington, discovering fine 
tracts of territory and the numerous rivers 
flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria; in 1848 
he was lost in the northern interior, in attempt¬ 
ing to cross Australia from east to west, and 
nothing further regarding his fate has been 
discovered; Kennedy (1848) was killed in ex- 


Australia 

ploring Cape York Peninsula; A. C. Gregory 
(1855-56) explored part of northwestern Aus¬ 
tralia, and crossed from that to the Brisbane 
district, an important exploring journey; 
M’Douall Stuart (1859-60-62) crossed the con¬ 
tinent from south to north and back again 
nearly in the line of the present overland tele¬ 
graph; Burke, Wills, Gray, and King (1860-61) 
crossed from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpen¬ 
taria, but Burke, Wills, and Gray perished on 
the return journey; F. T. Gregory (1861) ex¬ 
plored the region of the Ashburton, Fortesque, 
and other rivers of n. w. Australia; Warburton 
(1873) traveled with camels from the center 
of the continent to the n. w. coast; J. Forrest 
(1874) made an important journey in Western 
Australia; Giles (1874-76) explored central 
Western Australia; Favenc (1878-79) traveled 
from Brisbane to Port Darwin; A. Forrest 
(1879) explored part of northern Australia; 
Mills (1883) traversed with camels a consider¬ 
able stretch of new ground in Western Aus¬ 
tralia; Winnicke (1883—84), also with camels, 
explored and mapped about 40,000 sq. mi. of 
the unknown interior. 

Federation Completed in 1900 .—The five colo¬ 
nies of Australia and the island of Tasmania 
were federated in 1900 under the name of the 
Commonwealth of Australia. The six divi¬ 
sions are known as states. 

The negotiations which finally resulted in 
federation extended through a period of nearly 
fifty years. Agitation for federation began as 
early as 1852, when a proposal was made for 
the establishment of a general assembly to 
make laws in relation to intercolonial ques¬ 
tions. The proposition was, however, involved 
with others of a more doubtful nature, and 
consequently sank out of sight, until, as a 
result of an Intercolonial Conference, the 
matter came before the British parliament, 
and a measure was passed permitting the 
formation of a Federal Council, to which any 
colony could send delegates. The first meet¬ 
ing of the Federal Council was held at Hobart, 
Tasmania, in January, 1886. The colonies 
represented were Victoria, Queensland, Tas¬ 
mania, Western Australia, and Fiji. South 
Australia was not represented at this confer¬ 
ence, but sent delegates to a subsequent meet¬ 
ing. 

As this council was only a deliberative body, 
it could accomplish nothing of a permanent 
nature. In 1S90, a conference consisting of 
representatives of each of the colonies of Aus¬ 
tralia was held in Melbourne, and it was re¬ 
solved that steps should be taken toward the 
appointment of delegates to a constitutional 
convention. This convention met at Sydney, 
March 2, 1891, and drafted a constitution very 
similar to the one which was finally adopted. 
The convention resolved that the colonial par¬ 
liaments should submit this draft to the people, 
and when at least three of the colonies should 
adopt it, it should be referred to the British 
parliament for approval. Strenuous opposi¬ 
tion blocked every step toward federation, and 
for several years all definite progress was 
checked. The colonial parliaments failed to 


Australia 


Australia 


act in the matter, and it became evident that 
federation would have to be made a popular 
issue, if it were to be brought about. Conse¬ 
quently the friends of federation formed sev¬ 
eral leagues which carried on an active cam¬ 
paign for a federal union. A convention of 
these leagues in 1893 decided to urge the colo¬ 
nial parliaments to authorize the calling of a 
new constitutional convention, the delegates 
to be chosen by popular suffrage. In accord¬ 
ance with this plan, five of the colonial pre¬ 
miers met at Hobart in 1895, and drafted an 
act for such a convention, which was to be 
submitted to the legislatures of the five colo¬ 
nies they represented. A draft of a constitu¬ 
tion was to be drawn up, and was then to be 
submitted to the several colonial legislatures 
for discussion and for amendments, the draft 
finally to be submitted to the vote of the peo¬ 
ple. After another delay of two years, the 
convention met at Adelaide in 1897, all the 
colonies except New Zealand and Queensland 
being represented. 

A constitution based upon that of 1891 was 
drawn up, and in 1898 it was submitted to a 
vote of the people. It was provided that each 
colony should fix a minimum for the affirma¬ 
tive vote, and that if any three of the colonies 
ratified the constitution, application might be 
made to the British parliament for an ena¬ 
bling act. Federation was fought in the parlia¬ 
ment of New South Wales, and the minimum 
was raised from 50,000 to 80,000, and the meas¬ 
ure was defeated. West Australia, which early 
in the agitation for federation made her ac¬ 
ceptance of federation conditional upon New 
South Wales being one of the states of the 
Commonwealth, cast no vote, nor did Queens¬ 
land. As two of the three colonies voting in 
the affirmative were unimportant, no appli¬ 
cation for an enabling bill was made. New 
South Wales did not favor federation, because 
as the parent colony she was unwilling to 
place herself on an equal footing with the 
newer colonies, and with Victoria and Queens¬ 
land, offshoots of New South Wales. The 
latter desired also to have full control of the 
New South Wales rivers, to have the capital 
located within that colony, and the payment 
of bounties by the individual states and not 
by the federal government. The refusal of 
the other colonies to accede to the demands 
of New South Wales served to check federa¬ 
tion for some time. 

In January, 1899, the premiers of Queens¬ 
land, Victoria, West Australia, and Tasmania 
met at Melbourne, and agreed to modify the 
plan for federation so that it would be accept¬ 
able. The plan as changed met with approval, 
and in June, when a vote was taken on the 
federation in New South Wales, the majority 
in favor was over 20,000. Before the end of 
1899, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, and 
Queensland had voted favorably for federa¬ 
tion. The only step then required to con¬ 
summate the scheme for federation was a bill 
in the British parliament to give it effect. 

The enabling bill was introduced in the 
British Parliament May 14, 1900, and was 


promptly passed. On July 19, Queen Victoria 
formally approved the selection of the Earl of 
Hopetoun, K. T., G. C. M. G., P. C., as gov¬ 
ernor-general of the Commonwealth of Aus¬ 
tralia. 

Early in August, West Australia finally 
adopted the Commonwealth bill and thus 
completed the federation of the Australian 
states. The Island of New Zealand, which 
was originally interested in the plan of fed¬ 
eration, did not vote upon the proposition, 
and, therefore, is not one of the states of the 
Commonwealth. The new government was 
installed Jan. 1, 1901. 

The Duke and Duchess of York carried 
King Edward’s commission to open the first 
parliament of the Australian Commonwealth 
May 9, 1901. 

Character of the Constitution .— The official 
title of the federated colonies is the Common¬ 
wealth of Australia, and its component parts 
are known as states. The executive power is 
vested in a governor-general — to be appointed 
by the Crown — assisted by a Federal Execu¬ 
tive Council. The parliament is to consist of 
two houses — the senate and the house of 
representatives — both to be elected by the 
people on the franchise existing in the vari¬ 
ous states at the time of federation. The 
senators are elected for a term of six years, 
and the representatives for a period of three 
years. Every state that joined the federation 
at its inception is entitled to an equal repre¬ 
sentation of six members in the senate; and it 
is provided that half the number of senators 
shall retire every three years, but shall be 
eligible for re-election. The number of mem¬ 
bers of the house of representatives is to be, as 
near as possible, twice the number of senators, 
the states to be represented in proportion to 
population, and it was provided that the states 
entering the Federation at the time of its 
establishment shall have at least five represen¬ 
tatives. The federal parliament has power to 
alter the franchise on which its members are 
elected, but only in the direction of the exten¬ 
sion of the voting powers of the people. The 
salaries of both senators and representatives is 
fixed at $2,000. 

The federal government assumes the admin¬ 
istration of the departments of customs and 
excise, and, as soon as possible, shall take over 
from the states, posts and telegraphs, naval 
and military defense, lighthouses, lightships, 
beacons and buoys, and quarantine; and shall 
have exclusive power of dealing with these 
services. Power is also given to the federal 
authority to deal with a large number of other 
matters of government, but only the services 
specified are to be transferred without further 
legislation. Within tvvo years of the establish¬ 
ment of the Commonwealth a uniform customs 
. and excise tariff is to be imposed by the federal 
government, and intercolonial trade will then 
be absolutely free. The federal government 
is required to raise from customs and excise, 
though other sources of taxation are left open, 
four times the amount required for its own 
purposes, and return the excess to the local 


Austria 


Austria 


treasuries. This repayment will for the first 
five years be in proportion to the contributions 
of the states, and afterwards as the parliament 
may decide. With the consent of the states, 
the central government may take over the 
state railways, and also the state debts, paying 
interest out of the surplus customs and excise 
revenue. An interstate commission is estab¬ 
lished for the administration of the laws relat¬ 
ing to interstate trade. 

The two branches of parliament have equal 
powers in originating bills, except that only 
the lower house may originate bills appro¬ 
priating or imposing taxation. The senate 
does not have power to amend such bills, but 
may return them to the house with sugges¬ 
tions for amendments, but such suggestions 
are in no way binding upon the house. If 
bills, other than money bills, have twice been 
passed by the house of representatives and 
twice been rejected by the senate, the two 
houses may be simultaneously dissolved, and 
if, after the new election, they still disagree, 
the bill in dispute must be submitted to the 
members of the two houses in joint session, 
and can become law only if passed by a 
majority of three-fifths of the members pres¬ 
ent and voting. 

The constitution provides for a high court 
of justice, which may hear appeals from all 
federal courts, from the supreme courts of the 
states, and from the interstate commission. 
The right of appeal from the high court of 
Australia to the King-in-Council is permitted 
in cases in which other than purely Australian 
interests are concerned, and also in cases 
where purely Australian interests are involved, 
provided both parties concerned consent to it. 
In all other cases affecting Australian interests 
alone, it is left with the federal parliament to 
permit or prohibit repeal. 

This particular clause was insisted upon by 
the Australians and it was accepted by parlia¬ 
ment only after considerable debate. 

The Federal Constitution can only be amend¬ 
ed by an absolute majority of the members of 
each house, and the amendment shall be¬ 
come law, if, having been submitted by way of 
referendum, it is accepted by a majority of 
the people of the Commonwealth and by a 
majority of the states. 

Austrasia, or the East Kingdom, the name 
given, under the Merovingians, to the eastern 
possessions of the Franks, embracing Lorraine, 
Belgium, and the right bank of the Rhine, 
and having their ceiUral point at Metz. At 
the time of the rise of the Frankish power, these 
districts were of great importance, as they 
formed the connection with the German mother- 
country, and were the most thickly inhabited by 
Franks. Under Charlemagne’s successor, 
Austrasia merged into Germany; and Neustria, 
or West Frank-land, into France. 

Austria, the usual name of the great em¬ 
pire now officially called the Austro-Hungarian 
Monarchy, is a Latinized form of the Ger¬ 
man Oesterreich (Fr. Autriche ), meaning “East¬ 
ern Kingdom. ” 

Austria is an extensive duplex monarchy in 


Central Europe, inhabited by severaldistinct 
nationalities, and consisting of two semi-inde¬ 
pendent countries, each with its own parlia¬ 
ment and government, but with one common 
sovereign, army, and system of diplomacy, and 
also with a common parliament. The Aus¬ 
trian Empire now has a total area of about 240,- 
000 sq. mi., and is bounded s. by Turkey, the 
Adriatic, and Italy; w. by Switzerland, Bavaria, 
and Saxony; n. by Prussia and Russian Poland; 
and e. by Russia and Roumania. On the 
shores of the Adriatic, along the coasts of Dal¬ 
matia, Croatia, Istria, etc., lies its only sea 
frontage, which is of comparatively insignifi¬ 
cant extent. Besides the two great divisions 
of Austria proper, or “Cisleithan” Austria and 
Hungary or “ Transleithan” Austria, the Aus¬ 
tro-Hungarian monarchy is divided into a 
number of governments or provinces, as fol¬ 
lows 

Austrian Provinces. —Lower Austria, Up¬ 
per Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carni- 
ola, Trieste, Gorz, Gradiska, Istria, Tyrol, 
Vorarlberg, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Gali¬ 
cia, Bukowina, and Dalmatia. 

Hungarian Provinces. —Hungary, Transyl¬ 
vania, Croatia, Slavonia, and Fiume. 

The est. pop. in 1900 was 40,404,80S. The 
largest cities are Vienna, Budapest, Prague, 
Lemberg, Gratz, Brunn, Szegedin, Trieste, 
Cracow. Bosnia, and Herzegovina, formerly 
Turkish, but now under the administration of 
Austria, have an area of 19,728 sq. mi.; pop. 
1,330,091. 

The prevailing character of the Austrian do¬ 
minions is mountainous or hilly, the plains not 
occupying more than a fifth part of the whole 
surface. The loftiest ranges belong to the 
Alps, and are found in Tyrol, Styria, Salzburg, 
and Carinthia, the highest summits being the 
Ortlerspitzen (12,814 ft.) on the western boun¬ 
dary of Tyrol, and the Grosslockner (12,300) on 
the borders of Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia. 
Another great range is that of the Carpathians, 
bounding Hungary on the north. The most 
extensive tracts of low or flat land, much of 
which is very fertile, occur in Hungary, 
Galicia, and Slavonia, the great Hungarian 
plain having an area of 36,000 sq. mi. They 
stretch along the courses of the rivers, of 
which the chief are the Danube, with its trib¬ 
utaries (the Save, the Drave, the Theiss, the 
Maros, the Waag, the March, the Raab, the 
Inn); also the Elbe and Moldau and the Dniester. 
The Danube for upward of 800 mi. is navi¬ 
gable for pretty large vessels; the tributaries 
also are largely navigable. The lakes are 
numerous and often picturesque, the chief be¬ 
ing Lake Balaton or the Plattensee. The 
climate is exceedingly varied, but generally 
good. The principal products of the north are 
wheat, barley, oats, and rye; in the center 
vines and maize are added; and in the south 
olives and various fruits. The cereals grow to 
perfection, Hungarian wheat and flour being 
celebrated. Other crops are hops, tobacco, 
flax, and hemp. Wine is largely made, but 
the wines are inferior on the whole, with ex- 


Austria 


Austria 


ception of a few kinds, including Tokay. The 
forests cover 70,000 sq. mi., or one third of the 
productive soil of the empire. Sheep and 
cattle are largely reared. Wild deer, wild 
swine, chamois, foxes, lynxes, and a species of 
small black bear are found in many districts, 
the fox and lynx being particularly abundant. 
Herds of a small native breed of horses roam 
wild over the plains of Hungary. In mineral 
productions Austria is very rich, possessing, 
with the exception of platinum, all the useful 
metals, the total annual value of the mineral 
products of the Austrian Empire being esti¬ 
mated at upward of $60,000,000, the principal 
being coal, salt, and iron. 

Manufactures are in the most flourishing 
condition in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and 
Lower Austria; less so in the eastern prov¬ 
inces, and insignificant in Dalmatia, Buko- 
wina, Herzegovina, etc. Among the most 
important manufactures are those of ma¬ 
chinery and metal goods, Austria holding a 
high place for the manufacture of musical and 
scientific instruments, gold and silver plate, 
and jewelry; of stone and china-ware, and of 
glass, which is one of the oldest and most 
highly developed industries in Austria; of 
chemicals; of sugar from beet; of beer, spirits, 
etc., and especially the manufactures of 
woolen, cotton, hemp, and flax. The manu¬ 
facture of tobacco is in a state monopoly. 
Tanning is carried on to a great extent, and 
in the production of gloves (in Vienna and 
Prague), Austria stands next to France. 

In addition to the general import and ex¬ 
port trade Austria carries on a very con¬ 
siderable amount of business in the transit 
of goods through her territory. In 1889 
the total value of imports into Austria- 
Hungary was 589,000,000 florins; of exports, 
766,000,000 florins; the value of imports 
in 1890, 610,000,000 florins; exports, 771,- 
000,000 florins. Among imports are cotton 
and other fibers, textile goods and yarn, 
metals, machinery, drugs, chemicals, oils, 
fats, hides, skins, etc. The chief exports 
are cereals, animals, metallic goods, woven 
fabrics, pottery, and glass manufactures. 
Nearly two thirds of the commerce is with 
Germany, next in importance being the 
trade with Roumania, Italy, and Russia. 
The exports direct to the United Kingdom 
in 1890 were $8,641,685; the imports of 
British produce thence, $6,416,045; these 
amounts do not include indirect exports and 
imports through other countries. The staple 
export to the United Kingdom is corn and 
flour. The chief imports from it are cot¬ 
ton manufactures, machinery, and metals, 
woolen goods, fish, etc. The mercantile 
navy of Austria has a total burden of about 
325,000 tons. The principal ports are Trieste, 
Pola, and Fiume. There are about 14,000 
miles of railway open. Accounts are kept in 
gulden or florins of 100 kreutzers each, the 
florin being nominally=fifty cents. Practi¬ 
cally the chief medium of exchange is bank¬ 
notes. The Austrian centner or hundredweight 
=123| lbs. avoirdupois; the metze , the largest 


dry measure =1.7 bushel; the eimer— 14.94 
wine gallons; the joch of land=1.43 acres. 

None of the European states except Rus¬ 
sia exhibits such a diversity of race and 
language as the Austrian Empire. The 
Slavs — who differ greatly, however, among 
themselves in language and civilization — 
amount to above 16,000,000, or 45 per cent, 
of the total population, and form the great 
mass of the population of Bohemia, Mora¬ 
via, Carniola, Galicia, Dalmatia, Croatia, 
and Slavonia, and northern Hungary, and 
half the population of Silesia and Bukowina. 
The Germans, about 9,000,000, form almost 
the sole population of the archduchy of 
Austria, Salzburg, the greatest portion of 
Styria and Carinthia, almost the whole of 
Tyrol and Vorarlberg, large portions of Bohe¬ 
mia and Moravia, the whole of west Silesia, 
etc.; and they are also numerous in Hun¬ 
gary and Transylvania. The Magyars or 
Hungarians (6,300,000) form the bulk of the 
inhabitants of the kingdom of Hungary 
and eastern Transylvania. Of the Italic or 
western Romanic stock there are about 700,- 
000, and in the southeast about 2,500,000 
of the Roumanian or eastern Romanic stock. 
The number of Jews is above 1,000,000; and 
there are other races, such as the Gypsies 
(150,000), who are most numerous in Hun¬ 
gary and Transylvania, and the Albanians 
in Dalmatia and the adjacent parts. The 
population, generally speaking, decreases in 
density from west to east. 

The state religion of Austria is the Roman 
Catholic, but the civil power exercises su¬ 
preme control in all ecclesiastical ifiatters. 
In 1890 there were in the Austrian portion 
of the monarchy 18,934,000 Roman Catho¬ 
lics, 2,814,000 Greek Catholics united to the 
Roman Church, 493,542 non-united, 436,000 
Protestants, and 1,143,000 Jews. In Hungary 
and Transylvania there were 6,478,731 Roman 
Catholics, 1,486,903 Greek united, and 1,931,- 
276 non-united, 3,139,758 Protestants, and 624,- 
680 Jews. 

The intellectual culture of the people is 
highest in the German provinces, but in some 
of the other provinces the illiterates number as 
many as 80 to 90 per cent. Yet for a number 
of years attendance on the elementary schools 
has been compulsory on all children from their 
sixth to the end of their twelfth year; and 
there are higher schools on which attendance 
is compulsory for young people of thirteen to 
fifteen years (not elsewhere educated). There 
are numerous gymnasia and “real-schools,” 
the gymnasia being intended chiefly to pre¬ 
pare pupils for the universities, while in the 
real-schools a more practical end is kept in 
view, and modern languages and physical 
science form the groundwork of the educa¬ 
tional course; also agricultural, commercial, 
industrial, art, music, and other special 
schools. There are eleven universities; viz., in 
Vienna, Prague (2), Budapest, Gratz, Cracow, 
Lemberg, Innsbruck, Klausenburg, Agram, 
and Czernowitz. Most of these have four fac- 


Austria 


Austria 


ulties—Catholic theology, law and politics, 
medicine, and philosophy. 

The ruler of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy 
has the title of emperor so far as concerns his 
Austrian dominions, but he is only king of 
Hungary. All matters affecting the joint in¬ 
terests of the two divisions of the empire, such 
as foreign affairs, war, and finance, are dealt 
with by a supreme body known as the Delega¬ 
tions—a parliament of 120 members, one half 
of whom are chosen by and represent the leg¬ 
islature of German-Austria, and the other half 
that of Hungary. The legislative center of 
the Austrian division of the empire is the 
Reichsrath, or council of the realm, con¬ 
sisting of an upper house (Herrenhaus), com¬ 
posed of princes of the imperial family, nobles 
with the hereditary right to sit, archbishops, 
and life-members nominated by the emperor; 
a lower house (Abgeordnetenhaus) of 353 elected 
deputies. There are seventeen provincial 
diets or assemblies, each provincial division 
having one. In the Hungarian division of 
the empire the legislative power is vested in 
the king and the diet or Reichstag conjointly, 
the latter consisting of an upper house or house 
of magnates and of a lower house or house of 
representatives, the latter elected by all citi¬ 
zens of full age paying direct taxes to the 
amount of $4 a year. The powers of the Hun¬ 
garian Reichstag correspond to those of the 
Reichsrath of the Cisleithan provinces. There 
being three distinct parliaments in the empire, 
there are also three budgets; viz., that for 
the whole empire, that for Cisleithan, and 
that for Transleithan Austria. A small por¬ 
tion of the imperial revenue of Austria is de¬ 
rived from customs and other sources, 70 per 
cent, of the remainder being made up by the 
Cisleithan and 30 per cent, by the Transleithan 
divisions of the empire. 

Military service is obligatory on all citizens 
capable of bearing arms who have attained the 
age of twenty. The period of service is twelve 
years, of which three are passed in the line, 
seven in the reserve, and two in the landwehr. 
The army numbers over 290,000 men (includ¬ 
ing officers) on the peace-footing and over 1,500- 
000 on the war-footing. The most important 
portion of the Austrian navy comprises 12 
iron-clads, of from 5 to 14-inch armor, the 
largest having a tonnage of over 7,000, and 
carrying 27-ton guns; besides gun-boats, tor¬ 
pedo vessels, and other vessels, mostly small 
and intended for coast defense. The crews 
number about 10,000 officers and men. 

History. — In 791 Charlemagne drove the 
Avars from the territory between the Ens and 
the Raab, and united it to his empire under 
the name of the Eastern Mark (that is, March or 
boundary land); and from the establishment 
by him of a margravate in this new province 
the present empire took its rise. On the inva¬ 
sion of Germany by the Hungarians it became 
subject to them from 900 till 955, when Otho 
I, by the victory of Augsburg, reunited a 
great part of this province to the German Em¬ 
pire, which by 1043 had extended its limits to 
the Leitha. The margravate of Austria was 


hereditary in the family of the counts of Ba- 
benberg (Bamberg) from 982 till 1156, in which 
year the boundaries of Austria were extended 
so as to include the territory above the Ens, 
and the whole was created a duchy. The 
territory was still further increased in 1192 by 
the gift of the duchy of Styria as a fief from 
the Emperor Henry VI, Vienna being by this 
time the capital. The male line of the house 
of Bamberg became extinct in 1246, and the 
Emperor Frederick II declared Austria and 
Styria a vacant fief, the hereditary property of 
the German emperors. In 1282 the emperor 
Rudolph granted Austria, Styria, and Ca- 
rinthia, to his two sons, Albert and Rudolph. 
The former became sole ruler (duke), and 
since then Austria has been under the still 
reigning house of Hapsburg. Albert, who was 
an energetic ruler, was elected emperor in 
1298, but was assassinated in 1308. The first 
of his successors we need specially mention, 
was Albert V, son-in-law of the Emperor Sigis- 
mund. He assisted Sigismund in the Hussite 
wars, and was elected after his death king of 
Hungary and of Bohemia, and German emperor 
(1438). Ladislaus, his posthumous son, was 
the last of the Austrian line proper, and its 
possessions devolved upon the collateral Styrian 
line in 1457; since which time the house of 
Austria furnished an unbroken succession of 
German emperors. 

In 1453 the Emperor Frederick III, a mem¬ 
ber of this house, had conferred upon the coun¬ 
try the rank of an archduchy before he him¬ 
self became ruler of all Austria. His son, 
Maximilian I, by his marriage with Mary, the 
surviving daughter of Charles the Bold, united 
the Netherlands to the Austrian dominions. 
After the death of his father in 1493 Maximil¬ 
ian was made emperor of Germany, and trans¬ 
ferred to his son Philip the government of the 
Netherlands. He also added to his paternal 
inheritance Tyrol, with several other territo¬ 
ries, particularly some belonging to Bavaria, and 
acquired for his family new claims to Hungary 
and Bohemia. The marriage of his son Philip 
to Joanna of Spain raised the house of Haps¬ 
burg to the throne of Spain. Philip, however, 
d. in 1506, and the death of Maximilian in 1519 
was followed by the union of Spain and Aus¬ 
tria; his grandson (the eldest son of Philip), 
Charles I, king of Spain, being elected em¬ 
peror of Germany as Charles V. Charles thus 
became the greatest monarch in Europe, but 
in 1521 he ceded to his brother Ferdinand all 
his dominions in Germany. Ferdinand I, by 
his marriage with Anna, the sister of Louis II, 
king of Hungary, acquired the kingdoms 
of Hungary and Bohemia, with Moravia, 
Silesia, and Lusatia, the appendages of Bo¬ 
hemia. To oppose him the waywode of Tran¬ 
sylvania, John Zapolya, sought the help of the 
sultan, Solyman II, who appeared in 1529 at 
the gates of Vienna, but was compelled to re¬ 
treat. In 1535 a treaty was made by which 
John von Zapolya was allowed to retain the 
royal title and half of Hungary, but after his 
death new disputes arose, and Ferdinand main¬ 
tained the possession of Lower Hungary only 


Austria 


Austria 


by paying Solyman the sum of 30,000 ducats 
annually (1562). In 1556 Ferdinand obtained 
the imperial crown, when his brother Charles 
laid by the scepter for a cowl. He died in 1564, 
leaving his territories to be divided among 
his three sons. 

Maximilian II, the eldest, succeeded his 
father as emperor,obtaining Austria, Hungary, 
and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the second son, re¬ 
ceived Tyrol and Hither Austria; and Charles, 
the youngest, obtained Styria, Carinthia, Car- 
niola, and Gorz. Maximilian d. in 1576, and was 
succeeded on the imperial throne by his eldest 
son Rudolph II, who had already been crowned 
king of Hungary in 1572, and king of Bo¬ 
hemia in 1575. Rudolph’s reign was dis¬ 
tinguished by the war against Turkey and 
Transylvania; the persecutions of the Prot¬ 
estants, who were driven from his domin¬ 
ions; the cession of Hungary in 1608; and in 
1611 of Bohemia and his hereditary estates in 
Austria to his brother Matthias. Matthias, 
who succeeded Maximilian on the imperial 
throne, concluded a peace with the Turks, but 
was disturbed by the Protestant Bohemians, 
who took up arms in defense of their religious 
rights, thus commencing the Thirty Years’ 
War. After his death in 1619 the Bohemians 
refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdi¬ 
nand n, until after the battle of Prague in 
1620, when Bohemia had to submit, and was 
deprived of the right of choosing her king. 
Lutheranism was strictly forbidden in all the 
Austrian dominions. Hungary, which revolted 
under Bethlem Gabor, prince of Transylvania, 
was, after a long struggle, subdued. During 
the reign of Ferdinand III (1637-57), successor 
of Ferdinand II, Austria was continually the 
theater of war; Lusatia was ceded to Saxony 
in 1635; and Alsace to France in 1648, when 
peace was restored in Germany by the Treaty 
of Westphalia. 

The emperor, Leopold I, son and successor 
of Ferdinand III, was victorious through the 
talents of Eugene in two wars with Turkey; 
and Vienna was delivered by Sobieski and the 
Germans from the attacks of Kara Mustapha 
in 1683. In 1687 he united Hungary to Tran¬ 
sylvania, and in 1699 restored to Hungary the 
country lying between the Danube and the 
Theiss. It was the chief aim of Leopold to 
secure to Charles, his second son, the inherit¬ 
ance of the Spanish monarchy, and in 1701, 
upon the victory of French diplomacy in the 
appointment of the grandson of Louis XIV, 
the War of the Spanish Succession began. 
Leopold d. in 1705, but Joseph I, his eldest 
son, continued the war. As he d. without 
children in 1711, his brother Charles was 
elected emperor, but was obliged to accede in 
1714 to the Peace of Utrecht, by which Austria 
received the Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, 
Naples, and Sardinia. In 1720 Sicily was given 
to Austria in exchange for Sardinia. This 
monarchy now embraced over 190,000sq. mi.; 
but its power was weakened by new wars with 
Spain and France. In the peace concluded at 
Vienna (1735 and 1738) Charles VI was forced 
to cede Naples and Sicily to Spain and part of 


Milan to the king of Sardinia, and in 1739, by 
the Peace of Belgrade, he was obliged to trans¬ 
fer to the Porte, Belgrade, Servia, etc., partly 
in order to secure the succession to his daugh¬ 
ter Maria Theresa by the Pragmatic Sanction. 
He d. in 1740. 

On the marriage of Maria Theresa with 
Stephen, the duke of Lorraine (the dynasty 
henceforth being that of Hapsburg-Lorraine), 
and her accession to the Austrian throne, the 
empire was threatened with dismemberment. 
Frederick II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the 
elector of Bavaria was crowned in Lintz and 
Prague, and in 1742 chosen emperor under the 
name of Charles VII; Hungary alone sup¬ 
ported the heroic and beautiful queen. 
Charles, however, d. in 1745, and the husband 
of Theresa was crowned emperor of Germany 
as Francis I; but a treaty concluded in 1745 
confirmed to Frederick the possession of Si¬ 
lesia, and by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
1748, Austria was obliged to cede the duchies 
of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Philip, 
Infant of Spain, and several districts of Milan 
to Sardinia. To recover Silesia, Maria Theresa 
formed an alliance with France, Russia, Sax¬ 
ony, and Sweden, and entered upon the Seven 
Years’ War; but by the Peace of Hubertsberg, 
1763, Silesia was recognized as Prussian terri¬ 
tory. On the death of Francis I in 1765, 
Joseph II, his eldest son, was appointed to 
assist his mother in the government and elected 
emperor of Germany. The partition of Poland 
(1772) gave Galicia and Lodomeria to Austria, 
which also obtained Bukowina from the Porte 
in 1777, At the death of the empress in 1780 
Austria contained 235,000 sq. mi., with a pop. 
est. 24,000,000. 

The liberal home administration of the em¬ 
press was continued and extended by her suc¬ 
cessor, Joseph II, who did much to further 
the spread of religious tolerance, education, 
and the industrial arts. The Low Countries, 
however, revolted, and he was unsuccessful in 
the war of 1788 against the Porte. His death 
took place in 1790. He was succeeded by his 
eldest brother, Leopold II, under whom peace 
was restored in the Netherlands, and in Hun¬ 
gary, and also with the Porte. On the death 
of his sister and her husband, Louis XVI, of 
France, he formed an alliance with Prussia, 
but died in 1792, before the French Revolution¬ 
ary War broke out. 

His son, Francis II, succeeded, and was 
elected German emperor, by which time 
France had declared war against him as king 
of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1795, in the 
third division of Poland, West Galicia fell to 
Austria, and by the Peace of Campo-Formio 
(1797) she received the largest part of the 
Venetian territory as compensation for her 
loss of Lombardy and the Netherlands. In 
1799 Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed 
the war with France until 1801, when the 
Peace of Lundville was concluded. In 1804 
Francis declared himself hereditary emperor 
of Austria as Francis I, and united all his 
states under the name of the Empire of Aus¬ 
tria, immediately taking up arms once more 


Austria 

with his allies, Russia and Great Britain, against 
France. The war of 1805 was terminated by 
the Peace of Pressburg (Dec. 26), by which 
Francis had to cede to France the remaining 
provinces of Italy, as well as to give up por¬ 
tions of territory to Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, 
and Baden, receiving in return Salzburg and 
Berchtesgaden. After the formation of the 
Confederation of the Rhine (July 12, 1806) 
Francis was forced to resign his dignity as 
emperor of Germany, which had been in his 
family more than 500 years. A new war with 
France in 1809 cost the monarchy 42,380 sq. 
mi. of territory and 3,500,000 subjects. Napo¬ 
leon married Maria Louisa, daughter of the 
emperor, and in 1812 concluded an alliance 
with him against Russia. But in 1813 Francis 
again declared war against France, and formed 
an alliance with Britain, Russia, Prussia, and 
Sweden against his son-in-law. By the Con¬ 
gress of Vienna (1815) Austria gained Lom¬ 
bardy and Venetia, and recovered, together 
with Dalmatia, the hereditary territories 
which it had been obliged to cede. 

In the troubled period following the French 
Revolution of 1830 insurrections took place in 
Modena, Parma, and the Papal States (1831— 
32), but were suppressed without much diffi¬ 
culty; and though professedly neutral during 
the Polish insurrections Austria clearly showed 
herself on the side of Russia, with whom her 
relations became more intimate as those be¬ 
tween Great Britain and France grew more 
cordial. The death of Francis I (1835) and 
accession of his son Ferdinand I made little 
change in the Austrian system of government, 
and much discontent was the consequence. 
In 1846 the failure of the Polish insurrection 
led to the incorporation of Cracow with Aus¬ 
tria. In Italy the declarations of Pio Nono in 
favor of reform increased the difficulties of 
Austria, and in Hungary the opposition un¬ 
der Kossuth and others assumed the form of 
a great constitutional movement. In 1848, 
when the expulsion of Louis Philippe shook 
all Europe, Metternich found it impossible any 
longer to guide the helm of the state, and the 
government was compelled to admit a free 
press and the right of citizens to arms. Apart 
from the popular attitude in Italy and in 
Hungary, where the Diet declared itself per¬ 
manent under the presidency of Kossuth, the 
insurrection made equal progress in Vienna 
itself, and the royal family, no longer in safety, 
removed to Innsbruck. After various minis¬ 
terial changes the emperor abdicated in favor 
of his nephew, Francis Joseph; more vigorous 
measures were adopted, and Austria, aided by 
Russia, reduced Hungary to submission. 

The year 1855 is memorable for the Con¬ 
cordat with the pope, which put the educa¬ 
tional and ecclesiastical alfairs of the empire 
entirely into the hands of the Papal See. In 
1859 the hostile intentions of France and Sar¬ 
dinia against the possessions of Austria in Italy 
became so evident that she declared war by 
sending an army across the Ticino; but after 
disastrous defeats at Magenta and Solferino 
she was compelled to cede Milan and the n.w. 


Automobile Vehicles 

portion of Lombardy to Sardinia. In 1864 she 
joined with the German states in the spolia¬ 
tion of Denmark, but a dispute about Schles¬ 
wig-Holstein involved her in a war with her 
allies (1866), while at the same time Italy re¬ 
newed her attempts for the recovery of Venice. 
The Italians were defeated at Custozza and 
driven back across the Mincio; but the Prus¬ 
sians, victorious at Koniggratz (or Sadowa), 
threatened Vienna. Peace was concluded with 
Prussia on August 23, and with Italy on 
October 3, the result of the war being the 
cession of Venetia through France to Italy and 
the withdrawal of Austria from all interfer¬ 
ence in the affairs of Germany. 

Since 1866 Austria has been occupied chiefly 
with the internal affairs of the empire. Hun¬ 
garian demands for self-government were 
finally agreed to, and the empire of Austria 
divided into the two parts already mentioned 
— the Cisleithan and the Transleithan. This 
settlement was consummated by the corona¬ 
tion of the Emperor Francis Joseph I, at Buda¬ 
pest, as king of Hungary, on the 8th of June, 
1867. In the same year the Concordat of 1855 
came up for discussion, and measures were 
passed for the re-establishment of civil mar¬ 
riage, the emancipation of schools from the 
domination of the church, and the placing of 
different creeds on a footing of equality. The 
fact of the Austro-Hungarian dominions com¬ 
prising so many different nationalities has 
always given the central government much 
trouble, both in regard to internal and to exter¬ 
nal affairs. In regard to the “ Eastern Ques¬ 
tion,” for instance, the action of Austria has 
been hampered by the sympathies shown by 
the Magyars for their blood relations, the 
Turks, while the Slavs have naturally been 
more favorable to Russia. During the war 
between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78 Austria 
remained neutral; but at its close, in the mid¬ 
dle of 1878, it was decided, at the Congress of 
Berlin, that the provinces of Bosnia and Her¬ 
zegovina should in future be administered by 
Austria Hungary instead of Turkey. In Feb¬ 
ruary, 1888, a treaty between Austria and Ger¬ 
many was published, by which each agreed 
to assist the other in the case of an attack by 
Russia. In September, 1898, the Empress 
Elizebeth Amalie Eugenie was assassinated at 
Geneva, Switzerland, by an Italian anarchist, 
named Lucheni. 

Automobile Vehicles (motor-carriages, auto¬ 
trucks, etc.,) are wagons, carriages, omni 
buses, and other road conveyances driven by 
steam, electricity, compressed air, oil or gaso¬ 
line. 

The first self-propelling road machines were 
constructed in England as early as 1680. Sir 
Isaac Newton at that time invented a toy 
steam carriage which embodied all the essen¬ 
tial features of a steam automobile. Several 
attempts, more or less successful, were made 
in England in the eighteenth century, but it 
was not until 1827 that the practicability of 
steam road wagons was demonstrated in Eng¬ 
land. David Gurney in that year constructed 
and operated successfully a steam carriage 


Automobile Vehicles 


Automobile Vehicles 


with a tubular boiler. This machine made a 
record of eighty-five miles in ten hours. Oth¬ 
ers soon followed, and several steam stage 
lines were established. Hostile legislation oc¬ 
casioned by coach builders gave the business a 
severe setback for twenty-five years. 

The first American attempt at self-propelling 
road vehicles was made by Oliver Evans in 
1786, at which time he planned a steam 
wagon. In 1804 he demonstrated to the Lan¬ 
caster Turnpike Co. that a steam vehicle 
could be made to transport merchandise at 
less expense than the same work could be 
done by horses. 

It was not, however, until recent years that 
any widespread interest was manifested in the 
subject of horseless vehicles. All such ma¬ 
chines may be classified, according to their 
motor power, under the following general 
heads: 1. Steam vehicles with boilers and 
engines burning coal, oil, etc. 2. Machines 


driven by oil or vapor engines, gasoline, 
naphtha, etc. 3. Machines driven by com¬ 
pressed air (liquid air being a possibility. See 
Liquid Air). 4. Machines run by electricity. 

Of the four general kinds several vehicles 
have been constructed in America and Europe, 
but up to the present time the steam, oil and 
electric machines have given the most satis¬ 
factory results. 

It is impossible to go into the details of con¬ 
struction of all the machines. Only a general 
survey of the field can be made in this article. 
Steam automobiles are made in France, Eng¬ 
land and America. Some of them make as 
high as twelve miles per hour on good roads. 
They are used in France and England for de¬ 
livery wagons and also for carrying passengers 
and baggage. Thev take the place to some 
extent of electric and steam railways, having 
the advantage of not requiring tracks. One 


of these machines took third prize in the com¬ 
petition of automobile vehicles held in Paris 
in 1894. This particular carriage weighed 
9,500 pounds, including passengers. The en¬ 
gine developed about seven horse-power. It 
ran a distance of eighty miles in twelve hours 
and fifty minutes. In the competition just 
mentioned 102 vehices were entered, of which 
fourteen of the oil and three of the steam 
wagons completed the run. The winners 
made an average speed of ten and one-half 
miles per hour. 

In November, 1895, a race between Chicago 
and Waukegan, Ill., was held, and considera¬ 
ble data was obtained. The best speed was 
seven miles per hour. However, the weather 
was mpst unfavorable and there was six inches 
of slush on the road. In this contest a gaso¬ 
line carriage was the winner. Only one elec¬ 
tric carriage finished the distance. 

The international contest held in Paris in 
February, 1897, furnished much in¬ 
teresting data. In all twenty-six motor 
vehicles suitable for use upon the 
streets of Paris were entered. Of 
these fourteen were equipped with 
electric motors, and the rest with oil 
distillate engines. [The latter used 
gasoline motors. These motors utilize 
the explosive force of a mixture of 
gasoline and air to drive pistons in the 
cylinders. The gasoline is vaporized 
by a current of air, and conducted to 
a series of platinum points kept incan¬ 
descent by burners.] All competitors 
were required to make forty miles in 
sixteen hours allowing two stops cov¬ 
ering two and one-half hours. This 
run was to be made for twelve con¬ 
secutive days over as many different 
routes. 

The total weight of the oil machines 
was 2,838 pounds, with motors devel¬ 
oping six horse-power. The daily cost 
of running such a machine was $5.50, 
of which sum $2.15 was for oil and the 
remainder for other expenses. 

The electrical machines varied in 
weight from 3,102 pounds to 3,964. In 
these carriages the accumulators are stored 
in boxes, one under the driver’s seat and one 
in the back part of the carriage. The daily 
expense of operating the various kinds and 
sizes of electric vehicles in this test ranged 
from $3.96 to $4.06. The actual cost of the 
specific energy supplied for these carriages 
averaged daily from 20 cents for the smaller to 
35.9 cents for the larger. 

Other contests have been held in England 
and America and the practicability of auto¬ 
mobiles has been clearly established. Several 
concerns are now manufacturing them and 
they have been placed in the cab service of the 
leading cities of the country. 

The illustration shows an electric motor 
phaeton for two persons. It weighs 2,000 
pounds, will run 25 miles on one battery charge, 
and has gearing to arrange speed from 3| to 14 
miles per hour. The estimated cost to rui? 



Electric Motor Phaeton. 











Au tun 


AveriH 


per mile is H cents. The list price of this 
particular machine is $2,000. 

Motor-bicvcles and quadricycles were built 
in New York in 1895. Gasoline motors pro¬ 
vided the propelling force. The former 
weighs only sixty pounds. A naphtha tank 
is fastened on top of the frame between the 
saddle and the handles. It feeds down 
through the frame to the cylinders, one on 
each side of the rear wheel. The drops of 
naphtha are 'exploded by an electric spark 
from a small battery hung to the frame, thus 
giving impulse to the pistons. The speed de¬ 
pends upon the amount of oil let down. The 
machine is started by pedals and the rotation 
of the wheels, together-with the turning of 
the switch, sets the motor to working. 

Another motor-bicycle has been invented in 
Germany. It is run by a gasoline-motor de¬ 
veloping about horse-power. The whole 
machine weighs 110 pounds. It has devel¬ 
oped a speed of twenty-three miles per hour. 

Autun (o-tun), a town, southeastern France, 
department of Saone-et-Loire. It has two Ro¬ 
man gates of exquisite workmanship, the ruins 
of an amphitheater and of several temples, 
the cathedral of St. Lazare, a fine Gothic struc¬ 
ture of the eleventh century; manufactures of 
carpets, woolens, cotton, velvet, hosiery, etc. 
Pop. 11,462. 

Auvergne (o-var-nye), a province, central 
France, now merged into departments Cantal 
and Puy-de-Dome, and an arrondissement of 
Haute-Loire. The Auvergne Mountains, sepa¬ 
rating the basins of the Allier, Cher, and Creuse 
from those of the Lot and Dordogne, contain 
the highest points of central France: Mount 
Dor, 6,188 ft.; Cantal, 6,093 ft., and Puy-de- 
Dome, 4,806 ft. The number of extinct vol¬ 
canoes and general geologic formation make 
the district one of great scientific interest. The 
minerals include iron, coal, copper, and lead, 
and there are warm and cold mineral springs. 
Auvergne contributes a large supply to the 
labor markets of Paris and Belgium, there be¬ 
ing in Paris alone some 50,000 Auvergnats. 

Av'alanches, large masses of snow or ice 
precipitated from the mountains, and distin¬ 
guished as wind or dust avalanches, when they 
consist of fresh-fallen snow whirled like a dust 
storm into the valleys; as sliding avalanches, 
when they consist of great masses of snow 
sliding down a slope by their own weight; and 
as glacier or summer avalanches, when ice-masses 
are detached by heat from the high glaciers. 
Avalanches have been divided into four classes: 
1, Powdery avalanches, in which the snow 
and ice break up into powder, forming a kind 
of silver cloud, sparkling like quicksilver, and 
making a noise like distant thunder. This 
kind is more dangerous by reason of the com¬ 
motion produced in the air than by its weight 
or power to overwhelm. 2, Creeping ava¬ 
lanches. The mass of snow being disengaged 
moves down a more gentle slope, as on an in¬ 
clined plane, and so is sluggish in its course. 
3, Glacier avalanche, consisting of a large 
mass of ice detached from the glacier above, 
which descends to the valley. This is the 


least dangerous kind, and is more common in 
summer. 4, The avalanche proper, which is 
the most dangerous of all, and consists of vast 
accumulations of snow set free from above, 
which increase in force as they descend, over¬ 
throwing houses, tearing up trees, burying 
villages, and swallowing up forests, cattle, and 
human beings. Avalanches are sometimes of 
immense size; two which fell in the Alpine 
districts of Italy, in 1885, contained 45,000 and 
250,000 tons of snow respectively. 

Av'alon, a sort of fairy land or elysium 
mentioned in connection with the legends of 
King Arthur, being his abode after disappear¬ 
ing from the haunts of men; called also Avil- 
ion. The name is also identified with Glaston¬ 
bury, and has been given to a peninsula of 
Newfoundland. 

Avatar' (more properly Avatara), in Hindu 
mythology, an incarnation of the Deity. Of 
the innumerable avatars the chief are the ten 
incarnations of Vishnu, who appeared success¬ 
ively as a fish, a tortoise, a boar, etc. 

AveOine (a-vel-le'ne), a town in Southern 
Italy, capital of the province of Avellino, 29 
mi. e. of Naples, the seat of a bishop. Avel¬ 
lino nuts were celebrated under the Romans. 
Pop. 16,376. Area of the prov. 1,409 sq. mi.; 
pop. 419,688. 

A've riari'a (“Hail, Mary”), the first two 
words of the angel Gabriel’s salutation (Luke 
1 : 28), and the beginning of the very common 
Latin prayer to the Virgin in the Catholic 
Church. Its lay use was sanctioned at the 
end of the twelfth century, and a papal edict 
of 1326 ordains the repetition of the prayer 
thrice each morning, noon, and evening, the 
hour being indicated by sound of bells called 
the Ave Maria or Angelus Domini. 

Av'erage, in maritime law, any charge or 
expense over and above the freight of goods, 
and payable by their owner. General average 
is the sum falling to be paid by the owners 
of ship, cargo, and freight, in proportion to 
their several interests, to make good any loss 
or expense intentionally incurred for the gen¬ 
eral safety of ship and cargo; e. g., throwing 
goods overboard, cutting away masts, port 
dues in cases of distress, etc. Particular aver¬ 
age is the sum falling to be paid for unavoid¬ 
able loss when the general safety is not in 
question, and therefore chargeable on the in¬ 
dividual owner of the property lost. A policy 
of insurance generally covers both general and 
particular average, unless specially excepted. 

Aver’ell, William Woods, b. 1832, in Cam¬ 
eron, N. Y. He was graduated at the U. S. 
Military Academy in 1855, and served in garri¬ 
son at Carlisle, Pa., for two years. Later he 
went to the frontier to fight the Indians. He 
was in the battle of Bull Run. Averill was 
appointed colonel of the third Pennsylvania 
cavalry, and commanded the cavalry defenses 
before Washington with the Army of the Po¬ 
tomac, 1863. He made a series of cavalry 
raids in Virginia. Later he had sundry skir¬ 
mishes with the Confederates with some suc¬ 
cess, but met with no disaster. In 1865 he 


Avernus 


Ax 


resigned. From 18GG to 18G9 he was U. S. con¬ 
sul-general in the British Provinces of N. A. 

Aver' nus, a lake, now called Lago d’Averno, 
in Campania, Italy, between the ancient Cumae 
and Puteoli, about 8 mi. from Naples. It 
occupies the crater of an old volcano, and is 
in some places 180 feet deep. Formerly the 
gloom of its forest surroundings and its me¬ 
phitic exhalations caused it to be regarded as 
the entrance to the infernal regions. It was 
the fabled abode of the Cimmerians, and 
especially dedicated to Proserpine. 

Averroes (1120-1225 ?), a noted Arabian phi¬ 
losopher. Averroes regarded Aristotle as the 
greatest of all philosophers, and devoted him¬ 
self so largely to the exposition of his works 
as to be called among the Arabians the Inter¬ 
preter. He wrote a compendium of medicine, 
and treatises on theology, philosophy, juris¬ 
prudence, etc. 

Aver'sa, a town of southern Italy, 7 mi. n. 
of Naples, in a beautiful vine and orange dis¬ 
trict, the seat of a bishop, with a cathedral 
and various religious institutions, and an ex¬ 
cellently conducted lunatic asylum. Andreas 
of Hungary, husband of Queen Joanna I, was 
strangled in a convent here, Sept. 18, 1345. 
Pop. 21,510. 

Aveyron (a-va-ron), a department of France. 
The climate is cold, and agriculture is in a back¬ 
ward state, but considerable attention is paid 
to sheep-breeding. It is noted for its “ Roque¬ 
fort cheese.” It has coal, iron, and copper 
mines, besides other minerals. Area 3,340 sq. 
mi.; capital, Rhodez; pop. 415,826. 

Av'iary, a building or enclosure for keeping, 
breeding, and rearing birds. Aviaries appear 
to have been used by the Persians, Greeks, and 
Romans, and are highly prized in China. In 
England they were in use at least as early as 
1577, when William Harrison refers to “our 
cost-lie and curious aviaries.” An aviary may 
be simply a kind of very large cage; but the 
term usually has a wider scope than this. The 
zoological collections in several American 
parks are noticeable for their tine aviaries. 

Avicen'na (or Ebn-Sina) (980-1037), an 
Arabian philosopher and physician. At the 
age of twenty-one he wrote an encyclopedia of 
the sciences,"but of his one hundred works the 
best known is the Canon Medicinal, which was 
still in use as a text-book at Louvain and 
Montpellier in the middle of the seventeenth 
century. 

Avigliano (a-vel-ya/no), a town of Southern 
Italy, prov. Potenza. Pop. 13,057. 

Avignon (a-ve-nyon), an old town of s. e. 
France, capital of department Yaucluse. It 
is an archbishop’s see, and has a large and 
ancient cathedral on a rock overlooking the 
town, the immense palace in which the popes 
resided (now barracks), and other old build¬ 
ings. The silk manufacture and the rearing 
of silkworms are the principal employments 
in the district. Here Petrarch lived several 
years, and made the acquaintance of Laura, 
whose tomb is in the Franciscan church. 
From 1309 to 1376 seven popes in succession, 
from Clement Y to Gregory XI, resided in 


this city. After its purchase by Pope Clement 
VI in 1348 Avignon and its district continued, 
with a few interruptions, under the rule of a 
vice-legate of the pope, till 1791, when it was 
formally united to the French Republic. Pop. 
41,007. 

Avila (ii've-la), town of Spain, capital of 
province of Avila, a modern division of Old 
Castile. See of a bishop suffragan, with fine 
cathedral. Once one of the richest towns of 
Spain. Principal employment in the town, 
spinning; in the province, breeding sheep 
and cattle. Pop. town 9,199; province 187- 
211 . 

Avogad'ro’s Law, in physics, asserts that 
equal volumes of different gases at the same 
pressure and temperature contain an equal 
number of molecules. 

Avoirdupois (a-ver'du-pois)(from old French, 
lit. “goods of weight”), a system of weights 
used for all goods except precious metals, gems, 
and medicines, and in which a pound contains 
16 ounces, or 7,000 grains, while a pound troy 
contains 12 ounces, or 5,760 grains. 

Av'ola, a seaport on the east of Sicily, with 
a trade in almonds, sugar, etc. Pop. 12,540. 

A'von, the name of several smaller rivers in 
England of which the most famous rises in 
Leicestershire, flows past Shakespeare’s birth¬ 
place, Stratford, and falls into the Severn. 

Av'oset, a bird about the size of a lapwing. 
The bill is long, slender, elastic, and bent up¬ 
ward toward the tip, the legs long, the feet 



webbed, and the plumage variegated with 
black and white. The bird feeds on worms 
and other small animals which it scoops up 
from the mud of the marshes and fens that it 
frequents. It is found in Europe, Asia, Af¬ 
rica, and America; but the American species 
is slightly different from the other. 

Ax, a well-known tool for cutting or chop¬ 
ping wood, consisting of an iron head with 
an arched cutting edge of steel, which is in 
line with the wooden handle of the tool, and 
not at right angles to it as in the adze. 

The process of making axes is briefly as fol¬ 
lows: The raw material is brought into the 
factory in great rough and rusty iron bars. It 
is put into the forges and heated until it is a 















Axis 


Axle 


rich red. The workmen withdraw it by means 
of tackle and feed it between the rollers of a 
complicated machine, which cuts the bars into 
lengths double that of the ax, and shapes the 
metal in the general form of two axes placed 
butt to butt, and finally doubles the pieces 
together around a mold, thus leaving a loop in 
the middle for the helve-hole. The ax is then 
put into a furnace fired with gas, and raised 
to a white heat; thence it is carried to the 
base of a great tilt-hammer, which drops down 
upon it with terrific force, welding the folds 
together with a single blow. The ax is again 
taken to the furnace and heated red hot. It 
is then taken in hand by a workman who 
rasps its edges with a sharp saw to take off the 
jagged fringe of iron which still clings to it. 
Thus the iron part of the ax, that is, all of the 
butt and most of the blade, is complete. The 
steel for the knife-edge is heated at the fur¬ 
nace and then stamped into the desired shape 
by a die press. The two parts are now ready 
to be put together. A groove is cut into the 
forward edge of the iron butt and the steel 
knife-edge inserted. The whole ax is then 
heated and welded together with the great 
hammer. The blade of the ax has yet to be 
tempered/ and this is the most important part 
of the work. The latest method of tempering 
is to dip the steel ax-blade into a pot of molten 
lead, and when sufficiently hot, to transfer it 
quickly into a vat of cold water. An experi¬ 
enced inspector then tests the blade to find out 
whether or not it .is too brittle or not brittle 
enough. If it will not stand the test it is 
thrown aside, and the whole process must be 
gone over again. If the ax fulfills the require¬ 
ments of the inspector it goes to the grinding- 
room, where it is smoothed, ground, and pol¬ 
ished and put in shape for use. 

Axis, the straight line, real or imaginary, 
passing through a body or magnitude, on 
which it revolves, or may be supposed to re¬ 
volve; especially a straight line with regard to 
which the different parts of a magnitude, or 
several magnitudes, are symmetrically ar¬ 
ranged; e.g. the axis of the world, the imaginary 
line drawn through its two poles. 

In botany the word is also used, the stem 
being termed the ascending axis, the root the 
descending axis. 

In anatomy the name is given to the second 
vertebra from the head, that on which the 
atlas moves. 

Axle, a bar of iron or wood which supports a 
carriage or wagon and is supported on wheels, 
in the hubs of which its ends are inserted. 
Axles of railway cars do not revolve in the 
hubs of the wheels, but are keyed in them, and 
journals are turned on the portions outside 
the wheel. The manufacture of car axles is 
an interesting process. The enormous weight 
which falls upon a car or locomotive axle re-, 
quires that they be made of the strongest iron 
obtainable. Axles under loaded freight cars 
for example must support a constant load of 
about ten tons, while the oscillation and vibra¬ 
tion of the car, which sometimes throws the 
whole weight upon one side, requires that the 


axle be exceedingly strong. Axles as usually 
manufactured are made of scrap iron and muck- 
bar iron. The scrap iron used in making 
axles consists of old bridge rods, old axles, and 
arch bars. These scraps before brought into 
the mill are cut into four-foot lengths by pow¬ 
erful shears. These four-foot pieces are put 
into a furnace with a slow fire where the rust 
and dirt are burned off, thus preventing any 
impurities in the welding. The pieces are 
assorted into piles of sufficient size to make 
an axle of given dimensions. The piles are 
then put into the heating furnace, three or 
four at a time, and heated to the welding 
point. A pair of huge tongs suspended from 
a crane by a heavy chain is swung around by 
a workman, and attached to the projecting 
end of one of the piles of iron, which by this 
time has been heated sufficiently to cause the 
different pieces to stick together. The mass 
is then swung around under the steam ham¬ 
mer. This hammer weighs about two tons. 
It is put in operation, and the hammer man 
takes hold of the end of the tongs, and after 
each blow of the hammer, changes the posi¬ 
tion of the iron so that no two blows will strike 
in exactly the same place. As soon as the iron 
becomes a little cool it is put back into the 
furnace and another piece is taken out and 
hammered in the same way. For the first 
hammering, when the slabs are being made, a 
flat hammer-block and hammer is used. After 
this a concave hammer face and hammer- 
block are substituted to give the correct shape 
of the axle. During the process of the ham¬ 
mering, the correct diameter is determined by 
means of a guage. After both ends of the 
axle have been finished it is swung on to a skid 
made of two steel rails and allowed to cool. 
It is important that any pieces of steel be kept 
out of the axle in the welding. When the 
axle is thoroughly cooled it is lifted from the 
steel rails by means of tongs, and placed into a 
machine which cuts it off into the correct 
length. Then the axle is centered by having 
a small hole bored in exactly the center of 
each end, and is taken to the finishing room. 
The finishing process consists in putting the 
axle into a lathe and turning off some of the 
metal at each end so as to make a smooth sur¬ 
face for the bearings and wheel hub. The 
axle is now ready to have the wheels mounted 
on it. The wheels are pressed on to the axle 
by a powerful hydraulic press, and so accurate 
is the fit that it is said the union is stronger 
than if the wheel and axle had been heated 
and welded together. 

Steel cannot be welded readily, and the 
method of making steel axles is somewhat dif¬ 
ferent from that of making iron axles. Either 
Bessemer or open-hearth steel is used in steel 
axles. The steel is first melted and poured 
from the converters into ingots, which are then 
passed through rollers and brought down to 
pieces about six or seven inches square. The 
pieces are then heated in the furnace and 
pounded down to the correct form and di¬ 
ameter under the steam hammer in the same 
manner as an iron axle. Steel axles are not 


Azof 


Aye=aye 


considered as good as iron on account of the 
danger of blow-holes forming in the interior of 
the axle. These blow-holes are made when 
the steel is being poured into the ingots and no 
amount of rolling or pounding will close them 
up, nor is there any way of telling when these 
holes occur inside of an axle until it breaks in 
service. The methods of working steel, how¬ 
ever, are being greatly improved, and it will 
probably not be long until it will entirely re¬ 
place iron for axles. Axles weigh from 350 to 
425 pounds and at present are worth when 
made about $8.50 each. Locomotive axles are 
much larger and heavier and weigh about 800 
pounds each and have a diameter at the mid¬ 
dle of seven or eight inches. Whenever an 
axle breaks it is usually in the journal near the 
wheel pit. 

Aye=aye (i-i), an animal of Madagascar, so 
called from its cry, now referred to the lemur 
family. It is about the size of a hare, has 
large flat ears and a bushy tail, large eyes, 
long sprawling fingers, the third so slender as 



Aye-Aye. 

to appear shrivelled; color, musk-brown, mixed 
with black and gray ash. It feeds on grubs 
and fruits, and in its habits is nocturnal. 

Ayesha (a-yesh'a) (G10-G78), daughter of 
Abu-Bekr and favorite wife of Mohammed, 
the Arabian prophet. 

Ayr (ar), a town of Scotland, capital of 
Ayrshire. William the Lion built a castle 
here in 1197 and constituted it a royal burgh 
in 1202; and the parliament which confirmed 
Robert Bruce’s title to the crown sat in Ayr. 
One of its bridges, opened in 1879, occupies 
the place of the “New Brig” of Burns’s Brigs 
of Ayr, the “Auld Brig” (built 1252) being still 
serviceable for foot traffic. Carpets and lace 
curtains are manufactured. The house in 
which Robert Burns was born stands within 
H miles of the town, between it and the 
church of Alloway (“Alloway’s auld haunted 
kirk”), and a monument to him stands on a 
height between the kirk and the bridge over 
the Doon. Pop. 23,835. Ayrshire has an area 
of 1,149 sq. mi. The surface is irregular, and 
a large portion of it hilly, but much of it is 
fertile. Coal and iron are abundant; and 
there are numerous collieries and iron-works. 
Limestone and freestone abound. Agricul¬ 


ture and dairy husbandry are extensively 
practised; the Ayrshire cows are celebrated as 
milkers. Woolen manufactures are extensive, 
particularly carpets, bonnets, and worsted 
shawls, produced in great quantities at Kil¬ 
marnock and other places. Pop. 226,283. 

Aytoun, William Edmondstoune (1813— 
18G5), a Scotch poet and prose writer. In 1848 
he published a collection of ballads entitled 
Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, which has 
proved the most popular of all his works. In 
1858 he edited a critical and annotated collec¬ 
tion of the ballads of Scotland. 

Aza'lea, a genus of plants, belonging to the 
heaths, remarkable for the beauty and fra¬ 
grance of their flowers, and distinguished from 



the rhododendrons chiefly by the flowers hav¬ 
ing five stamens instead of ten. Many beauti¬ 
ful rhododendrons with desiduous leaves are 
known under the name of azalea in gardens. 
Azaleas are common in North America. An 
Asiatic species is famous for the stupefying 
effect which its honey is said to have produced 
on Xenophon’s army, is also common in gar¬ 
dens and shrubberies; and another is a brill¬ 
iant greenhouse plant. 

Azamgarh, a town of India, N. W. Prov¬ 
inces, capital of dist. of same name. Pop. 19,- 
450. The district has an area of 2,550 sq. mi.; 
a pop. of 1,728,625. 

Azerbijan(a-zer-bi-jan'),a province of Persia. 
Area 30,000sq. mi.; pop. est. at 750,000. It con¬ 
sists generally of lofty mountain ranges, some 
of which rise to a height of between 12,000 and 
13,000 ft. Agricultural products: wheat, bar¬ 
ley, maize, fruit, cotton, tobacco, and grapes. 
Horses, cattle, sheep, and camels are reared 
in considerable numbers. Chief minerals: iron, 
lead, copper, salt, saltpeter, and marble. Ta- 
breez is the capital. On the n. w. frontier is 
situated Mount Ararat. 

Azof, Sea of, an arm of the Black Sea, with 
which it is united by the Straits of Kertch (or 
Kaffa); length about 170 mi., breadth about 80 
mi.; greatest depth not more than 8 fathoms. 
The w. part, called the Putrid Sea, is sepa¬ 
rated from the main expanse by a long sandy 
belt called Arabat, along which runs a military 
road. The sea teems with fish. The Don and 






Azores 


Aztecs 


other rivers enter it, and its waters are very 
fresh. 

Azores (a-zorz' or a-zo'res) (or Western 
Islands), a group belonging to and 900 mi. west 
of Portugal, in the North Atlantic Ocean. 
They are nine in number, and form three dis¬ 
tinct groups — a n. w., consisting of Flores and 
Corvo; a central, consisting of Terceira, Sao 
Jorge, Pico, Fayal, and Graciosa; and a s. e., 
consisting of Sao Miguel (or St. Michael) and 
Santa Maria. The total area is about 900 sq. 
mi.; Sao Miguel (containing the capital, Ponta 
Delgada), Pico, and Terceira are the largest. 
The islands are volcanic and subject to earth¬ 
quakes, and are conical, lofty, precipitous, and 
picturesque. The most remarkable summit is 
the peak of Pico, about 7,600 feet high. There 
are numerous hot springs. They are covered 
with luxuriant vegetation, and diversified with 
woods, corn-fields, vineyards, lemon and orange 
groves, and rich open pastures. The mild and 
somewhat humid climate, combined with the 
natural fertility of the soil, brings all kinds of 
vegetable products rapidly to perfection. The 
climate is recommended as suitable for con¬ 
sumptive patients. The Azores were discov¬ 
ered by Cabral about 1431, shortly after which 
date they were taken possession of and colo¬ 
nized by the Portuguese. When first visited 
they were uninhabited, and had scarcely any 
other animals except birds, particularly hawks, 


to which, called in Portuguese adores, the 
islands owe their name. Pop. 270,000. 

Az'tecs, a race of people who settled in 
Mexico early in the fourteenth century, ulti¬ 
mately extended their dominion over a large 
territory, and were still extending their 
supremacy at the time of the arrival of the 
Spaniards, by whom they were speedily subju¬ 
gated. Their most celebrated ruler was 
Montezuma, who was reigning when the Span¬ 
iards arrived, about the middle of the fifteenth 
century. Although ignorant of the horse, ox, 
etc., they had a considerable knowledge of 
agriculture, maize and the agave being the 
chief produce. In metal work, feather work, 
weaving and pottery they possessed a high 
degree of skill. To record events they used 
hieroglyphics; and their lunar calendars were 
of unusual accuracy. Two special deities 
claimed their reverence: Hintzilopochtli, the 
god of war, propitiated with human sacrifices; 
and Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent god of light 
and air, with whom at first the Aztecs were 
disposed to identify Cortez. Their temples, 
with large terraced pyramidal bases, were in 
the charge of an exceedingly large priesthood, 
with whom lay the education of the young. As 
a civilization of apparently independent origin, 
yet closely resembling in many features the 
archaic Oriental civilizations, the Aztec civili¬ 
zation is of the first interest. See Mexico. 


Baal 


Baboon 


B 


B is the second letter and the first consonant 
in the English and most other alphabets. It 
is a mute and labial, pronounced solely by the 
lips, and is distinguished from p by being 
sonant, that is, produced by the utterance of 
voice as distinguished from breath. 

In music B is the seventh note of the model 
diatonic scale, or scale of C. It is called the 
leading note, as there is always a feeling of 
suspense when it is sounded until the key¬ 
note is heard. 

Ba al (Bel), a Hebrew and general Semitic 
word signifying simply lord, and applied to 
many different divinities. In Hosea 2:16 it 
is applied to Jehovah himself, while Baal- 
berith (the Covenant-lord) was the god of the 
Shechemites, and Baal-zebub (the Fly-god) the 
idol of the Philistines at El-cron. 

Baalbek', a place in Syria, at the foot of 
Antilibanus, 40 mi. from Damascus, famous 
for its magnificent ruins. Of these the chief 
is the temple of the Sun, built either by An¬ 
toninus Pius or by Septimius Severus. Some 
of the blocks used in its construction are 60 
ft. long by 12 ft. thick. Near it is a temple of 
Jupiter, of smaller size though still larger 
than the Parthenon at Athens. It became a 
Roman colony under Julius Caesar, was gar¬ 
risoned by Augustus, and acquired renown 
under Trajan as the seat of an oracle. It was 
sacked by the Arabs in 748, and more com¬ 
pletely pillaged by Tamerlane in 1401; it sank 
into decay. The destruction was completed 
by an earthquake in 1759. 

Bab'bage, Charles (1792-1871), an eminent 
English mathematician and inventor of the 
calculating machine. As early as 1812 he con¬ 
ceived the idea of calculating numerical ta¬ 
bles by machinery, and in 1823 he received a 
grant from government for the construction of 
such a machine. After a series of experiments 
Babbage abandoned the undertaking in favor 
of an analytical engine, worked with cards like 
the Jacquard loom; but the project was never 
completed. The incompleted machine is now 
in the South Kensington Museum. 

Babbit=metal, a soft metal resulting from 
alloying together certain proportions of copper, 
tin, and zinc or antimony, used with the view 
of as far as possible obviating friction in the 
bearings of journals, cranks, axles, etc., in¬ 
vented by Isaac Babbit (1799-1862), a goldsmith 
of Taunton, Mass. 

Babcock, Orville E. (1835-1884); b. in 
Franklin, Yt. He graduated at West Point, 
served during the whole of the Civil War, and 
served as aide-de-camp to General Grant. Colo¬ 
nel Babcock acted as Grant’s secretary 1869-71, 
when he was appointed superintendent of build¬ 
ings in the District of Columbia. In 1876 he 
was indicted for complicity in the whisky¬ 
ring frauds, but was acquitted. 

15 


Babel, Tower of, a structure in the plain of 
Shinar, Mesopotamia, commenced by the de¬ 
scendants of Noah subsequent to the deluge. 
It has commonly been identified with the 
great temple of Belus (or Bel) that was one of 
the chief edifices in Babylon, and the huge 
mound called Birs Nimrud is generally re¬ 
garded as its site, though another mound, 
which to this day bears the name of Babil, has 
been assigned by some as its site. Babel 
means literally “gate of God.” 

Bab=eI=Mandeb (“ gate of tears,” from being 
dangerous to small craft), a strait, 15 mi. wide, 
between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, 
formed by projecting points of Arabia in Asia, 
and Abyssinia in Africa. The island of Perim 
is here. 

Ba'ber (1483-1530), first grand Mogul, the 
founder of the Mogul dynasty in Hindustan. 
He was sovereign of Cabul. He several times 
invaded Hindustan, and in 1525 killed Sultan 
Ibrahim, the last Hindu emperor of the Af¬ 
ghan race. He made many improvments, 
social and political, in his empire, and left a 
valuable autobiography. 

Ba' boon, a common name applied to a divis¬ 
ion of old-world apes and monkeys. They have 



Sacred Baboon. 


elongated, abrupt muzzles like a dog, strong 
tusks or canine teeth, usually short tails, cheek- 
pouches, small, deep eyes with large eyebrows 
and naked callosities on the buttocks. Their 
hind and fore feet are well proportioned, so 
that they run easily on all fours, but they do 
not maintain themselves in an upright posture 
with facility. They are generally of the size 
of a moderately large dog, but the largest, the 
mandrill, is, when erect, nearly of the height 
of a man. They are almost all African, ugly, 
sullen, fierce, and gregarious, defending them¬ 
selves by throwing stones, dirt, etc. They live 




Babrius 


on fruits and roots, eggs and insects. They 
include the chacma, drill, common baboon, 
and mandrill. The chacma or pig-tailed ba¬ 
boon is found in considerable numbers in parts 
of the South African colonies, where the in¬ 
habitants wage war against them on account 
of the ravages they commit in the fields and 
gardens. The common baboon inhabits a large 
part of Africa farther to the north. It is of a 
brownish-yellow color, while the chacma is 
grayish black, or in parts black. The hama- 
dryas of Abyssinia is characterized by long 
hair, forming a sort of shoulder cape. The 
black baboon is found in Celebes. 

Bab'rius, a Greek poet who flourished dur¬ 
ing the second or third century of the Chris¬ 
tian era, and wrote a number of iEsopian fa¬ 
bles. Several versions of these made during 
the Middle Ages have come down to us as 
iEsop’s fables. In 1840 a manuscript contain¬ 
ing 120 fables by Babrius, previously unknown, 
was discovered on Mount Athos. 

Bab'ylon, the capital of Babylonia, once 
one of the largest and most splendid cities of 
the ancient world, now a scene of ruins. It 
was a royal city sixteen hundred years before 
the Christian era; but the old city was almost 
entirely destroyed in 683 b. c. A new city 
was built by Nebuchadnezzar nearly a century 
later. This was in the form of a square, each 
side 15 mi. long, with walls of such immense 
height and thickness as to constitute one of 
the wonders of the world. It contained splen¬ 
did edifices, large gardens, and pleasure 
grounds, especially the “hanging gardens,’’ a 
sort of lofty, terraced structure supporting 
earth enough for trees to grow, and the cele¬ 
brated tower of Babel, or temple of Belus, 
rising by stages to the height of 625 ft. After 
the city was taken by Cyrus in 538 b. c., and 
Babylonia made a Persian province, it began 
to decline, and had suffered severely by the 
time of Alexander the Great. Interesting dis¬ 
coveries have been made on 
its site, especially of numer¬ 
ous and valuable inscriptions 
in the cuneiform or arrowhead 
character. The modern town 
of Hillah is believed to repre¬ 
sent the ancient city, and the 
plain here for miles round is 
studded with vast mounds of 
earth, and brick, and imposing 
ruins. The greatest mound is 
Birs Nimrud, about 6 mi. from 
Hillah. It rises nearly 200 
ft., is crowned by a ruined 
tower, and is commonly be- 
at r«an : <\ XHv lieved to be the remains of 
7 / —l^j the ancient temple of Belus. 

Another great ruin-mound, 
called Mujellibeh, has also 
been assigned as its site. 

Babylonia (now Irak Arabi), an old Asiatic 
empire occupying the region watered by the 
lower course of the Euphrates and the Tigris, 
and by their combined stream. The inhabit¬ 
ants, though usually designated Babylonians, 
were sometimes called Chaldeans, At the 



Cuneiform 

Inscriptions. 


Babylonia 

earliest period of which we have record, the 
whole valley of the Tigris and Euphrates was 
inhabited by tribes of Turanian or Tatar 
origin. Along with these, however, there 
early existed an intrusive, Semitic element, 
which gradually increased in number till at 
the time the Babylonians and Assyrians (the 
latter being a kindred people) became known 
to the Western historians, they were essentially 
Semitic peoples. The great city Babylon (or 
Babel) was the capital of Babylonia, which 
was called by the Hebrews Shinar. The 
country was, as it still is, exceedingly fertile, 
and must have anciently supported a dense 
population. The chief cities, besides Baby- 



Chaldean Cylinder,—Marble or Porphyry. 


Ion, were Ur, Calneh, Erech, and Sippara. 
Babylonia and Assyria were often spoken of 
together as Assyria. 

The discovery and interpretation of the cu¬ 
neiform inscriptions have enabled the history 
of Babylonia to be carried back to about 4000 
b.c., at which period the inhabitants had at¬ 
tained a considerable degree of civilization, 
and the country was ruled by a number of 
kings or princes, each in his own city. About 
2700 b. c. Babylonia came under the rule of 
a single monarch. Latterly it had serious 
wars, and for several hundred years previous 
to 2000 b. c. Babylonia was subject to the 
neighboring Elam. It then regained its inde¬ 
pendence, and for a thousand years it was the 
foremost state of Western Asia in power, as 
well as in science, art, and civilization. The 
rise of the Assyrian Empire brought about the 
decline of Babylonia, which latterly was under 
Assyrian domination, though with intervals of 
independence. Tiglath-Pileser II, of Assyria 
(745-727), made himself master of Babylonia; 
but the conquest of the country had to be re¬ 
peated by his successor, Sargon, who expelled 
the Babylonian king, Merodach-Baladan, and 
all but finally subdued the country, the com¬ 
plete subjugation being effected by Sennach¬ 
erib. After some sixty years the second or 
later Babylonian Empire arose under Nabopo- 
lassar, who, joining the Medes against the As¬ 
syrians, freed Babylon from the superiority of 
the latter power, 625 b.c. The new Empire was 
at its height of power and glory under Nabopo- 
lassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar (604-561), who 
subjected Jerusalem, Tyre, Phoenicia, and 
even Egypt, and carried his dominion to the 
shores of the Mediterranean and northward 
to the Armenian mountains. The capital. 


















































t 

i 

I 



5. Relief from Chorsabad. 


6. Wall Painting of Niniveh. 















































































































































30 31 32 33 36 

i.-2, Form of Idols from Chorsabad. 3. Floor Pavement at Kujundschik, 4. King on his Throne. 5,6, Oom- 
mental Weapons 7. Head of a King. 8-10. Ro3'al Headwear. n. Head rigs of Horses. £2-16. Ftmai&ure. 
17-21. Earrings. 22-26. Jewelry. 27. Sacred Vessel 28 30. Vessels. 31 Cylinder Cuneiform Inscription. 
32. Bell. 33. Representations of an Obelisk at Nimrod. Fan or Brush. 

... 1 ■ 11 - * ..— ■ —. . .... . . « 


































































































































Babylonish Captivity 

Babylon, was rebuilt by him. He was suc¬ 
ceeded by his son, Evil-Merodach, but the dy¬ 
nasty soon came to an end, the last king being 
Nabonetus (or Nabonadius), who came to the 
throne in b.c. 555, and made his son, Belshaz¬ 
zar, co-ruler with him. Babylon was taken by 
Cyrus the Persian monarch in 538, and the 
second Babylonian Empire came to an end, 
Babylonia being incorporated in the Persian 
Empire. The account of the civilization, arts, 
and social advancement of the Assyrians al¬ 
ready given in the article Assyria may be taken 
as generally applying also to the Babylonians, 
though certain 
the two peoples, 
be had, and con¬ 
sequently brick 
was the almost 
universal build- 
i n g material. 

Sculpture was 
thus less devel¬ 
oped in Babylo¬ 
nia than in As¬ 
syria, and paint¬ 
ing more. Bab¬ 
ylonian art had 
also more of a 
religious charac¬ 
ter than that of 
Assyria, and the 
chief edifices 
found in ruins 
are temples. 

Weaving and 
pottery w e*r e 
carried to high 
perfection. As¬ 
tronomy was 
cultivated from 
the earliest 
times. The Bab¬ 
ylonians had a 
number of dei¬ 
ties, but latterly 
the chief or na¬ 
tional deity was 
B e 1 Merodach, 
originally the sun-god. Education was well 
attended to, and there were schools and libra¬ 
ries in connection with the temples. 

Babylonish Captivity. See Hebrews. 

Bacchus (bak'us) (in Greek, generally Dio¬ 
nysos), the god of wine, son of Zeus (Jupiter) 
and Semele. He first taught the cultivation 
of the vine and the preparation of wine. In 
art he is represented with the round, soft, 
and graceful form of a maiden rather than 
with that of a young man. He is usual]}'' 
naked; sometimes he has an ample mantle 
hung negligently round his shoulders; some¬ 
times a fawn-skin hangs across his breast. He 
is often accompanied by Silenus, Bacchantes, 
Satyrs, etc. The Bacchanalia were feasts 
periodically held in his honor, and character¬ 
ized by licentiousness, on which account the 
Roman Senate abolished them in b. c. 187. A 
Bacchante was the name given generally to a fe¬ 
male taking part in such feasts and processions. 


Backgammon 

Baccio Della Porta (bach'o) (14C9-1517), 
Italian painter, better known under the name 
of Fra Bartolommeo. He studied painting in 
Florence, was an admirer and follower of 
Savonarola, on whose death he took the Do¬ 
minican habit, and assumed the name of Fra 
Bartolommeo. He was the friend of Michael 
Angelo and Raphael; painted many religious 
pictures, among them a Saint Mark and Saint 
Sebastian , which are greatly admired. 

Bach (baA), Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), 
one of the greatest of German musicians. 
Being the son of a musician he was early 
trained in the art, and soon distinguished him¬ 
self. In 1703 he was engaged as a player at 
the court of Weimar, and subsequently he was 
musical director to the Duke of Anhalt-Kothen, 
and latterly held an appointment at Leipsic. 
He paid a visit to Potsdam on the invitation 
of Frederick the Great. As a player on the 
harpsichord and organ he had no equal among 
his contemporaries; but it was not till a cen¬ 
tury after his death that his greatness as a 
composer was fully recognized. His composi¬ 
tions are largely of the religious kind. They 
include pieces, vocal and instrumental, for the 
organ, piano, stringed and keyed instruments; 
church cantatas, oratorios, masses, passion 
music, etc. More than fifty musical perform¬ 
ers have proceeded from this family. Bach 
had eleven sons, all distinguished as musicians. 

Bachelor’s Buttons, the double-flowering 
buttercup with white or yellow blossoms, com¬ 
mon in gardens. 

Bacil'lus, the name applied to certain 
minute, rod-like, microscopic organisms (bac¬ 
teria) which often appear in putrefactions, 
and one of which is believed to hold a con 
stant causative relation to tubercles in the lung,, 
and to be present in all cases of consumption. 
It is one of the three principal classes of bac¬ 
teria. See Bacteria. 

Backgam' mon, a game played by two per¬ 
sons upon a table or board made for the pur¬ 
pose, with pieces or men, dice-boxes, and dice. 
The table is in two parts, on which are twenty- 
four black and white spaces called points. 
Each player has fifteen men of different colors 
for the purpose of distinction. The move- 














































Bacon 


Bacteria 


ments of the men are made in accordance 
with the numbers turned up by the dice. It 
is said to have been invented in the tenth 
century. 

Bacon, Delta (1811-1859), born in Ohio. 
She was a talented woman, who sought to 
prove that Francis Bacon was the author of 
the Shakespearean plays, 

Ba'con, Francis, Lord Yerulam, Viscount 
St. Albans (1561-1026), known generally by 
Pope’s characterization as “thewisest, bright¬ 
est, meanest of mankind.” Queen Elizabeth 
playfully styled him her “young Lord Keeper. ” 
He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
where, it is said, he acquired his hatred of 
Aristotelianism, and began to sketch his own 
scheme of philosophy. Leaving college, he 
went to Paris. There he occupied himself 
with diplomacy and scientific investigation 
until 1580, when “the death of his father re¬ 
called him to England. His bright talents ex¬ 
cited the alarm of his uncle, Lord Burleigh, 
then Premier, who saw in him a most formi¬ 
dable rival to his own son Robert. Although 
B. then paid court to Burleigh’s rival, Essex, 
the latter was not powerful enough to prevent 
him from being defeated in his contest in 1594 
for the attorney-generalship. To make up 
for this defeat, Essex presented B. with an 
estate at Twickenham worth $10,000 a year. 
Vet B. is found as the chief persecutor of Es¬ 
sex, both by pen and tongue, for conspiracy 
against the queen, and although various at¬ 
tempts have been made to explain this away, 
it is impossible to acquit him of ingratitude. 
B., who had entered Parliament as member 
for Middlesex in 1595, rose rapidly in the reign 
of James I. He was knighted in 1603, became 
attorney-general in 1613, in which office he 
also shows himself in an unfavorable light, 
as countenancing the torture of an old clergy¬ 
man of the name of Peacham by the rack; 
Keeper of the Great Seal in 1617, and in 1619, 
Lord Chancellor, with the title of Lord Veru- 
lam. Next year he was made Viscount St. 
Albans. It seems undoubted that B. abused 
the high position he had now attained, by tak¬ 
ing advantage of his judicial functions to in¬ 
crease his revenues. The scandal became so 
great, that neither the king nor his favorite 
Villiers, to whom he had truckled in the most 
abject manner, could shield him from popular 
indignation; a parliamentary inquiry was in¬ 
stituted in 1621; B. confessed to twenty-three 
acts of corruption, and was sentenced to a fine 
of $200,000, to be confined in the Tower dur¬ 
ing the king’s pleasure, and to be banished for 
life from the court, and from public employ¬ 
ment. Although the fine was remitted, and 
the imprisonment only lasted two days, B. 
never returned to public life, but on a pension 
of $6,000 a year devoted himself to literature 
and science. His death took place in 1626, the 
common story being that he caught a chill 
while endeavoring to test the power of snow 
to preserve flesh. His debts amounted to 
$ 110 , 000 . 

His intimacy with every department of hu¬ 
man knowledge except mathematics is mar¬ 


velous; while few writers have been more elo¬ 
quent, more imaginative, or more witty. He 
will be best remembered as, “if not abso¬ 
lutely the father of the Inductive Philosophy, 
in the sense of the inventor of the method of 
interrogating nature by experiment and ob¬ 
servation, the popularizer of that philosophy.” 
Of late years an attempt has been made to 
ascribe to Bacon the authorship of the Shakes¬ 
pearean plays. Ingenious as some of the argu¬ 
ments have been, the balance of probability 
remains against such a theory. 

Bacon, Leonard (1802-1881), b. in Detroit, 
Mich. He graduated at Yale in 1820, and in 
1825 was ordained pastor of the First Congre¬ 
gational church of New Haven, which pastor¬ 
ate he held until his death. He was professor 
of didactic theology in Yale, 1866-1871. Dr. 
Bacon edited The Christian Spectator , wrote for 
the New Englander , and founded and edited 
the Independent (1847). 

Bacon, Leonard Woolsey, b. 1830, in New 
Haven,' Conn., son of the foregoing. He gradu¬ 
ated at Y r ale in 1850, and studied theology at 
Andover and medicine at Y r ale. He served as 
pastor of churches in New York and Connecti¬ 
cut, and has written much for the religious 
press. 

Bacon, Roger (1214-1294), an English monk, 
and one of the most profound and original 
thinkers of his day. He first entered the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford, and went afterward to that 
of Paris, where he received the degree of Doc¬ 
tor of Theology. About 1250 he returned to 
England, entered the order of Franciscans, but 
having incurred the suspicion of his ecclesias¬ 
tical superiors on a charge of practising “ black 
art” or magic, he was sent to Paris and kept 
in confinement for ten years. Having been 
set at liberty, in 1278 he was again thrown into 
prison, where he remained for at least ten 
years. His most important work is his Opus 
Majus , where he discusses the relation of 
philosophy to religion, and then treats of lan¬ 
guage, metaphysics, optics, and experimental 
science. He was intimately acquainted with 
geography and astronomy. 

Bacteria (Gr., Bakterion, a little staff), are 
minute unicellular vegetable organisms which 
multiply by transverse division. They are 
spherical, oval, rod-like, or spiral in shape and 
are devoid of chlorophyll, owing to the ab¬ 
sence of which they are forced to lead a 
saprophytic life (obtaining nutrition from dead 
organic matter); or a parasitic life (obtaining 
nutriment from living matter). The role played 
in nature by the saprophytic bacteria is a very 
important one. Through their presence the 
highly complicated tissues of dead animal 
and vegetable matter are resolved into the 
simple compounds (carbonic acid, water, an l 
ammonia) in which form they may be taken 
up and appropriated as nutrition by the more 
highly organized members of the vegetable 
kingdom. It is through this ultimate pro¬ 
duction of carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, 
as end-products in the process of decompo¬ 
sition and fermentation of the dead animal 
and vegetable tissues, that the demands of 



BACTERIA. 

i. Tubercle Bacillus (Bacillus Tuberculosis, Koch). 2. Streptococcus Pyogenes, 3. Bacillus Anthracis, with 
Spores. 4. Spirillum Obermeiri in blood of relapsing fever. 5. Comma Bacillus of Asiatic Cholera. 6. Micrococcus 
Tetragenus (Saprophytic). 








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Bacteria 


Bacteria 


growing- vegetation for these compounds are 
supplied. Saprophytes must be looked upon 
in the light of “benefactors,” without which 
existence would be impossible. With the par¬ 
asites, on the other hand, the conditions are 
far from analogous. Through their activities 
there is constantly a loss to both the animal 
and vegetable kingdom. Their host must be 
a living body in which exist conditions favor¬ 
able to their development and from which 
they appropriate substances necessary to the 
health of the organism to which they have 
found access; at the same time they eliminate 
substances as products of their nutrition that 
are directly poisonous to the tissues in which 
they are growing. For the growth of bacteria, 
organic matter of a neutral or slightly alkaline 
reaction, in the presence of moisture and a 
suitable temperature (41.9°F.-118.4° F.) is nec¬ 
essary. Some bacteria flourish in an atmos¬ 
phere of oxygen, while to others the presence 
of this gas is a detriment, hence bacteria are 
divided into anaerobic (not living in oxygen) 
and mrobic (living in oxygen). 

The principal forms of bacteria are:—• 

1. Micrococci. 

2. Bacilli. 

3. Spirilla. 

The micrococci are small oval or round bodies 
which grow and multiply in various ways so 
that by their development we have formed the 
staphylococci (cocci in bunches), the streptococci 
(cocci in chains), diplococci (cocci in pairs), 
tetrads (cocci in fours), sarsince (cocci in 
squares, cubes, etc.). The most common of 
these micrococci are the pus microbes staphy¬ 
lococcus , golden, lemon-colored, and white, and 
the streptococcus. The bacilli are minute rod¬ 
shaped organisms, and varied as to length, 
breadth, and thickness. The bacillus tubercu¬ 
losis , the bacillus typhosis, and the bacillus 
anthracis are common examples of this form 
of microbe. 

The spirilla are minute spiral or comma- 
shaped germs which sometimes present letter 
S curves and sometimes appear as though 
they were bacilli. Examples of this form are 
Spirillum Asiaticce Cholerce and spirillum of 
Finkler-Prior. 

An important feature of certain bacteria is 
their power of spore formation, a process by 
which an organism is enabled to enter a state in 
which it resists influences deleterious to its 
growth. It is this property which renders 
certain germs so harmful, as in this state they 
resist chemical and physical agents that easily 
destroy life, even resisting the action of a 
temperature of 212° F. for several hours. The 
bacillus anthracis is a noticeable example of 
this. Certain bacteria possess the property 
of motility. The propelling power are hair¬ 
like appendages, called flagellse, projecting 
from various parts of the body-wall. This 
motility is an important point in bacteriologic 
diagnosis, and is possessed pre-eminently by 
the bacillus typhosis. 

Bacteria are found everywhere (in air, soil, 
water, clothing, surface of bodies, mucous 
membrane, etc.), and they multiply so rapidly 


that, it has been estimated, one bacillus in 
24 hours will produce 16^ millions. 

By their growth bacteria produce certain 
poisons, called ptomaines (saprophytic) and tox- 
albumins (parasitic). This action producing 
ptomaines is the cause of the numerous deaths 
reported from eating ice cream, sausage, and 
other substances. As an example of the 
poisonous effect of the tox-albumins we have 
the bacillus diphtheriai, which acts by its toxine 
in producing the condition known as “in¬ 
toxication.” 

For the artificial cultivation of bacteria in 
the laboratory certain media are used. As to 
the method of their preparation nothing need 
now be said, suffice it to say that the general 
media are gelatin, agar-agar, bouillon, glu¬ 
cose-agar, litmus milk, potato, blood-serum. 
Special media are used in certain cases as 
some germs grow feebly or not at all on one 
general culture ground. An example of a 
special medium is human blood-serum in the 
artificial cultivation of the gonococcus. 

After the preparation of the media, it must 
be made perfectly sterile. This is accom¬ 
plished by submitting it to the action of live 
steam for half an hour on three successive 
days. The object of this “fractional steriliza¬ 
tion” is to kill the successive crops of spores 
as they develop, as a single steaming will not 
accomplish this purpose. 

Having rendered our media sterile, we are in 
a condition to study bacteria systematically 
and thoroughly. 

This in brief is as follows:— 

1. At the post-mortem or during life a speci¬ 
men is obtained from the selected site (scrap¬ 
ing from mucous membrane in diphtheretic 
throat). This specimen is inoculated on a 
tube containing sterile agar-agar. This tube 
is then placed in an incubator and kept at a 
temperature of 97° F. for about 24 hours, at 
the end of which time an extensive growth of 
bacteria (if any be present) will be noticed. 

2. Our next step will be to isolate in pure 
culture the various germs which have grown 
out upon the agar-agar tube in No. 1. This 
pure culture is obtained by inoculating from 
the original agar-agar tube, a tube of nutrient 
bouillon. From this bouillon tube we now 
inoculate with 2 drops of the nutrient bouillon, 
2 sterile agar-agar tubes, the one from the 
other. This agar-agar should be melted and. 
cooled down to a temperature of 113° F. prior 
to inoculation with the nutrient bouillon cul¬ 
ture. After the agar-agar has been inoculated, 
it is poured out into flat Petri dishes, in order 
to enlarge the surface and separate the colo¬ 
nies which will subsequently develop. These 
Petri dishes are then placed in the incubator 
at a temperature of 97° F. (if we use agar-agar 
as plate media), of 68° F. (if we use plain gela¬ 
tin) and kept for 24 hours. At the end of this 
time we notice separate colonies developed on 
the surface or in the substance of the culture 
medium. 

3. The next step in the examination is the in¬ 
oculation, on to a new sterile agar-agar tube, 
of a specimen from each of the varying colo- 


Bacteria 


Bacteria 


nies developed on the agar-agar plate. This is 
then incubated, and we have as the result a 
pure culture of each separate organism ob¬ 
tained from the original inoculation. 

4. The next step consists in cultivating the 
germ artificially upon the various laboratory 
media. This is done by inoculating with a 
specimen from our pure culture each of the 
media in turn, and subjecting them to incuba¬ 
tion for 24 hours. 

5. Having examined the cultural pecul¬ 
iarities of the microbe, we examine the germ 
itself in microscopic section. For this pur¬ 
pose we use both stained preparations and 
the unstained hanging drop. The common 
laboratory staining agents are the aniline col¬ 
oring agents such as carbol fuchsin, methylene 
blue, gentian violet, etc. 

6. Our final step in the identification of a 
bacterium is the inoculation of an animal with 
a pure culture of the germ under observation. 
The casual development must be noted with 
regularity and precision; symptoms must be 
studied carefully, and if we succeed in produc¬ 
ing the disease, with which we know or sus¬ 
pect the original person or animal to have 
died, we have positive evidence that we have 
isolated, cultivated, and inoculated the germ 
causing the original disease. 

These are the successive steps in the study of 
a microbe, and by this method Koch, its pro¬ 
mulgator, succeeded in proving that the 
Bacillus Tuberculosis was the specific causal 
agent in the disease tuberculosis. Numerous 
infective diseases exist, for which the special 
causal agent has, as yet, not been discovered; 
but just as soon as we can start with a disease 
and by successive steps proceed to the produc¬ 
tion of the same disease in a susceptible 
animal, then can we say that the specific 
causal agent for that disease has been discov¬ 
ered. 

These are the general principles underlying 
the study of bacteria as a whole, but certain 
specific cases must be considered in which the 
technique, although it may be carried out in 
this way, is generally altered to suit the condi¬ 
tions. The consideration of specific bacteri¬ 
ology will be based on the work done in the 
Laboratory of the Department of Health of 
Chicago. In this laboratory examinations are 
made of water (as regards its typhoid tenden¬ 
cies), of suspected diphtheretic cases, of cases 
of supposed tuberculosis, of cases suspected to 
be cholera in times of epidemic, and of many 
other cases coming under the notice of this 
department in its effort to insure the best gen¬ 
eral health possible. 

In examination cases of supposed tuber¬ 
culosis of lungs (consumption), a specimen of 
sputum is obtained from the patient to be ex¬ 
amined. One of the white cheesy masses found 
in it is selected for the future examination. A 
portion of this mass is placed upon a clean 
cover glass (a very thin glass section), and is 
spread out over the surface of this glass in as 
fine a film as possible. This film is allowed to 
dry in the air and is then passed three or four 
times through a flame in order to fix it to the 


glass by coagulating the albumen. Having 
dried and fixed the film, the staining agent 
(Ziehl’s carbol-fuchsin solution) is placed, drop 
by drop, upon the film. The solution is now 
heated to boiling several times, more being 
added as evaporation takes place; and is then 
washed off with a five-per-cent, solution of sul¬ 
phuric acid, after which it is treated with 
ninety-five per cent, alcohol and water until 
the color entirely disappears. We now place 
upon the color slip a solution of methylene 
blue, and allow it to remain unheated about two 
minutes. This blue solution is then washed 
off in water, and the preparation is then ready 
to be mounted and examined microscopically. 
The peculiarity of this method consists in the 
fact that while all the bacteria present in the 
original specimen of sputum are stained by 
the red carbol-fuchsin solution, all but the 
bacillus tuberculosis part with their color upon 
the subsequent treatment with sulphuric acid 
and alcohol. On adding the methylene blue 
the germs, decolorized by acid and alcohol, 
will take up the blue color, and our microscop¬ 
ical picture will be a very beautiful contrast 
of red and blue coloration. The bacillus tuber¬ 
culosis, if present, appears as a bright red, 
while all else will appear blue. This is a posi¬ 
tive sign of tuberculosis. The only germs 
which have this peculiar reaction are, besides 
the one already discussed the Smegma bacillus, 
the bacillus of syphilis , and the bacillus of leprosy. 
Certain peculiarities are found in their re¬ 
actions which enable us, by staining process 
and by knowing the source of the specimen, 
to substantiate a diagnosis of tuberculosis. 

Examination for the bacillus of Typhoid Fe¬ 
ver (water analysis in general). It is very rarely 
that the Bacillus Typhosis itself is found in bac¬ 
teriological examination of water, but as there 
are present in the normal intestine of man cer¬ 
tain bacteria which can be recognized readily 
by examination, their presence will j>rove the 
contamination of water by intestinal contents, 
and as such the water can be considered an 
object of suspicion and as a possible source of 
typhoid contagion. We first obtain the speci¬ 
men of water, being careful to avoid contami¬ 
nation from any source other than the one 
under question. We make plate cultures of 
specimens of this water, using 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 
drops of the water in each plate. Duplicate 
plates are to be made, one upon gelatin, to be 
kept at room temperature, and the other upon 
agar-agar, to be kept in the incubator at 97° F. 
We then note the number of colonies by cer¬ 
tain counting methods, 100 to the cubic centi¬ 
meter of water being a safe limit. As few bac¬ 
teria grow at a temperature of 97° F., if we 
obtain any growth on the agar-agar plates we 
can be reasonably certain that some polluting 
germ is present. However, this is by no means 
certain. The growth should be studied in all 
its cultural peculiarities, should be inoculated 
into animals, and all the general bacteriologic 
principles applied to it. In the case of the 
Bacillus Typhosis and its co-habitator, the Bacil¬ 
lus Coli Communis , we can get no results upon 
animals, as none have been found susceptible 


Bacteria 

to their action. A solution known as PariettVs 
fluid (a mixture of hydrochloric acid and alco¬ 
hol) is used as a method of diagnosing pollution 
by germs belonging to group of Coli Communis. 
By this method we inoculate a tube with the 
germ, and then add a few drops of this Pari- 
etti’s fluid. If we get no growth, we can be 
sure there are none of the color group present; 
if a growth is observed, we can be tolerably cer¬ 
tain of the presence of some member of this 
group. Hence this is a negative test. We will 
not enter into the cultural peculiarities and 
methods of recognizing the Bacillus Coli Com¬ 
munis , and Bacillus Typhosis; suffice it to say 
that by methods pursued, contamination by 
intestinal contents can be noted both bacterio- 
logically and chemically by presence of chlo¬ 
rides, nitrates, and nitrites. Contamination 
by Asiatic cholera germs can be recognized by 
cultural peculiarities and by inoculation experi¬ 
ments. Typhoid Fever germs can be recog¬ 
nized in the urine and feces of a typhoid patient 
about the tenth day by ordinary methods. A 
comparatively late method of diagnosis of ty¬ 
phoid fever by bacteriological methods is found 
in the Widol method. This consists in the 
addition to the blood of the suspected typhoid 
patient of a few drops of fresh bouillon culture 
of typhoid bacilli. If the patient has typhoid 
fever we will notice, on examining the speci¬ 
men in the hanging drop under the microscope, 
that the actively motile typhoid germs are be¬ 
ginning to clump and to lose their motion, until 
finally they become perfectly passive. The 
scientific value of this method has as yet not 
been definitely settled by statistics, but every¬ 
thing seems to point toward its great useful¬ 
ness as a diagnostic agent. The bacteriological 
value of typhoid examinations can hardly be 
overestimated, as contamination may come 
through air, water, milk, soil, and there is re¬ 
ported a remarkable case of an epidemic of 
typhoid fever arising from consumption of 
oysters fattened in brackish water. 

Examination of throat in cases of supposed 
diphtheria. A scraping is made (from one 
of the whitish plaques on the surface of the 
mucous membrane of the throat) with a cotton 
swab. This swab is then rubbed over the sur¬ 
face of a sterile tube or box of Loeffier’s blood- 
serum mixture. It is then to be placed in an 
incubator or, in the absence of such a contri¬ 
vance, the test tube may be fastened into the 
axillary space of the patient and left for 24 
hours. At the end of this time the growth 
which appears on the surface may be exam¬ 
ined microscopically. A film of the growth is 
made on a cover glass in the ordinary way and 
is then stained for two minutes with a solu¬ 
tion of methylene blue. This solution is 
washed off in water, and the specimen is then 
mounted and examined. The diphtheria ba¬ 
cillus, if present, presents a peculiar and 
characteristic appearance. Various bizarre 
forms, such as club-shaped, dumb-bell, lance¬ 
shaped, alternately stained and unstained seg¬ 
ments, etc., are noticed so that the germ is 
easily recognized by its peculiarly character¬ 
istic segmentation in staining. 


Bacup 

Numerous other examinations could be men¬ 
tioned, but it is not the purpose of this article 
to deal completely with the subject. It is suffi¬ 
cient to state that the work done in the Chi¬ 
cago Laboratory is more important than it 
appears, as it is here that the daily examina¬ 
tion of the water supply of the city is made, 
and it is here that the probable rise and de¬ 
cline of epidemics are noted. It is important 
to remember that to a more intimate acquaint¬ 
ance with the biological activities of the uni¬ 
cellular vegetable micro-organisms, modern 
hygiene owes much of its value, and our 
knowledge of infectious diseases has reached 
the position it now occupies. 

The study of bacteriology may be said to 
have had its beginning with the observations 
of Leeuwenhoek in the year 1675. In this 
year he published the fact that he had seen, 
by means of a lens of his own construction, 
living motile animalcules in a drop of rain 
water. Extending his work to the examina¬ 
tion of sea water, well water, contents of the 
intestinal canal of frogs, birds, etc., he found 
objects that differentiated themselves, the one 
from the other, by size, shape, and peculiarity 
of movement. From a study of his work 
there can be no doubt that he had discovered 
the bodies now recognized as bacteria. A 
universal belief in the causal relation of these 
animalcules to disease arose, and in conse¬ 
quence there was developed a “germ mania.” 
Following this line scientists continued to 
work, and we find, through the researches of 
Pasteur, of Pollender, of Davaine and others, 
the old* doctrine of Contagium animatum re¬ 
ceiving attention. The conclusion necessa¬ 
rily drawn from the work as to the origin of 
these bodies, is that omne vivum ex vivo. The 
work of Rindfleisch, Klebs, Orth, Eberth, 
Koch, and others, shows a gradual advance 
along scientific lines, so that with Koch in 
1881, we have our foundation stone of bacteri¬ 
ology solidly laid. Koch proved in that year 
that distinct varieties of infection, as evi¬ 
denced by anatomical changes, are due in 
many cases to the activities of particular 
specific organisms, and that by proper methods 
it is possible to isolate these organisms, in 
pure culture, to cultivate them indefinitely, to 
reproduce the conditions by inoculation of 
these pure cultures into susceptible animals 
and by continuous inoculation from an in¬ 
fected to a healthy animal to continue the 
disease at will. R. W. Webster. 

Bactria'na (or Bactria), a country of ancient 
Asia, south of the Oxus and reaching to the 
west of the Hindu Kush. It is often regarded 
as the original home of the Indo-European 
races. A Graeco-Bactrian kingdom flourished 
about the third century b. c., but its history is 
obscure. 

Ba'cup, a borough of England, in Lanca¬ 
shire, 18 mi. n. of Manchester. The chief 
manufacturing establishments are connected 
with cotton spinning and pcwer-loom weaving; 
there are also iron works, Turkey-red dyeing 
works, and in the neighborhood numerous coal¬ 
pits and immense stone quarries. Pop. 23,498. 


Badajoz 


Bagatelle 


Badajoz (ba-da-7wth') (anc. Pax Augusta), 
the fortified capital of the Spanish province of 
Badajoz. Pop. 481,50S. During the Peninsular 
War, Badajoz was besieged by Marshal Soult, 
and taken in March, 1811. It was twice at¬ 
tempted by the English, on May 5 and 29, 
1811, and was besieged by Wellington on 
March 1C, and taken April G, 1812. Pop. town, 
27,279. 

Badakslian', a territory of Central Asia, 
tributary to the Ameer of Afghanistan. The 
chief town is Faizabad. The inhabitants pro¬ 
fess Mohammedanism. Pop. 500,000. 

Badeau, Adam, American soldier, b. 1831, in 
New York. He served on General Grant’s staff 
and retired with a brigadier general’s brevet 
in the regular army. From 18G9 to 1881 he was 
secretary of legation and consul general at 
London, and accompanied General Grant on 
his trip round the world (1877-78). He pub¬ 
lished Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 
(1867-81) and Grant in Peace (1886). D. 1895. 

Baden (ba'den), Gkand-duciiy of, one of the 
more important states of the German Empire. 
It is divided into four districts: Constance,Frei¬ 
burg, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim; has an area 
of 5,824 sq. mi., and a pop. of 1,725,464. It is 
mountainous, being traversed to a considera¬ 
ble extent by the lofty plateau of the Schwarz- 
wald or Black Forest, which attains its 
highest point in the Feldberg (4,904 ft.). 
The hilly parts, especially in the east, are 
cold and have a long winter, while the valley 
of the Rhine enjoys the finest climate of Ger¬ 
many. The principal minerals worked are 
coal, salt, iron, zinc, and nickel. The number 
of mineral springs is remarkably great, and of 
these not a few are of great celebrity. The 
vegetation is peculiarly rich, and there are 
magnificent forests. The cereals comprise 
wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Potatoes, hemp, 
tobacco, wine, and sugar-beet are largely pro¬ 
duced. Several of the wines, both white and 
red, rank in the first class. Baden has long 
been famous for its fruits also. Of the total 
area 42 per cent, is under cultivation, 37 per 
cent, under forest,and 17 per cent, under mead¬ 
ows and pastures. The manufactures are im¬ 
portant. Among them are textiles, tobacco 
and cigars, chemicals, machinery, pottery 
ware, jewelry (especially at Pforzheim), wood¬ 
en clocks, confined chiefly to the districts of 
the Black Forest, musical boxes and other 
musical toys. The capital is Carlsruhe, about 
5 mi. from the Rhine; the other chief towns 
are Mannheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, with a 
Roman Catholic university; Baden and Heidel¬ 
berg. Baden has warm mineral springs, which 
were known and used in the time of the Ro¬ 
mans. Heidelberg has a university (Protes¬ 
tant), founded in 1386, the oldest in the present 
German Empire. The railways have a length 
of 850 mi., and are nearly all state property. 
In the time of the Roman Empire southern 
Baden belonged to the Roman province of 
Rhaetia. Under the old German Empire it was 
a margravate, which in 1533 was divided into 
Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach,but reunited 
in 1771. The title of grand duke was con¬ 


ferred by Napoleon in 1806, and in the same 
year Baden was extended to its present limits. 
In 1870 Baden took an active part in the 
Franco-Prussian war, and became a member 
of the German Empire, Nov. 15, 1871. The 
executive power is vested in the grand duke, 
the legislative in a house of legislature, con¬ 
sisting of an upper and lower chamber. The 
revenue and expenditure are each usually 
about $10,000,000. 

Baden (or Baden-Baden, to distinguish it 
from other towns of the same name; German, 
Bad, a bath), a town and watering-place, 
Grand-duchy of Baden, 18 mi. s.s.w. Carls¬ 
ruhe, built in the form of an amphitheater on 
a spur of the Black Forest. Baden has been 
celebrated from the remotest antiquity for its 
thermal baths. It has many good buildings, 
and a castle, the summer residence of the 
grand-duke. Pop. 13,884, 

Baden, a town of Austria, 15 mi. s.w. of 
Vienna. It has numerous hot sulphurous 
springs, used both for bathing and drinking, 
and very much frequented. Pop. 11,262. It 
is generally known as Baden bei Wein. 

Baden, a small town of Switzerland, canton 
Aargau, celebrated for its hot sulphurous 
baths, which attract many visitors. Pop. 4,020. 

Badger (baj'er), a plantigrade, carnivorous 
mammal, allied both to the bears and to the 
weasels, of a clumsy make, with short, thick 
legs, and long claws on the forefeet. The 
common badger (Melee-milgaris) is as large as 
a middling sized dog, but much lower on 
the legs, with a flatter and broader body, 
very thick, tough hide, and long, coarse hair. 
It inhabits the north of Europe, Asia, and 
America, burrows, is indolent and sleepy, 
feeds by night on vegetables, small quadru¬ 
peds, etc. Its flesh may be eaten, and its hair 
is used for artists’ brushes in painting. The 
American badger belongs to a separate genus. 
Badger baiting , or draicing the badger, was a 
barbarous sport formerly practised, generally 
as an attraction to public-houses of the lowest 
sort. A badger was put in a barrel, and one 
or more dogs were put in to drag him out. 
When this was effected he was returned to his 
barrel, to be similarly assailed by a fresh set. 
The badger usually made a most determined 
and savage resistance. 

Badrinath (-at'), a peak of the main Hima¬ 
layan range, in Garhwdl District, Northwest¬ 
ern Provinces, India, 23,210 ft. above the sea. 
On one of its shoulders at an elevation of 
10,400 ft. stands a noted temple of Vishnu, 
which some years attracts as many as 50,000 
pilgrims. 

Baffin, William (1584-1622), an English 
navigator, famous for his discoveries in the 
Arctic regions; in 1616 ascertained the limits 
of Baffin’s Bay which is on the n.e. coast of 
North America between Greenland and the 
islands that lie on the n. of the continent. He 
was killed at the siege of Ormuz, in the East 
Indies. 

Bagatelle', a game played on a long, flat 
board covered with cloth like a billiard-table, 
with spherical balls and a cue or mace. 


Bagdad 

At the end of the board are nine cups or 
sockets of just sufficient size to receive the 
balls. Nine balls are used, generally one black, 
four white, and four red, the distinction be¬ 
tween white and red being made only for the 
sake of variety. 

Bagdad', capital of a Turkish pashalic of 
the same name (70,000 sq. mi., 1,000,000 
inhabitants), in the southern part of Meso¬ 
potamia (now Irak Arabi). The greater 
part of it lies on the eastern bank of the 
Tigris which is crossed by a bridge of boats; 
old Bagdad was on the western bank of the 
river. Manufactures: leather, silks, cottons, 
woolens, carpets, etc. Steamers ply on the 
river between Bagdad and Bassorah, and the 
town exports wheat, dates, galls, gum, mo¬ 
hair, carpets, etc., to Europe. Bagdad is 
inhabited by Turks, Arabs, Persians, Arme¬ 
nians, Jews, etc., and a small number of 
Europeans. Est. pop. over 100,000. The 
Turks compose three fourths of the whole 
population. The city has been frequently 
visited by the plague, and in 1831 was nearly 
devastated. Bagdad was founded in 762, and 
is the scene of many of the tales of the 
Arabian Nights. 

Bagehot, Walter (1826-1877), an English 
economist. For seventeen years he edited 
the London Economist. He was a recog¬ 
nized authority on economic questions and 
wrote many treatises on banking, the coin¬ 
age and the history of the money market. 

Baghelkand, a tract of country in central 
India, occupied by a collection of native 
states (Rewah being the chief), under the 
governor general’s agent for central India. 
Area 11,323 sq. mi.; pop. 1,512,595. 

Bagirmi (ba-gir'me) (or Baghermi), a Mo¬ 
hammedan negro state in Central Africa, situ¬ 
ated between Bornu and Waday, to the s. 
of lake Tchad. 

It is mostly a 
plain; has an 
area of about 
56,000 sq. mi. 
and about 1,- 
500,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. The 
people are in¬ 
dustrious, and 
have attained 
to a consider¬ 
able pitch of 
civilization. 

Bagpipe, a 
musical wind- 
instrument of 
very great an¬ 
tiquity, hav¬ 
ing been used 
among the 
ancientGreeks, 
and being a 
favorite instru¬ 
ment over Eu¬ 
rope generally 

in the fifteenth Highland Bagpipe. 


Bahrein Islands 

century. It still continues in use among the 
country people of Poland, Italy, the south of 
France, and in Scotland and Ireland. Though 
now often regarded as the national instrument 
of Scotland, especially Celtic Scotland, it is 
only Scottish by adoption, being introduced 
into that country from England. It consists 
of a leathern bag, which receives the air from 
the mouth, or from bellows; and of pipes, into 
which the air is pressed from the bag by the 
performer’s elbow. In the common or High¬ 
land form one pipe plays the melody; of the 
three others two are in unison with the lowest 
A of the chanter, and the third and longest an 
octave lower, the sound being produced by 
means of reeds. 

Baha'ma Islands (or Lucayos), a group of 
islands in the West Indies, forming a colony 
belonging to Britain, lying n. e. of Cuba, and 
s. e. of the coast of Florida. The principal 
islands are Grand Bahama, Great and Little 
Abaco, Andros Islands, New Providence, Eleu- 
thera, San Salvador, Great Exuma, Watling Is¬ 
land, Long Island, Crooked Island, Acklin Is¬ 
land, Mariguana Island, Great Inagua. Of the 
whole group about twenty are inhabited, the 
most populous being New Providence, which 
contains the capital, Nassau, the largest being 
Andros. Total area 5,450 sq. mi. The soil is 
a thin but rich vegetable mold, and the prin¬ 
cipal product is pineapples, which form the 
most important export. Other fruits are also 
grown, with cotton, sugar, maize, yams, 
groundnuts, cocoanuts, etc. Sponges are ob¬ 
tained in large quantity and are exported. 
The currency is English, but American coins 
circulate freely. The islands are a favorite 
winter resort for those afflicted with pulmo¬ 
nary diseases. Watling Island is now by best 
authorities believed to be same as Guanahani, 
the land first touched on by Columbus (Oct. 12, 
1492) on his first voyage of discovery. The 
first British settlement was made on New 
Providence toward the close of the seven¬ 
teenth century. A number of American To¬ 
ries settled in the islands after the Revolution. 
Pop. 47,565, including 14,000 whites. 

Bahia (ba-e'a) formerly San Salvador, a 
town of Brazil, on the Bay of All Saints, prov¬ 
ince of Bahia. It was founded in 1549, and is 
the oldest town in Brazil, of which it was capital 
until 1763. In 1874 it was placed in telegraphic 
communication with Europe. The harbor is 
one of the best in S. A.; and the trade, chiefly 
in sugar, cotton, coffee, tobacco, hides, pias- 
sava, and tapioca, is very extensive. Pop. 
80,000. The province (area 164,649 sq. mi.; 
pop. 1,821,089) has much fertile land, both 
along the coast and in the interior. 

Bahia Honda (Port, “deep bay”), a seaport 
of northern Cuba, 60 mi. w. s. w. of Havana. 
Pop. 4,823. 

Bahrein (bii'rin) Islands, a group of islands 
in the Persian Gulf, in an indentation on the 
Arabian coast. The principal island usually 
called Bahrein, is about 27 mi. in length and 
10 in breadth. The principal town is Mena- 
mah (or Manama); pop. 3,500. The Bahrein Is¬ 
lands are chiefly noted for their pearl fisheries, 







Bai se 


Bajazet 


which were known to the ancients, and which 
employ in the season about 400 boats with 
from 8 to 20 men in each. Total pop. est. 
40,000. 

Baise (bl'e), an ancient Roman watering- 
place on the coast of Campania, 10 mi. w. of 
Naples. Many of the wealthy Romans had 
country houses at Baiae, which Horace pre¬ 
ferred to all other places. It became notorious 
for the vicious lives of its inhabitants. Ruins 
of temples, baths, and villas still attract the at¬ 
tention of archaeologists. 

Baikal (bl'kal), a large fresh-water lake in 
Eastern Siberia. Area 14,000 sq. mi. It is 
surrounded by rugged and lofty mountains; 
contains seals, and many fish, particularly sal¬ 
mon, sturgeon, and pike. Its greatest depth 
is over 4,000 ft., and the seal and sturgeon 
fisheries are important industries. It is frozen 
over in winter. 

Bailey, James Montgomery ( 1841-1894), 
American journalist, b. in Albany, N.Y.,edited 
the Danbury News , to which he contributed 
numerous articles which for a time had great 
vogue. He was known by his signature as 
“The Danbury Newsman.” D. Mch. 4, 1894. 

Bailey, Philip James, English poet, b. at 
Basford, Nottingham, 1816. His most remark¬ 
able poem, Festus, was published in 1839. In 
1877 it had reached a tenth edition in Eng¬ 
land and had been even more read and ad¬ 
mired in America. 

Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851), a Scottish au¬ 
thoress, b. at Bothwell, Lanarkshire. She wrote 
several series of plays. Her only plays per¬ 
formed on the stage were a tragedy entitled 
The Family Legend , brought out at Edinburgh 
under the patronage of Sir Walter Scott; and 
De Montfort, brought out by John Kemble. 

Bailly, Jean Sylvain (1736-1793), first an art¬ 
ist, then astronomer, was b. in Paris. Chosen 
president of the National Assembly, 1789, and 
mayor of Paris, July 15, he labored with en¬ 
ergy and assiduity to keep the citizens from 
starvation and revolt. Discords showed them¬ 
selves in the Assembly and throughout the 
nation. Finally it became his duty to order 
the National Guard to fire on the insurgent 
rabble in the Champs-de-Mars. In November, 
1791, he resigned his office. When the Revo¬ 
lution grew more furious and hysterical, he 
was arrested and guillotined. 

Baily, Francis (1774-1844), English astrono¬ 
mer. He published Tables for the Purchasing 
and Renewing of Leases , The Doctrine of Lnterest 
and Annuities , The Doctrine of Life Annuities 
and Assurances , and an epitome of universal 
history. On retiring from business in 1825, he 
turned his attention to astronomy, and became 
one of the founders of the Astronomical So¬ 
ciety. 

Baily’s Beads, a phenomenon attending 
eclipses of the sun, the unobscured edge of 
which appears discontinuous and broken im¬ 
mediately before and after the moment of 
complete obscuration. It is classed as an ef¬ 
fect of irradiation. 

Bain, Alexander, a Scotch writer on men¬ 
tal philosophy and education, was b. at Aber¬ 


deen in 1818. He was.educated at Marischal 
College, Aberdeen; subsequently held official 
posts in London; and in 1860 was appointed 
professor of logic and English in Aberdeen 
University, a post which he held till his resig¬ 
nation in 1881. 

Bainbridge, William (1774-1833), American 
naval officer. When the U. S. navy was re¬ 
organized in 1798 he was appointed lieutenant 
commandant. In 1800 he commanded the 
frigate George Washington, which carried to 
Algiers the commercial tribute then levied by 
the dey of that country. In 1801 Bainbridge 
was captain of the Essex, which cruised in the 
Mediterranean. In 1803 in the U. S. war with 
Tripoli, he commanded the frigate Philadelphia 
under Commodore Preble, and while chasing a 
blockade-runner his vessel grounded on a reef 
and was scuttled and surrendered. The cap¬ 
tain and his 315 men were kept as prisoners 
until the peace in June, 1805. He sailed from 
Boston, 1812, in command of a squadron com¬ 
prising the Constitution, Essex, and Hornet. On 
December 26, off the coast of Brazil, he cap¬ 
tured the British frigate Java, of forty-nine 
guns, for which achievement Congress distrib¬ 
uted among the crew $50,000 as prize money, 
voted the commodore a gold medal, and to 
each of his officers a silver one. In 1815 Bain¬ 
bridge commanded the Mediterranean squad¬ 
ron. 

Bairam (bl'ram), the Easter of the Moham¬ 
medans, which follows immediately after the 
Ramadan or Lent (a month of fasting), and lasts 
three days. Sixty days after this first great Bai¬ 
ram begins the lesser Bairam. They are the 
only two feasts prescribed by the Moham¬ 
medan religion. 

Baird, Henry Carey, b. 1825, near Phila¬ 
delphia. He became a publisher, and has 
written several works on economic subjects 
and the currency. He joined the Greenback 
party in 1875. 

Baird, Spencer Fullerton (1823-1887), 
American naturalist. He was long assistant 
secretary, and latterly secretary of the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, Washington, and was also 
chief government commissioner of fish and 
fisheries. He wrote much on natural history, 
his chief works being, The Birds of North Amer¬ 
ica (in conjunction with John Cassin); The 
Mammals of North America; Review of American 
Birds in the Smithsonian Lnstitution; and (with 
Messrs. Brewer and Ridgeway) History of 
North American Birds. 

Baireuth (bl'roit), a town of Bavaria, on the 
Red Main, 41 mi. n.e. of Niirnberg. The 
principal edifices, the old and the new palace, 
are the opera house, the gymnasium, and the 
national theater. Industries: cotton spinning, 
sugar refining, musical instruments, sewing 
machines, leather, brewing, etc. Pop. 24,556. 

Baja (bii'ya), a market town of Hungary, 
district of Bacs, on the Danube, with a trade 
in grain and wine, and a large annual hog fair. 
Pop. 19,241. 

Bajazet (ba-ya-zet') (or Bayasid I) (1389- 
1409), Turkish emperor, who, in 1389, having 
strangled his brother Jacob, succeeded his 


Bajazet II 


Bakunin 


father Murad (or Amurath). From the rapid¬ 
ity of his conquests he received the name of 
Ilderim, the Lightning. In three years he sub¬ 
jected Bulgaria, part of Servia, Macedonia, 
Thessaly, and the states of Asia Minor, and 
besieged Constantinople for ten years, defeat¬ 
ing Sigismund and the allied Hungarians, 
Poles, and French, in 1395. The attack of 
Timur (Tamerlane) on Natolia, in 1400, saved 
the Greek Empire, Bajazet being defeated 
and taken prisoner by him near Ancyra, 
Galatia, 1402. 

Bajazet II (1447-1512), sultan of the Turks. 
He increased the Turkish Empire by conquests 
on the n.w. and in the e., and ravaged the 
coasts of the Christian states on the Mediter¬ 
ranean, to revenge the expulsion of the Moors 
from Spain. 

Baker, Sir Samuel Wiiite (1821-1893), a 
distinguished English traveler. In 1861 began 
his African travels, which lasted several years, 
in the Upper Nile regions, and resulted, among 
other discoveries, in that of Albert Nyanza 
Lake in 1864, and of the exit of the White Nile 
from it. In Africa he encountered Speke and 
Grant after their discovery of the Victoria 
Nyanza. In 1869 he returned to Africa as head 
of an expedition sent by the khedive of Egypt 
to annex and open up to trade a large part of 
the newly explored country, being raised to 
the dignity of pasha. He returned in 1873, 
having finished his work, and was succeeded 
by General Gordon. His writings include: 
The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon; Eight Tears' 
Wanderings in Ceylon; The Albert Nyanza, etc,; 
The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia; Ismailia; A 
Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa; 
Cyprus as I Saw It; and Cast up by the Sea. 

Bake'well, Robert (1726-1795), a famous 
English agriculturist, b. at Dishley, Leices¬ 
tershire. He devoted himself to improving 
the breeding of cattle and sheep, aiming 
principally at producing the greatest weight of 
carcass with the smallest amount of feeding, 
and is to be regarded as the initiator of the 
system of scientific breeding. 

Baking Powder, a mixture of bicarbonate 
of soda and tartaric acid, usually with some 
flour added. The water of the dough causes 
the liberation of carbonic acid, which makes 
the bread “rise.” The process of manufactur¬ 
ing baking powder has grown to be an enor¬ 
mous enterprise in theU. S. The acid ordina¬ 
rily used in baking powder is cream of tartar. 
This is obtained from lees of wine and argals, 
both of which are by-products of the manufac¬ 
ture of wine. This is obtained after the wine 
has been allowed to stand in the cellar and is 
the fine substance which settles to the bottom 
in the casks. The wine is drawn off, leaving 
this pinkish mass known as lees of wine. It 
contains about 25 per cent, of cream of tartar. 
Formerly the lees were sold for fertilizers and 
the argals were burned for lampblack, but 
since baking powder has come into general 
use the demand for both has become great. 
These products are brought to the factory from 
France, Italy, and Spain, and after being 
crushed to a fine powder, are boiled in huge 


copper tanks. As the solution cools, the cream 
of tartar crystallizes on the side of the tank 
and the other impurities either remain in the 
solution or form a precipitate in the bottom. 
The crystals, which are of a faded brown color, 
are scraped off, redissolved, and discolored by 
passing through a filter of animal coal. The 
crystals, after this process, are white and al¬ 
most perfectly pure and ready for use in the 
baking powder manufactory. With the soda 
and starch it is then brought to the chemical 
laboratory and analyzed. The process of 
manufacturing begins on the top floor, where 
the crystals of cream of tartar are fed into the 
hopper of a grinding machine from which it 
comes out as fine white powder. It is sifted 
through a number of bolting screens, then 
barreled and placed along with the soda and 
starch. In the floor are three trapdoors, oue 
for the cream of tartar, one for the soda, and 
one for the starch. Below the floor are three 
bins, which narrow to funnels, the mouths of 
which are covered with draw slides. Under 
each spout is a weighing scale over which 
runs a truck track, which continues on around 
over two traps in the floor. The truck is put 
under the cream of tartar spout and filled with 
just the proper amount and is then dumped 
into a bin below, then a certain amount of 
soda and starch is added in the same manner. 
The starch is added as a filler to separate the 
particles of cream of tartar and soda and aids 
in preventing a chemical combination until 
water is added. The ingredients are then 
thoroughly mixed and samples are placed in 
small boxes and sent to the laboratory for 
analysis. The powder is then put in boxes, 
labeled and ready for the market. Instead of 
cream of tartar, alum and alum-ammonia are 
extensively used as the acid element. They 
are less expensive but the law in several states 
prohibits their use. Ammonia may be de¬ 
tected in baking powder by mixing a portion 
with water and boiling thoroughly for a few 
minutes. If there is ammonia it may be de¬ 
tected by the smell in the rising steam. Alum 
may be detected by placing some of the pow¬ 
der in a glass of cold water. If there is no 
effervescence, alum powder is present. 

Baku (b i-ko'), a Russian port on the western 
shore of the Caspian. The naphtha or petro¬ 
leum springs of Baku have long been known; 
and the Field of Fire, so called from emitting 
inflammable gases, has long been a place of 
pilgrimage with the Guebres or Fire-worship¬ 
ers. About 400 oil wells are in operation. 
Some of the wells have had such an outflow 
of oil as to be unmanageable. Baku is the sta¬ 
tion of the Caspian fleet, is strongly fortified, 
and has a large shipping trade. Pop. 112,253 

Bakunin, Michael (1814-1878), the founder 
of Nihilism, born of a noble Russian family, 
became associated with a band of students 
who studied German philosophy. Among these 
were Herzen, Turgenieff, the novelist, and 
Belinski. He went to Berlin in 1841, was ex¬ 
pelled from that city and from various conti¬ 
nental capitals as a revolutionist, and partici¬ 
pated in the insurrection at Dresden in 1848. 


Balaam 


Balboa 


He spent eight years in prisons in Austria and 
Russia, was banished to Siberia in 1856, and 
escaped from there in an American vessel. 
He joined the staff of Herzen’s revolutionary 
organ, the Kolokol, in London, but his ideas 
were too far advanced for his associates. He 
quarreled with Karl Marx and Mazzini. He 
went to Switzerland, where he preached Nihil¬ 
ism, and died suddenly at Berne. He de¬ 
manded the entire abolition of the state as a 
state, the absolute equalization of individuals, 
and the extirpation of hereditary rights and of 
religion, his conception of the next stage of 
social progress being purely negative and an- 
nihilatory. 

Balaam (ba'lam), a heathen seer, invited by 
Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites, 
but compelled by miracle to bless them in¬ 
stead (Numbers 22-24). In another account 
he is represented as aiding in the perversion of 
the Israelites to the worship of Baal, and as 
being, therefore, slain in the Midianitish war 
(Numbers 31; Joshua 13). 

Balaklava (ba-la-kla' va), a small seaport in 
the Crimea, 8 mi. s. s. e. Sebastopol. In the 
Crimean War it was captured by the British, 
and a battle took place here October, 1854, 
wherein the Russians were defeated. In this 
contest occurred the “ Charge of the Light Bri¬ 
gade” rendered famous by Tennyson’s poem. 

Balance, an instrument employed for ascer¬ 
taining and determining the quantity of any 
substance equal to a given weight. Balances 
are of various forms; in that most commonly 
used a horizontal beam rests so as to turn easily 
upon a certain point known as the center of 
motion. From the extremities of the beam, 
called the centers of suspension, hang the 
scales, and a slender metal tongue midway be¬ 
tween them, and directly over the center of 
motion, indicates when the beam is level. The 
characteristics of a good balance are: 1, that 
the beam should rest in a horizontal position 
when the scales are either empty or loaded 
with equal weights; 2, that a very small ad¬ 
dition of weight put into either scale should 
cause the beam to deviate from the level, 
which property is denominated the sensibility 
of the balance; 3, that when the beam is de¬ 
flected from the horizontal position by inequal¬ 
ity of the weights in the scales, it should have 
a tendency speedily to restore itself and come 
to rest in the level, which property is called 
the stability of the balance. To secure these 
qualities the arms of the beam should be ex¬ 
actly similar, equal in weight and length, and 
as long as possible; the centers of gravity and 
suspension should be in one straight line, and 
the center of motion immediately above the 
center of gravity; and the center of motion and 
the centers of suspension should cause as little 
friction as possible. The center of motion ought 
to be a knife-edge; and if the balance requires 
to be very delicate, the centers of suspension 
ought to be knife-edges also. For purposes of 
accuracy, balances have occasionally means of 
raising or depressing the center of gravity, of 
regulating the length of the arms, etc., and the 
whole apparatus is not unfrequently enclosed 


in a glass case, to prevent the heat from ex. 
panding the arms unequally, or currents of air 
from disturbing the equilibrium. 

Of the other forms of balance, the Roman 
balance, called steelyard, consists of a lever 
moving freely upon a suspended fulcrum, 
the shorter arm of the lever having a 
scale or pan attached to it, and the longer 
arm, along which slides a weight, being 
graduated to indicate quantities. It is com¬ 
monly used for weighing loaded carts, for 
luggage at railway stations, etc. A variety 
of this, the Danish balance, has the weight 
fixed at the end of the lever, the fulcrum 
being movable along the graduated index. 
The spring-balance shows the weight of ar¬ 
ticles by the extent to which they draw out 
or compress a spiral spring. It is of service 
where a high degree of exactness is not re¬ 
quired, and finds application in the dyna¬ 
mometer for measuring the force of machin¬ 
ery. An extremely ingenious balance, used 
in the mint and the Bank of England for 
weighing “blanks” and sovereigns, distrib¬ 
utes them automatically into three compart¬ 
ments according as they are light, heavy, or 
the exact weight. 

Balance of Power, a political principle 
which first came to be recognized in modern 
Europe in the sixteenth century, though it 
appears to have been also acted on by the 
Greeks in ancient times in preserving the 
relations between their different states. The 
object in maintaining the balance of power 
is to secure the general independence of na¬ 
tions as a whole, by preventing the aggress¬ 
ive attempts of individual states to extend 
their territory and sway at the expense of 
weaker countries. The first European mon¬ 
arch whose ambitious designs induced a com¬ 
bination of other states to counteract them, 
was the Emperor Charles V; similar coalitions 
being formed in the end of the seventeenth 
century, when the ambition of Louis XIV 
excited* the fears of Europe, and a century 
later against the exorbitant power and ag¬ 
gressive schemes of the first Napoleon. More 
recently still we have the instance of the Cri¬ 
mean War, entered into to check the ambition 
of Russia. Of late years there has been a 
marked tendency among British politicians to 
decry and impugn the principle of the balance 
of power, as calculated only to propagate a 
system of mutual hostility, and retard the 
cause of progress, by the expenditure both 
of money and life thus occasioned. There 
can be no doubt, however, that to the carry¬ 
ing out of this principle the independence of 
some of the smaller and weaker European 
states is fairly attributable. 

Bal aton (or Plattensee), a lake of Hungary, 
55 mi. s.w. of Pesth; length 50 mi.; breadth, 
3 to 10 mi.; area about 390 sq. mi. Of its 
thirty-two feeders the Szala is the largest, and 
the lake communicates with the Danube by 
the rivers Sio and Sarviz. It abounds with a 
species of perch. 

Balbo'a, Vasco Nunez de ( 1475 - 1517 ), one 
of the early Spanish adventurers in the New 


Balch 


Balfe 


World. Having dissipated his fortune, he 
came to America, and was at Darien with the 
expedition of Francisco de Enciso in 1510. 
An insurrection placed him at the head of the 
colony, but rumors of a western ocean and of 
the wealth of Peru led him to cross the isth¬ 
mus. On Sept. 25, 1513, he saw for the first 
time the Pacific, and after annexing it to 
Spain, and acquiring information about Peru, 
returned to Darien. Here he found himself 
supplanted by a new governor, Pedrarias Da¬ 
vila, with much consequent grievance on the 
one side, and much jealousy on the other. Bal¬ 
boa submitted, however, and in the following 
year was appointed viceroy of the South Sea. 
Davila was apparently reconciled to him, and 
gave him his daughter in marriage, but shortly 
after had him beheaded on a charge of intent 
to rebel. Pizarro, who afterward completed 
the discovery of Peru, served under Balboa. 

Balch, George B., b. 1821, in Tennessee. 
He entered the navy in 1837; was many years 
on foreign service and participated in the at¬ 
tack on Vera Cruz. He served in the South 
Atlantic squadron during the Civil War and 
commanded the Pawnee. He became commo¬ 
dore, 1872, rear admiral, 1878, and was superin¬ 
tendent of the naval academy until 1879. He 
was placed on the retired list in 1883. 

Balder (or Baldur), a Scandinavian divinity, 
represented as the son of Odin and Frigga, 
beautiful, wise, amiable, and beloved by all 
the gods. He is believed to be a personification 
of the brightness and beneficence of the sun. 

Baldness, loss of the hair, complete or par¬ 
tial, usually the latter, and due to various 
causes. Most commonly it results as one of 
the changes belonging to old age, due to wast¬ 
ing of the skin, hair sacs, etc. It may occur 
as a result of some acute disease, or at an un¬ 
usually early age, without any such cause. In 
both the latter cases it is due to defective 
nourishment of the hair, owing to lessened cir¬ 
culation of the blood in the scalp. The best 
treatment for preventing loss of hair seems to 
consist in such measures as bathing the head 
with cold water and drying it by vigorous rub¬ 
bing with a rough towel and brushing it well 
with a hard brush. Various stimulating lo¬ 
tions are also recommended, especially those 
containing cantharides. But probably in most 
cases senile baldness is unpreventable. When 
extreme scurfiness of the scalp accompanies 
loss of the hair an ointment that will clear 
away the scurf will prove beneficial. 

Baldwin 9 (1172-1206), emperor of Con¬ 
stantinople. His courage and conduct in the 
fourth crusade led to his unanimous election 
as Emperor of the East after the capture of 
Constantinople by the French and Venetians 
in 1204. Baldwin marched on Adrianople 
against Greek revolutionists, but was taken 
prisoner and d. in captivity. 

Baldwin 11 (1217-1270), fifth and last Latin 
emperor of Constantinople. During his mi¬ 
nority John de Brienne was regent, but on his 
assuming the power himself the empire fell to 
pieces. In 1261 Constantinople was taken, 
and Baldwin retired to Italy. 


Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem, reigned 
1100-18, having assumed the title which his 
elder brother Godfrey de Bouillon had refused. 
Baldwin II, his cousin and successor, 
reigned from 1118-31. During his reign the 
reduction of Tyre and institution of the order 
of Templars took place. Baldwin III, king 
of Jerusalem from 1143 to 1162, was son and 
successor of Foulques of Anjou. He devoted 
himself to the hopeless task of improving the 
kingdom and establishing the Christian chiv¬ 
alry in the East. 

Baldwin, Charles H. (1822-1888), b. in New 
York City. He entered the navy in 1839, be¬ 
came a lieutenant in 1853, commander in 1862, 
and captain in 1869. He served in the Mexican 
War, being stationed on the west coast. He 
was in command of one of the steamers of the 
mortar flotilla when Farragut’s fleet passed 
forts St. Phillip and Jackson in 1862, and at 
the attack of Vicksburg in June, 1862. 

Baldwin, Henry, LL.D. (1779-1844), b. at 
New Haven, Conn. He was elected to Con¬ 
gress several times from the state of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and in 1830 was appointed a judge of 
the Supreme Court of the U. S. 

Baldwin, Matthias W. (1795-1866), b. in 
New Jersey. He is given credit for having 
constructed the first locomotive in America, 
the “ Ironsides ,” and for making several im¬ 
provements in locomotives. 

Baldwin, Roger Sherman, LL.D.(1793-1863), 
an American statesman, b. in New Haven, 
Conn. He became governor of his native state 
in 1844, and was sent to the U. S. Senate in 1847, 
He was associated with J. Q. Adams in the 
famous Amistad trial in 1841. 

Balear'ic Islands, a group of five islands, 
southeast of Spain, including Majorca, Mi¬ 
norca, Iviza, and Formentera. The popular 
derivation of the ancient name, Baleares, has 
reference to the repute of the inhabitants for 
their skill in slinging, in which they distin¬ 
guished themselves both in the army of Han¬ 
nibal, and under the Romans, by whom the 
islands were annexed iu 123 b. c. They were 
taken by James I, king of Arragon, 1220-34, 
and constituted a kingdom, which in 1375 was 
united to Spain. The islands now form a 
Spanish province, with an area of 1,860sq. mi., 
and 312,593 inhabitants. 

Baleen', the term applied to the horny 
plates attached to the palate of the whalebone 
whales, and which constitute the “whalebone” 
of commerce. The baleen plates are arranged 
in a double row on the palate, and depend into 
the cavity of the mouth of the whale. The 
length of the largest plates averages from 10 
to 14 feet; while in number about 200 plates 
exist on each side of the mouth. The huge 
fringe acts as a kind of sieve or strainer in serv¬ 
ing to prevent substances of large bulk from 
gaining access to the throat, and also in 
entangling the minute forms upon which the 
whale feeds. 

Balfe, Michael William (1808-1870), a 
British musician, was b. in Dublin. When 
only sixteen he conducted the orchestra at 
Drury Laije Theater. He afterward studied 


Balfour 


Ball 


music in Italy. In 1845 he was made con¬ 
ductor of the Italian Opera, Covent Garden. 
His principal works are operas. The best- 
known are, The Bohemian Girl (1844), and The 
Bose of Castile (1857). His latest productions 
were Satanella, The Puritan's Daughter , Blanche 
de Nevers, and The Sleeping Queen. 

Bal'four, Right Hon. Arthur James, M. P., 
a noted English statesman of the present day, 
was b. in 1848, and in 1856, succeeded his 
father in the estate of Whittinghame, Had¬ 
dingtonshire. ( He was educated at Eton and 
Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1874 was 
returned to Parliament as Conservative mem¬ 
ber for Hetford. Public attention was soon 
drawn to him by his quickness of perception 
and readiness in debate, and he has now be¬ 
come one of the most effective speakers in the 
House. From 1878 to 1880 he was private 
secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury, foreign 
secretary in Lord Beaconsfield’s ministry, and 
he accompanied that nobleman to the Berlin 
Congress. On the accession to power of Mr. 
Gladstone, in 1880, he for a time formed one of 
Lord Randolph Churchill’s “Fourth Party,” 
and in 1882 fiercely assailed the government on 
the Kilmainham Treaty question. At the elec¬ 
tion of 1885 he was returned for East Manches¬ 
ter, a seat which he still retains. He was ap¬ 
pointed president of the Local Government 
Board in 1885, secretary for Scotland in 1886. 
and chief secretary for Ireland in 1887-91. 
On the death of W. H. Smith, in 1891, he be¬ 
came first lord of the treasury and leader 
of the House, offices which he held until the 
resignation of Lord Salisbury in 1892. In 
1895 appeared his work, entitled The Founda¬ 
tions of Belief which excited considerable pub¬ 
lic attention and interest. 

Balfour, Francis Maitland (1851-1882), 
brother of the foregoing. He published a 
work on Elements of Embryology , was elected 
fellow of his college at the age of twenty-three, 
and fellow of the Royal Society four years later. 
He was a most promising scientist. 

Balfour', Sir James, lord president of the 
Court of Session, and son of Sir Michael Bal¬ 
four, of Pittendreich, in Fifeshire, was one of 
the most dubious politicians of the Reforma¬ 
tion period in Scotland. He, however, suc¬ 
ceeded in achieving considerable personal and 
professional success, attaining in the end the 
lord presidentship of the Court of Session. 
He d. in 1583. 

Balfour, John Hutton (1808-1884), a dis¬ 
tinguished Scotch botanist. He established 
the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, was pro- 
fessoT of botany in Glasgow University, and a 
fellow of the Royal Society. He was for thirty 
years dean of the medical faculty of the Uni¬ 
versity of Edinburgh. 

Balfroosh' (or Barfurush'), a town, Persia, 
province of Mazanderan, about 12 mi. from 
the Caspian, a great emporium of the trade 
between Persia and Russia. Pop. est. 50,000. 

Ba H, an island of the Indian Archipelago, e. 
of Java, belonging to Holland; area about 2,260 
sq. mi. Principal products: rice, cocoa, coffee, 
indigo, cotton, etc. It is divided into eight 


provinces under native rajahs, and forms one 
colony with Lombok, the united population be¬ 
ing 863,725, of whom 300,000 may belong to Bali. 

Bal'iol (or Balliol), John de, of Barnard 
Castle, Northumberland, father of king John 
Baliol, a great English or Norman baron in 
the reign of Henry III. In 1263 he laid the 
foundation of Balliol College, Oxford, which 
was completed by his widow Devorguila (or 
Devorgilla). His son, John Baliol, became tem¬ 
porary king of Scotland. He d. 1269. 

Bal iol (1249-1315) (or Balliol), John, king of 
Scotland. On the death of Margaret, Baliol 
claimed the vacant throne by virtue of his 
descent from David, Earl of Huntingdon, 
brother to William the Lion. Robert Bruce 
opposed Baliol; but Edward I’s decision was 
in favor of Baliol. Irritated by Edward’s harsh 
exercise of authority, Baliol concluded a treaty 
with France, then at war with England; but 
after the defeat at Dunbar he surrendered his 
crown into the hands of the English monarch. 
He was sent with his son to the Tower, but in 
1297 obtained liberty to retire to his Norman es¬ 
tates, where he died. His son, Edward, in 1332, 
landed in Fife with an armed force, and hav¬ 
ing defeated a large army under the regent 
Mar, got himself crowned king, but was driven 
out in three months. 

Balk'an (Arab, “high ridge;” anciently 
Haemus, “the wintry or snowy mountains ”), 
the most eastern branch of the great Alpine 
system of Central Europe, extends from the 
plain of Sophia to the Black Sea, separating 
Bulgaria from Rumili, and forming the water¬ 
shed between the Danube and the Maritza. 
Tchar-dagh (9,700 ft.) in the w. part, is its 
highest peak. The B. is crossed by 6 roads, 
over as many passes, the most important of 
which is the Porta Trajani, which forms the 
overland route between Vienna and Constanti¬ 
nople. As a political boundary it divides Bul¬ 
garia from Eastern Roumelia. 

Balkan Free States: Bulgaria, Eastern Rou¬ 
melia, Roumania, and Servia. 

Balkash' (or Balkhash) (bal-^ash'), a salt 
lake in Russian Central Asia, area 8,500 sq. 
mi., depth nowhere more than 80 ft. 

Balkh (balk or balA), a city in the north 
of Afghanistan, in Afghan Turkestan, at one 
time the emporium of the trade between In¬ 
dia, China, and Western Asia. In 1220 it was 
sacked by Genghis Khan, and again by Timur 
in the fourteenth century. A new town has 
risen up an hour’s journey n. of the old, the 
residence of the Afghan governor, with a pop¬ 
ulation of about 25,000. 

Bal'kis, the Arabian name of the Queen of 
Sheba who visited Solomon. She is the central 
figure of innumerable Eastern legends and 
tales. 

Ball, Game of. Ball-playing was practised 
by the ancients, and old and young amused 
themselves with it. The Phaeacian damsels 
are represented in the Odyssey as playing it to 
the sound of music, and Horace represents 
Maecenas as amusing himself thus in a journey. 
In the Greek gymnasia, the Roman baths, and 
in many Roman villas, a sphceristerium (a place 


Ball 


Ballad 


appropriated for playing ball) was to be found; 
the games played being similar to those in¬ 
dulged in at the present day. In the Middle 
Ages the sport continued very popular both as 
an indoor and outdoor exercise, and was a 
favorite court pastime until about the end of 
the eighteenth century. In England foot-ball 
and tennis are mentioned at an early date, and 
a favorite game prior to the English revolution 
was one in which a mall or mallet was used, 
hence the name pall-mall for the game and the 
place where it was played. The most popular 
modern forms are Cricket, Base ball, Foot ball , 
Golf, Lawn-tennis , and Polo (which see). 

Ball, John, an itinerant preacher of the 
fourteenth century, excommunicated about 
1367 for promulgating “errors, schisms, and 
scandles against the pope, archbishops, bish¬ 
ops, and clergy.” He was one of the most 
active promoters of the popular insurgent 
spirit which found vent under Wat Tyler in 
1381. 

Ball, Sir Robert Stawell, a British astron¬ 
omer, was b. in Dublin, July 1, 1840, and 
studied at Trinity College. In 1865 he was 
appointed Lord Rosse’s astronomer at Parsons- 
town; in 1873 Professor of Applied Mathemat¬ 
ics at the Royal Irish College of Science; and 
in 1874 Professor of Astronomy at Dublin, and 
Astronomer Royal for Ireland. He has pub¬ 
lished several works on mechanics and astron¬ 
omy as, The Story of the Heavens, In Starry 
Realms , and In the High Heavens , besides many 
articles in various magazines. 

Ball, Thomas (1819-), American sculptor, 

born in Charlestown. Mass. He studied in 
Europe, and in 1865 settled in Florence. 
Among his works are the equestrian statue of 
Washington at Boston, the Webster statue in 
Central Park, New York, and the Emancipa¬ 
tion group at Washington, D. C. 

Bar lad, a term loosely applied to various 
poetic forms of the song type, but in its most 
definite sense a poem in which a short narra¬ 
tive is subjected to simple lyrical treatment. 
The ballad is probably one of the earliest 
forms of rhythmic poetic expression, consti¬ 
tuting a species of epic in miniature, out of 
which by fusion and remolding, larger epics 
were sometimes shaped. As in the folk-tales, 
so in the ballads of different nations, the re¬ 
semblances are sufficiently numerous and close 
to point to the conclusion that they have often 
had their first origin in the same primitive 
folk-lore or popular tales. But in any case, 
excepting a few modern literary ballads of a 
subtler kind, they have been the popular ex¬ 
pression of the broad human emotions cluster¬ 
ing about some strongly outlined incidents of 
war, love, crime, superstition, or death. It is 
probable that in the Homeric poems fragments 
of older ballads are embedded; but the earliest 
ballads, properly so called, of which we have 
record were the ballistea or dancing songs of 
the Romans, of the kind sung in honor of 
the deeds of Aurelian in the Sarmatic War by 
a chorus of dancing boys. In their less spe¬ 
cialized sense of lyric narratives, their early 
popularity among the Teutonic race is evi¬ 
ls 


denced by the testimony of Tacitus, of the 
Gothic historian Jornandes, and the Lombard 
historian Paulus Diaconus; and many appear 
to have been written down by order of Charle¬ 
magne and used as a means of education. Of 
the ballads of this period, however, only a 
general conception can be formed from their 
traces in conglomerates like the Niebelungen- 
lied; the more artificial productions of the 
Minnescinger and Meistersanger overlying the 
more popular ballad until the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury, when it sprang once more into vigorous 
life. A third German ballad period was ini¬ 
tiated by Burger under the inspiration of the 
revived interest in the subject shown in Great 
Britain and the publication of the Percy Relr 
iques; and the movement was sustained by 
Herder, Schiller, Goethe, Heine, Uhland, and 
others. The earlier German work is, how¬ 
ever, of inferior value to that of Scandinavia, 
where, though comparatively few manuscripts 
have survived, and those not more than three 
or four centuries old, a more perfect oral 
tradition has rendered it possible to trace the 
original stock of the twelfth century. 

Of the English and Scottish ballads anterior 
to the thirteenth century there are few traces 
beyond the indication that they were abun¬ 
dant, if indeed anything can be definitely as¬ 
serted of them earlier than the fourteenth cent¬ 
ury. Among the oldest may be placed The 
Little Guest of Robin Hood, Hugh of Lincoln , Sir 
Patrick Spens, and the Battle of Otterbourn. In 
the fifteenth century specimens multiplied rap¬ 
idly; ballad-making became in the reign of 
Henry VIII a fashionable amusement, the 
king himself setting the example; and though 
in the reign of Elizabeth ballads came into 
literary disrepute and ballad singers were 
brought under the law, yet there was no ap¬ 
parent check upon the rate of their produc¬ 
tion. Except perhaps in the n. of England 
and s. of Scotland, there was, however, a 
marked and increasing tendency to vulgariza¬ 
tion as distinct from the preservation of popu¬ 
lar qualities. The value of the better ballads 
was lost sight of in the flood of dull, rhythm¬ 
less, and frequently scurrilous verse. The 
modern revival in Britain dates from the pub¬ 
lication of Ramsay's Evergreen and Tea-Table 
Miscellany (1724-27) and of the selection made 
by Bishop Percy from his seventeenth-century 
MS. (1765), a revival not more important for 
its historic interest than for the influence 
which it has exercised upon all subsequent 
poetry. 

The threefold wave discernible in German, 
if not in British, ballad history, is equally to 
be traced in Spain, which alone among the 
Latinized countries of Europe has songs of 
equal age and merit with the British historic 
ballads. The principal difference between 
them is, that for the most part the Spanish 
romance is in trochaic, the British ballad in 
iambic meter. The ballads of the Cid date 
from about the end of the twelfth and begin¬ 
ning of the thirteenth century; and then fol¬ 
lowed an interval of more elaborate production, 
a revival of ballad interest in the sixteenth cen- 


Ballantyne 


Balloon 


tury, a new declension, and finally a modern 
and still persisting enthusiasm. 

The French poetry of this kind never reached 
any high degree of perfection, the romance, 
farce, and lyric flourishing at the expense of the 
ballad proper. Of Italy much the same may 
be said, though Sicily has supplied a great 
store of ballads; and nearly all the Portuguese 
poetry of this kind is to be traced to a Spanish 
origin. The Russians have lyrico-epic poems, 
of which some, in old Russian, are excellent, 
and the Servians are still in the ballad-pro¬ 
ducing stage of civilization. Modern Greece 
has also its store of ballads, to which Madame 
Chenier called attention in the middle of last 
century. Both in Greece and Russia and in 
the Pyrenees the old habit of improvising song 
as an accompaniment to dance still exists. 

Bal'Iantyne, James (1772-1833), the printer 
of Sir W. Scott’s works. Successively a solic¬ 
itor and a printer in his native town, at Scott’s 
suggestion he removed to Edinburgh, where 
the high perfection to which he had brought 
the art of printing, and his connection with 
Scott, secured him a large trade. His firm was 
involved in the bankruptcy of Constable & Co., 
by which Scott’s fortunes were wrecked, but 
Ballantyne was continued by the creditors’ 
trustee in the literary management of the 
printing house. 

Ballantyne, Robert M. (1825-1894), a pro¬ 
lific British writer of tales for boys. His ex¬ 
periences acquired in the backwoods of Ru¬ 
pert’s Land, among the fur-traders and Red* 
Indians, in the Bell Rock Lighthouse, in a 
visit to the Cape, have all been utilized in pro¬ 
ducing sound, wholesome, and interesting tales. 

Ballarat, a city and gold field of the colony 
of Victoria, Australia, 96 mi. w. n. w. of Mel¬ 
bourne. B. was the scene of one of the earli¬ 
est gold discoveries in Victoria, in June, 1851, 
and is still the principal gold-producing dis¬ 
trict of the colony. Quartz mining is now the 
leading feature of the district, and auriferous 
reefs are remuneratively worked at a depth of 
900 and 1,000 ft. The town of B. consists of 
two distinct municipalities, B. East and B. 
West, with an aggregate population of 44,766. 
It has iron-foundries, breweries, and distiller¬ 
ies, several flour mills, and other factories. 
It is connected by railway with Melbourne. 

Ball=cock, a kind of self-acting stop-cock, 
opened and shut by means of a hollow sphere 
or ball of metal attached to the end of a lever 
connected with the cock. Such cocks are often 
employed to regulate the supply of water to 
cisterns. The ball floats on the water in the 
cistern by its buoyancy, and rises and sinks as 
the water rises and sinks, shutting off the 
water in the one case and letting it on in the 
other. 

BalLflower, an architectural ornament re¬ 
sembling a ball placed in a circular flower, the 
three petals of which form a cup round it; 
usually inserted in a hollow molding, and gen¬ 
erally characteristic of the Decorated Gothic 
style of the fourteenth century. 

Baliiol College, Oxford, was founded about 
1263 by John Baliiol (or Baliol) of Barnard 


Castle, Durham, and Devorgilla, his wife (par¬ 
ents of John Baliiol, king of Scotland). There 
are a large number of valuable scholarships 
and exhibitions, including the Snell exhibi¬ 
tions, fourteen in number, held by students 
from Glasgow University. 

Ballistic Pendulum, an apparatus invented 
by Robins, toward the close of the eighteenth 
century, for ascertaining the velocity of military 
projectiles, and consequently the force of fired 
gunpowder. A piece of ordnance is fired 
against bags of sand supported in a strong case 
or frame suspended so as to swing like a pen¬ 
dulum. The arc through which it vibrates is 
shown by an index, and the amount of vibra¬ 
tion forms a measure of the force or velocity of 
the ball. 

Balloon, a gas-tight bag or envelope, gener¬ 
ally pear-shaped when inflated with hydrogen-, 
coal-, or other gas, from which a car or basket 
is suspended from netting, used for purposes 
of ascension in free air. The balloon is pro¬ 
vided with a suitable valve, operated by a rope 
which is within reach of the person in the car, 
by which the gas is permitted to escape when 
it is desired to descend to the earth. Bags filled 
with sand are carried in the car, and the 
Aeronaut , or balloonist, empties the sand bag 
when he desires to rise to a higher altitude. 
Balloons generally are made of a strong silk. 
Hot-air balloons use heated air instead of gas 
for inflation. 

Following are some of the principal events 
in the developments of balloons: 1757, Galien 
of Avignon wrote on aerostation; 1767, Dr. 
Black of England ascertained that a light 
envelope filled with hydrogen gas would as¬ 
cend; 1783, hot-air balloon invented by Stephen 
and Joseph Montgolfier, paper manufactur¬ 
ers at Annonay, near Lyons, France.. In 
June of that year, a captive hot-air balloon 
was made to ascend over 2,000 yds. August 
27, a hydrogen balloon made by two brothers 
by the name of Roberts, under the superintend¬ 
ence of M. Charles, professor of natural phi¬ 
losophy, Paris, was sent up from the Champs de 
Mars, Paris. This balloon remained in the air 
three quarters of an hour, fell in a field 15 mi. 
distant from the place of ascension. Peasants 
were so terrified at the appearance of the bal¬ 
loon that they tore it to shreds. September 
19, Joseph Montgolfier repeated his former ex¬ 
periment at Versailles. The balloon carried, 
in a basket suspended from the bag, a sheep, 
a cock, and duck, the first of living creatures 
to navigate in the. air. October 15, M. Francois 
Pilatre de Rozier, a young French naturalist, 
ascended in a captive balloon, the first man to 
make a balloon ascension. November 21, de 
Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the 
first ascension in a free balloon. The result 
was successful. This was a fire balloon. 
December 1, MM. Charles and Robert ascended 
in Paris, in a balloon inflated with hydrogen 
gas. Professor Charles invented the balloon 
valve at the top, and suspended the car from a 
hoop attached to netting. The first balloon 
ascension in America was made in Philadel¬ 
phia soon after the Montgolfier experiment. 


Balloon 


Ballot 


The balloon consisted of 45 small hydrogen 
balloons, and James Wilcox, a carpenter, made 
the first ascension. In 1794 balloons were in¬ 
troduced into the French army and used for 
making observations at the battles of Liege, 
and Fleurus, and the sieges of Mentz and 
Ehrenbreitstein. Guy Lussac, a celebrated 
French chemist, in 1804, reached an altitude 
of 23,040 ft., and carried up instruments for 
making scientific observations of the character 
and properties of the atmosphere at great 
heights. In 1820 Charles Green, in England, 
introduced the practise of inflating balloons 
with illuminating gas. Messrs. Holland, 
Green, and Mason, in 1836, ascended from 
London in a balloon of 85,000 cu. ft. ca¬ 
pacity, and made a voyage of 500 mi. In 1852 
Henri Giffard, a young French.engineer, built 
an elongated balloon, filled with coal gas, 
driven by an aerial screw propeller actuated 
by a steam engine. September 24, he made 
an ascension. He was able to make a change 
in direction in spite of the wind, and this was 
the first navigable balloon propelled by a 
motor. Wise, the celebrated American bal¬ 
loonist, made an ascension from St. Louis in 
1859 and landed in Jefferson co., N. Y., having 
traveled a distance of 1,150 miles. In 1872 
Dupuy de Lome, chief naval constructor of the 
French government, tested a navigable bal¬ 
loon, in which the propeller was actuated by 
14 men in the car. The experiment was fairly 
successful. The first electrical navigable bal¬ 
loon was built and tested in 1883. Built by Gas¬ 
ton Tissandier of France. The apparatus 
was driven by a Siemens motor weighing 99 
pounds, actuated by a primary bichromate of 
potash battery, weighing 517 pounds, capable 
of developing 1| horse power for 2£ hours. 
The screw was 9.18 ft. in diameter with two 
arms, and rotated at 180 revolutions a minute. 
First ascension made October 8, and the aero¬ 
naut succeeded in sailing against the wind and 
performing several evolutions. The aeronaut¬ 
ical establishment of the French war depart¬ 
ment built an electrical navigable balloon 
which was the first that ever returned to its 
moorings after ascending. It was constructed 
in 1884 under the superintendence and accord¬ 
ing to the plans of Renard and Krebs, French 
army officers. The elongated balloon was 165 
ft. in length and 27£ ft. in diameter, and the 
screw was placed in front. This airship, named 
La France, had a car 105 ft. long. The elec¬ 
tric motor was of 9 horse power, and the screw, 
of two arms, was 27 ft. in diameter. Aug. 
9, 1894, a trial was made. The air ship proved 
perfectly manageable, made a speed of 10£ mi. 
an hour, and was returned to its landing. 
Other trials proved that the air ship was a 
navigable balloon. Balloons were used for ob¬ 
servation by General McClellan during the 
Civil War, and he organized a balloon corps. 
The first woman to make a balloon ascension 
was Madam Thible, a French woman, who, 
June 4, 1784, ascended from Lyons in a fire- 
balloon. She is said to be the only woman who 
ever ascended in a fire balloon. Count Zam- 
beccari was the first balloonist to lose his life. 


He made an ascension in a fire-balloon from 
Bologna, and was compelled to jump from his 
car because of his balloon catching fire. He 
was instantly killed. The first parachute de¬ 
scent was made by a dog, which Blanchard, 
in 1785, carried up with him in a balloon. 
The dog descended safely. Andre Jaques 
Garnerin, Oct. 22, 1797, was the first man 
to safely descend from a balloon in a para¬ 
chute. 

The largest balloon ever made is said to have 
been the balloon constructed in 1864 by M. 
Eugene Godard. Its capacity was nearly half 
a million cubic feet. The air in this fire bal¬ 
loon was heated by an 18-ft. stove, weighing 
with the chimney, 980 pounds. This fur¬ 
nace was fed with straw, and the “car” con¬ 
sisted of a gallery surrounding it. Two 
ascents of this balloon were made from Cre- 
morne Gardens, on July 20, and July 28, 1864. 
The “GJant, ” Nadar’s colossal balloon, con¬ 
tained 215,363 cubic ft. of gas, and raised 35 
persons at one time. This balloon was also 
remarkable as having attached to it a regular 
two-story house for a car. Its ascent on Sun¬ 
day, Oct. 18, 1863, was witnessed by nearly 
half a million persons. After passing over the 
eastern part of France, Belgium, and Holland, 
the “GJant” suffered a disastrous descent 
in Hanover on the day after it started on its 
perilous journey. In 1873 a balloon of 400,000 
ft. of cubic capacity was made to enable Mr. 
Wise to cross the Atlantic, but it unfortu¬ 
nately burst. The longest distance traveled 
in a balloon in the shortest time was 1,150 mi. 
in 24 hours, by Messrs. Wise and La Mountain, 
the route taken being from St. Louis, in the 
direction of New York. 

Balloon=fish, a curious tropical fish that 
can inflate itself so as to resemble a ball. 

Bal'lot, voting by, signifies literally voting 
by means of little balls (called by the French 
ballottes ), usually of different colors, which are 
put into a box in such a manner as to enable 
the voter, if he chooses, to conceal for whom 
or for what he gives his suffrage. The method 
is adopted by most clubs in the election of their 
members—a white ball indicating assent, a 
black ball dissent. Hence, when an applicant 
is rejected, he is said to be blackballed. The 
term voting by ballot is also applied in a gen¬ 
eral way to any method of secret voting, as, 
for instance, when a person gives his vote by 
means of a ticket bearing the name of the can¬ 
didate whom he wishes to support. In this 
sense vote by ballot is the mode adopted in 
electing the members of legislative assemblies 
in most countries, as well as the members of 
various other bodies. In ancient Greece and 
Rome the ballot was in common use. In the 
U. S. the ballot was in use in early colonial 
times, and was made compulsory in the consti¬ 
tutions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and all 
other states. The Australian ballot system, 
originated within ten years in the British col¬ 
onies, has recently been adopted by law in sev¬ 
eral of the U. S. By a carefully contrived 
system of secluding each voter at the polls, and 
marking and folding the ballots, it claims to 


Ballymena 


Baltimore 


secure greater secrecy and honesty than any 
other method of voting. 

Ballyme'na, a town, Ireland, county An¬ 
trim, 22 mi. from Belfast, with a considerable 
trade in linens and linen yarns, the manufac¬ 
ture of which is carried on to a great extent. 
Pop. 8,655. 

Balm, a fragrant perennial herb belonging 
to the order Labiatae, a native of the south of 
Europe and Western Asia, and naturalized in a 
few places in England, has long been culti¬ 
vated in gardens. The stems and leaves are 
still occasionally used in medicine as a gentle 
stimulant and tonic, and were formerly in high 
repute. The taste is somewhat austere and 
slightly aromatic. The quantity of essential 
oil, on which its whole qualities depend, is not 
more than sufficient to communicate a pleasant 
flavor to the infusion. A variety of the com¬ 
mon catmint, with a smell like that of balm, 
is often mistaken for it. Moldavian Balm is a 
native of Eastern Europe, Siberia, etc. Bas¬ 
tard Balm, a native of the south of England 
and of many parts of Europe, is a very beauti¬ 
ful plant, which when dried has a delightful 
fragrance, and retains it long. 

Balmaceda, Jose Manuel (1840-1891), Chil¬ 
ean statesman, early distinguished as a polit¬ 
ical orator; advocated in Congress separation 
of church and state; as premier, in 1884, intro¬ 
duced civil marriage; elected president in 1886. 
A conflict with the Congressional party, pro¬ 
voked by his alleged cruelties and official 
dishonesty, resulted in Balmaceda’s exile and 
suicide. 

Balm of Gilead, the exudation of a tree, a 
native of Arabia Felix, and also obtained from 
another closely allied species. The leaves of 
the former tree yield when bruised a strong 
aromatic scent; and the balm of Gilead of the 
shops, or balsam of Mecca or of Syria, is ob¬ 
tained from it by making an incision in its 
trunk. It has a yellowish or greenish color, a 
warm, bitterish, aromatic taste, and an acidu¬ 
lous fragrant smell. It is valued as an odor¬ 
iferous unguent and cosmetic. 

Balmor'al Castle, the Highland residence 
of Victoria, Queen of England, beautifully 
situated on the s. bank of the Dee, in the 
county of, and 45 mi. w. of Aberdeen. It 
stands in the midst of fine and varied moun¬ 
tain scenery, is built of granite in the Scottish 
baronial style, has been recently (1888) en¬ 
larged, and has a massive and imposing ap¬ 
pearance. The estate, which is the queen’s 
private property, extends to 25,000 acres, mostly 
deer forest. 

Balsa, a kind of raft or float used on the 
coasts and rivers of Peru and other parts of 
South America for fishing, for landing goods 
and passengers through a heavy surf, and for 
other purposes where buoyancy is chiefly 
wanted. It is formed generally of two inflated 
seal skins, connected by a sort of platform on 
which the fisherman, passengers, or goods are 
placed. 

Balsam, an aromatic, resinous substance, 
flowing spontaneously or by incision from 
certain plants. A great variety of substances 


pass under this name. But in chemistry the 
term is confined to such vegetable juices as 
consist of resins mixed with volatile oils, and 
yield the volatile oil on distillation. The resins 
are produced from the oils by oxidation. A 
balsam is thus intermediate between a volatile 
oil and a resin. It is soluble in alcohol and 
ether, and capable of yielding benzoic acid. 
The balsams are either liquid or more or less 
solid; as, for example, the balm of Gilead, and 
the balsams of Oopiapo, Peru, and Tolu. Ben¬ 
zoin, dragon’s-blood, and storax are not true 
balsams, though sometimes called so. The 
balsams are used in perfumery, medicine, and 
the arts. 

Balsam Fir, the balm of Gilead fir. 

Balta, a Russian town, government of Podo- 
lia, 115 mi. n.n.w. of Odessa. Pop. 32,558. 

Baltic, Battle oP the, the defeat of the Dan¬ 
ish fleet at Copenhagen by Sir Hyde Parker 
and Nelson in 1801. 

Baltic Provinces, a term commonly given to 
the Russian governments of Courland, Livonia, 
and Esthonia. Area 201,526 sq. mi.; pop. 
6, 450.835. 

Baltic Sea, an inland sea or large gulf con¬ 
nected with the North Sea, washing the coasts 
of Denmark, Germany, Russia, and Sweden. 
Area 171,743 sq. mi. A chain of islands sepa¬ 
rates the southern part from the northern, or 
Gulf of Bothnia. In the northeast the Gulf of 
Finland stretches far into Russia, and sepa¬ 
rates Finland from Esthonia; the Gulf of Riga 
washes the shores of the three Russian govern¬ 
ments of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia; 
while the Gulf of Danzig is an inlet on the 
Prussian coast. The water of the Baltic is 
colder and clearer than that of the ocean; it 
contains a smaller proportion of salt, and the 
ice obstructs the navigation three or four 
months in the year. More than 250 rivers run 
into the Baltic, which has a large trade, and 
numbers among its more important harbors 
the cities of Copenhagen, Viel, Danzig, Memel, 
Riga, Cronstadt, and Stockholm. The Sleswig- 
Holstein Canal, near Kiel, forms a method of 
access to the North Sea. The Sound, the 
Great and the Little Belt, lead from the Kat¬ 
tegat into the Baltic. 

Bal'timore, Baltimore co., Md., on the n. 
side of the Patapsco, 14 mi. above Chesa¬ 
peake Bay. Baltimore takes its name from 
Lord Baltimore, , the founder of Maryland; it 
was first laid out as a town in 1729, and was 
erected into a city in 1797. It is well built, 
chiefly of brick, and is known as the “monu¬ 
mental city,’’ from the public monuments 
which adorn it, the principal being the Wash¬ 
ington Monument. Among its buildings are 
the city hall, built in Renaissance style, of 
white marble with a tower and dome rising 
240 feet; the Peabody Institute, containing a 
library, art gallery, etc.; the Maryland Insti¬ 
tute; the custom-house; the post-office; the 
U. S. court-house and jail, the Johns Hopkins 
Hospital, the Roman Catholic cathedral, etc. 
The chief educational institution, now one of 
the most important in the States, is the Johns 
Hopkins University, endowed with $3,500,000 


Baltimore 


Bamboo 


by its founder (whose name it bears). The 
University of Maryland is one of the oldest 
medical schools in the U. S., established in 
1812. Industries: ship-building; manufac¬ 
tures of iron, wool, cotton, pottery, etc.; sugar- 
refining, distilling, tanning, the making of 
agricultural implements, canning oysters, and 
fruits, etc. As a flour market Baltimore is an 
important center; and it does an immense 
trade in exporting tobacco and other products. 
The harbor is very extensive, and has been 
much improved. Pop. 1900, 508,957. 

Baltimore, George Calyert, Lord (1580- 
1032), b. in Yorkshire. He was for some time 
secretary of state to James I, but this post he 
resigned in 1624 in consequence of having be¬ 
come a Roman Catholic. Notwithstanding 
this he retained the confidence of the king, 
who in 1625 raised him to the Irish peerage, 
his title being from Baltimore, a fishing vil¬ 
lage of Cork. He had previously obtained a 
grant of land in Newfoundland, but as this 
colony was much exposed to the attacks of the 
French he left it, and obtained another patent 
for Maryland. He died before the charter was 
completed, and it was granted to his son Cecil, 
who deputed the governorship to his brother 
Leonard (1606-47). 

Baltimore Bird (or oriole), an American 
bird, nearly allied to the starlings. It is a mi- 



Baltimore Oriole. 

gratory bird, and is known also by the names 
of “golden robin,” “hang-bird,” and “fire¬ 
bird.” It is about 7 inches long; the head and 
upper parts are black; the under parts of a 
brilliant orange hue. It builds a pouch-like 
nest, very skillfully constructed of threads 
deftly interwoven, suspended from a forked 
branch and shaded by overhanging leaves. It 
feeds on insects, caterpillars, beetles, etc. Its 
song is a clear, mellow whistle. 

Baluchistan (ba-ld'chi-stan), a country in 
Asia, consists of the districts of Quetta and 
Bolan. Area 160,000 sq. mi.; pop. est. at 400,- 
000. The general surface of the country is 
rugged and mountainous, with some extensive 
intervals of barren, sandy deserts, and there 


is a general deficiency of water. The coun¬ 
try is almost entirely occupied by pastoral 
tribes under semi-independent sirdars or chiefs. 
The Khan of Khelat is nominal ruler of the 
whole land, and in 1877 concluded a treaty 
with Britain, in virtue of which he has become 
a feudatory of the Empress of India. The 
right had already been secured of occupying 
at pleasure the mountain passes between Khe¬ 
lat and Afghanistan; but the new treaty places 
the whole country at the disposal of the Brit¬ 
ish government for all military and strategical 
purposes. Khelat is the capital, and Quetta, a 
town in the northeast, is the principal city. 

Balzac (bal-zak), Honorede (1799-1850), a 
celebrated French novelist, b. at Tours. Before 
completing his twenty-fourth year he had pub¬ 
lished a number of novels under various noms 
deplume , but the success attending all was very 
indifferent; and it was not till 1829, by the 
publication of Le Dernier Ghouan, a tale of La 
Vendee, and the first novel to which Balzac 
appended his name, that the attention of the 
public was drawn to the extraordinary genius 
of the author. A still greater popularity at¬ 
tended his Physiologie de Manage, a work full 
of piquant and caustic observations on human 
nature. He wrote a large number of novels, 
all marked by a singular knowledge of human 
nature and distinct delineation of character, 
but apt to be marred by exaggeration. A col¬ 
lected edition of his works under the title La 
Comxdie Humaine was published in 45 volumes. 

Bamba, a district of the Congo, w. coast of 
Africa, lying to the south of the river Ambriz. 
It is thickly populated, and is rich in gold, 
silver, copper, salt, etc. 

Bambar'ra, a negro kingdom of Central Af¬ 
rica, on the Joliba (or Upper Niger), first visited 
by Mungo Park. The country is generally very 
fertile, producing wheat, rice, maize, yams, etc. 
The inhabitants belong to the Mandingo race, 
and are partly Mohammedans. Excellent cot¬ 
ton cloth is made. The capital is Sego. Pop. 
est. at 2,000,000. 

Bam'berg, a town of Germany, Bavaria. It 
is the seat of a Catholic archbishop; the cathe¬ 
dral, founded in 1004, is one of the finest 
churches in Germany. The royal library 
contains 100,000 volumes and valuable MSS. 
Bamberg carries on a large trade; its indus¬ 
tries are cotton spinning, tobacco manufac¬ 
ture, brewing, etc. Pop. 38,815. 

Bambino (bam-be'no) (Ital., an infant), the 
figure of our Saviour represented as an infant 
in swaddling clothes. The Santissimo Bambino 
in the church of Ara Caeli at Rome, a richly 
decorated figure carved in wood, is believed to 
have a miraculous virtue in curing diseases. 
Bambinoes are set up for the adoration of the 
faithful in many places in Catholic countries. 

Bambocciades (bam-boch-adz') pictures, gen¬ 
erally grotesque, of common, rustic, or low 
life, such as those of Peter Van Laar, a Dutch 
painter of the seventeenth century, who on 
account of his deformity was called Bamboccio 
(cripple). Teniers is the great master of this 
style. 

Bamboo', the common name of the arbores¬ 
cent grasses belonging to the genus Bambusa. 





Bambook 


Banana 


There are many species, belonging to the 
warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and America, 
and growing from a few feet to as much as 
100 ft., requiring much moisture to thrive 
properly. The best-known species is common 
in tropical and sub-tropical regions. From 
the creeping underground rhizome, which 
is long, thick, and jointed, spring several 
round jointed stalks, which send out from 
their joints several shoots, the stalks also be¬ 
ing armed, at their joints with one or two 
sharp, rigid spines, The oval leaves, 8 or 9 


Bam'ian, a valley and pass of Afghanistan, 
the latter at an elevation of 8,496 feet, the only 
known pass over the Hindu Kush for artillery 




The Largest of the Figures at Barnian. 

and heavy transport. The valley is one of the 
chief centers of Buddhist worship, and con¬ 
tains five remarkable colossal statues from 
two to three hundred feet high, carved in the 
rocks, and other ancient monuments. 

Ban, anciently, a title given to the mili¬ 
tary chiefs who guarded the eastern marches 
of Hungary, now the title of the governor of 
Croatia and Slavonia, a division of the king¬ 
dom of Hungary. A province over which a 
ban is placed is called banat. 

Bana'na, a plant of the genus Musa. It is 
originally indigenous to the East Indies, and 


Bamboo. 

a. —upper portion of the stem with foliage. 
b— root stem, c.—section of stem. 

inches long, are placed on short footstalks. 
The flowers grow in large panicles from the 
joints of the stalk. Some stems grow to 8 or 
10 inches in diameter, and are so hard and du¬ 
rable as to be used for building purposes. The 
smaller stalks are used for walking sticks, 
flutes, etc.; and indeed the plant is used for in¬ 
numerable purposes in the East Indies, China, 
and other Eastern countries. Cottages are al¬ 
most wholly made of it; also, bridges, boxes, 
water pipes, ladders, fences, bows and arrows, 
spears, baskets, mats, paper, masts for boats, 
etc. The young shoots are pickled and eaten, 
or otherwise used as food. The seeds of some 
species are also eaten. The bamboo is im¬ 
ported into Europe and America as a paper 
material as well as for other purposes. 

Bambook', a country in Western Africa. 
The natives are Mandingoes, mostly professed 
Mohammedans ruled by independent chief¬ 
tains, most of whom acknowledge the suprem¬ 
acy of France. Gold and ivory are ex¬ 
changed for European goods. 


an herbaceous plant with an underground 
stem. The apparent stem, which is some- 





























Banana 


Banff 


times as high as 30 feet, is formed of the 
closely compacted sheaths of the leaves. The 
leaves are 6 to 10 feet long and 1 or more 
broad, with a strong midrib, from which the 
veins are given off at right angles; they are 
used for thatch, basket-making, etc., besides 
yielding a useful fiber. The spikes of the 
flowers grow nearly 4 feet long, in bunches, 
covered with purple-colored bracts. The fruit 
is 4 to 10 or 12 inches long, and 1 inch or more 
in diameter; it grows in large bunches, weigh¬ 
ing often from 40 to 80 pounds. The pulp is 
soft and of a luscious taste; when ripe it is 
eaten raw or fried in slices. The banana is 
cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical coun¬ 
tries, and is an important article of food. 
Manilla hemp is the product of a species of 
banana. 

Bana'na, an African port, belonging to the 
Congo Free State, situated at the mouth of 
the river Congo. 

Banana=bird, a pretty bird, a native of the 
West Indies and the warmer parts of America. 
It is a lively bird, easily domesticated, tawny 
and black in color, with white bars upon the 
wings. 

Banbury (ban'be-ri), a town of England, 
in Oxford, long celebrated for its cheese, its 
cakes, and its ale. Pop. 12,768. 

Banca, an island belonging to the Dutch 
East Indies, between Sumatra and Borneo, 
pop. 62,000, of which a considerable propor¬ 
tion are Chinese. It is celebrated for its ex¬ 
cellent tin, of which the annual yield is above 
4,000 tons; but it produces nothing else of any 
importance, 

Bancroft, George (1800-1891), American 
historian, b. at Worcester, Mass. He entered 
Harvard 1813 and graduated 1817. Studied 
history and philology at Gottengen 1818. Re¬ 
ceived degree Ph. D. 1820. He attended the 
lectures of Hegel at Berlin, and while travel¬ 
ing on the continent formed the acquaintance 
of eminent scholars, among them Savigny, 
Schlosser, and Goethe. After returning to 
America he taught for a time, then entered 
politics, and was made collector of customs at 
Boston. While lecturing on German litera¬ 
ture he continued his literary labors and pub¬ 
lished (1834-41) 'The History of the Colonization 
of the United States. Later this work was em¬ 
bodied in his larger history of The United 
States of North America. He was secretary of 
the navy under Polk (1845), and established the 
naval school at Annapolis. He was ambassa¬ 
dor to England (1846). He published' (1852), 
History of the Revolution in North America, from 
material collected while in England. His ora¬ 
tion in honor of Abraham Lincoln, delivered 
1866, is of historic value. He was minister to 
Russia (1867), and to the North German Confed¬ 
eration (1868). In 1871 he was accredited to 
the German empire. For many years he was 
an eminent contributor to The North American 
Review. While secretary of the navy he gave 
the order to take possession of California in 
case of war with Mexico. He was secretary of 
war one month, and gave the order to march 


into Texas. His last public address was given 
at Washington, D. C., April 27, 1886. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1832-), Amer¬ 

ican historian, b. in Ohio, went to California 
in 1852, and engaged in the publishing busi¬ 
ness. He acquired a magnificent library of 
books relating to the history of the Pacific 
Coast, and in 1875 published in five volumes 
his work on The Native Races of the Pacific 
States. In 1882 he published the first volume 
of his History of the Pacific States. He has 
written on the Spanish missions of California 
and the vigilance committees. 

Ban'croft, Richard (1544-1610), an English 
prelate, entered the church, and rose rapidly 
during the reign of Elizabeth till he obtained 
the see of London in 1597. James I made him 
Archbishop of Canterbury on the death of 
Whitgift. 

Bandage, a surgical wrapper of some kind 
applied to a limb or other portion of the body 
to keep parts in po¬ 
sition, exert a pres¬ 
sure, or for other 
purpose. To be able 
to apply a bandage 
suitably in the case 
of an accident is a 
highly useful ac- 
complishment, 
which through the 
teaching of ambu¬ 
lance surgery now 
so common, maybe 
easily acquired. See 
Surgery. 

Banda Islands, a 

group belonging to Roller Bandage. 
Holland, Indian Archipelago. They are beau¬ 
tiful islands, of volcanic origin, yielding quan¬ 
tities of nutmeg. Goenong Api, or Fire Moun¬ 
tain, is a cone-shaped volcano which rises 2,320 
feet above the sea. Pop. 6,700. 

Bandan'na, a variety of silk handkerchief 
having a uniformly dyed ground, usually of 
bright red or blue, ornamented with white or 
yellow circular, lozenge-shaped, or other sim¬ 
ple figures produced by discharging the ground 
color. 

Ban'dicoot, the largest known species of 
rat, attaining the weight of 2 or 3 lbs., and 
the length, including the tail, of 24 to 30 in. 
It is a native of India, and is very abundant in 
Ceylon. Its flesh is said to be delicate and to 
resemble young pork, and is a favorite article 
of diet with the coolies. It is destructive to 
rice fields and gardens. The name is also 
given to a family of Australian marsupials. 
The most common species, the long-nosed 
bandicoot, measures about 11 ft. from the tip 
of the snout to the origin of the tail, and in 
general appearance bears a considerable re¬ 
semblance to a large, overgrown rat. 

Baneberry, a European plant, local in Eng¬ 
land, with a spike of white flowers and black, 
poisonous berries. Two American species are 
considered remedies for rattlesnake bite. 

Banff (bamf), county town of Banffshire, 
Scotland, a seaport on the Moray Firth at the 



Bangalore 


Banks and Banking 


mouth of the Deveron. It is well built, carries 
on some ship building, and has a rope and sail 
work, a brewery, etc., with a fishing and ship¬ 
ping trade. Pop. 7,598. The county has an 
area of 686 sq. mi. Little wheat is raised, the 
principal crops being barley, oats, turnips, and 
potatoes. Fishing is an important industry; 
as is also the distilling of whisky. Pop. 
64.167. 

Bangalore', a town of Hindustan, capital of 
Mysore, and giving its name to a considerable 
district in the east of Mysore state. The town 
stands on a healthy plateau 8,000 ft. above 
sea-level, has a total area of nearly 14 sq. mi., 
and is one of the pleasantest British stations in 
India. In the old town stands the fort, recon¬ 
structed by Hyder Ali in 1761, and taken by 
Lord Cornwallis in 1791. There are manu¬ 
factures of silks, cotton cloth, carpets, gold 
and silver lace, etc. Pop. 180,366. The Ban¬ 
galore district has an area of nearly 3,000 sq. 
mi., of which more than half represents culti¬ 
vable land. Pop. 802,994. 

Bangkok' (or Bankok), the capital of the 
kingdom of Siam. The inner city occupies 
an island surrounded with walls and bastions, 
and contains the palace of the king and other 
important buildings. A large portion of the 
population dwell in boats or wooden houses 
erected on bamboo rafts moored in the river, 
and forming a floating town. Houses in the 
European style are beginning to be erected, 
and among other advances recently made are 
fhe introduction of the telegraph and tele¬ 
phone, gas, fire-engines, and omnibuses. The 
exports consist chiefly of rice, sugar, silk, 
cotton, tobacco, pepper, sesame, ivory, aro¬ 
matic wood, cabinet woods, tin, hides, etc.; 
and the imports consist chiefly of British 
cotton, woolen, and other goods. Pop. 350,000. 

Ban'gor, a city of North Wales, in Caer¬ 
narvonshire. Since the construction of the 
Menai Bridge, Bangor has risen into some im¬ 
portance as a popular resort; its principal trade 
is in the export of slates from the neighboring 
quarries. Pop. 12,261. 

Ban'gor, a port of Penobscot co., Maine, on 
the w. side of Penobscot River, a flourishing 
and pleasantly situated town, and one of the 
largest lumber depots in the world. The river 
is navigable to the town for vessels of the 
largest size. Pop. 1900, 21,850. 

Bangweo'lo, lake in South Africa, the 
southernmost of the great lake reservoirs of 
the Congo, discovered by Livingstone in 1868, 
an oval-shaped shallow sheet of water, said to 
be 150 mi. in length along its greater axis from 
e. to w., and about 75 mi. in width, but its ex¬ 
act limits are uncertain. 

Ban'ian (or Ban'yan), Indian trader or mer¬ 
chant, one engaged in commerce generally, 
but more particularly one of the great traders 
of Western India, as in the seaports of Bombay, 
Kurrachee, etc., who carry on a large trade by 
means of caravans with the interior of Asia, 
and with Africa by vessels. They form a 
class of the Yaisya caste, wear a peculiar 
dress, and are strict in the observance of fasts 
and in abstaining from the use of flesh. Hence 


—Banian days , days in which sailors in the 
navy had no flesh meat served out to them. 
Banian days are now abolished, but the term is 
still applied to days of poor fare. 

Ban jarmassin, a district and town in the 
s.e. of Borneo, under the government of the 
Dutch. Exports: pepper, benzoin, bezoar, rat¬ 
tans, dragon’s-blood, birds’-nests, etc.; imports: 
rice, salt, sugar, opium, etc. Pop. of the dis¬ 
trict, 864,360. 

Ban'jo, a stringed instrument, the favorite 
musical instrument of the negroes of the 
Southern states. It is six-stringed, has a body 
like a tambourine and neck like a guitar, and 
is played by stopping the strings with the 
fingers of the left hand and twitching or strik¬ 
ing them with the fingers of the right. The 
upper or octave string, however, is never 
stopped. 

Banks and Banking. — The definition of the 
word bajik , etymologically considered, is a 
bench—its derivation is the Italian word banco 
—a bench upon which the Italian money deal¬ 
ers keep their money piled. This, at least, is 
the general acceptation of the term. Other 
authorities, and not without a show of reason, 
claim that the word is derived from the old 
German banck , which, however, has two mean 
ings; one a pile and the other a bench. That 
the meaning of the word as applied to a heap 
or pile, is the origin of our modern term bank , 
is to a certain extent substantiated by the fact 
that among the early Italian bankers any ag¬ 
gregation of capital was termed a Monte. Thus 
to quote the words of Mr. Macleod:—- 

“ At this time the Germans were masters of 
a great part of Italy, and the German word 
banck , meaning a heap, came to be used as 
synonymous with Monte , and was Italianized 
into Banco , and the public loans were called 
indifferently Monti or Banchi .” The public 
pawn banks in France and Italy are still called 
Monte. This was also the interpretation given 
to the word during the colonial days of this 
country. 

Professor Sumner says in his History of Bank¬ 
ing in the United States: “ The sense of bank 
would be best expressed by batch , because it 
was applied to the mass of bills provided for 
and loaned out at one time, under one act of 
legislation.” And again, ‘‘The first bank in 
that Colony (Rhode Island) was for £30,000 
issued in 1715 for ten years.” 

Banking, in its modern sense, was not un¬ 
known to the earlier civilizations. Excava¬ 
tions at Babylon have revealed tablets showing 
the records of a bank account as early as 600 
b.c. Rome, however, can be called the birth¬ 
place of banking. Cicero in his letters speaks 
of bills of exchange, and a number of banking 
terms then in vogue are used in the same sense 
at the present day. The principles underlying 
our present system have come down to us from 
the days of imperial Rome without change or 
modification. The Crusades of the Middle 
Ages were mainly instrumental in the develop¬ 
ment of banking in the earlier Italian Repub¬ 
lics, and the demands of the times gave birth 
to the banking firms of the Medici and the 


Banks in the U. S. 


Banks, Savings 


Pitti; the princely houses which at the same 
time presided over the destinies of state and 
controlled the marts of trade. The Bank of 
Venice, the Bank of St. George at Genoa, and 
the Bank of Amsterdam are the oldest banks in 
history, and while not strictly banks in the 
modern acceptation of the term, they were the 
forerunners of the magnificent institutions 
which now control the destinies of commerce. 
The Bank of England owes its origin to the exi¬ 
gencies of the time when it was founded, and 
its present strength and powers of usefulness 
are the results of a development toward which 
all classes, from the philosopher to the me¬ 
chanic, have contributed a share. 

The modern understanding of the functions 
of a bank is that it is an institution used for 
the purpose of distributing capital where it 
can be made productive. Its sole purpose is 
supposed to be that of facilitating commerce 
between individuals, communities, and nations. 
The following description of the workings of 
the Bank of England, and the joint stock banks 
of London, may be aptly taken as an illus¬ 
tration: “ Money is collected in the country 
districts by local banks, such of it as can be 
used is loaned at home, while the balance— 
and this comprises generally the larger portion 
of such funds—is remitted to London to be 
held there as a reserve. Money is remitted 
by foreign countries for the purchase of com¬ 
modities which have no other mart, or is at¬ 
tracted by a higher rate of interest. Thus a 
steady stream pours in from all parts and ac¬ 
cumulates in the one center until active em¬ 
ployment for it is found; and thus has London 
developed into the money market, not only of 
England, but of the world. The money from 
agricultural districts is loaned in the indus¬ 
trial regions. The money from France is 
loaned in South America, but London acts as 
the broker.” 

A similar process is at work in every large 
city where commercial relations are estab¬ 
lished. The wants of the individual, the busi¬ 
ness man, the corporation, the municipality, 
are all supplied by the local banking institu¬ 
tions collecting the money from many sources, 
primarily for the purposes of safe-keeping, and 
then as remuneration for its services, exacting 
a charge from borrowers commensurate with 
the value of the money and the extent of the 
risk incurred in loaning it. 

Each country has a different system of bank¬ 
ing. In the continental countries of Europe the 
center institution is generally a state bank 
with the privilege of issuing notes, and is sur¬ 
rounded by minor institutions which follow 
out distinct lines of business. In England we 
find the Bank of England and that wonderful 
group of joint stock banks showing deposits 
for an aggregate sum of $2,800,000,000, while 
in the U. S. the national banking system, and 
the so-called state banks—i. e., banks deriving 
their charter from the respective states in 
which they are located—hold their sway. 

John E. Gahdin. 

Banks in the U. S. —The first U. S. Bank 
was chartered in 1791. Previous to this time 


there were three banks in the U. S. with an 
aggregate capital of $2,000,000; the Bank of 
North America, chartered by Congress in 1780, 
and by Pennsylvania in the following year, 
with a capital of $400,000; the Bank of Massa¬ 
chusetts in 1784; the Bank of New York in the 
same year. The U. S. Bank charter was lim¬ 
ited to 1811, or twenty years from date of issue. 
Its capital was $10,000,000, and the govern¬ 
ment retained the right to subscribe one fifth; 
$5,700,000 to be held in Philadelphia and the re¬ 
mainder to be distributed among the branches. 
Headquarters were to be at Philadelphia, and 
the bank had twenty directors. All the stock 
was sold in 1802 at a premium. The bank was 
not rechartered; it was opposed as unconstitu¬ 
tional, as in the hands of foreigners, and in¬ 
jurious to local banks. Owing largely to this 
failure to re-charter, specie payments were 
suspended in 1814. In 1810 President Madison 
approved the bill chartering a U. S. Bank with 
a capital of $35,000,000, of which the govern¬ 
ment subscribed $7,000,000, and citizens the 
rest. This charter was limited to twenty 
years.. The government funds were kept on 
deposit at this bank. President Jackson op¬ 
posed the bank, and when the bank asked for 
a renewal of its charter in 1831, the act was 
passed by Congress, but was vetoed by the 
president. Pennsylvania rechartered the bank 
thirteen days before the original charter ex¬ 
pired. It was known as the U. S. Bank of 
Pennsylvania. It suspended specie payment 
in 1837 and again in 1839, and a final suspension 
was made in 1840-41. It proved a total loss to 
the shareholders. New York adopted a bank¬ 
ing system in 1838, and Ohio adopted the safety 
fund system. The first clearing house in 
America was established in 1853 in New York. 
At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, 
there were 1,600 state banks having a gross ag¬ 
gregate capital of $429,000,000, with 10,000 
different kinds of notes in circulation. A na¬ 
tional bank system was devised by Secretary 
Chase, and in 1863 Congress made paper cur¬ 
rency and the banking laws of the country 
uniform. State banks were forced to surrender 
their charters and become national banks. In 
1870 the circulation of the national banks was 
limited to $354,000,000, secured by deposit of 
government bonds with the treasurer. This 
limitation has since been repealed; 2,572 of 
the state banks still exist having a total capital 
of $208,564,841. Following is the number of 
national banks in the twenty principal cities 
of the Union: New York, 47; Chicago, 19; St. 
Louis, 8; Boston, 56; Albany, 6; Brooklyn, 5; 
Philadelphia, 45; Pittsburg, 26; Baltimore, 19; 
Washington, 11; New Orleans, 10; Louisville, 
10; Cincinnati, 13; Cleveland, 10; Detroit, 8; 
St. Paul, 6; Minneapolis, 6; Kansas City, 10; 
Omaha, 9; and San Francisco, 2. These banks 
are obliged to keep a reserve of 25 per cent, of 
deposits. The total amount of resources of all 
the national banks in operation in 1885 was $2,- 
432,900,000; in 1900 $4,944,165,623; total specie, 
coin and coin certificates held by national 
banks in July, 1900, was $356,013,709.08. 

Banks, Savings. See Savings Banks . 


Bankiva Fowl 

Banki' va FoWl, a fowl living wild in North¬ 
ern India, Java, Sumatra, etc., believed to be 
the original of our common domestic fowls. 

Bankrupt, a person whom the law does or 
may take cognizance of as unable to pay his 
debts. Properly it is of narrower signification 
than insolvent , an insolvent person simply be¬ 
ing unable to pay all his debts. In England 
up till 1861 the term bankrupt was limited to 
an insolvent trader, and such traders were on 
a different footing from other insolvent per¬ 
sons, the latter not getting the same legal 
relief from their debts. In all civilized com¬ 
munities laws have been passed regarding 
bankruptcy. At present bankruptcy in Eng¬ 
land is regulated by the Bankruptcy Act of 
1883, which has as its essential feature the in¬ 
tervention of the Board of Trade at all stages 
of the bankruptcy, with the object of obtain¬ 
ing full official supervision and control. In 
America Congress has the power of legislating 
upon bankruptcy and upon two occasions has 
done so. A federal statute in force suspends 
all state laws on bankruptcy. There is now 
no federal statute in operation, but the Torrey 
bankruptcy bill is before Congress. Several of 
the states have bankruptcy laws in operation, 
the northern or commercial states favoring 
such enactments and the southern objecting 
to this kind of legislation. 

Banks, Joseph (1743-1820), a noted British 
naturalist. He was chosen a member of the 
Royal Society in 1766, and soon after went to 
Newfoundland and Hudson’s Bay to collect 
plants. In 1768, with Dr. Solander, a Swedish 
gentleman, pupil of Linnaeus, and then assist¬ 
ant librarian at the British Museum, he ac¬ 
companied Cook’s expedition as naturalist. 
In 1772 he visited Iceland along with Dr. Sol¬ 
ander, and during this voyage the Hebrides 
were examined, and the columnar formation 
of the rocks of Staffa first made known to 
naturalists. In 1777 Banks was chosen presi¬ 
dent of the Royal Society, in 1781 was made a 
baronet, and in 1795 received the order of the 
Bath. He wrote only essays, papers for 
learned societies, and short treatises. He be¬ 
queathed his collections to the British Mu¬ 
seum. 

Banks, Thomas (1735-1805), an English 
sculptor. He studied sculpture in the Royal 
Academy and in Italy. On leaving Italy he 
spent two unsatisfactory years in Russia, and 
then returned to England, where he was soon 
after made an academician. Among his 
works was a colossal statue of Achilles Mourn¬ 
ing the Loss of Briseis in the hall of the British 
Institution, and the monument of Sir Eyre 
Coote in Westminster Abbey. 

Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss (1816-94), an 
American soldier, b. at Waltham, Mass. 
Learned the trade of a machinist, and became 
first a lecturer, then a local newspaper editor, 
studied law, then representative in the legis¬ 
lature, governor of Massachusetts, speaker in 
U. S. Congress 1856-57, and general of volun 
teers in 1862. His first military effort was 
made at the battle of Winchester, where he 
was attacked by the forces of “Stonewall” 


Bannatyne Club 

Jackson. Later General Banks was placed in 
command of the defenses of Washington, 
while preparations were being secretly made 
to send a strong expedition by sea to New 
Orleans. He was assigned to command this 
expedition, which sailed from New York in 
November and December. On reaching New 
Orleans he succeeded Gen. B. F. Butler in 
command. In July the news of the surrender 
of Vicksburg was received, and on the ninth 
of that month the garrison of Port Hudson, 
6,000 in number, capitulated to the investing 
forces of General Banks. In the early part of 
the following year the army of General Banks 
was joined by 10,000 men, under Gen. A. J. 
Smith. The united forces advanced as 
far as Sabine Cross Roads. Here the Fed- 
erals were met by the Confederate forces 
under Gen. Richard Taylor, and driven back 
to Pleasant Hill; but on the following day, 
when the Confederates saw fit to renew the 
attack, they were repelled. The Federal army 
then retired to the Mississippi River. In May, 
1864, General Banks was relieved of his com¬ 
mand, resigned his commission, and returned 
to his native state, where he was biennially 
elected to Congress by his former constituents 
until 1877, failing only in 1872. For a long 
time General Banks was chairman of the com¬ 
mittee on foreign relations. He afterward 
served as U. S. marshal for Massachusetts, 
and was again elected to Congress in 1888 from 
the fifth Massachusetts district as a Repub¬ 
lican. 

Banksia, a North American species of pine 



Banksia. 

A.—shoot; B.—single flower enlarged; C.—in section. 


tree growing around Hudson’s Bay, about 25 
ft. high. 

Bann, Upper and Lower, two rivers in the n. 
of Ireland, the former rising in the mountains 
of Mourne, county Down, and after flowing 
38 mi. in a n. direction, falling into Lough 
Neagh, the latter being the outlet of Lough 
Neagh, and falling into the Atlantic Ocean 4 
mi. below Coleraine, after a course of nearly 
40 mi. 

Ban'natyne Club, a literary society insti¬ 
tuted in Edinburgh (1823) by Sir Walter Scott 



Bannockburn 


Baobab 


(its first president), David Laing (secretary till 
its dissolution in 18G5), Archibald Constable, 
and Thomas Thomson. It started with thirty- 
one members, subsequently extended to 100, 
having as its object the printing of rare works 
on Scotch history, literature, geography, etc. 
It derived its name from George Bannatyne 
(1545-1609), the collector of the famous MSS. of 
early Scottish poetry. 

Bannockburn, a village of Scotland, in Stir¬ 
lingshire, 2 mi. s.e. Stirling, famous for the 
decisive battle in which King Robert Bruce of 
Scotland defeated Edward II of England, 
on June 24, 1314. It has manufactures of 
woolens, such as tartans, carpets, etc. Pop. 
3,374. 

Bannu, a district in the Punjab, Hindustan, 
on the nortwesternfrontier. Area3,868 sq. mi.; 
pop. 332,577, of whom nearly half are Afghans. 

Banquette (bang-ket'), in fortification, the 
elevaiion of earth behind a parapet, on which 
the garrison or defenders may stand. The 
height of the parapet above the banquette is 
usually about 4 feet 6 inches; the breadth of 
the banquette from 2| or 3 feet to 4 or 6 feet 
according to the number of ranks to occupy it. 
It is frequently made double; that is, a second 
is made still lower. 

Banshee' (Benshi'), a weird hag, believed in 
Ireland and some parts of Scotland to attach 
herself to a particular house, and to appear or 
make her presence known by wailing before 
the death of one of the family. 

Ban'tarn, a residency occupying the whole 
of the w. end of the island of Java. It formed 
an independent kingdom, governed by its own 
sultan, till 1683, and the Dutch exercised 
suzerainty with brief intermission until its 
formal incorporation by them at the beginning 
of the present century. It produces rice, cof¬ 
fee, sugar, cinnamon, etc. Serang is its capi¬ 
tal. The town Bantam was the first Dutch 
settlement in Java (1595), and for some time 
their principal mart, though now greatly de¬ 
cayed. 

Ban'tarn Fowl, a small but spirited breed 
of domestic fowl, first brought from the East 
Indies, supposed to derive its name from Ban¬ 
tam in Java. Most of the sub-varieties have 
feathered legs; but these are not to be pre¬ 
ferred. In point of color the black and nan¬ 
keen varieties take the palm. A well-bred ban¬ 
tam does not weigh more than a pound. 

Ban'try, a small seaport town near the head 
of Bantry Bay, county Cork, Ireland. The 
bay , one of three large inlets at the s. w. ex¬ 
tremity of Ireland, affords an unsurpassed 
anchorage. 

Bantu (ban-to'), the ethnological name of a 
group of African races, including the Kaffirs, 
Zulus, Bechuanas, the tribes of the Loango, 
Congo, etc., but not the Hottentots. 

Banx'ring, a quadruped belonging to the 
Insectivora, or insect-eaters, inhabiting the 
Indian Archipelago, bearing some resemblance 
externally to a squirrel, but having a long, 
pointed snout. They live among trees, which 
they ascend with great agility. 

Ban'yan (or Ban'ian), a tree of India, of 


the fig genus. The most peculiar feature of 
this tree is its method of throwing out from 
the horizontal branches, supports which take 
root as soon as they reach the ground, enlarge 
into trunks, and extending branches in their 
turn, soon cover a prodigious extent of ground. 
A celebrated banyan-tree has been known to 
shelter 7,000 men beneath its shade. The 
wood is soft and porous, and from its white, 
glutinous juice bird-lime is sometimes pre¬ 
pared. Both juice and bark are regarded by 
the Hindus as valuable medicines. One of 
the largest banyan trees known to exist has 
been discovered on one of the Howe Islands, 
300 miles from Port Macquarie, in Australia, 



Banyan Tree. 


and the space it covers is nearly seven acres. 
Five acres is the area covered by a banyan- 
tree growing on the banks of the river Nar- 
budda, in the Province of Guzerat, India. 
It is distinguished by the name of Cubbeer 
Burr, which was given it in honor of a fa¬ 
mous saint. High floods have at various times 
swept away parts of this extraordinary tree, 
but what remains is nearly 2,000 ft. in circum¬ 
ference, measured round the principal stems; 
the overhanging branches not yet struck down 
cover a much larger space. <The large trunks 
of this tree amount to 350, and the smaller 
ones exceed 3,000, every one of which is con¬ 
stantly sending forth branches and hanging 
roots to form other trunks. It is said that 
7,000 persons find ample room to repose under 
its shade. 

Ba'obab (or Monkey-bread Tree), a tree, the 
only known species of its genus, which was 
named after the naturalist Adanson. It is 
one of the largest of trees, its trunk sometimes 
attaining a diameter of 30 feet; and as the 
profusion of leaves and drooping boughs some¬ 
times almost hides the stem, the whole forms 
a hemispherical mass of verdure 140 to 150 
feet in diameter and 60 to 70 feet high. It is 
a native of Western Africa, and is found also 
in Abyssinia; it is cultivated in many of the 
warmer parts of the world. The roots are of 
extraordinary length, a tree 77 feet in girth 
having a tap-root 110 feet in length. The 
leaves are deep green, divided into five une- 











Baptism 


Barbara 


qual parts lanceolate in shape, and radiating 
from a common center. The flowers resemble 
the white poppy, having snowy petals and 
violet-colored stamens; and the fruit, which 
is large and of an oblong shape, is said to taste 
like gingerbread, with a pleasant acid flavor. 
The wood is pale-colored, light, and soft. 
The tree is liable to be attacked by a fungus 
which, vegetating in the woody part, renders 
it soft and pithlike. By the negroes of the 



Baobab Tree. 


West Coast these trunks are hollowed into 
chambers, and dead bodies are suspended in 
them. There they become perfectly dry and 
well preserved, without further preparation or 
embalming. The pulverized leaves constitute 
lalo, which the natives mix with their daily 
food to diminish excessive perspiration, and 
which is even used by Europeans in fevers 
and diarrheas. The expressed juice of the 
fruit is used as a cooling drink in putrid 
fevers, and also as a seasoning for various 
foods. 

Baptism, a rite which is generally thought 
to have been usual with the Jews even be¬ 
fore Christ, being administered to proselytes. 
From this baptism, however, that of St. John 
the Baptist differed, because he baptized Jews 
also as a symbol of the necessity of perfect 
purification from sin. Christ himself never 
baptized, but directed his disciples to admin¬ 
ister this rite to converts (Matt. 28 : 19); and 
baptism, therefore, became a religious cere¬ 
mony among Christians, taking rank as a 
sacrament with all sects which acknowledge 
sacraments. In the primitive church the per¬ 
son to be baptized was dipped in a river or 
in a vessel, with the words which Christ had 
ordered, generally adopting a new name to 
further express the change. Sprinkling, or, 
as it was termed, clinic baptism, was used only 
in the case of the sick who could not leave 
their beds. The Greek church and Eastern 
schismatics retained the custom of immer¬ 


sion; but the Western church adopted or al¬ 
lowed the mode of baptism by pouring or 
sprinkling, since continued by most Protes¬ 
tants. This practise can be traced back cer¬ 
tainly to the third century, before which its 
existence is disputed. Since the Reformation 
there have been various Protestant sects called 
Baptists, holding that baptism should be ad¬ 
ministered only by immersion, and to those 
who can make a personal profession of faith. 

Baptists, a Protestant sect, distinguished 
by their opinions respecting the mode and 
subjects of baptism. With regard to the 
mode, they maintain the necessity of immer¬ 
sion. 

Barabin'zians, a rude, uncultivated tribe 
of Tatars, subsisting chiefly on the produce 
of their herds and on fish supplied by the 
lakes of the Baraba steppe. 

Baraguey=d’hilliers (ba-ra-ga-del-ya), Louis 
(1764-1812), a distinguished French general 
under the first Empire. He joined the army 
of Italy, and took Bergamo and Venice, of 
which he became governor. He took part in 
the expedition to Egypt, served in the cam¬ 
paigns in Germany and Spain, and commanded 
a division of the great army in the Russian 
campaign of 1812. Napoleon ordered him to 
return to France as under arrest, but, over¬ 
come with grief and fatigue, he died at Berlin 
on the way. His son Achille (1795-1878), was a 
distinguished soldier in the Crimean and Aus¬ 
trian wars. 

Barb, a horse of the Barbary breed, intro¬ 
duced by the Moors into Spain, and of great 
speed, endurance, and docility. 

Barba'does (or Barbados), the most eastern 
of the West Indies Islands, first mentioned in 
1518, and occupied by the British in 1625. 
Area 166 sq. mi.; capital, Bridgetown; pop. 
20,996. The island is more densely peopled 
than almost any spot in the world, the popula¬ 
tion being 182,806. The climate is very hot, 
though moderated by the constant trade- 
winds; and the island is subject to dreadful 
hurricanes. The black low-land soil gives 
great returns of sugar in favorable seasons. 
The chief exports, besides sugar, are molasses 
and rum; imports: rice, salt meat, corn, but¬ 
ter, flour, etc. Barbadoes has a considerable 
transit trade, being in some measure the cen¬ 
tral mart for all the Windward Islands. It is 
the headquarters of the British forces in the 
West Indies. There is a railway across the 
island, also tramways, telephones, etc. The 
island forms a distinct government under a 
governor, an executive and a legislative coun¬ 
cil, and a house of assembly. 

Barbadoes Cherry, the pleasant, tart, fleshy 
fruit of a West Indian tree 15 ft. high. 

Barbadoes Gooseberry, the fruit of a West 
Indian species of cactus. 

Bar'bara, St., according to the legend be¬ 
longed to Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, and was 
beheaded by her father for having turned 
Christian, he being immediately thereafter 
struck dead by lightning. She is invoked in 
storms, and is considered the patron saint of 
artillerists. 














Barbarian 


Barberry 


Barbarian, a name given by the Greeks 
and afterward by the Romans to every one 
who spoke an unintelligible language; and 
hence coming to connote the idea of rude, illit¬ 
erate, uncivilized. This word, therefore, did not 
always convey the idea of something odious 
or savage; thus Plautus calls Naevius a bar¬ 
barous poet, because he had not written in 
Greek; and Cicero terms illiterate persons with¬ 
out taste “barbarians.” 

Barbarossa, a surname given to Frederick 
I, of Germany. 

Barbarossa (“ red-beard”), the name of two 
famous Turkish corsairs of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, who ravaged the shores of the Mediter¬ 
ranean, and established themselves in Algiers. 
The elder of the brothers, Aruch (or Horuk), 
was killed in 1518; the younger and more no¬ 
torious, Hayraddin, who captured Tunis, died 
in 1540. 

Bar'bary, a general name for the most 
northerly portion of Africa, comprising Mo¬ 
rocco, Fez, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli (includ¬ 
ing Barca and Fezzan). The principal races 
are: the Berbers, the original inhabitants, from 
whom the country takes its name; the Arabs 
who conquered an extensive portion of it dur¬ 
ing the times of the caliphs; the Bedouins, 
Jews, Turks, and the French colonists of Al¬ 
geria, etc. The country which was prosperous 
under the Carthaginians, was, next to Egypt, 
the richest of the Roman provinces, and the 
Italian states enriched themselves by their in¬ 
tercourse with it. In the fifteenth century, 
however, it became infested with adventurers 
who made the name of Barbary corsair a ter¬ 
ror to commerce, a condition of things finally 
removed by the French occupation of Algeria. 

Barbary Ape, a species of ape, or tailless 
monkey, with greenish-brown hair, of the size 
of a large cat, remarkable for docility, also 
called the magot. It is common in Barbary 
and other parts of Africa, and some used to 
live formerly on Gibraltar Rock, being the only 
European monkey, though probably not indig¬ 
enous. It has been the “showman’s ape” 
from time immemorial. 

Bar'becue, a word of West Indian origin, 
meaning a hog, or other large animal, roasted 
whole. In the southern states the word is 
used to signify any jollification or especially 
a political festivity. 

Barbel, a genus of fresh-water fishes of the 
carp family, distinguished by the four fleshy 



filaments growing from the lips, two at the 
nose and one at each corner of the mouth, 
forming the kind of beard to which the genus 
owes its name. The barbel is common in Eu¬ 


ropean rivers, and runs in weight from 9 to 20 
lbs. It gives good sport to the angler, but its 
flesh is very coarse. 

Barber, one whose occupation is to shave or 
trim the beard, or cut and dress hair. The 
practise of surgery was formerly a part of the 
craft, and by an act of Henry VIII, the Com¬ 
pany of Barbers was incorporated with the 
Company of Surgeons—the company being 
then known as the Barber-surgeons—with the 
limitation, however, that the surgeons were 
not to shave or-practise “barbery,” and the 
barbers were to perform no higher surgical op¬ 
eration than blood-letting and tooth-drawing. 
This continued till the time of George II. The 
signs of the old profession—the pole which the 
patient grasped, its spiral decoration in imita¬ 
tion of the bandage, and the basin to catch the 
blood—are still sometimes retained. The bar¬ 
bers’ shops, always notorious for gossip, were 
in some measure the news-centers of classic 
and medimval times. 

Barberini (bar-be-re'ne), a celebrated Flor¬ 
entine family, which, since the pontificate of 
Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII, 1623 to 1644), 
has occupied a distinguished place among 
the nobility of Rome. During his reign he 
seemed chiefly intent on the aggrandizement 
of his three nephews, of whom two were ap¬ 
pointed cardinals, and the third Prince of 
Palestrina. 

Bar'berry, a genus of shrubs, the common 
barberry having bunches of small, beautiful 
red berries, somewhat oval; serrated and 



Barberry, a.—Flowering branch; b.— Fruit. 


pointed leaves; thorns, three together, upon 
the branches; and hanging clusters of yellow 
flowers. The berries nearly approach the 
tamarind in respect of acidity, and when 
boiled with sugar make an agreeable preserve, 
rob, or jelly. They are also used as a dry 
sweetmeat, and in sugarplums or comfits; are 
pickled with vinegar, and are used for the 
garnishing of dishes. The bark is said to 
have medicinal properties, and the inner bark 




Barberton 


Bareilly 


and roots with alum yield a fine yellow dye. 
The shrub was originally a native of eastern 
countries, but is now generally diffused in 
Europe, as also in North America. Numerous 
other species belong to America and Asia. 

Bar'berton, the chief mining center of De 
Kaap gold fields, Transvaal, about 80 mi. 
from Lydenburg, and 150 to 160 mi. from Dela- 
goa Bay. Pop. about 4,000. 

Bar'bets, a family of climbing birds with 
a thick conical beak, having tufts of bristles 
at its base. Their wings are short and their 
flight somewhat heavy. They have been di¬ 
vided into three subgenera : The barbicans, 
inhabiting India and Africa, and feeding 
chiefly on fruit: the barbets proper, found in 
America and Africa, and nearly related to the 
woodpeckers; and the puff-birds, inhabiting 
America, and feeding on insects. 

Barbette (bar-bet'), an elevation of earth 
behind the breastwork of a fortification, from 
which the artillery may be fired over the para¬ 
pet instead of through an embrasure. A bar¬ 
bette carriage is a carriage which elevates a 
gun sufficiently high to permit its being fired 
over the parapet. 

Barbuda (bar-bo'da), one of the West Indies, 
annexed by Britain in 1628; about 15 mi. long 
and 8 wide; lying n. of Antigua; pop. 800. It 
is flat, fertile, and healthy. Corn, cotton, pep¬ 
per, and tobacco are the principal produce, but 
the island is only partially cleared for cultiva¬ 
tion. It is a dependency of Antigua. 

Bar'ca, a division of North Africa, between 
the Gulf of Sidra and Egypt, a vilayet of the 
Turkish Empire, capital Bengazi. It formed a 
portion of the ancient Cyrenaica, and from the 
time of the Ptolemies was known as Pentapolis 
from its five Greek cities. The exports are 
grain and cattle, with ostrich feathers and 
ivory from the interior. Next to Bengazi the 
seaport of Derna is the chief town. The pop. 
probably does not exceed 300,000. 

Barcarolle (-rol'), a species of song sung by 
the barcaruoli, or gondoliers of Venice, and 
hence applied to a song or melody composed 
in imitation. 

Barcelona (bar-thel-6'na), one of the largest 
cities of Spain, chief town of the province of 
Barcelona, and formerly capital of the king¬ 
dom of Catalonia; situated on the northern 
portion of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. 
It is divided into the upper and lower town; 
the former modern, regular, stone-built, the 
latter old, irregular, brick-built. The princi¬ 
pal manufactures are cottons, silks, woolens, 
machinery, paper, glass, chemicals, stone¬ 
ware, soap; exports: manufactured goods, wine 
and brandy, fruit, oil, etc.; imports: coal, tex¬ 
tile fabrics, machinery, cotton, fish, hides, 
silks, timber, etc. The city contains a uni¬ 
versity, several public libraries, a museum, a 
large arsenal, cannon foundry, etc. Barcelona 
was, until the twelfth century, governed by 
its own count, but was afterward united 
with Arragon. In 1640, with the rest of Cata¬ 
lonia, it placed itself under the French crown; 
in 1652 it submitted again to the Span¬ 
ish government; in 1697 it was taken by the 


French, but was restored to Spain at the 
Peace of Ryswick. Pop. 272,481. The prov¬ 
ince has an area of 2,968 sq, mi.; pop. 902,970. 
It is generally mountainous, but well culti¬ 
vated, and among the most thickly peopled 
in Spain. 

Barcelona, a town of Venezuela, near the 
mouth of the Neveri River, founded in 1671. 
Pop. 12,785. 

Barclay, Robert (1648-1690), the celebrated 
apologist of the Quakers, b. at Gordons- 
town, Moray, Scotland, and educated at Paris, 
where he became a Roman Catholic. Later 
he became a Quaker. He published writings 
to rectify public sentiment in regard to the 
Quakers. In his travels with William Penn 
and George Fox through England, Holland, 
and Germany, to spread the opinions of the 
Quakers, he was received everywhere with 
the highest respect. 

Bar=cochba (bar-ko7i'ba), Simon, a Jewish 
impostor, who pretended to be the Messiah, 
raised a revolt, and made himself master of 
Jerusalem about 132 a. d., and of about fifty 
fortified places. Bar-cochba perished in the 
assault of Jerusalem by the Romans three 
years after, about 135. 

Bard, one of an order among the ancient 
Celtic tribes, whose occupation was to compose 
and sing verses in honor of the heroic achieve¬ 
ments of princes and brave men, generally to 
the accompaniment of the harp. Their verses 
also frequently embodied religious or ethical 
precepts, genealogies, laws, etc. Their exist¬ 
ence and function was known to the Romans 
two centuries b.c. ; but of the Gallic bards only 
the tradition of their popularity survives. The 
first Welsh bards of whom anything is extant 
are Taliesin, Aneurin, and Llywarch, of the 
sixth century. Edward I is said to have 
hanged all the Welsh bards as promoters of 
sedition. The Cambrian Society was formed in 
1818 for the preservation of the remains of the 
ancient literature. The revived Eisteddfodan, 
or bardic festivals, have been so far exceed¬ 
ingly popular. 

Bardwan' (or Burdwan'), a division of Ben¬ 
gal, upon the Hugli, comprising the six dis¬ 
tricts of Bardwan, Hugli, Howrah, Midnapur, 
Bankura, and Birbhum. Area 13,855 sq. mi.; 
pop. 7,393,954. The district Bardwan has an 
area of 2,697 sq. mi., and a pop. of 1,391,823. 
Apart from its products (rice, grain, hemp, 
cotton, indigo, etc.), it has a noted coal field of 
about 500 sq. mi. in area, with an annual out¬ 
put of about half a million tons. The town of 
Bardwan has a fine palace of the Maharajah 
and a pop. of 34,080. 

Bar6ge (ba-razh'), a light, open tissue of 
silk and worsted, or cotton and worsted, for 
women’s dresses, originally manufactured near 
Bareges. 

Bareges (ba-ragh), a watering-place, s. of 
France, dep. Hautes-Pyrenees, about 4,000 ft. 
above the sea, celebrated for its thermal springs 
which are frequented for rheumatism, scrofula, 
etc. The place is hardly inhabited except in 
the bathing season, June to September. 

Bareilly (ba-ra'li), .a town of Hindustan in 


Barham 


Bark 


the N. W. Provinces, capital of a district of 
same name. On the outbreak of the Indian 
mutiny the native garrison took possession of 
the place, but it was retaken by Lord Clyde in 
May, 1858. Pop. 121,039. The district has an 
area of 2,982 sq. mi.; pop. 1,040,691. 

Barham, Richard Harris (1788-1845), the 
author of the Ingoldsby Legends. In 1802 by a 
coach accident his right arm was crippled for 
life. He was ordained in 1813, and in 1821 
was appointed a minor canon of St. Paul’s. 
He published several novels, and with the 
commencement of Bentley's Miscellany in 1837, 
he began his inimitable burlesque metrical 
tales under the nom de plume 'of Thomas In¬ 
goldsby, which at once became popular from 
their droll humor, fine irony, and varied and 
whimsical rhymes. 

Bari (bar'e), a seaport, South Italy, on a small 
promontory of the Adriatic, capital of the 
province Terra di Bari. It was a place of im¬ 
portance as early as the third century b. c., 
and has been thrice destroyed and rebuilt. 
The present town, though poorly built for the 
most part, has a large Norman castle, a fine 
cathedral and priory, etc. It manufactures 
cotton and linen goods, hats, soap, glass, and 
liquors; has a trade in wine, grain, almonds, 
oil, etc., and is now an important seaport. 
Pop. 63,366. The province has an area of 2,280 
sq. mi., and is fertile in fruit, wine, oil, etc.; 
pop. 723', 730. 

Bari, a negro people of Africa, dwelling on 
both sides of the White Nile, and having Gon- 
dokoro as their chief town. They practise 
agriculture and cattle-rearing. Their coun¬ 
try was conquered by Sir Samuel Baker for 
Egypt. 

Barilla, the commercial name for the im¬ 
pure carbonate and sulphate of soda imported 
from Spain and the Levant. It is the Spanish 
name of a plant, from the ashes of which and 
from those of others of the same genus the 
crude alkali is obtained. On the shores of the 
Mediterranean the seeds of the plants from 
which it is obtained are regularly sown near the 
sea, and these, when at a sufficient state of 
maturity, are pulled up, dried, and burned in 
bundles in ovens or in trenches. The ashes, 
while hot, are continually stirred with long 
poles, and the saline matter they contain 
forms, when cold, a solid mass, almost as hard 
as stone. To obtain the carbonate of soda it is 
only requisite to lixiviate the barilla in boiling 
water, and evaporate the solution. British 
barilla or kelp is a still more impure alkali 
obtained from burning seaweeds. Soda is now 
obtained for the most part from common salt. 

Ba ring Brothers, the name of a noted 
British banking firm, the founders of which 
were Francis and John B., sons of a German 
named John B., who settled in England in the 
first half of the eighteenth century. The now 
celebrated house was established in 1770. 
Francis B., who was a strong adherent of Will¬ 
iam Pit , was made a baronet by that minis¬ 
ter in 1793. He was succeeded by his eldest 
son, Sir Thomas B. Sir Francis’s second son, 
Alexander, was in 1353 created Lord Ash¬ 


burton. Sir Thomas d. in 1848, and was 
succeeded by his son, Sir Francis Thorn¬ 
hill B., who was M. P. for Portsmouth from 
1826 to 1865. Under successive Whig govern¬ 
ments he held the offices of lord of the treas¬ 
ury, secretary to the treasury, chancellor of 
the exchequer, and first lord of the admi¬ 
ralty. In January, 1866, he was created Baron 
Northbrook. He d. in the following Septem¬ 
ber. He was succeeded by his son, the pres¬ 
ent Lord Northbrook. Thomas B., M. P. (b. 
1800), uncle of the present lord, devoted him¬ 
self to commerce, and was universally known 
for many years as the leading partner in the 
great mercantile firm of B. Brothers. He d. 
Nov. 18, 1873. Edward Charles B., the then 
head of the firm, was, in 1885, raised to the 
peerage as Baron Revelstoke. In 1890, very 
large amounts being invested in South Amer¬ 
ican securities which had become depreciated, 
and were not readily realizable, the firm became 
seriously embarrassed, but by the assistance 
of a guarantee by the Bank of England and 
the other principal banks, they were enabled 
to surmount their difficulties, and thus pre¬ 
vent a commercial catastrophe, the far-reach¬ 
ing and ruinous consequences of which no one 
could estimate. A reconstruction of the firm 
then took place. 

Baring=Gould (ba-ring-gold'), Sabine, Eng¬ 
lish clergyman and author, b. at Exeter 1834. 
Educated at Cambridge, he has held several liv¬ 
ings in the English church, being now rector of 
Lew Trenchard, Devon. Among his works are: 
Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas; Curious Myths of 
the Middle Ages; The Origin and Development of 
Religious Belief; Lives of the Saints; Village Ser¬ 
mons; besides the novels: Mehalah. John Her¬ 
ring, Richard Cable, the Gaverocks, etc.; and 
short stories or novelettes. 

Ba'rium, the metallic basis of baryta, which 
is an oxide of barium. It is only found in 
compounds, such as the common sulphate and 
carbonate, and was isolated by Davy for the 
first time in 1808. It is a yellow, malleable 
metal, which readily oxidizes, decomposes 
water, and fuses at a low temperature. Its 
nitrate and chlorate are used in pyrotechny. 

Bark, the exterior covering of the stems of 
exogenous plants. It is composed of cellular 
and vascular tissue, is separable from the 
wood, and is often regarded as consisting of 
four layers: 1 , epidermis or cuticle, which, 
however, is scarcely regarded as a part of the 
true bark; 2, the epiphloeum or outer cellular 
layer of the true bark or cortex; 3, the meso- 
phlceum or middle layer, also cellular; 4, an 
inner vascular layer, the liber or endophlceum, 
commonly called bast. Endogenous plants 
have no true bark. Bark contains many valu¬ 
able products, as gum, tannin, etc.; cork is a 
highly useful substance obtained from the 
epiphloeum; and the strength and flexibility of 
bast make it of considerable value. Bark 
used for tanning is obtained from oak, hem- 
lock-spruce, species of acacia growing in Aus¬ 
tralia, etc. Angostura bark, Peruvian or cin- 
chova, cinnamon, cascarilla, etc., are useful 
barks. 


Bark 


Barnacle 


Bark, Peruvian, is the bark of various spe¬ 
cies of trees of the genus Cinchona, found in 
many parts of S. A. but more particularly in 
Peru, and having medicinal properties. It 
was formerly called Jesuit's bark, from its hav¬ 
ing been introduced into Europe by Jesuits. Its 
medicinal properties depend upon the presence 
of quinine, which is now extracted from the 
bark, imported, and prescribed in place of 
nauseous mouthfuls of bark. 

Bar=le=duc (bar-l-duk),a town of n. e. France, 
capital of dep. Meuse, with manufactures of 
cotton and woolen stuffs, leather, confection¬ 
ery, etc. Pop. 18,761. 

Barlet'ta, a seaport in South Italy, province 
of Bari, on the Adriatic, with a fine Gothic ca¬ 
thedral;. it has a considerable export trade in 
grain, wine, almonds, etc. Pop. 34,775. 

Bar'ley, the name of several cereal plants 
of the genus Hordeum, order Graminece 
(grasses), yielding a grain used as food and 
also for making malt, from which are pre¬ 
pared beer, porter, and whisky. Barley has 
been known and cultivated from remote an- 
iquity, anl beer was made from it among the 



Egyptians. The species principally cultivated 
are two-rowed barley; four-rowed barley; and 
six-rowed, of which the small variety is the 
sacred barley of the ancients. Some of these 
are called here or bigg. In North America the ex¬ 
tent of it as a crop is comparatively small, be¬ 
ing in Canada, however, relatively greater 
than in the U. S., and the Canadian barley is 
of very high quality. In 1895 the U. S. pro¬ 
duced about 87,000,000 bushels of barley. Bar¬ 
ley is better adapted for cold climates than 
any other grain, and some of the coarser varie¬ 
ties are cultivated where no other cereal can 
be grown. Some species of the genus are mere 
grasses. Pot or Scotch barley is the grain de¬ 
prived of the husk in a mill. Pearl barley is 
the grain polished and rounded and deprived 
of husk and pellicle. Patent barley is the 
farina obtained by grinding pearl barley. 


Barley-water, a decoction of pearl barley, is 
used in medicine as possessing emollient, dilu¬ 
ent, and expectorant qualities. 

Barley=sugar, pure sugar melted and al¬ 
lowed to solidify into an amorphous mass with¬ 
out crystallizing. 

Bar' low, Joel (1754-1812), an American poet, 
politician, and pamphleteer. After an active 
and changeful life as chaplain, lawyer, editor, 
land-agent, lecturer, and consul, he went to 
Paris and acquired a fortune. On his return 
to America he was appointed minister pleni¬ 
potentiary to France (1811), but died near Cra¬ 
cow on his way to meet Napoleon. His prin¬ 
cipal poem, The Columbiad, dealing with 
American history from the time of Columbus, 
was published in 1807. 

Barlow, Samuel Latham Mitchell (1826- 
89), b. in Granville, Mass. At the age of four¬ 
teen years he entered a law office, and after 
studying seven years he set up in business 
for himself. A trip to Europe in behalf of an 
Illinois railway, in the year the firm was 
started brought him $50,000. The act by which 
he gained his widest fame was the lawsuit 
which expelled Jay Gould from the control of 
the Erie railway after the death of James 
Fisk, Jr. Mr. Barlow was elected one of the 
directors of the road under the new man¬ 
agement, and was retained as its private coun¬ 
sel. Mr. Barlow was a Democrat, but never 
held any political office. 

Barmecides (-sidz), a distinguished Persian 
family, whose virtues and splendor form a favor¬ 
ite subject with Mohammedan poets and his¬ 
torians. Two eminent members of this family 
were Khaled-ben-Barmek, tutor of Harun- 
al-Rashid, and his son, Yahya, grand vizier of 
Harun. 

Bar'mecide’s Feast, a phrase proverbial for 
a feast on imaginary dainties, and originating 
in the story of the barber’s sixth brother, in 
the Arabian Nights. 

Bar'men, a German city in the Prussian 
Rhine Province, government of Diisseldorf, 
and forming a continuation of the town of 
Elberfeld, in the valley of Barmen. It has ex¬ 
tensive ribbon and other textile manufactures; 
also dye-works, manufactures of chemicals, 
metal wares, buttons, yarns, iron, machines, 
pianos, organs, soap, etc. Pop. 116,144. 

Barnabas, the surname given by the apos¬ 
tles to Joses, a fellow laborer of Paul, and, 
like him, ranked as an apostle. He is said to 
have founded at Antioch the first Christian 
community, to have been first bishop of Milan, 
and to have suffered martyrdom at Cyprus. 

Bar'nacle, the name of a family of marine 
crustaceous animals. They are enveloped by 
a mantle and shell, composed of five principal 
valves and several smaller pieces, joined to¬ 
gether by a membrane attached to their cir¬ 
cumference; and they are furnished with a 
long, flexible, fleshy stalk or peduncle, pro¬ 
vided with muscles, by which they attach 
themselves to ships’ bottoms, submerged tim¬ 
ber, etc. They feed on small marine animals, 
brought Avithin their reach by the water and 
secured by their tentacula. Some of the 








Barnacle Goose 

larger species are edible. According to an old 
fable these animals produced barnacle geese. 

Barnacle Goose, a summer visitant of the 
northern seas, in size rather smaller than the 
common wild goose, and having the forehead 
and cheeks white, the upper body and neck 
black. A fable asserts that the crustaceans 
called barnacles changed into geese, and vari¬ 
ous theories have been framed to account for 
its origin. The Brent Goose is also sometimes 
called the Barnacle Goose, but the two should 
be discriminated. 

Barnardo, Thomas J., a British philanthro¬ 
pist, founder of the Barnardo Homes for home¬ 
less children, where they receive an industrial 
training, are saved from a possible career of 
crime, and enabled to achieve an honorable 
position in life. Dr. Barnardo has also under 
his direction many separate institutions in the 
United Kingdom and the colonies, a house for 
babies, a hospital for children, an immigration 
depot in Ontario, and an industrial farm in 
Manitoba. 

Barnato, Barney, a South African multi¬ 
millionaire, was born in London, became a 
juggler, and went to South Africa. He became 
a leading operator in the shares of diamond 
companies, and was associated with Cecil 
Rhodes to control the diamond output of South 
Africa. His wealth at one time was estimated 
at $500,000,000. He committed suicide in 1897, 
while going from Capetown to England. 

Barney, Joshua (1759-1818), American na¬ 
val officer. When the American Revolution 
began Barney was appointed master’s mate of 
the sloop Hornet, fitted out in Baltimore, and 
in November, 1775, joined Commodore Hop¬ 
kins’s squadron at Philadelphia. After the fleet 
had captured New Providence and the Baha¬ 
mas, it returned to Philadelphia, and Barney 
was transferred to the sloop Wasp. He was 
afterward transferred to the frigate Virginia 
as first officer. After five months' confinement 
in a prison-ship in New York, he was 
exchanged, and again captured, when he 
was sent for imprisonment to England, 
but escaped in the undress uniform of a 
British officer. Eventually he found his way 
back to Philadelphia, where he was placed in 
command of the ship Hyder Ali. While con¬ 
voying a fleet of merchantmen down the Dela¬ 
ware River he captured the British ship General 
Monk, after an engagement of twenty-six 
minutes. Though only twenty-three years of 
age, he was promoted by Congress to the rank 
of commodore, and received from the state of 
Pennsylvania a gold-hilted sword. In the War 
of 1812 Barney was appointed commander of 
the gunboat flotilla, organized for the defense 
of Chesapeake Bay. On Aug. 26, 1814, at the 
battle of Bladensburg he did all the fighting 
of that day. Here he was wounded and taken 
prisoner, exchanged six weeks later, and at 
once resumed his command. For his services 
at this battle the city of Washington voted him 
an elegant sword. 

Barns'ley, a town of England, W. Riding of 
Yorkshire. Its staple industries are the manu¬ 
facture of linens, iron, and steel, and there are 

17 


Barnum 

numerous collieries in the neighborhood. Pop. 
85,427. 

Barnum, Phineas Taylor (1810-1891), 
American showman, b. at Bethel, Conn. 
His father was tailor, farmer, and tavern- 
keeper in turn. At thirteen young Barnum 
was employed in a country store; and about 
five years afterward, went largely into the 
lottery business. When only nineteen he mar¬ 
ried clandestinely, and then moved to Dan¬ 
bury, where he edited The Herald of Freedom, 
and was imprisoned sixty days for a libel. In 
1834 he removed to New York, where hearing 
of Joice Heth, the reputed nurse of General 
Washington, he bought her for $1,000, and with 
the aid of wholesale advertising, exhibited her 
to considerable profit. He continued in the 
show business from 1836 to 1839, but reduced 
again to poverty, he sold Bibles, exhibited ne¬ 
gro dancers, and wrote for newspapers, until 
in 1841 he bought Scudder’s American Museum 
in New York, which he raised at once to pros¬ 
perity by exhibiting a Japanese mermaid, 
made of a fish and monkey, a white negress, a 
woolly horse, and finally a noted dwarf (Charles 
S. Stratton of Bridgeport), styled Gen. Tom 
Thumb, whom he exhibited in Europe in 1844. 
In 1847 he offered Jenny Lind $1,000 a night for 
150 nights, and received $700,000 —the concert 
tickets being sold at auction, in one case as 
high as $650 for a single ticket. He built a 
villa at Bridgeport, in imitation of the Brighton 
Pavilion, and engaged in various speculations, 
one of which—a clock factory—made him 
bankrupt. Settling with his creditors in 1857, 
he engaged anew in his career of audacious 
enterprises, and made another fortune. In 
1866 he was a candidate for a seat in Congress, 
but was unsuccessful. His Autobiography ( 1854, 
since greatly enlarged) has the merit at least of 
frankness. In 1865 he published The Humbugs 
of the World; in 1869, Struggles and Triumphs; 
and in 1883, Money-getting. In 1868 he relin¬ 
quished the business of showman, resuming it, 
however, in 1871, when he organized a museum, 
menagerie,circus, etc., which required 500 men 
and horses to transport it through the country. 
For his hippodrome in New York he purchased 
for $165,000 from Messrs. Sanger, London, in 
1874, a duplicate of the whole plant for the 
pageant “Congressof Monarchs.” His “Great¬ 
est Show on Earth ’’ required 100 railway cars 
for its conveyance, every one of which was his 
own property. In 1879 he estimated the num¬ 
ber of his patrons up to date as 90,000,000. In 
1882 the receipts in a single day for his Great 
Show when in Boston amounted to over $15,- 
000; for ten days, over $105,000. In 1882 he 
purchased for $10,000 from the London Zoolog¬ 
ical Society the elephant “Jumbo.” Mr. Bar¬ 
num had his own statue prepared while he was 
alive. The statue is of bronze, about 7 ft. in 
height, and represents him seated in a great 
arm-chair. It was made in Europe, on his 
personal order, and, on arrival in America, in 
1887, from Bremen, was packed away in one 
of the great storage warehouses of New York, 
with instructions that no one should be per¬ 
mitted to see it until after his death. 


Baroda 

Baro’da, a non-tributary state, but subordi¬ 
nate to the Indian government; situated in the 
north of the Bombay presidency. It consists 
of a number of detached territories in the 
province of Guzerat, and is generally level, 
fertile, and well cultivated, producing luxuri¬ 
ant crops of grain, cotton, tobacco, opium, 
sugar-cane, and oil-seeds. There is a famous 
breed of large white oxen used as draught 
cattle. Area 8,226 sq. mi.; pop. 2,415,396. 
BarodSi, the capital, is the third city in the 
Bombay presidency. Pop. 116,420 (including 
troops in the adjoining cantonment). 

Barometer, an instrument for determining 
atmospheric pressure. Experimenting with a 
closed tube filled with mercury inverted in a 
cup of the same metal, Torricelli noted that 
the pressure of the atmosphere supports a 
column of mercury 30 inches high. Pascal 
repeated and verified the experiment (1645). 
Perrier (1656) discovered that the height of the 
mercury varied with the weather. The cistern 
barometer consists of a glass tube 33 inches 
long, bore one third inch. The tube, hermet¬ 
ically sealed at the top, curves up at the bot¬ 
tom terminating in a glass bulb open to the 
atmosphere. Purified mercury fills the tube, 
and a scale marks the height of the column. 
In general, the rising of the mercury presages 
fair weather, and its falling the contrary, a 
great and sudden fall being the usual presage 
of a storm. 

The siphon barometer consists of a bent tube, 
generally of uniform bore, having two un¬ 
equal legs, the longer closed, the shorter open. 
A sufficient quantity of mercury having been 
introduced to fill the longer leg, the instru¬ 
ment is set upright, and the mercury takes 
such a position that the difference of the levels 
in the two legs represents the pressure of the 
atmosphere. In the best siphon barometers 
there are two scales, one for each leg, the divis¬ 
ions on one being reckoned upward, and on 
the other downward from an intermediate 
zero point, so that the sum of the two readings 
is the difference of levels of the mercury in the 
two branches. 

The wheel barometer is the one that is most 
commonly used for domestic purposes. It is 
far from being accurate, but it is often pre¬ 
ferred for ordinary use on account of the 
greater range of its scale, by which small dif¬ 
ferences in the height of the column of mer¬ 
cury are more easily observed. It usually 
consists of a siphon barometer, having a float 
resting on the surface of the mercury in the 
open branch, a thread attached to the float 
passing over a pulley, and having a weight as a 
counterpoise to the float at its extremity. As 
the mercury rises and falls, the thread and 
weight turn the pulley, which again moves 
the index of the dial. 

The mountain barometer is a portable mer¬ 
curial barometer with a tripod support and a 
long scale for measuring the altitude of moun¬ 
tains. To prevent breakage, - through the 
oscillations of such a heavy liquid as mercury, 
it is usually carried inverted, or it is furnished 
with a movable basin and a screw, by means 


Barras 

of which the mercury may be forced up to the 
top of the tube. For delicate operations, such 
as the measurement of altitudes, the scale of 
the barometer is furnished with a nonius or 
vernier, which greatly increases the minute¬ 
ness and accuracy of the scale. In exact 
barometric observations two corrections re¬ 
quire to be made, one for the depression of 
the mercury in the tube by capillary attrac¬ 
tion, the other for temperature, which in¬ 
creases or diminishes the bulk of the mercury. 
In regard to the measurement of heights the 
general rule is to subtract the ten-thousandth 
part of the observed altitude for every degree 
of Fahrenheit above 32°. 

In the aneroid barometer, as its name implies 
(Gr. a , not, neros, liquid), no fluid is employed, 
the action being dependent upon the suscepti¬ 
bility to atmospheric pressure shown by a flat 
circular metallic chamber from which the air 
has been partially exhausted, and which has a 
flexible top and bottom of corrugated metal 
plate. By an ingenious arrangement of springs 
and levers the depression or elevation of the 
surface of the box is registered by an index on 
the dial, by which means it is also greatly 
magnified, being given in inches to correspond 
with the mercurial barometer. Aneroids are, 
however, generally less reliable than mercurial 
barometers, with which they should be fre¬ 
quently compared. 

Barque (bark), a three-masted vessel of 
which the foremast and mainmast are square- 
rigged, but the mizzenmast has fore-and-aft 
sails only. 

Barquesimeto (bar-ka-se-ma'to), a city in 
the north of Venezuela, capital of the province 
of Barquesimeto. Pop. 31,476. It was founded 
in 1522, named New Segovia, and destroyed 
by earthquake in 1812. 

Bar'ra (or Bar), a small kingdom in Africa, 
near the mouth of the Gambia. The Man- 
dingoes, who form a considerable part of the 
inhabitants, are Mohammedans and the most 
civilized people on the Gambia. Pop. 200,000. 
The coast here belongs to Great Britain. 

Barra, an island of the Outer Hebrides, w. 
coast of Scotland, belonging to Inverness-shire. 
On the w. coast the Atlantic, beating with all 
its force, has hollowed out vast caves and fis¬ 
sures. Large herds of cattle and flocks of 
sheep are reared on the island. Pop. 2,365; 
area 348 sq. mi. 

Barrackpur (por'), a town and military can¬ 
tonment, Hindustan, on the left bank of the 
Hugh, 10 miles n.n.e. of Calcutta. Here oc¬ 
curred the first outbreak of the Indian mutiny. 
Pop. 56,627. 

Barranquilla (bar-ran-kel'ya), a town of 
South America, in Colombia, on a branch of 
the river Magdalena, near its entrance into the 
Caribbean Sea, connected by rail with the sea¬ 
port Sabanilla. Pop. 11,595. 

Barras (ba-rii), Paul Francis Jean Nich¬ 
olas, Comte de (1755-1829), member of the 
French national convention and of the execu¬ 
tive directory. After serving in the army in 
India and Africa he joined the revolutionary 
party and was a deputy. He took part in the 


Barre 


Barry 


attack upon the Bastile and upon the Tuile- 
ries, and voted for the death of Louis XVI. 
On Feb. 4, 1795, he was elected president of 
the convention, and on Oct. 5, Barras for a 
second time received the chief command of the 
forces of the convention. From 1797 he gov¬ 
erned absolutely until June 13, 1799, when 
Sieyfcs entered the directory, and in alliance 
with Bonaparte procured his downfall. He 
afterward resided at Brussels, Marseilles, 
Rome, and Montpellier under surveillance, re¬ 
turning to Paris only after the restoration of 
the Bourbons. His memoirs were suppressed 
and seized, but were published recently. 

Barre, Washington co., Yt., the seat of God¬ 
dard Seminary. Pop. 1900, 8,448 

Barren Grounds, a large tract in the n.w. 
territories of Canada, extending northward 
from Churchill River to the Arctic Ocean be¬ 
tween Great Bear and Great Slave Lake and 
Hudson’s Bay. It largely consists of swamps, 
lakes, and areas of bare rock with dwarf 
birches and willows in certain parts. The 
reindeer and musk-ox are among the animals. 

Barrett, Lawrence, actor, b. 1838, in Pater¬ 
son, N. J. He made his debut at Detroit, Mich., 
in 1853, as “Murad,” in the drama of the 
French Spy. In 1856 he appeared at Burton’s 
theater in New York City, as “Sir Thomas 
Clifford,” in The Hunchback. In 1861, at the 
beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Barrett for a 
time served as a captain of a company of 
Massachusetts infantry. Retiring from the 
army, he again acted in Washington, Phila¬ 
delphia, and New York City. In the last- 
named place he was advanced to perform¬ 
ing “Othello” to the “Iago” of Edwin 
Booth. In 1867 he first appeared as a star 
actor in San Francisco. Returning to New 
York City, he played with Mr. Booth in 
alternate parts at Booth’s theater. During 
1873-74 he starred in the large cities of the 
Union, and in 1875 renewed his connections 
with Booth in New York City. Later he ap¬ 
peared in King Lear, Torick's Love, and Boker’s 
Francesca da Rimini. For some years he 
traveled through the U. S. in company with 
Mr. Booth. Mr. Barrett has visited Europe 
several times. Died 1891. 

Barrier Reef, a coral reef which extends for 
1,260 mi. off the n.e. coast of Australia, at a 
distance from land ranging from 10 to 100 mi. 
In sailing from Sydney through Torres Straits 
vessels have the choice of the inner and outer 
routes; the former, though narrow, gives a 
channel of about 12 fathoms deep throughout, 
and protected from the sea by the reefs them¬ 
selves; the outer channel is less accurately sur¬ 
veyed and still dangerous. 

Barrios, Justo Rufino (1835-1885), a Guate¬ 
malan statesman. His rule as president was 
wise and beneficent and included a projected 
union of the Central American Republics. He 
was killed in battle with Salvadorean troops. 

Barron, James (1769-1851), American naval 
officer. As a boy he became connected with 
seamanship, was made lieutenant in the navy 
in 1798, captain in 1799, and made commodore, 
in command of the Chesapeake, 1807. He sailed 


out and was met by the British frigate Leopard, 
whose captain demanded the surrender of sev¬ 
eral alleged British deserters from among the 
American crew. To this demand Barron de¬ 
murred, and the Leopard opened fire, killing 
three and wounding eighteen of the Chesa¬ 
peake's men. The American ensign was hauled 
down, and the alleged deserters were carried 
away on the British vessel. The British gov¬ 
ernment promptly repudiated the action of 
the captain of the Leopard, the deserters were 
restored, and a monetary indemnity paid to 
our government. Barron thereafter was tried 
by court-martial and suspended from rank and 
pay for five years. On the expiration of this 
term he was kept on shore duty. In 1820 Com¬ 
modore Decatur was challenged by Barron to 
fight a duel, in which Decatur was killed, and 
Barron wounded. 

Bar' row, a river in the s. e. of Ireland, prov¬ 
ince Leinster. It is next in importance to the 
Shannon, and is navigable for vessels of 200 
tons for 25 mi. above the sea. 

Bar' row=in”Fur' ness, a seaport and parlia¬ 
mentary borough of Lancashire, England. Its 
prosperity is due to the mines of red hematite 
iron-ore which abound in the district, and to 
the railway rendering its excellent natural har¬ 
bor available. It has several large docks; be¬ 
sides graving-docks, a floating-dock capable of 
receiving vessels of 3,000 tons, a large timber 
pond, etc. There is an extensive trade in tim¬ 
ber, cattle, grain, and flour; and iron-ore and 
pig-iron are largely shipped. It has numerous 
blast-furnaces, and one of the largest Bessemer- 
steel works in the world. Besides iron-works 
a large business is done in ship-building, the 
making of railway wagons, and rolling stock, 
ropes, sails, bricks, etc. Pop. 51,712. 

Bar'rows, mounds of earth or stones raised 
to mark the resting-place of the dead, and dis¬ 
tinguished, according to their shape, as long, 
bowl, bell, cone, broad barrows. The practise of 
barrow-burial is of unknown antiquity and al¬ 
most universal, barrows being found all over 
America, Europe, in Northern Africa, Asia 
Minor, Afghanistan, and Western India. In 
barrows of later date the remains are generally 
enclosed in a stone cist. Frequently cremation 
preceded the erection of the barrow, the ashes 
being enclosed in an urn or cist. A detailed 
description of an ancient barrow-burial is given 
in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, and the ac¬ 
counts of the obsequies of Hector and Achilles 
in the Iliad and Odyssey are well known. 

Barrow Strait, the connecting channel be¬ 
tween Lancaster Sound and Baffin’s Bay on the 
e. and the Polar Ocean on the w. Of great 
depth, with rocky and rugged shores. Named 
after Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), a British 
traveler 

Bar'ry, Charles (1795-1860), an English 
architect, born in London. After executing 
numerous important buildings, such as the 
Reform Club-house, London, St. Edward’s 
School, Birmingham, etc., he was appointed 
architect of the new Houses of Parliament at 
Westminster, a noble pile, with the execution 
of which he was occupied for more than twenty- 


Barry 


Bartolini 


four years. His son, Edward Middleton, 
(1830-1880), was also a distinguished architect. 

Barry, John (1745-1803), naval officer, b. in 
Ireland. He was apprenticed to seamanship, 
and became master of a vessel. At the be¬ 
ginning of the Revolution he offered his serv¬ 
ices to this country, and in 1776 became com¬ 
mander of the Lexington , and captured the Brit¬ 
ish tender Edward. He was transferred to 
the command of the Effingham. In the winter 
of 1776-77, he assisted at the battle of Trenton 
with some heavy artillery. In 1777, Barry 
captured a British war schooner in the Dela¬ 
ware River. In 1778 he commanded the Ra¬ 
leigh, which was pursued and driven on shore 
by a British squadron. Later he was trans¬ 
ferred to the Alliance, and in a severe engage- 
ment captured the Atalanta and Trepassy. He 
was senior officer, with the rank of commo¬ 
dore in the reorganized navy in 1794. 

Bar sabas, son of Alpheus, brother of James 
the Less and of Jude, and one of the candi¬ 
dates for the apostolical office left vacant by 
Judas Iscariot. 

Bart (Baert or Barth) (biirt), Jean, a famous 
French sailor, b. at Dunkirk, 1650, the son of 
a poor fisherman. He became captain of a 
privateer, and after some brilliant exploits 
was appointed captain in the royal navy. In 
recognition of his further services he was made 
commodore. He made the navy of the nation 
everywhere respected, and furnished some of 
the most striking chapters in the romance of 
naval warfare. After the peace of Ryswick 
he lived quietly at Dunkirk, and d. there while 
equipping a fleet to take part in the War of the 
Spanish Succession, 1702. 

Barth (biirt), Heinrich, African traveler, b. 
at Hamburg 1821, d. in 1865. He graduated 
at the University of Berlin as Ph.D. in 1844; 
and set out in 1845 to explore all the countries 
bordering on the Mediterranean. His explora¬ 
tions, which extended over an area of about 
2,000,000 sq. mi., determined the course of the 
Niger and the true nature of the Sahara. 

Barth6' Imy = Saint = H i 1 a i r e (bar-tal-me), 
Jules (1805-1887), French scholar and states¬ 
man. He was professor of Greek and Latin 
philosophy in the College of France, but re¬ 
signed the chair after the coup d'etat of 1852 
and refused to take the oath; was reappointed 
1862; in 1869 was returned to the Corps 
Legislatif; after the revolution was a member 
of the National Assembly; was elected senator 
for life in 1875. He published a translation of 
Aristotle, and works on Buddhism, Mohammed 
and Mohammedanism, the Vedas, etc. 

Bartholdi (bar-tol'de) Auguste, a French 
sculptor, b. 1834; best known as the artist of 
the colossal statue of Liberty now overlooking 
the harbor of New York. 

Barthol'omew, the apostle, is probably the 
same person as Nathanael, mentioned in the 
Gospel of St. John as an upright Israelite and 
one of the first disciples of Jesus. He is said 
to have taught Christianity in the south of 
Arabia. 

Bartholomew’s Day, St., a feast of the 
Church of Rome, celebrated (August 24) in 


honor of St. Bartholomew. What is known 
as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was 
the slaughter of the French Protestants which 
began Aug. 24, 1572, by secret orders from 
Charles IX at the instigation of his mother, 
Catherine de Medici, and in which, according 
to Sully, 70,000 Huguenots, including women 
and children, were murdered throughout the 
country. During the minority of Charles and 
the regency of his mother a long war raged 
in France "between the Catholics and the Hu¬ 
guenots, the leaders of the latter being the 
Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny. In 
1570 overtures were made by the court to the 
Huguenots, which resulted in a treaty of 
peace. This treaty blinded the chiefs of the 
Huguenots, particularly the Admiral Coligny, 
who was wearied with civil war. The king 
appeared to have entirely disengaged himself 
from the influence of the Guises and his 
mother; he invited Coligny to his court, and 
honored him as a father. The most artful 
means were employed to increase this delu¬ 
sion. The sister of the king was married to 
the Prince de Bearn (1572) in order to allure 
the most distinguished Huguenots to Paris. 
On August 22 a shot from a window wounded 
the admiral. The king hastened to visit him, 
and swore to punish the author of the villainy; 
but on the same day he was induced by his 
mother to believe that the admiral had de¬ 
signs on his life. The following night Catha¬ 
rine held the bloody council, which fixed the 
execution for the night of St. Bartholomew, 
Aug. 24, 1572. After the assassination of Co¬ 
ligny a bell from the tower of the royal palace 
at midnight gave to the assembled companies 
of burghers the signal for the general massacre 
of the Huguenots. The Prince of Conde and 
the King of Navarre saved their lives by going 
to mass and pretending to embrace the Catho¬ 
lic religion. By the king’s orders the massa¬ 
cre was extended throughout the whole king¬ 
dom, and the horrible slaughter continued for 
thirty days in almost all the provinces. 

Bartholomew’s Hospital, St., one of the 
great hospitals of London, formerly the priory 
of St. Bartholomew, and 
made a hospital by Henry 
VIII in 1547. On an 
average 6,000 patients are 
annually admitted to the 
hospital, while about 100,- 
000 out-patients are re¬ 
lieved by it. A medical 
school is attached to it. 

Bar'tizan, a small over¬ 
hanging turret pierced 
with one or more aper¬ 
tures for archers, project¬ 
ing generally from the 
angles on the top of a 
tower, or from the para¬ 
pet, or elsewhere, as in a 
medieval castle. 

Bartolini (bar-to-le'ne), 

Lorenzo (1778-1850), a Bartizan, 
celebrated Italian sculptor, born at Florence. 
He studied and worked in Paris, and was pat- 






Bartolozzl 


Baseball 


ronized by Napoleon. Among his greater 
works may be mentioned his groups of Charity 
and Hercules and Lycas, a colossal bust of Na¬ 
poleon, and the beautiful monument in the 
cathedral of Lausanne, erected in memory of 
Lady Stratford Canning. Bartolini ranks next 
to Canova among modern Italian sculptors. 

Bartolozzi (lot'se), Francesco (1725-1813), 
a distinguished engraver, born at Florence. He 
later went to London, and Lisbon, Portugal. 

Barton, Bernard, known as the Quaker 
poet, b. in London 1784, d. 1849. His poetry, 
though deficient in force, is pleasing, fluent, 
and graceful. 

Barton, Clara, philanthropist, b. 1826, in 
Oxford, Mass. She first went to school in 
Clinton, N. Y.; became a teacher and founded 
a free school in Bordentown, N. J., became 
clerk in the U. S. patent office, 1854. When 
the Civil War began she devoted herself to the 
care of wounded soldiers on the battlefield; 
and in 1864 had charge of the hospitals at the 
front of the Army of the James. In 1865 she 
visited Andersonville, Ga., to mark the graves 
of the Union soldiery. During the war be¬ 
tween Germany and France she volunteered 
her service, and was decorated with the golden 
cross of Baden and the iron cross of Germany. 
The American Red Cross Society was organ¬ 
ized in 1881, and she became its president, and 
represented the U. S. at the Red Cross con¬ 
ference in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1884. She 
was also delegate to the international peace 
convention at Geneva, in 1884, and a special 
commissioner for foreign exhibits at the New 
Orleans exhibition. In 1883 the U. S. Senate 
committee on foreign relations requested her 
to prepare a History of the Red Cross. In 1898 
she went to Cuba to distribute supplies fur¬ 
nished by the U. S. government. 

Bartram, Joiin (1699-1777), botanist, b. in 
Chester co., Pa. After studying medicine 
and surgery, he became interested in the study 
of plants. He was the first to form a botanic 
garden for American plants. The garden still 
contains some fine old trees. Mr. Bartram 
went on his first extensive botanical expedi¬ 
tion, joining a mission to the Six Nations of 
Indians at Onondaga, and afterward traveling 
to Oswego, and to the partly explored shores 
of Lake Ontario, 1743. He published his Ob¬ 
servations on the Inhabitants , Climate , Soil, etc., 
from Pennsylvania to Onondaga , Osicego, and the 
Lake Ontario, etc. (1751). His Journal of 
Travels was published in 1766. Mr. Bartram 
contributed several papers to the American 
Philosophical Society. He was a friend of 
Dr. Franklin. Mr. Bartram supported his 
family by farming, and quarried the stones for 
the house on the Schuylkill, which he built, 
and which is still standing. His son, William 
Bartram (1730-1823) illustrated Barton’s Ele¬ 
ments of Botany, and was the first to make 
known many curious and beautiful American 
plants. 

Baruch (ba'ruk), a Hebrew scribe, friend 
and assistant to the prophet Jeremiah. One 
of the apocryphal books bears the name of 

Baruch. 


Barwood, a dyewood obtained from a tall 
tree of West Africa. It is chiefly used for 
giving orange-red dyes on cotton yarns. See 
Camwood. 

Bary'ta, oxide of barium, called also heavy 
earth, from its being the heaviest of the earths. 
It is generally found in combination with sul¬ 
phuric and carbonic acids, forming sulphate 
and carbonate of baryta, the former of which 
is called heavy-spar. Baryta is a gray powder, 
has a sharp, caustic, alkaline taste, and a 
strong affinity for water, and forms a hydrate 
with that element. It forms white salts with 
the acids, all of which are poisonous except 
the sulphate. Several mixtures of sulphate of 
baryta and white lead are manufactured, and 
are used as white pigments, or it may be used 
alone. Carbonate of baryta, which in the 
natural state is known as witherite, is also 
used as the base of certain colors. The nitrate 
is used in pyrotechny, in the preparation of 
green fireworks. 

Basalt (ba-salt'), a well-known igneous rock 
occurring in the ancient trap and the recent 
volcanic series of rocks, but most abundantly 
in the former. It is a fine-grained, heavy, 
crystalline rock, consisting of felspar, augite, 
and magnetic iron, and sometimes contains a 
little olivine. Basalt is amorphous, columnar, 
tabular, or globular. The columnar form is 
straight or curved, perpendicular or inclined, 
sometimes nearly horizontal; the diameter of 
the columns from 3 to 18 in., sometimes 
with transverse semispherical joints, in which 
the convex part of one is inserted in the con¬ 
cavity of another; and the height from 5 to 
150 ft. The forms of the columns generally 
are pentagonal, hexagonal, or octagonal. When 
decomposed it is found also in round masses, 
either spherical or compressed and lenticular. 
These rounded masses are sometimes composed 
of concentric layers, with a nucleus, and some¬ 
times of prisms radiating from a center. Fin- 
gal’s Gave, in the island of Staffa, furnishes a 
remarkable instance of basaltic columns. The 
pillars of the Giant’s Causeway, Ireland, com¬ 
posed of this stone, and exposed to the roughest 
sea for ages, have their angles as perfect as 
those at a distance from the waves. Basalt 
often assumes curious and fantastic forms, as 
for example, those masses popularly known as 
“Sampson’s Ribs” at Arthur’s Seat, Edin¬ 
burgh, and “Lot” and “Lot’s Wife” near the 
s. coast of St. Helena. 

Baseball, a game played with a bat and 
ball which has obtained a national character 
in the U. S. It is played by nine players a side. 
A diamond-shaped space of ground, 90 feet on 
the side, is marked out, the corners being the 
“bases.” One side takes the field, and the 
other sends a man to bat. When the field side 
take their places the “ pitcher,” standing in¬ 
side the ground near the center and in front of 
the batsman, delivers a ball to the batsman, 
who stands at the “ home base,” and who tries 
to drive it out of the reach of the fielders, and 
far enough out of the field to enable him to 
run round the bases, which scores a run. If he 
cannot run round all he may stop at any one, 


Basedow 


Basin 


and may be followed by another batsman. If 
he is touched by the ball he is out, and when 
three on his side are put out, the field side take 
the bat. Nine of these innings makes a game, 
which the highest score wins. The bat is of a 
cylindrical shape, not more than 2£ inches in 
diameter nor more than 42 inches long. The 
ball is about 9 inches in circumference and 
weighs not less than 5 ounces. There are now 
several professional leagues of baseball clubs 
in the *U. S., the leading one of which is the 
National League. Naarly every college in 
America has its baseball team, but these play¬ 
ers are amateurs. 

Basedow (ba'ze-do), John Bernhard (1723- 
1790), German educationalist. The chief fea¬ 
ture of Basedow’s system is the full develop¬ 
ment of the faculties of the young at which he 
aspired, in pursuance of the notions of Locke 
and Rousseau. 

Basel (ba'zl), a canton and city of Switzer¬ 
land. The canton borders on Alsace and Baden, 
has an area of 177 sq. mi. and a pop. of 144,283, 
nearly all speaking German. It is divided into 
two half-cantons. The city of Basel is 43 mi. 
n. of Berne, and consists of two parts on oppo¬ 
site sides of the Rhine, and communicating by 
three bridges, one of them an ancient wooden 
structure; the older portions are irregularly 
built with narrow streets; has an ancient cathe¬ 
dral, founded 1010, containing the tombs of 
Erasmus and other eminent persons; a univer¬ 
sity, founded in 1459; a seminary for mission¬ 
aries; a museum containing the valuable public 
library, pictures, etc. The industries embrace 
silk ribbons, tanning, paper, aniline dyes, 
brewing, etc. At Basel was signed the treaty of 
peace between France and Prussia, April 5, 
and that between France and Spain, July 22, 
1795. Pop. 75,114. 

Basel, Council of, a celebrated ecumenical 
council of the church convoked by Pope Mar¬ 
tin V and his successor Eugenius IV. It was 
opened Dec. 14, 1431. The objects of its de¬ 
liberations were to extirpate heresies (that of 
the Hussites in particular), to unite all Chris¬ 
tian nations under the Catholic church, to put 
a stop to wars between Christian princes, and 
to reform the church. It got into a dispute 
with the pope, declared him guilty of con¬ 
tumacy and deposed him. It sat until May 4, 
1449, but declined in importance. 

Base-line, in surveying, a straight line meas¬ 
ured with the utmost precision to form the 
starting point of the triangulation of a country 
or district. 

Bashi-Bazooks' , irregular troops in the 
Turkish army. They are mostly Asiatics, 
and have had to be disarmed several times by 
the regular troops on account of the barbari¬ 
ties by which they have rendered themselves 
infamous. 

Basic Slag, the slag or refuse matter which 
is got in making basic steel, and which, from 
the phosphate of lime it contains, is a valuable 
fertilizer. 

Bas'il, a labiate plant, a native of India, 
much used in cookery, especially in France, 


and known more particularly as sweet or com¬ 
mon basil. 

Basil, St., called the Great, one of the Greek 
fathers, was b. in 329 and made, in 370, Bishop 
of Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he d. in 379. 
The Greek church celebrates his festival Jan¬ 
uary 1. The vows of obedience, chastity, and 
poverty framed by St. Basil are essentially the 
rules of all the orders of Christendom. 

Basil ica, originally the name applied by the 
Romans to their public halls, either of justice, 
of exchange, or other business. The plan of 
the basilica was usually a rectangle divided into 
aisles by rows of columns, the middle aisle 
being the widest, with a semi-circular apse at 
the end, in which the tribunal was placed. 

Basilica'ta (also called Potenza), an Italian 
province, extending north from the Gult of 
Taranto, and corresponding pretty closely with 
the ancient Lucania. Area 4,122 sq. mi.; pop. 
459,580. Potenza (pop. 20,780) is the capital. 

Bas'ilisk, a fabulous creature formerly be¬ 
lieved to exist, and variously regarded as a 
kind of serpent, lizard, or dragon, and some¬ 
times identified with the cockatrice. It inhab¬ 
ited the deserts of Africa, and its breath, and 
even its look, was fatal. The name is now 



The Mythical Basilisk. 


applied to a genius of saurian reptiles belong¬ 
ing to the family Iguanidte, distinguished by 
an elevated crest or row of scales, erectible at 
pleasure, which, like the dorsal fins of some 
fishes, run along the whole length of the back 
and tail. The miterd or hooded basilisk is 
especially remarkable for a membranous bag 
at the back of the head, of the size of a small 
hen’s egg, which can be inflated with air at 
pleasure. The other species have such hoods 
also, but of a less size. To this organ they owe 
their name, which recalls the basilisk of fable, 
though in reality they are exceedingly harm¬ 
less and lively creatures. 

Basil'ius I (820-88G), a Macedonian, em¬ 
peror of the East. Though he had worked his 
way to the throne by a series of crimes, he 
proved an able and equitable sovereign. The 
versatility, if not the depth of his intellect, is 
strikingly displayed in his exhortations to his 
son Leo, which are still extant. 

Basilius 11 (958-1025), emperor of the East. 
He began to reign in conjunction with his 
brother Constantine, 975. His reign was al¬ 
most a continued scene of warfare, his most 
important struggle being that which resulted 
in the conquest of Bulgaria, 1018. 

Basin, in physical geography, the whole 
tract of country drained by a river and its 
tributaries. The line dividing one river basin 
from another is the water-shed, and by tracing 
the various water-sheds we divide each coun- 


Baskerviiie 


Bassora 


try into its constituent basins. The basin of a 
loch or sea consists of the basins of all the 
rivers which run into it. In geology a basin 
is any dipping or disposition of strata toward 
a common axis or center, due to upheaval and 
subsidence. It is sometimes used almost syn¬ 
onymously with “formation” to express the 
deposits lying in a certain cavity or depression 
in older rocks. The “Parisbasin ” and “Lon¬ 
don basin ” are familiar instances. 

Bas kerviiie, John (1706-1775), celebrated 
English printer and type founder. From his 
press came highly prized editions of ancient 
and modern classics, Bibles, prayer-books, etc., 
all beautifully printed works. 

Basking=stiark, a species of shark, so named 
from its habit of basking in the sun at the 
surface of the water. It reaches the length of 
forty feet, and its liver yields a large quantity 
of oil. It frequents the northern seas, and is 
known also as the sail-fish or sun-fish. 

Basques (basks) (or Biscayans), a remark¬ 
able race of people dwelling partly in the s.w. 
corner of France, but mostly in the n. of 
Spain adjacent to the Pyrenees. They are 
probably descendants of the ancient Iberi, who 
occupied Spain before the Celts. They pre¬ 
serve their ancient language, former manners, 
and national dances, and make admirable sol¬ 
diers, especially in guerrilla warfare. The 
Basques, who number about 600,000, occupy 
in Spain the provinces of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, 
and Al&va; in France parts of the departments 
of the upper and lower Pyrenees, Aridge, and 
upper Garonne. 

Bas=relief (ba're-lef or bas're-lef) (bass- 
relief, low-relief), a mode of sculpturing fig¬ 
ures on a flat surface, the figures having a 
very slight relief or projection from the sur¬ 
face. It is distinguished from haut-relief (alto- 
rilievo ), or high-relief, in which the figures 
stand sometimes almost entirely free from the 
ground. Bas-relief work has been described 
as “sculptured painting” from the capability 
of disposing of groups of figures and exhibit¬ 
ing minor adjuncts, as in a painting. 

Bass (bas), the name of a number of fishes 
of several genera, but originally belonging to 
a genus of sea-fishes of the perch family, dis¬ 
tinguished from the true perches by having 
the tongue covered by small teeth and the 
preoperculum smooth. The only British spe¬ 
cies, called also sea-dace, and from its voracity 
sea-wolf, resembles somewhat the salmon in 
shape, and is much esteemed for the table, 
weighing about 15 lbs. The striped bass, an 
American species, weighing from 25 to 30 lbs., 
is much used for food, and is also known as 
rock-fish. Both species occasionally ascend 
rivers, and attempts have been made to culti¬ 
vate British bass in fresh-water ponds with 
success. Two species of black bass, American 
fresh-water fishes, are excellent as food and 
give fine sport to the angler. The former is 
often called the large-mouthed black bass, 
from the size of its mouth. Both make nests 
and take great care of their eggs and young. 
The sea bass is an American fish of the perch 
family, weighing 2 to 3 lbs. 


Bass (bas), The; a remarkable insulator trap- 
rock, at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, Scot¬ 
land, of a circular form, about one mile in cir¬ 
cumference, rising majestically out of the sea 
to a height of 313 ft. It pastures a few sheep, 
and is a great breeding place of solan-geese. 

Bass, Michael Thomas (1799-1884), an Eng¬ 
lish brewer, head of the famous firm of Bass 
& Co., founded in 1777. For many years the 
firm has been extending its connections, and 
now employ about 3,000 persons, with an aver¬ 
age annual turnover of $12,000,000. B. rep¬ 
resented Derby in the Liberal interest from 
1848 to 1883. His benefactions have been very 
numerous in the parish of Burton and in 
Derby. He more than once declined a baron¬ 
etcy and a peerage. The title of Baron Bur¬ 
ton was conferred on his son in 1886. 

Bassa' no, a commercial city of North Italy, 
province of Vicenza. Near Bassano, Sept. 8, 
1796, Bonaparte defeated the Austrian general 
Wurmser. Pop. 4,897. 

Bassa'no (from his birthplace; real name 
Giacomo da Ponte), an Italian painter, b. 1510, 
d. 1592. He painted historical pieces, land¬ 
scapes, flowers, etc., and also portraits; and 
left four sons, who all became painters, Fran¬ 
cesco being the most distinguished. 

Bassein (bas-san'), a town in Lower Bur- 
mah, province of Pegu, on both banks of the 
Bassein river, one of the mouths of the Irra¬ 
waddy, and navigable for the largest ships. 
It has considerable trade, exporting large 
quantities of rice, and importing coal, salt, 
cottons, etc. Pop. 30,177. Bassein District 
has an area of 7,047 sq. mi. and a pop. of 
389,419. 

Basseterre (bas-tar), two towns in the West 
Indies. 1, Capital of the island of St. Chris¬ 
topher’s, at the mouth of a small river, on the 
south side of the island. Trade considerable. 
Pop. 9,097. 2, The capital of the island of 

Guadaloupe. It has no harbor, and the anch¬ 
orage is unsheltered and exposed to a con¬ 
stant swell. Pop. 10,649. 

Bass'ia, a genus of tropical trees found in 
the East Indies and Africa. One species is 
supposed to be the shea-tree of Park, the fruit 
of which yields a kind of butter that is highly 
valued, and forms an important article of 
commerce in the interior of Africa. There 
are several other species, of which the Indian 
oil-tree, and the Indian butter-tree, are well- 
known examples, yielding a large quantity of 
oleaginous or butyraceous matter. The wood 
is as hard and incorruptible as teak. 

Bassoon', a musical wind instrument of the 
reed order, blown with a bent metal mouth¬ 
piece, and holed and keyed like the clarinet. 
Its compass comprehends three octaves rising 
from B flat below the bass staff. Its diameter 
at bottom is 3 inches, and for convenience of 
carriage it is divided into two or more parts, 
whence its Italian nam e fagotto, a bundle. It 
serves for the bass among wood wind instru¬ 
ments, as hautboys, flutes, etc. 

Bass'ora (or Basrah), a city in Asiatic Tur¬ 
key, on the w. bank of the Shat-el-Arab (the 
united stream of the Tigris and Euphrates), 


Bass Strait 


Bat 


about 50 mi. from its mouth, and nearly 300 
s. e. of Bagdad. The chief exports are, dates, 
camels and horses, wool and wheat; imports: 
coffee, indigo, rice, tissues, etc. In the eight¬ 
eenth century the inhabitants were estimated 
at 150,000; they are now about G,000. The ruins 
of the ancient and more famous Bassora — 
founded by Caliph Omar in 630, at one time 
a center of Arabic literature and learning and 
regarded as “the Athens of the East”—lie 
about 9 mi. s. w. of the modern town. 

Bass Strait, a channel beset with islands, 
which separates Australia from Tasmania, 120 
mi. broad, discovered by George Bass, a sur¬ 
geon in the royal navy, in 1798. 

Basswood Bass, the American lime tree or 
linden, a tree common in N. A., yielding a 
light, soft timber, used for building boats and 
canoes. 

Bast, the inner bark of exogenous trees, es¬ 
pecially of the lime or linden, consisting of 
several layers of fibers. The manufacture of 
bast into mats, ropes, shoes, etc., is in some 
districts of Russia a considerable branch of in¬ 
dustry, bast mats, used for packing furniture, 
covering plants in gardens, etc., being ex¬ 
ported in large quantities. Though the term 
is usually restricted, many of the most impor¬ 
tant fibers of commerce, such as hemp, flax, 
jute, etc., are the products of bast or liber. 

Bastia (bas-te'a), the former capital of the 
island of Corsica, upon the n.e. coast, 75 mi. 
n.e. of Ajaccio, with some manufactures, a 
considerable trade in hides, soap, wine, oil, 
pulse, etc. Pop. 23,397. 

Bastiat (bas-te-a), Frederic ( 1801-1850), 
French economist and advocate of free trade. 
He became acquainted with Cobden and the 
English free traders, whose speeches he trans¬ 
lated into French. 

Bastille (bas-tel'), a French name for any 
strong castle provided with towers, but as a 
proper name, the state prison and citadel of 
Paris, which was built about 1370 by Charles 
V. It was ultimately used chiefly for the con¬ 
finement of persons of rank who had fallen 
victims to the intrigues of the court or theca- 
price of the government. The capture of the 
Bastille by the Parisian mob, July 14, 1789, was 
the opening act of the Revolution. On that 
date the Bastille was surrounded by a tumul¬ 
tuous mob, who first attempted to negotiate 
with the governor Delaunay, but when these 
negotiations failed, began to attack the fortress. 
For several hours the mob continued their seige 
without being able to effect anything more than 
an entrance into the outer court of the Bastille; 
but at last the arrival of some of the Royal 
Guard with a few pieces of artillery forced the 
governor to let down the second drawbridge 
and admit the populace. The governor was 
seized, but on the way to the townhall, he 
was torn from his captors and put to death. 
The next day the destruction of the Bastille 
commenced. Not a vestige of it exists, but its 
site is marked by a column in the Place de la 
Bastille. 

Basu'toland, a native province and British 
South African possession. The Basutos be¬ 


long chiefly to the great stem of the Bechuanas, 
and have made greater advances in civiliza¬ 
tion than perhaps any other South African race. 
In 1806 the Basutos, who had lived under a 
semi-protectorate of the British since 1848, 
were proclaimed British subjects, their country 
placed under the government of an agent, and 
in 1871 it was joined to Cape Colony. In 1879 
the attempted enforcement of an act passed 
for the disarmament of the native tribes 
caused a revolt under the chief Moirosi, which 
the Cape forces were unable to put down. 
When peace was restored, Basutoland was dis- 
annexed from Cape Colony (1884), and is now 
governed by a resident commissioner under 
the high commissioner of South Africa. Basu¬ 
toland has an area of about 10,300 sq. mi., 
much of it covered with grass, and there is 
but little wood. The climate is pleasant. The 
natives keep cattle, sheep, and horses, culti¬ 
vate the ground, and export grain. It is di¬ 
vided into four districts, each presided over 
by a magistrate. Pop. (Europ.) 5,000; (native) 
127,707. . 

Bat, one of the group of wing-handed, fly¬ 
ing mammals, having the fore-limb peculiarly 
modified so as to serve for flight, and consti¬ 
tuting the order Cheiroptera. Bats are ani- 



Bat’s heads. 


mals of the twilight and darkness, and are 
common in temperate and warm regions, but 
are most numerous and largest in the tropics. 
All European bats are small, and have a mouse- 
like skin. The body of the largest British 
species is less than that of a mouse, but its 
wings stretch about 15 in. During the day it 
remains in caverns, in the crevices of ruins, 
hollow trees, and such-like lurking-places, and 
flits out at evening in search of food, which 
consists of insects. Several species of the same 
genus are common in North America. Many 
bats are remarkable for having a singular nasal 
cutaneous appendage, bearing in some cases a 
fancied resemblance to a horseshoe. Two of 
these horseshoe bats occur in Britain. Bats 
may be conveniently divided into two sections 
—the insectivorous or carnivorous, comprising 
all European and most African and American 
species; and the fruit-eating, belonging to trop¬ 
ical Asia and Australia, with several African 
forms. An Australian fruit-eating bat, com¬ 
monly known as the kalong or flying-fox, is 
the largest of all the bats; it does much mis¬ 
chief in orchards. At least two species of 
South American bats are known to suck the 
blood of other mammals, and thence are called 





Common Bat. 4- Great Kalong, a Large Oriental Bat 



































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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Batangas 

“vampire-bats” (though this name has also 
been given to a species not guilty of this habit). 
As winter approaches, in cold climates bats 
seek shelter in caverns, vaults, ruined and de¬ 
serted buildings, and similar retreats, where 
they cling together in large clusters, hanging 
head downward by the feet, and remain in a 
torpid condition until the returning spring re¬ 
calls them to active exertions. Bats generally 
bring forth two young, which, while suckling, 
remain closely attached to the mother’s teats, 
which are two, situated upon the chest. The 
parent shows a strong degree of attachment 
for her offspring, and when they are captured, 
will follow them, and even submit to captivity 
herself rather than forsake her charge. 

Batan'gas, a town of the Philippines, in the 
island Luzon, capital of a province of same 
name, 58 mi. s. of Manilla. Pop. of town and 
district, 29,360. 

Bata'via, a city and seaport of Java, on the 
north coast of the island, the capital of all the 
Dutch East Indies. It is situated on a wide, 
deep bay, the principal warehouses and offices 
of the Europeans, the Java Bank, the ex¬ 
change, etc., being in the old town, which is 
built on a low, marshy plain near the sea, in¬ 
tersected with canals and very unhealthy; 
while the Europeans reside in a new and much 
healthier quarter. Batavia has a large trade, 
sugar being the chief export. It was founded 
by the Dutch in 1619, and attained its greatest 
prosperity in the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. Its inhabitants are chiefly Malay, 
with a considerable admixture of Chinese and 
a small number of Europeans. Pop. 93,613. 

Batavia, Genesee co., N. Y., on Tona- 
wanda creek, 37 mi. e. of Buffalo. Rail¬ 
roads: N. Y. C. & H. R.; Lehigh Valley; 
Erie & Tonawanda; Canandaigua & Attica 
branches of N. Y. C. Industries: harvester 
co., two flouring-mills, wood-working factory, 
wheel, gun, shoe, canned goods,' paper box, 
pump and farm implement factories, and 
planing mill. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. The village was first settled in 1800. 
Pop. 1900, 9,180. 

Bates, Edward (1792-1869), statesman, b. 
in Virginia. He studied law and was attorney- 
general of Missouri. He served a term in Con¬ 
gress, 1827-28. He received forty-eight votes 
on the first ballot in the Republican conven¬ 
tion of 1860, but withdrew in favor of Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln, who afterward made him at¬ 
torney-general of the U. S. 

Bath, a city of England in Somersetshire, 
on the Avon, which is navigable for barges 
from Bristol. Bath is remarkable for its me¬ 
dicinal waters, the four principal springs yield¬ 
ing no less than 184,000 gallons of water a day. 
Pop. 54,551. 

Bath, the immersion of the body in water, 
or an apparatus for this purpose. The use of 
the bath as an institution apart from occasional 
immersion in rivers or the sea, is, as might be 
anticipated, an exceedingly old custom. Ho¬ 
mer mentions the bath as one of the first re¬ 
freshments offered to a guest; thus, when 
Ulysses enters the palace of Circe, a bath is pre- 


Bath 

pared for him, and he is anointed after it with 
costly perfumes. In later times, rooms both 
public and private, were built expressly for 
bathing, the public baths of the Greeks being 
mostly connected with the gymnasia. The full¬ 
est details we have with respect to the bath¬ 
ing of the ancients apply to its luxurious de¬ 
velopment under the Romans. Their bathing 
establishments consisted of four main sec¬ 
tions: the undressing room, with an adjoining 
chamber in which the bathers were anointed; 
a cold room with provision for a cold bath; a 
room heated moderately to serve as a prepara¬ 
tion for the highest and lowest temperatures; 
and the sweating-room, at one extremity of 
which was a vapor-bath and at the other an 
ordinary hot bath. After going through the 
entire course both the Greeks and the Romans 
made use of strigils or scrapers, either of horn 
or metal, to remove perspiration, oil, and im¬ 
purities from the skin. Connected with the 
bath were walks, covered race grounds, tennis 
courts, and gardens, the whole, both in the 
external and internal decorations, being fre¬ 
quently on a palatial scale. The group of the 
Laocoon and the Farnese Hercules were both 
found in the ruins of Roman baths. With re¬ 
spect to modern baths, that commonly in use 
in Russia consists of a single hall, built of 
wood, in the midst of which is a powerful 
metal oven, covered with heated stones, and 
surrounded with broad benches, on which the 
bathers take their places. Cold water is then 
poured upon the heated stones, and a thick, 
hot steam rises, which causes the perspiration 
to issue from the whole body. The bather is 
then gently whipped with wet birch rods, 
rubbed with soap, and washed with lukewarm 
and cold water; of the latter, some pailfuls are 
poured over his head; or else he leaps, imme¬ 
diately after this sweating-bath, into a river or 
pond, or rolls in the snow. The Turks, by 
their religion, are obliged to make repeated 
ablutions daily, and for this purpose there is, 
in every city, a public bath connected with a 
mosque. A favorite bath among them, how¬ 
ever, is a modification of the hot-air sudorific- 
bath of the ancients introduced under the 
name of “Turkish,” into other than Moham¬ 
medan countries. A regular accompaniment 
of this bath, when properly given, is the opera¬ 
tion known as “kneading” generally performed 
at the close of the sweating process, after the 
final rubbing of the bather with soap, and con¬ 
sisting in a systematic pressing and squeezing 
of the whole body, stretching the limbs, and 
manipulating all the joints as well as the fleshy 
and muscular parts. Public baths are com¬ 
mon in the U. S. Every large city has a num¬ 
ber of baths fitted up in very artistic style, and 
every house or flat has its bathtub or shower 
bath. There are also numerous “ hot springs” 
in nearly every section. Among the most fa¬ 
mous are those at Hot Springs, Garland co., 
Arkansas, resorted to by invalids for the cure 
of rheumatism and similar complaints. There 
are from seventy-five to one hundred springs, 
varying in temperature from 105° to 160°, issu¬ 
ing from a lofty ridge of sandstone overlooking 


Bath 


Battle Creek 


the town, while others rise in the bed of the 
stream near by. The most celebrated natural 
hot baths in Europe are those of Aix-la-Cha- * 
pelle, and the various Baden in Germany; 
Toeplitz, in Bohemia; Bagnio res, Bareges, and 
Dax, in the south of France; and Spa, in Bel¬ 
gium. Besides the various kinds of water-bath 
with or without medication or natural mineral 
ingredients, there are also milk, oil, wine, earth, 
sand, mud, and electric baths, smoke-baths 
and gas-baths; but these are as a rule only in¬ 
dulged after specific prescription. The prac¬ 
tise of bathing as a method of cure in cases of 
disease falls under the head of hydropathy. 

Bath, Sagadohoc co.,Me., on Kennebec River, 
39 mi. e. of Portland. Railroad: Maine Cen¬ 
tral. Industries: iron works, shoe factory, and 
ship building. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. The town was first settled in 1780 and 
became a city in 1847. Pop. 1900, 10,477. 

Bathometer, an instrument for measuring 
the depth of sea beneath a vessel without 
casting a line. It is based upon the fact that 
the attraction exerted upon any given mass of 
matter on the ship is less when she is afloat 
than ashore because of the less density of sea¬ 
water as compared with that of earth or rock. 

Bathori (bii'to-re), a Hungarian family, 
which gave Transylvania five princes, and Po¬ 
land one of its greatest kings. The more im¬ 
portant members were: 1, Stephen (1532- 
1586), elected prince of Transylvania in 1571, 
and in 1575 king of Poland. He recovered the 
Polish territories in possession of the Czar of 
Muscovy. 2, Sigismund, nephew of Stephen, 
became prince of Transylvania in 1581, shook 
off the Ottoman yoke, and resigned his domin¬ 
ions to the Emperor Rudolph II, in return for 
two principalities and a pension. He returned 
and placed himself under the protection of the 
Porte, was defeated by the Imperialists in 
every battle, and sent to Prague, where he d. 
in 1613. 3, Elizabeth, niece of Stephen, and 

wife of Count Nadasdy, of Hungary. She 
is said to have bathed in the blood of 300 young 
girls in the hope of renewing her youth, and 
to have committed other enormities. She was 
latterly seized and confined till her death in 
1614. 

Bath'urst, a British settlement on the west 
coast of Africa, on the island of St. Mary’s, 
near the mouth of the Gambia, with a trade in 
gum, beeswax, hides, ivory, gold, rice, cot¬ 
ton, and palm oil. Pop. 6,000. 

Bat'ley, a town of England, "West Riding of 
York. Principal manufactures: heavy woolen 
cloths, such as pilot, beaver, police, army, 
and frieze cloths, flushings, and blankets. 
Pop. 28,719. 

Bat'on Rouge (rozh), E. Baton Rouge par¬ 
ish, the capital of Louisiana, on the left bank 
of the Mississippi, with an arsenal, barracks, 
military hospital, state-house, state university, 
etc. On Aug. 5, 1862, the Confederates under 
General Breckenridge suffered a defeat before 
it. Pop. 1900, 11,269. 

Batoum (or Batum) (batom'), a port on the 
e. coast of the Black Sea, acquired by Russia 
by the Treaty of Berlin. Its importance as a 


naval and military station to Russia is unques¬ 
tionably great, and it is one of the strongest 
positions on the Black Sea. The water is of 
great depth close inshore, and the shipping 
lies under protection of the overhanging cliHs 
of the Gouriel Mountains. Pop. 19,890. 

Batrachians (ba-tra'ki-anz), the fourth or¬ 
der in Cuvier’s arrangement of the class 
Reptilia, comprising frogs, toads, newts, sala¬ 
manders, and sirens. The term is now often 
employed as synonymous with amphibia, but 
is more usually restricted to the order Anura 
or tailless amphibia. 

Bat'tas, a people belonging to the Malayan 
race inhabiting the valleys and plateaus of the 
mountains that extend longitudinally through 
the island of Sumatra. They practise agri¬ 
culture and cattle-rearing, and are skilful in 
various handicrafts; they have also a written 
literature and an alphabet of their own, their 
books treating of astrology, witchcraft, medi¬ 
cine, war, etc. They are under the rule of 
hereditary chieftains. 

Battering=ram, an engine for battering down 
the walls of besieged places. The ancients 
employed two different engines of this kind- 
one suspended in a frame, the other movable 
on wheels or rollers. They consisted of a beam 
or spar with a massive metal head, and were 
set in motion either by a direct application of 
manual force or by means of cords passing 
over pulleys. Some are said to have been 120 
feet or more in length, and to have been worked 



Battering-ram. 

by 100 men. One is described as being 180 
feet long, and having a head weighing 1£ tons. 
They were generally covered with a roof or 
screen for the protection of the workers. They 
have been used recently in Irish evictions and 
evoked much indignation from the Nationalist 
party. 

Battery, in criminal law, an assault by beat¬ 
ing or wounding another. The least touching 
or meddling with the person of another against 
his will may be held to constitute a battery. 

Batthyanyi (bat-yan'ye), one of the oldest 
and most celebrated Hungarian families, trace¬ 
able as far back as the ninth century. Among 
later bearers of the name have been: Count 
Casimir Batthyanyi, who was associated with 
Kossuth, was minister of foreign affairs in 
Hungary during the insurrection of 1849, and 
d. in Paris 1854; Count Louis Batthyanyi, 
(1809-1849), was leader of the opposition in the 
Hungarian diet until the breaking out of the 
commotions of 1848, when he took an active 
part in promoting the national cause. 

Battle Creek, Calhoun co., Mich., on Kala¬ 
mazoo and Battle Creek Rivers, 160 mi. e. of 









Baudelaire 


Bavaria 


Chicago. Railroads: Michigan Central; Grand 
Trunk; Lake Shore; Cincinnati, Jackson & 
Mackinaw. Industries: two large threshing 
machine factories, three flouring mills, three 
iron foundries, two steam pump factories, and 
two pure food factories. Surrounding country 
agricultural. Battle Creek became a city in 
1860. Pop. 1000, 18,563. 

Baudelaire (bod-lar), Charles Pierre (1821— 
1867), French poet. His first work of impor¬ 
tance was a series of translations from Poe, 
ranking among the most perfect translations 
in any literature. 

Baudry (bo-dre), Paul Jacques Aime (1828- 
:8S6), a prominent French painter. The dec¬ 
oration of the foyer of the New Opera House 
at Paris was intrusted to him — an enormous 
work, occupying a total surface of 500 sq. me¬ 
ters, but accomplished by him in eight years. 

Bauer (bou'er), Bruno (1809-1882), German 
philosopher, historian, and Biblical critic of 
the rational school. 

Baumgarten (bourn'gar-tn), Alexander 
Gottlieb (1714-1762), a German philosopher. 
He was the founder of aesthetics as a science, 
and the inventor of this name. 

Baur (bour), Ferdinand Christian (1792- 
1860), German theologian, founder of the “Tu¬ 
bingen School of Theology.” 

Bautzen (bout'sen) (or Budissin), German 
town in the kingdom of Saxony. Chief man¬ 
ufactures: woolens, paper, gunpowder, ma¬ 
chines. Napoleon defeated the united armies 
of the Russians and the Prussians at Bautzen 
on May 21, 1813. Pop. 21,516. 

Bavaria (German, Baiern; French, Baviere), 
a kingdom in the south of Germany, the 
second largest state of the empire. Total 
area 29,657 sq. mi. The main political divis¬ 
ions are: Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, 
Palatinate, Upper Palatinate, Upper Franco¬ 
nia, Middle Franconia, Lower Franconia,^ 
Swabia. After Munich the chief towns are, 
Niirnberg, Augsburg, Wurzburg, and Ratisbon 
(Regensburg). The principal articles manu¬ 
factured are, linens, woolens, cottons, leather, 
paper, glass, earthen and iron ware, jewelry, 
etc. The optical and mathematical instru¬ 
ments made are excellent. A most important 
branch of industry is the brewing of beer, for 
which there are upward of 7,000 establish¬ 
ments, producing over 260 millions of gallons 
a year. A number of the people maintain 
themselves by the manufacture of articles in 
wood, and by felling and hewing timber. 

In art Bavaria is best known as the home of 
the Niirnberg school, founded about the mid¬ 
dle of the sixteenth century by Albert Diirer. 
Hans Holbein is also claimed as a Bavarian; 
and to these have to be added the eminent 
sculptors, Kraft and Vischer, both b. about 
the middle of the fifteenth century. The 
restoration of the reputation of Bavaria in art 
was chiefly the work of Ludwig I, under whom 
the capital became one of the most prominent 
seats of fine arts in Europe. 

The Bavarian crown is hereditary in the 
male line. The executive is in the hands of 
ihe king. The legislature consists of two 


chambers: one of senators composed of the 
princes of the royal family, the great officers 
of the state, the two archbishops, the heads 
of certain noble families, and certain members 
appointed by the crown; the other of deputies, 
159 in number, nominated by the electors, 
who are themselves elected, 1 for every 500 of 
the population. The lower chamber is elected 
for six years. Bavaria sends six members to 
the German Federal Council (Bundesrath) and 
forty-eight deputies to the Imperial Diet 
(Reichstag). The army (peace footing, 32,- 
820; war footing, 112,016) is raised by con¬ 
scription— every man being liable to serve 
from January 1 of the year in which he com¬ 
pletes his twentieth year. In time of peace 
it is under the command of the king of Ba¬ 
varia, but in time of war under that of the 
emperor of Germany, as commander-in-chief 
of the whole German army. 

History .— The Bavarians take their name 
from the Boii, a Celtic tribe whose territory 
was occupied by a confederation of Germanic 
tribes called after their predecessors Boiarii. 
These were made tributary first to the Ostro¬ 
goths, and then to the Franks, and on the 
death of Charlemagne, his successors gov¬ 
erned the country by lieutenants with the title 
of margrave, afterward converted (in 921) 
into that of duke. In 1070 Bavaria passed to 
the family of the Guelphs, and in 1180 by im¬ 
perial grant to Otho, count of Wittelsbach, 
founder of the still reigning dynasty. In 1623 
the reigning duke was made one of the elect¬ 
ors of the empire. Elector Maximilian II 
joined in the war of the Spanish succession 
on the side of France, and this led, after the 
battle of Blenheim, 1704, to the loss of his 
dominions for the next ten years. His son, 
Charles Albert, likewise lost his dominions for 
a time to Austria, but they were all recov¬ 
ered again by Charles’s son, Maximilian III 
(1745). In the wars following the French Revo¬ 
lution, Bavaria was in a difficult position be¬ 
tween France and Austria, but latterly joined 
Napoleon, from whom its elector Maximilian 
IV received the title of king (1805), a title 
afterward confirmed by the treaties of 1814 
and 1815. King Maximilian I was succeeded 
by his son Ludwig (or Louis) I, under whom 
various circumstances helped to quicken a 
desire for political change. Reform being re¬ 
fused, tumults arose in 1848, and Ludwig 
resigned in favor of his son, Maximilian II, 
under whom certain modifications of the con¬ 
stitution were carried out. At his death in 
1864 he was succeeded by Ludwig II. In the 
war of 1866 Bavaria sided with Austria, and 
was compelled to cede a small portion of its 
territory to Prussia, and to pay a war indem¬ 
nity of $12,500,000. Boon after Bavaria entered 
into an alliance with Prussia, and in 1867 
joined the Zollverein. In the Franco-German 
War of 1870-71 the Bavarians took a promi¬ 
nent part, and it was at the request of the 
king of Bavaria, on behalf of all the other 
princes and the senates of the free cities of 
Germany, that the king of Prussia agreed 
to accept the title of Emperor of Germany. 


Baxter 


Bayonne 


Since January, 1871, Bavaria has been a part of 
the German empire, and is represented in the 
Bundesrath by six, and in the Reichstag by 
forty-eight members. The eccentricity early 
displayed by Ludwig II, developed to such an 
extent that in June, 1886, he was placed under 
control, and a regency established under 
Prince Luitpold (Leopold). The change was 
almost immediately followed by the suicide of 
*the king, and as Prince Otto, the brother and 
heir of the late king, was insane, the regency 
was continued. See also Germany. 

Baxter, Richard (1615-1691), the most emi¬ 
nent of the English nonconforming divines of 
the seventeenth century. The imposition of 
the oath of universal approbation of the doc¬ 
trine and discipline of the Church of England 
detached him from the Establishment. He 
condemned the execution of the king and the 
election of Cromwell. At the Restoration he 
became king’s chaplain. In 1685 he was ar¬ 
rested and imprisoned. He left about 150 
treatises, of which his Saint's Everlasting Rest, 
and Call to the Unconverted, have been the most 
popular. 

Bay, the laurel tree, noble laurel, or sweet- 
bay; but the term is loosely given to many 
trees and shrubs resembling this. A fatty or 
fixed oil (used in veterinary medicine) and 
also a volatile oil is obtained from the berries, 
but what is called “bayberry oil ” is also ob¬ 
tained from the genus candleberry. 

Ba'ya, the weaver-bird, an interesting East 
Indian passerine bird, somewhat like the bull¬ 
finch. Its nest resembles a bottle, and is sus¬ 
pended from the branch of a tree. The en¬ 
trance is from beneath, and there are two 
chambers, one for the male, the other for the 
female. The baya is easily tamed, and will 
fetch and carry at command. 

Bayamo (ba-' ja-mo) (or St. Salvador), a town 
in the east of Cuba, near the Cauto; pop. 4,560. 

Bayard, James Asheton (1767-1815), states¬ 
man, b. in Philadelphia. He was descended 
from a Huguenot family which settled in Man¬ 
hattan in the seventeenth century. He grad¬ 
uated at Princeton in 1784, studied law in 
Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar in 1787, 
and settled in Wilmington, Del. In 1796 he 
was elected to Congress as a Federalist. In 
1804 he was made tJ. S. senator. He served 
from Jan. 15, 1805, till March 3, 1813, and op¬ 
posed the declaration of war against Great Brit¬ 
ain in 1812. President Madison appointed him 
a commissioner with Albert Gallatin and John 
Quincy Adams to negotiate a peace with Great 
Britain. He was appointed U. S. minister to 
Russia, but declined the office and returned to 
Wilmington, 1814. His two sons, Richard 
Henry and James A., were successively sena¬ 
tors from Delaware. 

Bayard, Nicholas (1644-1707), b, in Alphen, 
Holland, d. in New York City; a nephew of Gov¬ 
ernor Stuyvesant. The old Bayard grounds and 
mansion in New York City were on the west 
side of the Bowery, and included the territory 
now Qccupied by Lafayette Place, Astor Place, 
and beyond. In 1664 Nicholas became clerk of 
the council; was private secretary to Governor 


Stuyvesant and surveyor of the province. In 
1672 he was appointed secretary of the prov¬ 
ince, and was mayor of New York City and a 
member of the governor’s council in 1685. 

Bayard, Thomas Francis, American states¬ 
man, b. at Wilmington, Del., 1828, educated at 
Flushing, studied law, and in 1868 was elected 
U. S. senator, where he served till 1884. In 
1885 he was made secretary of state in Mr. 
Cleveland’s cabinet. March 30, 1893, was ap¬ 
pointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipo¬ 
tentiary to England. D. Sept. 28, 1898. 

Bay City, a city of Michigan, on the east 
side of Saginaw River, near its mouth in Sag¬ 
inaw Bay, Lake Huron. Chief articles of trade, 
lumber and salt. Pop. 1900, 27,628. 

Bayeux (ba-you), an ancient town, France, 
dep. Calvados, 16 mi. n.w. of Caen, with manu¬ 
factures of lace, calico, and porcelain. In its 
cathedral, said to be the oldest in Normandy, 
was preserved for a long time the famous Ba¬ 
yeux tapestry. Pop. 8,102. 

Bayeux Tapestry, so called because it was 
originally found in the cathedral of Bayeux, in 
the public library of which town it is still pre¬ 
served. It is supposed to have been worked by 
Matilda, queen of William the Conqueror. It 
is 214 ft. in length and 20 in. in breadth, and is 
divided into seventy-two compartments, the 
subject of each scene being indicated by a 
Latin inscription. These scenes give a picto¬ 
rial history of the invasion and conquest of Eng¬ 
land by the Normans, beginning with Harold’s 
visit to the Norman court, and ending with his 
death at Hastings. 

Bay=leaf, the leaf of the sweet-bay or laurel 
tree. These leaves are aromatic, and are used 
in cookery and confectionery. 

Bayley, James Roosevelt (1814-1877), b. in 
New York City, educated for the Episcopal 
ministry, and in 1840-41 held a rectorship in 
Harlem, N. Y. He became a Roman Catholic 
in 1842, was ordained to the priesthood in 1844, 
and became first bishop of Newark, N. J., in 
1853. In 1872 he was transferred to the archi- 
episcopal see of Baltimore. 

Bayly (ba'li), Thomas Haynes (1797-1839), 
English poet, novelist, dramatist and miscella¬ 
neous writer. As a song writer he was most 
prolific and most popular. The Soldier's Tear, 
We Met — 'twas in a Crowd, and a few others, are 
still well known. 

Bay Mahogany, that variety of mahogany 
exported from Honduras. It is softer and less 
finely marked than the variety known as Span¬ 
ish mahogany, but is the largest and most 
abundant kind. 

Bayonne (ba-yon), a well-built fortified 
town, the largest in the French dep. Basses- 
Pyrenees. Catherine de Medici had an im¬ 
portant interview with the Duke of Alba in 
Bayonne, June, 1565, at which it is said the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew was arranged. 
It was also the scene of the abdication of 
Charles IV of Spain in favor of Napoleon (1808). 
In 1814 the British forced the passage of the 
Nive and invested the town, from which the 
French made a desperate but unsuccessful 
sortie. Pop. 23,120. 


Bayonne 

Bayonne, Hudson co., N. J., on Kill von 
Ivull River, 7 mi. e. of New York City. Rail¬ 
roads: Central R. R. of New Jersey with 5 
stations. Industries: oil works, chemical works. 
The city was incorporated in 1869 and in¬ 
cludes what was formerly known as Bergen 
Point, Centerville, Constable Hook, Bayonne, 
and Pamrapo, and is populated by people 
doing business in New York. Population 1900, 
■>•) 72*2 

Bayou (ba-yo'), a name given in the South¬ 
ern States to a stream which flows from a lake 
or other stream; frequently used as synony¬ 
mous with creek or tidal channel. 

Bay Rum, a spirit obtained by distilling the 
leaves of Myrica acris, or other West Indian 
trees of the same genus. It is used for toilet 


Beaconsfield 

general of division in 1802, and in 1864 was 
made a marshal of France. 

Bazar' (or bazaar'), in the East an ex¬ 
change, market-place, or place where goods 
are exposed for sale, usually consisting of 
small shops or stalls in a narrow street or series 
of streets. These bazar streets are frequently 
shaded by a light material laid from roof to 
roof, and sometimes are arched over. Marts 
for the sale of miscellaneous articles, chiefly 
fancy goods, are now to be found in most 
European cities bearing the name of bazars. 
The term bazar is also applied to a sale of mis¬ 
cellaneous articles, mostly of fancy work, and 
contributed gratuitously in the furtherance of 
some charitable or other purpose. 

Bdellium (del'i-um), an aromatic gum resin 



Part of Bayeux Tapestry—Battle of Hastings. 


purposes, and as a liniment in rheumatic af¬ 
fections. 

Bay=salt, a general term for coarse-grained 
salt, but properly applied to salt obtained by 
spontaneous or natural evaporation of sea¬ 
water in large shallow tanks or bays. 

Bay=window, a window forming a recess or 
bay in a room, projecting outward, and rising 
from the ground or basement on a plan rectan¬ 
gular, semi-octagonal, or semi-hexagonal, but 
always straight-sided. The term is, however, 
also often employed to designate a bow-window, 
which more properly forms the segment of a 
circle, and an oriel-window , which is supported 
on a kind of bracket, and is usually on the 
first floor. 

Baza (ba'tha), an old town of Spain, An¬ 
dalusia, province of Granada, formerly a large 
and flourishing city. In 1810 the French, 
under Marshal Soult, here defeated the Span¬ 
iards under Generals Blake and Freire. Pop. 
12,895. 

Bazasne (ba-zan), Francis Achille (1811— 
1888), French general. He served in Algeria, 
in Spain against the Carlists, in the Crimean 
War, and joined the Mexican expedition as 


brought chiefly from Africa and India, in 
pieces of different sizes and figures, externally 
of a dark reddish brown, internally clear, and 
not unlike glue. To the taste it is slightly 
bitterish and pungent; its odor is agreeable. 
It is used as a perfume and a medicine, being 
a weak deobstruent. 

Beachy Head, a promontory in the s. of Eng¬ 
land, on the coast of Sussex, rising 575 feet 
above sea-level, with a revolving light, visi¬ 
ble in clear weather from a distance of 28 
mi. A naval battle took place here, June 80, 
1690, in which a French fleet under Tourville 
defeated an English and Dutch combined fleet 
under Lord Torrington. 

Beaconsfield (be'konz-feld), a village of 
Buckinghamshire, England, the parish church 
of which contains the remains of Edmund 
Burke. It gave the title of earl to the Eng¬ 
lish statesman and novelist, Benjamin Disraeli. 

Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of 
(1804-1881), an eminent English statesman and 
novelist, of Jewish extraction; eldest son of 
Isaac D’lsraeli, author of the Curiosities of 
Literature. In 1826 he published Vivian Grey , 
his first novel; and subsequently traveled in 




















Bead=snake 


Bear 


Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria. In 1831 
the Young Duke came from his pen. It was 
followed by Contarini Fleming , Alroy, Henrietta 
Temple , Venetia , the Revolutionary Epic. In 1835 
he unsuccessfully contested Taunton as a 
Tory. In 1837 he gained an entrance to the 
House of Commons, being elected for Maid¬ 
stone. During his first years in Parliament he 
was a supporter of Peel; but when Peel pledged 
’ himself to abolish the corn-laws, Disraeli be¬ 
came the leader of the protectionists. Having 
acquired the manor of Hughenden in Buck¬ 
inghamshire, he was in 1847 elected for this 
county, and he retained his seat till raised to 
the peerage nearly thirty years later. In 1852, 
he became chancellor of the exchequer under 
Lord Derby. In 1858, he again became chan¬ 
cellor of the exchequer, and brought in a 
reform bill which wrecked the government. 
In 1866 the Liberals resigned, and Derby and 
Disraeli came into power, the latter being 
again chancellor of the exchequer. In 1868 
he became premier on the resignation of Lord 
Derby. In 1874 he again became prime-minis¬ 
ter with a strong Conservative majority, and 
remained in power for six years. This period 
was marked by his elevation to the peerage in 
1876 as earl of Beaconsfield, and by the con¬ 
clusion of the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. In 
1880 he resigned office, though he still re¬ 
tained the leadership of his party. Within a 
few months of his death the publication of a 
novel called Endymion (his last; Lothair had 
been published ten years before) showed that 
his intellect was still vigorous. 

BeacLsnake, a beautiful snake of North 
America, inhabiting cultivated grounds, espe¬ 
cially plantations of the sweet-potato, and bur¬ 
rowing in the ground. It is finely marked 
with yellow, carmine, and black. Though it 
possesses poison-fangs, it never seems to use 
them. 

Beagle (be'gl), a small hound, formerly kept 
to hunt hares, now almost superseded by the 
harrier, which sometimes is called by its 
name. The beagle is smaller than the har¬ 
rier, compactly built, smooth-haired, and with 
pendulous ears. The smallest of them are lit¬ 
tle larger than the lap-dog. 

Beam, a long straight and strong piece of 
wood, iron, or steel, especially when holding 
an important place in some structure, and 
serving for support or consolidation; often 
equivalent Ao girder. In a balance it is the 
part from the ends of which the scales are 
suspended. In a loom it is a cylindrical piece 
of wood on which weavers wind the warp be¬ 
fore weaving; also the cylinder on which the 
cloth is rolled as it is woven. In a ship one of 
the strong transverse pieces stretching across 
from one side to the other to support the decks 
and retain the sides at their proper distance : 
hence a ship is said to be “on her beam ends ” 
when lying over on her side. 

Bean, a name given to several kinds of le¬ 
guminous seeds and the plants producing 
them, probably originally belonging to Asia. 
The common bean is cultivated both in fields 
and gardens as food for man and beast. There 


are many varieties, as the mazagan, the 
Windsor, the long-pod, etc., in gardens, and 
the horse or tick bean in fields. The soil that 
best suits is a good strong clay. The seed of 
the Windsor is fully an inch in diameter; the 
horse-bean is much less, often not much more 
than half an inch in length and three eighths 
of an inch in diameter. Beans are very nu¬ 
tritious, containing 36 per cent, of starch 
and 23 per cent, of nitrogenous matter called 
legumin, analogous to the caseine in cheese. 
The bean is an annual, from 2 to 4 feet high. 
The flowers are beautiful and fragrant. The 
kidney-bean, French bean , or haricot , is a well- 
known culinary vegetable. There are two 
principal varieties, annual dwarfs and run¬ 
ners. The bean cultivated in the U. S. is 
used largely as an article of food. It is known 
as the common bean. There are two sorts, 
the running and the brush, both presenting 
numerous varieties in size and color. These, 
cooked with pork, form the well-known “ pork 
and beans.” The scarlet-runner bean , a native 
of Mexico, is cultivated on account of its long 
rough pods and its scarlet flowers. St. Igna¬ 
tius bean is not really a bean, but the seed of a 
large climbing shrub, nearly allied to the spe¬ 
cies of Strychnos which produces nux vomica. 
One of the curious products of Mexico is the 
jumping bean. They grow in pods, each pod 
containing three beans. They were often ex¬ 
hibited by South American jugglers, who 
placed them on a table, when they would im¬ 
mediately roll and skip about and make jumps 
of a couple of inches. This was at one time 
thought to be the effect of some magical prop¬ 
erty possessed by the beans, but it was discov¬ 
ered that these vegetables owe their jumping 
powers to a very simple agent; namely, the 
larva of a moth, which bores into them and, 
striking its head against the interior of the 
bean, causes it to rebound. 

Bean=goose, a species of wild goose, a mi¬ 
gratory bird which arrives in Britain in au¬ 
tumn and retires to the north in the end of 
April, though some few remain to breed. 
Being rather less than the common wild goose, 
it is sometimes called the small gray goose. 

Bear, the name of several large plantigrade 
carniverous mammals of the genus Ursus. The 
teeth are forty-two in number, as in the dog, 
but there is no carnassial or sectorial tooth, 
and the molars have a more tubercular char¬ 
acter than in other carnivores. The eyes 
have a nictitating membrane, the nose is 
prominent and mobile, and the tail very short. 
The true bears are about ten in number, natives 
chiefly of North America, Europe, and Asia. 
They generally lie dormant in their den dur¬ 
ing the winter months. The brown or black 
bear of Europe is the Ursus arctos. It is a na¬ 
tive of almost all the northern parts of Eu¬ 
rope and Asia, and was at one time common 
in the British Islands. It feeds on fruits, 
roots, honey, ants, and in case of need, on 
mammals. It sometimes reaches the length 
of seven feet, the largest specimens being 
found furthest to the north. It lives solita¬ 
rily. The American black bear is the U. amer 


Bear 


Beard 


icanus , with black shining hair, and rarely 
above 5 feet in length. It is a great climber, 
is less dangerous than the brown bear, and is 
hunted for its fur and flesh. It is very amus¬ 
ing in captivity. The grizzly bear is an in¬ 
habitant of the Rocky Mountains; is a fero¬ 
cious animal, sometimes 9 feet in length, and 
has a bulky and unwieldy form, but is never¬ 
theless capable of great rapidity of motion, 
The extinct cave-bear seems to have been 
closely akin to the grizzly. The Siberian bear 
is perhaps a variety of the brown bear. The 



Polar Bear. 

polar or white bear is an animal possessed of 
great strength and fierceness. It lives in the 
polar regions, frequents the sea, feeds on fish, 
seals, etc., and usually is 7 to 8 feet in length. 
The Malayan or cocoanutpalm bear is perhaps 
the smallest of the bears. It inhabits Cochin- 
China, Nepaul, the Sunda islands, etc., lives 
exclusively on vegetable food, and is an expert 
climber. It is called also sun-bear and bruang. 
The Indian black bear or sloth-bear of India 
and Ceylon is reputed to be a fierce and dan¬ 
gerous animal. 

Bear, Great and Little-, the popular name of 
two constellations in the northern hemisphere. 
The Great Bear is situated near the pole. It 
is remarkable for its well-known seven stars, 
by two of which, called the pointers, the pole- 
star is always readily found. These seven 
stars are popularly called the wagon, Charles's 
Wain, or the Plow. The Little Bear is the con¬ 
stellation which contains the pole-star. This 
constellation has seven stars placed together 
in a manner resembling those in the Great 
Bear. 

Bearberry, an evergreen shrub of the heath 
family growing on the barren moors of Scot¬ 
land, Northern Europe, Siberia, and North 
America. The leaves are used in medicine 
as an astringent and tonic. 

Beard, the hair upon the chin, cheeks, and 
upper lip, which in the human family appears 
at the age of puberty as a distinctive mark of 
the male sex. It is usually rather lighter in 
color than the hair of the head, and as a gen¬ 
eral rule its character depends upon the na¬ 
ture of the climate. In hot and dry countries, 


it is invariably dark, dry, and long; and, on 
the other hand, thick, curly, and fair in cold 
and damp countries. The hair, being a bad 
conductor of heat, protects the face and throat 
from cold, and acts as a safeguard against ex¬ 
cessive heat. The B., particularly the mus¬ 
tache, or hair of the upper lip, is of great 
utility in preventing dust of any kind being 
inhaled with the breath, particularly so to 
masons, bakers, glass-engravers, and workers 
in metals, who in their avocations are con¬ 
stantly exposed to an atmosphere charged 
with minute particles of the materials oper¬ 
ated upon. Slaves in ancient times were de¬ 
prived of their beards, and with the Turks 
even now a state of servitude among the at¬ 
tendants of the seraglio is indicated by a 
shaven face. The intense love of cleanliness 
on the part of the Egyptians would not suffer 
them to wear a B., save, according to Herodo¬ 
tus, in times of mourning. Though a shaving 
people, they had a singular custom of wearing 
upon the chin a false B. of plaited hair, which 
differed in shape according to the rank and 
position of the wearer. Kings wore long and 
square-bottomed beards, those of private indi¬ 
viduals were very short, and gods were distin¬ 
guished by their long beards curling up at the 
end. 

Among the early Greeks a thick B. was con¬ 
sidered a mark of manliness, and the Greek 
philosphers thought that a certain dignity of 
character attached to its long growth. Shav¬ 
ing was introduced into Greece by Alexander 
the Great, who ordered his soldiers to perform 
that operation, and the practise continued 
general till the time of Justinian. About 300 
b. c., Ticinius Maenas is said to have intro¬ 
duced to the Romans a Sicilian barber who 
inaugurated shaving, and Pliny states that 
Scipio Africanus was the first Roman who 
shaved daily. Later on, the festival which 
celebrated the assumption of the toga virilis by 
a young Roman was made the occasion of the 
first operation of shaving, and the hair then 
cut off was consecrated to some deity. The 
Bayeux tapestry shows that mustaches were 
worn by the English soldiers prior to the inva¬ 
sion of the Normans, who shaved not only 
the entire face, but the back of the head like¬ 
wise. This Norman custom caused Harold’s 
spies to report that the invaders were all 
priests. Louis XIII, of France, not being en¬ 
dowed by nature with a B., his courtiers re¬ 
vived the fashion of shaving, and soon after, 
partial shaving, and trimming the mustaches 
and B. to an ornamental form, became general 
over Europe. In the sixteenth century the 
English clergy were noted for their beards of 
great length. In the beginning of the eight¬ 
eenth century, the face was wholly shaven, 
and continued so till early in the present cen¬ 
tury, when the French led the van in again 
wearing the B. During the reign of Czar 
Peter the Great, a tax was imposed upon 
beards, and collected at the gates of every 
town. 

Beard, George Miller (1839-1883), b. at 
Montville, Conn., graduated at Yale in 1862 ? 













Beard 

and took his degree of M. D. in 1866. Doctor 
Beard was a specialist on diseases of the nerv¬ 
ous system, and wrote extensively on the 
medical use of electricity and other branches 
of medical science. 

Beard, William Holbrook, painter, b. in 
Painesville, O. 1825. He began as a portrait 
painter about 1841, and settled in Buffalo in 
*1850, remaining until 1857. He went to Europe 
and studied in Switzerland, Italy, and France. 
In 1860 he established himself in New York 
City, and became a member of the Academy in 
1862. He has devoted himself almost exclu¬ 
sively to the painting of animals. 

Beardstown, Cass co., Ill., on Illinois River, 
45 mi. w. of Springfield. Railroads: B. & O. 
S. W., and C. B. & Q. It has 6 churches, 1 
high school, and 2 ward schools. Industries: 
2 banks, 2 flouring mills, 1 brewery, 1 saw 
mill, electric light plant and a number of 
factories. Natural gas now used for fuel to 
run the engines of the mills and electric light 
plant. The town was founded by Thomas 
Beard in 1829, incorporated as a town in 1837, 
and became a city in 1849. Population 1900, 
4,827. 

Bearing, the direction or point of the com¬ 
pass in which an object is seen, or the situa¬ 
tion of one object in regard to another, with 
reference to the points of the compass. Thus, 
if from a certain situation an object is seen in 
the direction of n.e., the bearing of the object 
is said to be n.e. from the situation. To take 
bearings, to acertain on what point of the com¬ 
pass objects lie. 

Bear Lake, Great, an extensive sheet of 
fresh water in the n.w. territory of Canada. 
Area about 14,000 sq. mi. The water is very 
clear and the lake abounds in fish. 

Bearn (ba-arn), one of the provinces into 
which France was formerly divided, now 
chiefly included in the department of Lower 
Pyrenees. Pau is the chief town. There is 
a peculiar and well-marked dialect—the Bear- 
nease—spoken in this district, which has much 
more affinity with the Spanish than with the 
French. 

Beatrice, Gage co., Neb., on Big Blue River, 
90 mi. s.w. of Omaha. Surrounding country 
agricultural. Railroads: U. P., R. I., B. & M. 
P. Principal manufactures: flour,lumber, and 
cement. Water power furnished by the river. 
There ar6 also numerous quarries of magnesia, 
and limestone, which is used as building ma¬ 
terial. Pop. 1900, 7,875. 

Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290) (ba-a-tro'cha> 
por-to-na' re), the poetical idol of Dante; the 
daughter of a wealthy citizen of Florence, 
and wife of Simone de Bardi. She was but 
eight years of age, and Dante nine, when he 
met her first at the house of her father. He 
altogether saw her only once or twice, and she 
probably knew little of him. The story of his 
love is recounted in the Vita Nuova, which 
was mostly written after her death. 

Beau'fort, the name of sixteen different 
towns and castles in France, of which the most 
important is B.-en-Valle'e, a town in the 
department of Maine-et-Loire (Anjou), 15 mi. 


Beauregard 

e. of Angers, with manufactures of sailcloth, 
leather, etc., and a trade in grain, hemp, nuts, 
prunes, and wine. Pop. 4,492. B. had form¬ 
erly a strong castle, and gave title to the Eng¬ 
lish Dukes of B. 

Beauharnais (bo-ar-na), Alexandre, Vis¬ 
count (1760-1794). He married Josephine 
Tascher de la Pagerie, who was afterward the 
wife of Napoleon. He served under Rocham- 
beau in the Revolutionary War. In 1792 he 
was general of the army of the Rhine. He was 
falsely accused of having promoted the sur¬ 
render of Mainz, and was guillotined. 

Beauharnais, Eugene de (1781-1824), Duke 
of Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstadt, and 
Viceroy of Italy during the reign of Napoleon. 
He accompanied Napoleon to Egypt in 1798; 
rose rapidly in the army; was appointed vice¬ 
roy of Italy in 1805. To him and to Ney, France 
was mainly indebted for the preservation of 
the remains of her army during the retreat 
from Moscow. After the fall of Napoleon 
he delivered Lombardy and all Upper Italy 
to the Austrians. He then went to Paris, 
and thence to his father-in-law at Munich, 
where he afterward resided. His sister Hor- 
tense Eugenie (1783-1837). She became 
Queen of Holland by marrying Louis Bona 
parte. Napoleon III. was her third and young¬ 
est son. 

Beaumarchais (bo-mar-sha), Pierre Augus¬ 
tin Caron de (1732-1799), a French wit and 
dramatist. He occupied himself with litera¬ 
ture, and published two dramas. He first dis¬ 
tinguished himself by his Memoires, or state¬ 
ments in connection with a lawsuit, which by 
their wit, satire, and liveliness entertained all 
France. The Barber of Seville and the Marriage 
of Figaro have given him a permanent reputa¬ 
tion. He was a singular instance of versatility 
of talent, being at once an artist, politician, 
projector, merchant, and dramatist. 

Beaumont (bo'mont), Francis, and Fletcher, 
John, two eminent English dramatic writers, 
contemporaries of Shakespeare, and the most 
famous of literary partners. 

Beaumont, William, M. D., an American 
surgeon, b. 1785, d. 1853. His experiments on 
digestion with the Canadian, St. Martin, who 
lived for years after receiving a gunshot wound 
in the stomach which left an aperture of about 
two inches in diameter, were of great impor¬ 
tance to physiological science. 

Beaune (bon), a town in France, dep. Cote 
d’Or, 23 mi. s.s.w. Dijon, well built, with 
handsome church, public library, museum, 
etc., and a trade in the fine Burgundy and 
other wines of the district. Pop. 12,470. 

Beaune (bon), Florimond, a distinguished 
mathematician and friend of Descartes, b. at 
Blois 1601, d. at the same place 1652. He 
may be regarded as the founder of the integral 
calculus. 

Beauregard (bo-rAgard), Peter Gustave 
Toutant de (1818- 93 ), American soldier. He 
studied at the military academy, West Point, 
and left it as artillery lieutenant in 1838. He 
served in the Mexican War, and on the out¬ 
break of the Civil War joined the Confederates. 


Beauvais 


Bed 


He commanded at the bombardment of Fort 
Sumter, gained the battle of Bull Run, lost 
that of Shiloh, assisted in the defense of 
Charleston, and aided Lee in that of Rich¬ 
mond. 

Beauvais (bo-va) (ancient Bellovacum), a 
town in France, capital of the department of 
Oise, with some fine edifices, the choir of the 
uncompleted cathedral being one of the finest 
specimens of Gothic architecture in France. 
In 1472 Beauvais resisted an army of 80,000 
Burgundians under Charles the Bold. On this 
occasion the women particularly distinguished 
themselves, and one of them, Jeanne Laine, 
called La Hachette, seeing a soldier planting a 
standard on the wall, seized it and hurled him 
to the ground. The banner is preserved in the 
townhall, and an annual procession of young 
girls commemorates the deed. Manufactures: 
tapestry and carpets, trimmings, woolen cloth, 
cottons, etc. Pop. 19,382. 

Beaver, a rodent quadruped, about two feet 
in length exclusive of the tail, atone time com¬ 
mon in the northern regions of both hemi¬ 
spheres, but now found in considerable num¬ 
bers only in the U. S. and Canada, living in 
colonies, but occurring solitary in Central Eu- 



Beavers and Village. 


rope and Asia. It has short ears, a blunt nose, 
small fore-feet, large webbed hind-feet, with a 
fiat ovate tail covered with scales on its upper 
surface. It is valued for its fur, which used 
to be largely employed in the manufacture of 
hats, but for which silk is now for the most 
part substituted, and for an odoriferous secre¬ 
tion named castor, at one time in high repute, 
and still largely used in some parts of the 
world as an anti-spasmodic medicine. The 
food of the beaver consists of the bark of trees, 
leaves, roots, and berries. Their favorite 
haunts are rivers and lakes which are bor¬ 
dered by forests. In winter they live in houses, 
which are 3 to 4 feet high, are built on the 
water’s edge, and being substantial structures 
with the entrance under water afford them 
protection from wolves and other wild animals. 
These dwellings are called beaver “lodges,” 


and accommodate a single family. They.also 
live in burrows. They can gnaw through large 
trees with their strong teeth, this being done 
partly to obtain food, partly to get materials 
for houses or dam-building. When they find 
a stream not sufficiently deep for their purpose 
they throw across it a dam constructed with 
great ingenuity of wood, stones, and mud. 

Beaver Falls, Beaver co., Pa., near the junc¬ 
tion of the Beaver River with the Ohio, 34 mi. 
from Pittsburgh. Various factories are here. 
Pop. 1900, 10,054. 

Beaver, James A., b. in Perry co., Pa., 1837, 
practiced law, and, in 1861, joined the volun¬ 
teer army as a lieutenant and was made a 
colonel. He was wounded at Chancellorsville 
and lost a leg at Petersburg. He was elected 
governor of Pennsylvania on the Republican 
ticket in 1882 and In 1886. 

Becerra (be-ther'a), Gaspar (1520-1570), a 
Spanish painter and sculptor. He studied un¬ 
der Michel Angelo at Rome, and is credited 
with the chief share in the establishment of 
the fine arts in Spain. 

Bechuanas (Betchuanas) (bech-wan'az), a 
race inhabiting the central region of South 
Africa north of Cape Colony. They belong to 
the great Kaffre stem, and are divided into 
tribal sections. They live chiefly by husbandry 
and cattle rearing, and they work with some 
skill in iron, copper, ivory, and skins. They 
have been much harassed by Boers and others, 
and this led them to seek British protection. 
From 1878 to 1880 South Bechuanaland was 
partly administered by British officers; and in 
1884 and 1885 great part of the rest of their 
territory was brought under British influence, 
the farthest northern portion of it, however, 
reaching to the Zambezi, being only a protec¬ 
torate. The area is 180,000 sq. mi., and pop. 
478,000. Chief towns: Vryburg, Mafeking, and 
Jaungs. Gold, coal, and copper have been 
found. 

Beck'ford, William (1759-1844), an Eng¬ 
lish writer famous in his time for his immense 
wealth and his eccentricities. In 1770 the 
death of his father left him in the possession 
of $5,000,000 of money, and an income of 
$500,000 a year. His literary fame rests upon 
his eastern tale Vathek , which he wrote in 
French in three days and two nights. 

Bookmann, Johann (1739-1811), German 
writer on the industrial arts and agriculture. 
He was professor of physics and natural his¬ 
tory at St. Petersburg, and afterward for 
almost forty-five years professor of philosophy 
and economy in Gottingen. His History of 
Inventions is well known in the English trans¬ 
lation of it. 

Becquerel (bek-rel), Antoine Cesar (1788- 
1878), French physicist. He served as an offi¬ 
cer of engineers, and retired in 1815, after 
which he devoted himself to the study of elec¬ 
tricity, especially electro-chemistry. He re¬ 
futed the “ theory of contact ” by which Volta 
explained the action of his pile or battery. 
Becquerel may be considered one of the crea¬ 
tors of electro-chemistry. 

Bed (or stratum), is a layer of rock of simi- 











Bede 


Bee 


lar materials, and of some thickness, cohering 
more or less firmly together, as a rule. Of 
course, in the case of soft unconsolidated 
strata, the materials of a bed may not be co¬ 
herent. Beds are often composed of many 
fine laminae or plates. The laminae are the 
results of intermissions in the supply of mate¬ 
rials, produced by such causes as the ebb and 
flow of the tide, river-floods, or the more or 
less turbid state of the water under which 
they were deposited. When the intervals be¬ 
tween the supply of materials were short, the 
numerous laminae closely adhere, and form a 
bed cut off from the superior deposit by the 
occurrence of a longer interval, during which 
the bed became consolidated more or less be¬ 
fore the next was deposited. When the lami¬ 
nation is obscure, or not distinct from the 
stratification, it would seem to indicate that 
the materials had been supplied without any 
intermission. 

Bede (Beda, or Baeda) (672-735), known as 
the Venerable Anglo-Saxon Scholar, educated 
at St. Peter’s monastery, Wearmouth; took 
deacon’s orders in his nineteenth year at St. 
Paul’s monastery, Jarrow, and was ordained 
priest at thirty. He was the most learned 
Englishman of his day, and in some sense the 
father of English history, his most important 
work being his Ecclesiastical History of Eng¬ 
land. 

Bedeguar (or Bedegar) (bed'e-gdr), a spongy 
excrescence or gall, sometimes termed sweet- 
brier sponge, found on various species of roses, 
and produced by several insects as receptacles 
for their eggs. Once thought a diuretic and 
vermifuge. 

Bed'ford, England, county town of Bedford¬ 
shire, on the Ouse. The chief buildings are 
the law courts, a range of public schools, a 
large infirmary, county jail, etc., and the 
churches. There is an extensive manufactory 
of agricultural implements; lace is also made, 
and there is a good trade. John Bunyan was 
born at Elstow, a village near the town, and it 
was at Bedford that he lived, preached, and 
was imprisoned. A fine monument has been 
erected to him in the town. Pop. 28,023. 
Bedfordshire (or Beds) the county, is bounded 
by Northampton, Bucks, Herts, Cambridge, 
and Huntingdon. Area 463 sq. mi. Two thirds 
of the soil is under tillage. Besides the usual 
cereal and other crops, culinary vegetables are 
extensively cultivated for the London market. 
Principal manufactures: agricultural imple¬ 
ments, and straw-plait for hats, which is made 
up principally at Dunstable and Luton. Pop. 
160,729. 

Bedford, John, Duke of, one of the younger 
sons of Henry IV, king of England. He de¬ 
feated the French fleet in 1416, commanded 
an expedition to Scotland in 1417, and was 
lieutenant of England during the absence of 
Henry V in France. He became regent of 
France, and for several years his policy was as 
successful as it was able and vigorous. The 
greatest stain on his memory is his execution 
of the Maid of Orleans (Joan of Arc) in 1431. 


He died in 1435 at Rouen, and was juried in 
the cathedral of that city. 

Bedlam, a corruption of Bethlehem (hospi¬ 
tal), the name of a religious house in London , ( 
converted into a hospital for lunatics. The 
original Bedlam stood in Bishopsgate street, 
its modern successor is in St. George’s Fields. 
The lunatics were at one time treated as little 
better than wild beasts, and hence Bedlam 
came to be typical of any scene of wild con¬ 
fusion. The average number of patients is 
about 300. 

Bedouins (bed-u-enz'), a Mohammedan peo¬ 
ple of Arab race inhabiting chiefly the deserts 
of Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. 
They lead a nomadic existence in tents, huts, 
caverns, and ruins, associating in families 
under sheiks, or in tribes under emirs. In re¬ 
spect of occupation they are only shepherds, 
herdsmen, and horse-breeders, varying the 
monotony of pastoral life by raiding on each 
other, and plundering unprotected travelers 
whom they consider trespassers. They are 
ignorant of writing and books, their knowledge 
being purely traditional and mainly genealog¬ 
ical. In stature they are undersized, and, 
though active, they are not strong. The 
ordinary dress of the men is a long shirt girt 
at the loins, a black or red and yellow hand¬ 
kerchief for the head, and sandals; of the 
women, loose drawers, a long shirt, and a large 
dark-blue shawl covering the head and figure. 
The lance is the favorite weapon. 

Bee, the common name given to a large fam¬ 
ily of hymenopterous or membranous-winged 
insects, of which the most important is the 



common hive or honeybee. It belongs to the 
warmer parts of the eastern hemisphere, but 
is now naturalized in the western. A hive com¬ 
monly consists of one mother or queen, from 
600 to 800 males or drones, and from 15,000 to 
20,000 working bees, formerly termed neuters, 
but now known to be imperfectly developed 
females. The last mentioned, the smallest, 
have twelve joints to their antennae, and six 





Bee 


Beech 


abdominal rings, and are provided with a 
sting; there is, on the outside of the hind legs, 
a smooth hollow, edged with hairs, called the 
basket , in which the kneaded pollen or bee- 
bread, the food of the larvae, is stored for tran¬ 
sit. The queen has the same characteristics, 
but is of larger size, especially in the abdomen; 
she has also a sting. The males, or drones, dif¬ 
fer from both the preceding by having thirteen 
joints to the antennae; a rounded head, with 
larger eyes, elongated and united at the sum¬ 
mit; and no stings. According to Huber the 
working-bees are themselves divisible into two 
classes: one, the cirieres , devoted to the collec¬ 
tion of provisions, etc.; the other, smaller and 
more delicate, employed exclusively within the 
hive in rearing the young. The mouth of the 
bee is adapted for both masticatory and suc¬ 
torial purposes, the honey being conveyed 
thence to the anterior stomach or crop, com¬ 
municating with a second stomach in which 
alone a digestive process can be traced. The 
queen, whose sole office is to propagate the spe¬ 
cies, has two large ovaries, consisting of a great 
number of small cavities, each containing six¬ 
teen or seventeen eggs. The inferior half¬ 
circles, except the first and last, on the abdo¬ 
men of working-bees, have each on their inner 
surface two cavities, where the wax, secreted 
by the bee from its saccharine food, is formed 
in layers, and comes out from between the 
abdominal rings. Respiration takes place by 
means of air-tubes which branch out to all 
parts of the body, the bee being exceedingly 
sensitive to an impure atmosphere. Of the 
organs of sense the most important are the an¬ 
tennae, deprivation of these resulting in a spe¬ 
cies of derangement. The majority of entomol¬ 
ogists regard their function as in the first place 
auditory, but they are exceedingly sensitive to 
tactual impressions, and are apparently the 
principal means of mutual communication. 
Bees undergo perfect metamorphosis, the 
young appearing first as larvae, then changing 
to pupae, from which the imagos or perfect in¬ 
sects spring. Whether the offspring are to be 
female or male is said to be dependent upon 
the contact or absence of contact of the egg 
with the impregnating fluid received from the 
male and stored in a special sac communicat¬ 
ing with the oviduct, unfertilized eggs produc¬ 
ing males. The further question whether the 
offspring shall be queens or workers is resolved 
by the influence of environment upon function. 
The enlargement of a cell to the size of a royal 
chamber and the nourishment of its inmate 
with a special kind of food appear to be suffi¬ 
cient to transform an ordinary working-bee lar¬ 
vae into a fully-developed female or queen bee. 
The season of fecundation occurs about thebe- 
ginning of summer, and the laying begins im¬ 
mediately afterward, and continues until au¬ 
tumn; in the spring as many as 12,000 eggs may 
be laid in twenty-four days. Those laid at the 
commencement of fine weather all belong to 
the working sort, and hatch at the end of four 
days. The larvae acquire their perfect state in 
about twelve days, and the cells are then im¬ 
mediately fitted up for the reception of new 


eggs. The eggs for producing males are laid 
two months later, and those for the females 
immediately afterward. This succession of 
generations forms many distinct communi¬ 
ties, which, when increased beyond a certain 
degree, leave the parent hive to found a new 
colony elsewhere. Thus three or four swarms 
sometimes leave a hive in a season. A good 
swarm is said to weigh at least C or 8 pounds. 

The humblebees, or bumblebees, of which 
about forty species are found in Britain and 
over sixty in North America, belong to the ge¬ 
nus Borabus , which is almost worldwide in its 
distribution. Of these species solitary females 
which have survived the winter commence 
constructing small nests when the weather 
begins to be warm enough; some of them go¬ 
ing deep into the earth in dry banks, others 
preferring heaps of stone or gravel, and others 
choosing always some bed of dry moss. In the 
nest the bee collects a mass of pollen, and in 
this lays some eggs. The cells in these nests 
are not the work of the old bee, but are formed 
by the young insects similarly to the cocoons 
of silkworms; and when the perfect insect is 
released from them by the old bee, which 
gnaws off their tops, they are employed as 
honey-cups. The humblebees, however, do 
not store honey for the winter, those which 
survive till the cold weather leaving the nest 
and penetrating the earth, or taking up some 
other sheltered position, and remaining there 
till the spring. The first brood consists of 
workers, and successive broods are produced 
during the summer. The experiment of do¬ 
mesticating different kinds of wild bees has 
been tried with no satisfactory results. Some 
bees, from their manner of nesting, are known 
as ‘ ‘ mason bees, ” “ carpenter bees, ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ up¬ 
holsterer bees.” Some of these bees cement 
particles of sand or gravel together with a 
viscid substance in forming their nests; others 
make burrows in wood. The leaf-cutter or 
upholsterer bee lines its burrow with bits of 
leaf cut out in regular shapes. 

Beech, the common name of trees well 
known in various parts of the world, including 



Branch of Common Beech, a.—flower; b.— fruit. 

America, New Zealand, and Terra del Fuego. 
The wood is hard and brittle, and if exposed 



Beecher 


Beef 


to the air liable soon to decay. It is, however, 
peculiarly useful to cabinetmakers and turn¬ 
ers; carpenters’planes, furniture, sabots, etc., 
being made of it; and it is durable under water 
for piles and mill-sluices. The fruit or beech 
mast , when dried and powdered, may be made 
into a wholesome bread; it has also occasion¬ 
ally been roasted and used as a substitute for 
coffee, and yields a sweet and palatable oil 
used by the lower classes of Silesia instead of 
butter. Beech mast is, however, chiefly used 
as food for swine, poultry, and other animals. 
The leaves of the beech tree collected in the 
autumn, before they have been injured by the 
frosts, are in some places used to stuff mat¬ 
tresses. The North American white beech is 
identical with the European species. 

Beecher, Henry Ward (1813-1887), Ameri¬ 
can preacher, third son of Lyman Beecher, b. 
Litchfield, Conn. As a child he was diffident 
and sensitive, loved the ocean and was only 
prevented from going to sea by his conversion 
(1826). When but eleven years old he defeated 
an opponent in a debate on Paine’s Age of 
Reason. He showed marked talent as a 
debater in college. He studied theology 
under his father’s instruction in Lane Semi¬ 
nary. He was pastor of a Presbyterian church 
in Lawrenceburg, Ind. (1837-39), and at the 
same time was connected with an anti-slavery 
paper in Cincinnati. From 1839-47 he preached 
in Indianapolis, contributing articles on fruits, 
flowers, and farming to an agricultural paper. 
In 1847 he took charge of Plymouth church, 
Brooklyn. His congregation, noted for gener¬ 
osity and intelligence, heartily sympathized 
with him in his efforts for reform, especially 
in his advocacy of abolition and temper¬ 
ance. His opinion on all public questions was 
eagerly sought. He was original in treatment 
and choice of subjects for his sermons, and his 
delivery was eloquent, dramatic, pathetic, and 
witty. In power of physical endurance he was 
a marvel. Tender-hearted and charitable him¬ 
self, any form of injustice called from him bit¬ 
ter denunciations. As an after-dinner speaker 
he was without a peer, and his popularity as a 
lecturer knew no abatement. One famous 
oration of his was on Robert Burns, delivered 
January, 1859. Another, delivered April, 1865, 
was his Fort Sumter oration. He was a Re¬ 
publican and aided the cause for which it 
stood by pen and speech. He took part in the 
canvass of 1856. Through his influence and 
addresses, opinion in England concerning the 
Civil War was materially modified. His trial 
for adultery (1875) ended by a division of the 
jury, nine for acquittal and three against. His 
last public address was in Chickering hall,New 
York, Feb. 25, 1887, in favor of high license. 
After he came to Brooklyn he contributed his 
Star Papers to the Independent, of which he 
• became editor 1861. He edited the Christain 
Union (1870-81) and was a frequent contributor 
to the Ledger. In Plymouth Pulpit are pre¬ 
served the sermons preached from 1859 till his 
death. Among his many published works is a 
novel entitled Noi'icood. He married, 1837, Eu¬ 
nice White Bullard, author of From Daion to 


Daylight. She d. March 8, 1897. H. W. Beech¬ 
er’s three brothers, Charles, Edward, and 
Thomas, have all distinguished themselves as 
Congregational clergymen. His sister Cather¬ 
ine Esther (1800-1878) did much for the educa¬ 
tion of women, and wrote on this subject and 
on domestic economy and kindred subjects. 

Beecher, Lyman (1775-1863), clergyman, b. 
in New Haven, Conn., graduated at Yale in 
1797, and studied theology. In 1798 he was 
licensed to preach, accepted the pastorate of 
the Presbyterian church in East Hampton, 
L. I. A sermon on dueling, suggested by the 
duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron 
Burr, in 1806, made a great impression, and he 
soon became one of the best known preachers 
of New England. He was pastor of the Con¬ 
gregational church in Litchfield, Conn. (1810— 
26), and pastor of the Hanover Street church, 
Boston (1826-1832). He upheld the Puritan 
doctrine. From 1832 till 1851 Mr. Beecher was 
president of the Lane Theological Seminary, 
Cincinnati, in which he was professor of the¬ 
ology, and in 1832-42 was pastor of the Second 
Presbyterian church of Cincinnati. In 1835 
Mr. Beecher was arraigned and tried for 
heresy by the Calvinists. He was acquitted by 
the general assembly, and on the division of 
the Presbyterian church into two factions, 
he joined the new school. He returned to 
Boston, 1851, and spent his time in publishing 
and revising his works. During his last 10 
years he lived in Brooklyn. He was married 
3 times, and liis five sons, William Henry, 
Edward George, Henry Ward, Charles, and 
Thomas Kinnicut became clergymen. 

Bee=eaters, a family of Fissirostral Pas¬ 
serine birds, distributed over Africa, India, 
the Moluccas, and Australia, chiefly known in 
Europe as common bee-eater, a summer vis¬ 
itant to Russia and the Mediterranean borders. 
For the most part they nest in colonies, de¬ 
positing their eggs like the sand-martins, at 
the end of a tunnel sometimes 8 or 9 ft. long. 
They are frequently killed for their plumage, 
which is brownish-red and yellow above, pale- 
blue on the forehead, yellow at the breast, and 
green at the wings. 

Beef=eaters, yeomen of the guard of the 
sovereign of Great Britain, stationed by the 
sideboard at great royal dinners, and dressed 
after the fashion of the time of Henry VII. 
Also a name for certain African insessorial 
birds which feed on the larvae embedded in the 
hides of buffaloes or other large animals. 

Beef, extract of. The beef is cut from 
the cattle for the most part from the fore¬ 
quarters. No shanks or gluey parts of the 
animal, but only the lean pieces are used. 
These are thoroughly washed and loaded into 
trucks and hauled away to the cooking depart¬ 
ment, consisting of a long room in which are 
two rows of round copper boilers. These con¬ 
sist of an upper and a lower hemisphere so built 
that they can be fastened together hermetically. 
The lower hemisphere is built double, the in¬ 
tervening space being filled with hot water. 
From the upper hemisphere there extends a 
pipe which is connected with a vacuum pump. 


Beef 


Beeswax 


There is also a large eye of glass in the upper 
hemisphere. About 2,000 pounds of flesh are 
placed in a kettle with a little water, the air 
is pumped out, and the hot water is turned 
into the jacket. The meat is cooked for six 
or eight hours. The liquor which surrounds 
it is thick and pasty. The process of cooking 
is watched by experienced workmen through 
the glass windows. The liquor is now drained 
off and clarified, after which it is pumped 
through two or three filter presses which catch 
any impurities and retain all the fibers still 
left in the mass of extract. It is then poured 
into a vacuum pan, 7 ft. long, 12 ft. high, and 
6 ft. broad, the bottom part of which is filled 
with steam coils, and from the top a pipe runs 
to the exhaust pump. Enough extract liquor 
is allowed to flow into the pans to cover the 
pipes and the free water is quickly evaporated. 
The extract then passes to a second vacuum 
pan, where it is condensed to a thick brown 
paste. It is then sent to a mill where it is 
rendered thoroughly homogeneous. It is then 
placed in small jars and is ready for market. 
Each pound of the extract contains all of the 
nutritive matter in 45 pounds of meat. 

Beef, preparation of. In the large packing 
houses the preparation of beef is an interest¬ 
ing process. The steers are caught in long 
narrow pens, divided by doors into compart¬ 
ments large enough for two animals. The 
butcher passes along on a little platform just 
back of the pens and above them, with a large 
iron sledge-hammer. The object is to hit the 
animal just hard enough to stun it, for if it is 
killed outright the blood does not run so freely 
after the throat is cut. The animals are then 
slid into the slaughtering room and a workman 
hitches a rope to the animal’s leg and raises it 
into the air by means of pulleys until it can be 
hitched to a traveling pulley running on ceil¬ 
ing rails. Another man cuts the animal’s 
throat and the blood splashes down and is car¬ 
ried off by means of troughs in the floor to 
vats below, where it is taken away to the fer¬ 
tilizer factory (see Blood). The animal is now 
trundled along until it reaches the “header” 
who, with very few movements splits the skin 
of the head, draws it loose and severs the head 
from the body. The head is thrown down a 
chute to a room below, where one man removes 
the tongue, another cuts off the cheek meat, 
and another sends the remaining bones to the 
fertilizer factory. In the meantime the ani¬ 
mal is switched off on a side-track leading to¬ 
ward the butchering beds. A butchering bed 
consists of two large iron plates set into the 
floor about two feet apart and full of small 
round holes. Four men, called the “foot-skin¬ 
ners,” begin the work and lay back the hide 
from the legs of the first animal and then pass 
quickly to the next. The “leg-breakers” suc¬ 
ceed them and cut off the legs at the first joint 
and throw them to one side. The “ripper- 
open,” as he is called, comes next and per¬ 
forms his part of the work. Then the “caul- 
puller” removes the caul-fat, after which the 
“floorsmen” begin the skinning of the carcass. 
This process requires great skill and care, as 


only the fell between the hide and the flesh 
must be cut. When the hide has been skinned 
down to the back the animal is again sus¬ 
pended in the air. The fell is beaten down 
by a man with a cleaver, and as soon as it is 
loosened it is spread out on the floor. The en¬ 
trails are removed and sent down through a 
chute and the “backbone-splitter” cuts the 
carcass down at exactly the center of the back¬ 
bone. When the two halves swing apart they 
are pushed along the ceiling rail into the cool¬ 
ing-room, where they are kept for a week or 
two to cure. The whole process from the time 
the animal leaves the killing stalls until the 
halves of beef hang in the cooling-room is 
about eight minutes. During the work of 
slaughtering there are several inspectors pres¬ 
ent who watch every animal. These are the 
government inspector, the state inspector, a 
representative from the city health depart¬ 
ment, and the private inspector of the com¬ 
pany. No part of the animal is lost or wasted. 
The caul-fats are now utilized in the manufac¬ 
ture of oleomargarine oil. The common fats 
are rendered into tallow. The tongue, liver, 
and heart are sold or made into sausage. 
The intestines are cleaned and utilized in cov¬ 
ering sausages of several kinds. From the 
stomach comes plain or honeycomb tripe and 
pepsin, and the gall is used by printers, paint¬ 
ers, and dyers. The horns, shins, and blade- 
bones are used for knife-handles, combs, bone 
buttons; and the knuckles, feet, sinews, bones 
from the extract department, hoofs, hide 
trimmings, and calves’ feet are utilized in the 
glue department and for fertilizers. 

Bee=hawk, a name given to the honey-buz¬ 
zard which preys on hymenopterous insects. 

Beelzebub (be-el'ze-bub) (Hebrew “the god 
of flies”), the supreme god of the Syro-Phceni- 
cian peoples, in whose honor the Philistines 
had a temple at Ekron. The origin of this 
worship is probably to be sought in the scourge 
of flies to which the hot plain of Philistia has 
always been subject. 

Beer. See Brewing. 

Beershe'ba, “the well of the oath,” the 
place where Abraham made a covenant with 
Abimelech, and in common speech repre¬ 
sentative of the southernmost limit of Pales¬ 
tine, near which it is situated. It is now a 
mere heap of ruins near two large and five 
smaller wells, though it was a place of some 
importance down to the period of the Crusades. 

Bees'wax, a solid fatty substance secreted 
by bees, and containing in its purified state 
three chemical principles—myricin, cerin, and 
ceroelin. It is not collected from plants, but 
elaborated from saccharine food in the body 
of the bee. It is used for the manufacture of 
candles, for modeling, and in many minor 
processes. Before beeswax is put on the 
market it must be whitened or bleached. The 
beeswax is sent to the bleaching house in the 
shape of loaf-shaped cakes, each weighing 
about 25 pounds. The cakes are broken into 
small pieces and put into a cedar vat about 5 
ft. high and 3 ft. across. In the bottom of 
this vat are two square wooden pipes in the 


Beet 


Beet 


tops of which are holes which are connected 
with a steam pipe. This steam pipe conveys 
the steam to the wooden pipes at a pressure of 
about 60 pounds to the sq. in. Between 1,200 
and 1,800 pounds of wax is placed into the vat 
and enough water is run in to float it. The 
steam is then turned on and it jets up through 
the holes in the wooden pipes, melting the 
wax. The dirt in the wax falls to the bottom 
of the vat, and in about three hours after 
the steam is on, the wax is ready to be 
drawn off. The wax after passing through a 
sieve falls into a wooden roller about 5 ft. long 
and a foot and one-half in diameter which re¬ 
volves in cool water. The wax clings to the 
roller and is carried around into the water. 
The roller turns once every second, and when 
the chilled beeswax is carried around into 
the cooler water it flies off the roller into the 
water bed. It is then lifted out by means of 
wooden forks, placed in boxes, and carried out¬ 
side to the bleaching bed. These beds stand 
about 8 ft. above the ground and are about 
100 ft. long, 15 ft. wide, and 1 ft. deep. The 
wax is spread out on these beds and allowed 
to remain for about 5 weeks exposed to the 
full light of the sun. The wax is sprinkled 
with water several times a day to prevent it 
from melting under the sun’s rays, and each 
day it is harrowed with a rake so that all parts 
will be exposed to the sun several times. The 
wax is then a creamy white. It is taken back 
to the melting vats, remelted, run through a 
screen over.a wooden roller, and brought back 
to the bleaching bed for another stay of about 
two weeks. By this time the wax is a pure 
white and is ready to be put into marketable 
shape. The wax is again melted and placed 
into pans and allowed to remain about an hour, 
when it is ready for the market. 

Beet, a genus of plants, nat. order Chenopo- 
diaceae, distinguished by its fruit being en¬ 
closed in a tough woody or spongy five-lobed 
enlarged calyx. Two species only are known 
in general cultivationnamely, the sea beet 
and the garden beet. The former is a tough- 

rooted perennial, com¬ 
mon on many parts of the 
British coast and some¬ 
times cultivated for its 
leaves, which are an ex¬ 
cellent substitute for 
spinach. Of the garden 
beet, which differs from 
the last in being of only 
biennial duration and in 
forming a tender fleshy 
root, two principal forms 
are known to cultivators, 
the chard beet and the 
common beet. In the 
chard beet the roots are 
small, white, and rather 
tough, and the leaves are 
furnished with a broad, 
fleshy midrib {chard), employed as a vegetable 
by the French, who dress the ribs like sea 
kale under the name of poiree. Some writers 
regard this as a peculiar species. The com¬ 



Common Beet. 


mon beet includes all the fleshy-rooted varie¬ 
ties, such as red beet (with a fleshy large 
carrot shaped root), yellow beet, sugar beet, 
mangel-wurzel, etc. For garden purposes the 
best is the red beet of Castelnaudary, so called 
from a town in the s. w. of France. The beet 
requires a rich light soil, and being a native 
of the Mediterranean region is impatient of 
severe cold, requiring to be taken up in the 
beginning of winter and packed in dry sand, 
or in pits like potatoes, the succulent leaves 
having been first removed. Red beet is princi¬ 
pally used at table, but if eaten in great quan¬ 
tity is said to be injurious. The beet may be 
taken out of the ground for use about the end 
of August, but it does not attain its full size 
and perfection till the month of October. A 
good beer may be brewed from the beet, and 
it yields a spirit of good quality. From the 
white beet the French, during the wars with 
Napoleon I, succeeded in preparing sugar, that 
article, as British colonial produce, having 
been prohibited in France. Since that time, 
with the increase of chemical and technical 
knowledge, the making of beet-sugar has be¬ 
come an important industry in the U. S., 
France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Belgium, 
and Holland. 

The process of making sugar from beets in 
the U. S. is substantially as follows : Beets are 
brought into the factory, dumped into long 
V-shaped trenches 10 to 20 ft. wide and 6 to 10 
ft. deep. At the bottom of each of these is 
another ditch reaching downward with per¬ 
pendicular sides 20 to 30 in. deep and having 
a curved bottom 18 in. wide. The sides and 
bottom are coated with cement, making a sort 
of flume through which water will flow. All 
the ditches slope toward the factory and meet 
near it in one large ditch. Before the beets 
are thrown into the larger and upper trench 
the smaller one is covered with boards to pre¬ 
vent the beets from falling into it, thus the 
beets are kept until needed. The object is to 
keep the beets without losing the sugar or 
blackening the juice. The beets when brought 
in have had the leaves cut off and most of the 
soil knocked off. When they are wanted in 
the factory a stream of water from an over¬ 
head flume is let into the upper end of the 
bottom ditch. The loose boards covering it 
are raised and the beets are allowed to fall into 
the swiftly running stream below and are 
floated along to the house. At the end of the 
ditch the beets are caught by buckets ar¬ 
ranged along the rim of a large revolving 
wheel, lifted out of the water and discharged 
into a washing machine. From the washing 
machine they are discharged into an elevator 
which carries them-to the very top of the build¬ 
ing. Here they are discharged into an auto¬ 
matic weighing machine which weighs off half 
a ton at a time, registers, and drops the beets 
into the slicer. The sheer is a large wheel 
lying flatwise and carrying upon its flat sur¬ 
face corrugated knives, which in revolving 
under the beets cuts them into long, thin, 
diamond-shaped slices about £ in. wide and 
in. thick. Just below the slicer upon the 


Beet 


Beetle 


second floor of the factory is a circle of 12 to 
14 wrought-iron tanks each capable of holding 
about one and one-half tons of slices. A re¬ 
volving chute from the sheer fills each one in 
succession. Large pipes connect these to¬ 
gether. The first is filled with slices, and 
water is let in from a tank above, which is 
allowed to stand while the second tank is fill¬ 
ing. Then the valves are opened into the 
next tank containing fresh slices, and fresh 
water, running into the first tank under pres¬ 
sure, forces the water already containing some 
sugar on into the next tank, where it becomes 
richer, and so on from tank to tank, always 
tending to bring the sugar which is outside 
the little beet cells and that which is inside 
to a balance. As the water progresses it is 
raised in temperature by steam coils. After 
the water has gone through about ten tanks 
it contains about as much sugar as the beets, 
and is drawn off into a measuring tank. The 
slices in the first tank, which have by this 
time been supplied with fresh water eight or 
ten times, have lost all or nearly all their 
sugar. These exhausted slices are dropped 
from the tank and run through j>resses, and 
the pulp remaining is shipped away for cattle 
feeding. This apparatus is called the “diffu¬ 
sion battery,” and when once started, fresh 
slices are supplied and juice is drawn off al¬ 
most continuously. This juice contains much 
organic matter that is not sugar. It is run 
from the measuring tanks into tall cylindrical 
vessels which hold about 2,000 gallons each. 
To remove the coloring and other organic 
matter a thick milk of lime is added. Car¬ 
bonic acid, which is heated to almost boiling 
by steam pipes, is passed into the liquid to 
free it from excess of lime. The juice is then 
forced by automatic pumps to the filter press, 
whence it comes quite clear and of a straw- 
yellow color. The lime pressed out in cakes 
forms one of the best land plasters that can be 
used. The juice is limed, carbonated, and 
filtered again and then goes to the evaporator. 
These are a series of four large tubular boil¬ 
ers supplied with the exhaust steam from the 
engine; each has a greater vacuum than the 
one before it, and the juice as it flows along 
from one to the next is evaporated rapidly and 
at a low temperature. As it comes from the 
last it is a moderately thick syrup, and when 
it has been filtered it is ready to be boiled 
down to sugar. The syrup is pumped up into 
the vaouum tanks. These are large cylin¬ 
drical bodies ten feet in diameter with oval 
top and bottom. Inside are copper steam pipes 
coiled, and a large air pump with an 18-inch 
cylinder keeps up a high vacuum and re¬ 
moves the evaporated water, so that the boil¬ 
ing down goes on rapidly and at a low tem¬ 
perature. In the sides of the pan are glass 
windows through which the mass may be 
watched. When the grains begin to appear 
fresh-syrup is added until they are of the re¬ 
quired size, then the water is evaporated and 
the steam is shut off, the pump stopped, a 
valve is opened at the bottom of the pan, and 
the whole mass is allowed to run into the 


tanks below. The syrup is now dark and so 
thick that it will hardly run. It is drawn 
into large whirling drums which have their 
sides perforated with small holes and lined 
with brass gauze. As the drums revolve the 
sugar rises up along the sides, and the mo¬ 
lasses is thrown out through the holes, while 
the sugar, too large to get through, remains 
sticking to the gauze. A spray of cold water 
and air is directed against the sugar to wash 
it, and a little bluing is added to give it brill¬ 
iancy. The mill is stopped, and the sugar, 
now white and moist, is dropped from the 
bottom and conveyed to a large horizontal 
revolving cylinder, which is heated by steam 
and called the granulator. There the sugar is 
dried, and the fine dust of sugar contained in 
the granulator, is drawn out by a suction- 
blower. The sugar passes through screens at 
the end of the granulator and is then ready 
for market. The molasses which is thrown 
off through the small holes in the whirling 
drums, is mixed with fresh syrup and boiled 
again, or is boiled alone and passed through the 
drums, and the brown sugar resulting is re¬ 
fined by mixing with fresh syrup. Through¬ 
out the whole process a careful chemical con¬ 
trol is maintained, and the material is tested 
at every stage. 

Beethoven (ba'to-vn), Ludwig von (1770- 
1827), a great German musical composer, b. at 
Bonn, studied under his father (a tenor singer), 
Pfeiffer, Van der Eden, and Neefe; began to 
publish in 1783; became assistant court organ¬ 
ist in 1785; and was sent by the Elector of Co¬ 
logne to Vienna in 1792, where he was the 
pupil of Haydn and Albrechtsberger, and ac¬ 
quired a high reputation for piano-forte extem¬ 
porization before the merit of his written com¬ 
positions was fully understood. In or near 
Vienna almost all his subsequent life was 
spent, his artistic tour in North Germany in 
1796 being the most important break. He d. 
March 27, 1827. His later life was rendered 
somewhat morbid by his deafness, of which 
the first signs appeared in 1797. His best 
works were published after 1800, two periods 
being observable: the first from 1800 to 1814, 
comprising Symphonies 2-8; the opera Fidelia 
(originally Leonore), the music to Goethe’s 
Egmont , and the overtures to Prometheus , 
Coriolanus , King Stephen , and Fidelio-, the 
second (in which the poetic school of musi¬ 
cians find the germs of the subsequent de¬ 
velopment through Schumann, Wagner, and 
Liszt) comprising the 9th Symphony , the 
Missa Solemnis, and the Sonatas. 

Beetle, a name often used as synonymous 
with the term Coleoptera, but restricted by 
others to include all those insects that have 
their wings protected by hard cases or sheaths, 
called elytra. Beetles vary in size from a 
mere point to the bulk of a man’s fist, the 
largest, the elephant beetle of South America, 
being 4 inches long. The so-called “black 
beetles ” of kitchens and cellars are not properly 
beetles at all, but cockroaches, and of the 
order Orthoptera. One of the most celebrated 
beetles is the Sacred Scarabueus of Egypt. It 


Begonia 


Behring 


is noted for the method in which it deposits 
its eggs. This beetle rolls its eggs up into 
small bits of cow-dung and rolls the ball along 
the ground in search of a spot sufficiently soft 
to allow her to excavate a place for the eggs. 
The mode of progress is very peculiar. She 
turns her back upon the ball, grasps it with 
her hind legs and works backward, pushing 
the ball along as a horse backs a cart. 

Perhaps the largest and handsomest of the 
beetle race belongs to the Dynastes family. 
These beetles are large-bodied and stout- 
limbed, and reside in decaying vegetable mat¬ 
ter, especially in rotton tree trunks or branches. 
They are of great service to the forest lands. 
Some are able to take a tree as soon as it is 
fallen and riddle the timber with their gal¬ 
leries. The rain penetrates these tunnels, 
lodges there, and thus decay sets in. 

Bego'nia, an extensive genus of succulent¬ 
stemmed herbaceous plants, order Begoniaceae, 
with fleshy, oblique leaves of various colors, 
and showy unsexual flowers, the whole peri¬ 
anth colored. They readily hybridize, and 



Begonia. 


many fine varieties have been raised from the 
tuberous-rooted kinds. - From the shape of 
their leaves they have been called elephant's 
ear. Almost all plants of the order are trop¬ 
ical, and have mostly pink or red flowers. 

Behar',a prov. of Hindustan, in Bengal, 
area 44,139 sq. mi. Opium and indigo are 
largely produced. It is the most densely 
peopled prov. of India; pop. 23,127,104. Patna 
is the capital. The town of Behar, in the 
Patna district, contains some ancient mosques 
and the ruins of an old fort; it is a place of 
large trade. Pop. 48,908. 

Behe'moth, the animal described in Job 40. 
The description is most applicable to the hip¬ 
popotamus, and the word seems to be of 
Egyptian origin, and to signifiy “water ox,” 
but it has been variously asserted to be the 
ox, the elephant, the crocodile, etc. 

Behis'tun (or Bis'utun), a mountain near a 
village of the same name in Persian Kurdis¬ 
tan, celebrated for the sculptures and cunei¬ 
form inscriptions cut upon one of its sides—- 
a rock rising almost perpendicularly to the 
height of 1,700 ft. These works, which stand 


about 300 ft. from the ground, were executed 
by the orders of Darius I, king of Persia, and 
set forth his genealogy and victories. To re¬ 
ceive the inscriptions, the rock was carefully 



ltock Inscriptions at Behistun, 


polished and coated with a hard, siliceous 
varnish. Their probable date is about 515 b.c. 
First copied and deciphered by Rawlinson. 

Behring (or Bering) (ba/ring), Vitus (1G80- 
1741), a famous navigator, b. at Horsens, 
Jutland. The courage displayed by him as 
captain in the navy of Peter the Great during 
the Swedish wars, led to his being chosen to 
command a voyage of discovery in the Sea of 
Ivamtchatka. In 1728, and subsequently, he 
examined the coasts of Kamtchatka, Okhotsk, 
and the north of Siberia, ascertaining the rela¬ 
tion between the northeastern Asiatic and 
northwestern American coasts. Returning 
from America in 1741, he was wrecked upon 
the desert island of Awatska (Bering’s Island), 
and died there. 

Behring’s (or Bering) Strait, Sea, and Is a 

land. —The strait is the channel separating the 
continents ot Asia and America, and connect¬ 
ing the North Pacific with the Arctic Ocean; 
breadth at the narrowest part, between Cape 
Prince of Wales and East Cape, about 3G mi.; 
depth in the middle from 29 to30 fathoms. It 
is frozen in winter and seldom free from fog or 
haze. Though named after Vitus Bering, it 
was only fully explored by Cook in 1778. 
Bering’s Sea, sometimes called the Sea of 
Kamtchatka, is that portion of the North Pa¬ 
cific Ocean lying between the Aleutian Islands 
and Bering’s Strait. Bering’s Island, the 
most westerly of the Aleutian chain, off the 
east coast of Kamtchatka. It is uninhabited, 
and is without wood. A contention between 
the U. S. and Great Britain as to the capture 
of seals in Bering’s Sea was referred by treaty 
to a court of arbitration in 1892, consisting of 







































Beira 


Belgium 


seven persons, two representing the U. S., two 
representing Great Britain (one to be a Cana¬ 
dian), and one each from France, Sweden, and 
Italy. This court decided that the U. S. and 
Great Britain were each to prevent their sub¬ 
jects from killing or hunting seals within a 
radius of CO mi. around the Pribilov Islands or 
in any part of the Pacific Ocean north of lat. 
35° n. or e. of Ion. 180° during the breeding 
season. The Pacific Ocean, according to the 
treaty of 1825, includes Bering Sea. The mat¬ 
ter of damages was to be settled by diplomatic 
negotiations. In 1894 Secretary Gresham pro¬ 
posed to pay $425,000 in full settlement of all 
damages, but Congress refused to ratify the 
agreement on the ground that the amount was 
excessive. It was later arranged that a tri¬ 
bunal consisting of one representative of the 
U. S. and one of Great Britain was to meet 
either at Victoria or San Francisco and award 
damages for seizures made. The president of 
the U. S. appointed a commission of scientists 
in 1896 to make investigation of the condition 
of fur seals of Alaska and report to Congress. 

Beira (ba' i-ra), a province of Portugal. Area 
9,248 sq. mi.; pop. 1,450,441. Chief town Coim¬ 
bra. It is mountainous, and well watered, and 
productive of wine and olives. The heir appar¬ 
ent of the crown is styled Prince of Beira. 

Bejapoor', a ruined city of Hindustan, in 
the Bombay presidency, near the borders of 
the Nizam’s dominions, on an affluent of the 
Krishna. It was one of the largest cities in 
India until its capture by Aurungzebe in 1686. 
The ruins, of which some are in the richest 
style of Oriental art, are chiefly Mohammedan; 
the principal being Mahomet Shah’s tomb, 
with a dome visible for 14 miles, and a Hindu 
temple in the earliest Brahmanical style. Pop. 
16,759. 

Bekes (ba'kash), a town, Hungary, at the 
junction of the Black and White Koros, with a 
trade in flax, cattle, corn, wine, etc. It is 
noted for bee culture. Pop. 24,561. 

Bel (also belgar), the Hindu name of the 
Bengal quince. The fruit, which is not 
unlike an orange, is slightly aperient; a per¬ 
fume and yellow dye are obtained from the 
rind, and a cement from the mucus of the 
seed. 

Bel and the Dragon, a book of the Apoc¬ 
rypha, forming a sort of addition to the book 
of Daniel. In it Daniel is shown as exposing 
the imposture of the priests of Bel and kill¬ 
ing a sacred dragon. 

Belfast, Waldo co., Me., on Penobscot Bay, 
30 mi. s.w. of Bangor. Railroad; Belfast & 
Moorehead line; steamboat -line to Boston. 
Industries: iron foundry, two shoe factories, 
two sash and blind, ax, and bath-brush facto¬ 
ries. Surrounding country agricultural and 
some granite quarries. The town was first 
settled in 1770 and became a city in 1853. Pop. 
1900, 4,615. 

Belfast', a seaport of Ireland, principal 
town of Ulster, and county town of Antrim. 
The chief educational institutions are the 
Queen’s college, with about twenty professors, 
and the theological colleges of the Presbyteri¬ 


ans and Methodists. Belfast Lough is about 
12 mi. long, and 6 mi. broad at the entrance, 
gradually narrowing as it approaches the town. 
The harbor and dock accommodation is now 
extensive, new docks having been recently 
added. Belfast is the center of the Irish linen 
trade, and has the majority of spinning mills 
and power-loom factories in Ireland. The iron 
ship-building trade is also of importance, and 
there are breweries, distilleries, flour mills, 
oil mills, foundries, print works, tan yards, 
chemical works, rope works, etc. The com¬ 
merce is large. Belfast is comparatively a 
modern town, its prosperity dating from the 
introduction of the cotton trade in 1777. It 
has suffered severely at various times from 
faction fights between Catholics and Protes¬ 
tants, the more serious having been in the 
years 1864, 1872, and 1886. Pop. 255,950. 

Belfort (or Befort) (ba-for), a small fortified 
town and territory of France, in the former 
dep. Haut Rhin. Pop. 25,455. In the Franco- 
German War i t capitulated to the Germans only 
afteran investment of more than three months’ 
duration (1870-71). It has since been greatly 
strengthened. Belfort, with the district imme¬ 
diately surrounding it, is the only part of the 
department of Haut Rhin which remained to 
France on the cession of Alsace to Germany. 
Area 234 sq. mi.; pop. 83,670. 

Belgaum (bel-gaum), a town and fortress in 
Hindustan, Bombay presidency, district of 
Belgaum, on a plain 2,500 feet above the sea- 
level. In 1818 the fort and town were taken 
by the British, and from its healthy situation 
selected as a permanent military station. Pop. 
of town (including 7,921 for the cantonment), 
40,737. The area of the district is 4,657 sq. 
mi., with a pop. of 1,013,261. 

Belgium (bel'-jum), a European kingdom. 
Area 11,366 sq. mi. For administrative pur¬ 
poses it is divided into nine provinces: Ant¬ 
werp, Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders, 
Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Luxemburg, and 
Namur. Pop. 6,262,272. Brabant, the metro¬ 
politan province, occupies the center. The 
capital is Brussels; other chief towns are Ant¬ 
werp, Ghent, and Liege. The chief rivers are 
the Scheldt (or Schelde) and Meuse (or Maas); 
other navigable streams are the Dender, Dyle, 
Lys, Ourthe, Rupel, and Sambre. There are 
also a number of canals. The climate bears a 
considerable resemblance to that of the same 
latitudes in England; healthiest in Luxemburg 
and Namur, unhealthiest in the fens of Flan¬ 
ders and Antwerp. About one sixth of the 
whole surface of the kingdom is occupied by 
wood, Luxemburg and Namur being very 
densely wooded. These woods, the remains of 
the ancient forest of Ardennes, consist of hard 
wood, principally oak, and furnish valuable 
timber, besides many tons of bark both for the 
home tanneries and for exportation, and large 
quantities of charcoal. South Brabant also 
possesses several fine forests, among others 
that of Soignies; but in the other provinces 
the timber—mostly varieties of poplar—is 
grown in small copses and hedgerows. 

About four fifths of the whole kingdom is 


Belgium 


Belgium 


under cultivation, and nearly eleven twelfths 
of it profitably occupied, leaving only about 
one twelfth waste. Flemish husbandry par¬ 
takes more of the nature of garden than of field 
culture, being largely spade-farming. The 
chief corn crops are wheat, rye, and oats, but 
they do not suffice for the wants of the country. 
The chief green crops are potatoes, beets 
(partly for sugar), and flax, the last a most 
valuable crop in the Flemish rotation. The 
cattle are good and numerous. The horses of 
Flanders are admirably adapted for draught, 
and an infusion of their blood has contributed 
not a little to form the magnificent teams of 
the London draymen. The minerals of Bel¬ 
gium are highly valuable. They are almost 
entirely confined to the four provinces of 
Hainaut, Liege, Namur, and Luxemburg, and 
consist of iron and coal, lead, manganese, and 
zinc, the first two minerals being far the most 
important. The iron-working district lies be¬ 
tween the Sambre and the Meuse, and also in 
the province of Liege. At present the largest 
quantity of oil is raised in that of Namur. 
The coal field has an area of above 500 sq. mi. 
The quantity of coal mined annually is about 
18,000,000 tons. The export, chiefly to France, 
is over 5,000,000 tons, forming one of the 
largest and most valuable of all Belgian ex¬ 
ports. Belgium is also abundantly supplied 
with building stone, pavement limestone, roof¬ 
ing-slate, and marble. 

The industrial products of Belgium are very 
numerous, and are mostly of high character. 
The chief are those connected with linen, 
wool, cotton, metal, and leather goods. In 
respect of manufactures the fine linens of 
Flanders, and lace of South Brabant, are of 
European reputation. Scarcely less celebrated 
are the carpets and porcelain of Tournay, the 
cloth of Yerviers, the extensive foundries, 
machine works, and other iron establishments 
of Liege. The commerce of Belgium is large 
and increasing. Apart from the value of her 
own products, she is admirably situated for 
the transit trade of Central Europe, to which 
her fine harbor of Antwerp and excellent rail¬ 
way and canal system minister. The external 
trade is chiefly carried on by means of foreign 
vessels. The total burden of the Belgian mer¬ 
cantile marine is only about 80,000 tons. The 
railways have a total length of 2,800 miles, 
about three fourths belonging to the state. 

The Belgian population is the densest of any 
European state (508 per sq. mi.), and is com¬ 
posed of two distinct races—Flemish, who are 
of German, and Walloons, who are of French 
extraction. The former, by far the more 
numerous, have their principal locality in Flan¬ 
ders; but also prevail throughout Antwerp, 
Limburg, and part of South Brabant. The 
latter are found chiefly in Hainaut, Liege, Na¬ 
mur, and part of Luxemburg. The Flemings 
speak a dialect of German, and the Walloons 
a corruption of French, with a considerable 
ble infusion of words and phrases from Span¬ 
ish and other languages. French is the offi¬ 
cial and literary language, though Flemish 
is also successfully employed in literature. 


Improved means of education are now at the 
disposal of the people, every commune being 
bound to maintain at least one school for ele¬ 
mentary education, the government paying one 
sixth, the province one sixth, and the com¬ 
mune the remainder of the expenditure. In 
all the large towns colleges have been estab¬ 
lished; while a complete course for the learned 
professions is provided by four universities, 
two of them, at Ghent and Liege, established 
and supported by the state; one at Brussels, 
the free university, founded by voluntary 
association; and one at Louvain, the Catholic 
university, founded by the clergy. By the Bel¬ 
gian constitution the executive power is vested 
in a hereditary king; the legislative, in the king 
and two chambers—the senate and the chamber 
of representatives—both elected by citizens 
paying direct taxes, the former for eight years, 
and the latter for four,but one half of the former 
renewable every four years, and one half of 
the latter every two years. Each of the prov¬ 
inces is administered by a governor and is 
subdivided into arrondissements administratifs 
and arrondissements judiciaires; subdivided 
again, respectively, into cantons de milice and 
cantons de justice de paix. Each canton is com¬ 
posed of several communes, of which the sum 
total is 2,514. The army is formed by conscrip¬ 
tion, to which every able man who has com¬ 
pleted his nineteenth year is liable, and also by 
voluntary enlistment. The peace strength is 
48,841 officers and men; in time of war 154,780. 
Besides this standing army there is a garde 
civique numbering 43,647 active and 90,000 non¬ 
active men. The navy is confined to a few 
steamers and a small flotilla of gunboats. The 
coins, weights, and measures are the same, 
both in name and value, as those of France. 

History. —The territory now known as Bel¬ 
gium originally formed only a section of that 
known to Caesar as the territory of the Belgae, 
extending from the right bank of the Seine to 
the left bank of the Rhine, and to the ocean. 
This district continued under Roman sway till 
the decline of the empire; subsequently formed 
part of the kingdom of Clovis; and then of that 
of Charlemagne, whose ancestors belonged to 
Landen and Herstal on the confines of the Ar¬ 
dennes. After the breaking up of the empire 
of Charlemagne Belgium formed part of the 
kingdom of Lotharingia under Charlemagne’s 
grandson, Lothaire; Artois and Flanders, how¬ 
ever, belonging to France by the treaty of Ver¬ 
dun. For more than a century this kingdom 
was contended for by the kings of France and 
the emperors of Germany. In 953 it was con¬ 
ferred by the Emperor Otto upon Bruno, arch¬ 
bishop of Cologne, who assumed the title of 
archduke, and divided it into two duchies, 
Upper and Lower Lorraine. In the frequent 
struggles which took place during the eleventh 
century Luxemburg, Namur, Hainaut, and 
Liege usually sided with France, while Bra¬ 
bant, Holland, and Flanders commonly took 
the side of Germany. The contest between 
the civic and industrial organizations and feud¬ 
alism, which went on through the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, and in which Flanders 


Belgium 


Bell 


bore a leading part, was temporarily closed by 
the defeat of the Ghentese under Van Arte- 
velde in 1382. In 1384 Flanders and Artois fell 
to the house of Burgundy, which in less than 
a century acquired the whole of the Nether¬ 
lands. The death of Charles the Bold at 
Nancy, in his attempt to raise the duchy into 
a kingdom (1477), was followed by the succes¬ 
sion and marriage of his daughter, Mary of 
Burgundy, by which the Netherlands became 
an Austrian possession. With the accession, 
however, of the Austrian house of Hapsburg to 
the Spanish throne, the Netherlands, after a 
brief period of prosperity attended by the 
spread of the reformed religion, became the 
scene of increasingly severe persecution under 
Charles V and Philip II of Spain. Driven to 
rebellion, the seven northern states under Wil¬ 
liam of Orange, the Silent, succeeded in estab¬ 
lishing their independence, but the southern 
portion, or Belgium, continued under the 
Spanish yoke. 

From 1598 to 1021 the Spanish Netherlands 
were transferred as an independent kingdom 
to the Austrian branch of the family by the 
marriage of Isabella, daughter of Philip II, 
with the Archduke Albert of Austria. He 
died childless, however, and they reverted to 
Spain. After being twice conquered by Louis 
XIV, conquered again by Marlborough, cov¬ 
eted by all the powers, deprived of territory on 
the one side by Holland and on the other by 
France, the southern Netherlands were at 
length, in 1714, by the peace of Utrecht, again 
placed under the dominion of Austria, with 
the name of the Austrian Netherlands. Dur¬ 
ing the Austrian War of Succession the French 
under Saxe conquered nearly the whole coun¬ 
try, but restored it in 1748 by the peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle. On the succession of Joseph 
II, the “philosophic emperor,’’ a serious in¬ 
surrection occurred, the Austrian army being 
defeated at Turnhout, and the provinces form¬ 
ing themselves into an independent state as 
United Belgium (1790). They had scarcely 
been subdued again by Austria before they 
were conquered by the revolutionary armies 
of France, and the country divided into French 
departments, the Austrian rule being practi¬ 
cally closed by the battle of Fleurus(1794), and 
the French possession confirmed by the trea¬ 
ties of Campo Formio (1797) and Luneville 
(1801). 

In 1815 Belgium was united by the Congress 
of Vienna to Holland, both countries together 
now forming one state, the Kingdom of the 
Netherlands. This union lasted till 1830, when 
a revolt broke out among the Belgians, and 
soon attained such dimensions that the Dutch 
troops were unable to repress it. A convention 
of the great powers assembled in London, 
favored the separation of the two countries, 
and drew up a treaty to regulate it; the Na¬ 
tional Congress of Belgium offering the crown, 
on the recommendation of England, to Leo¬ 
pold, prince of Saxe-Coburg, who acceded to 
it under the title of Leopold I, on July 21, 
1831. In November of the same year the five 
powers guaranteed the crown to him by the 


treaty of London, and the remaining diffi¬ 
culties with Holland were settled in 1839, 
when the Dutch claims to territory in Lim¬ 
burg and Luxemburg were withdrawn. The 
reign of Leopold was for Belgium a prosperous 
period of thirty-four years. Leopold II suc¬ 
ceeded his father in 1865. In recent years the 
chief feature of Belgian politics has been a 
keen struggle between the clerical and the 
liberal party. Till 1878 the clerical party 
maintained the upper hand, but to a large ex¬ 
tent by corruption at the elections. In 1877 a 
bill was passed to put down corruption, and to 
increase the number of town deputies to the 
chamber of representatives; and at the next 
elections, in June, 1878, the liberals gained 
a majority, which they lost in 1884. In 1885, 
on the constitution by the Congress of Berlin 
of the Congo Free State, in which Leopold II 
had shown an active interest, he was invited 
to become its sovereign, and has since held 
that title. 

Belgrade (bel-grad'), capital of Servia. It 
manufactures carpets, silk stuffs, hardware, 
cutlery, and saddlery, and carries on an active 
trade. Being the key of Hungary, it was long 
an object of fierce contention between the 
Austrians and the Turks, remaining, however, 
for the most part in the hands of the Turks 
until its evacuation by them in 1867. Since 
the treaty of Berlin (July, 1878) it has been 
the capital of an independent state. Pop. 54- 
763, 

Be'Hal, a word which by the translators of 
the English Bible is often treated as a proper 
name, as in the expressions, son of Belial, man 
of Belial. In the Old Testament, however, it 
ought not to be taken as a proper name, but it 
should be translated wickedness or worthlessness. 
To the later Jews Belial seems to have be¬ 
come what Pluto was to the Greeks, the name 
of the ruler of the infernal regions; and in 
2 Cor. 6:15 it seems to be used as a name of 
Satan, as the personification of all that is bad. 

Belisa'rius (505-565), the general to whom 
the Emperor Justinian chiefly owed the splen¬ 
dor of his reign; b. in Illyria about 505 a. d. 
He obtained the chief command of an army 
on the Persian frontiers, and in 530 gained a 
victory over a superior Persian army. In the 
year 532 he checked the disorders in Constan¬ 
tinople. He took Carthage and led Gelimer, 
the Vandal king, in triumph through Constan¬ 
tinople. He stormed Naples, held Rome for a 
year, took Ravenna, and led captive Vitiges, 
the Gothic king. 

Belize (be-lez'), the capital and only-trad¬ 
ing port of British Honduras, situated at the 
mouth of the southern arm of the river Belize. 
Exports: chiefly mahogany, rosewood, log¬ 
wood, cedar, cocoa-nuts, and sugar. Pop. 
about 5,800. 

Bell, a hollow, somewhat cup-shaped, sound¬ 
ing instrument of metal. The metal from which 
bells are usually made (by founding) is an alloy, 
called bell-metal, commonly composedof eighty 
parts of copper and twenty of tin. The pro¬ 
portion of tin varies, however, from one third 
to one fifth of the weight of the copper, ac- 


Bell 


Bell 


cording to the sound required, the size of the 
bell, and the impulse to be given. The clear¬ 
ness and richness of the tone 
depend upon the metal used, 
the perfection of its casting, 
and also upon its shape; it 
having been shown by a 
number of experiments that 
the well-known shape with a 
thick lip is the best adapted 
to give a perfect sound. 
The depth of a tone of a bell 
increases in proportion to its 
Ancient Crotal. size. A bell is divided into 
the body or barrel, the ear or 
cannon , and the clapper or tongue. The lip or 
sound-boic is that part where the bell is struck 
by the clapper. 

It is uncertain whether the jangling instru¬ 
ments used by the Egyptians and Israelites 
can be correctly described as bells; but it is 
certain that bells of a considerable size were in 
early use in China and Japan, and that the 
Greeks and Romans used them for various 
purposes. They are said to have been first in¬ 
troduced into Christian churches about 400 
a. d. by Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in Campa¬ 
nia (whence campana and nola as old names 
of bells), although their adoption on a wide 
scale does not become apparent until after the 
year 550, when they were introduced into 
France. Benedict Biscop, abbot of Wear- 
mouth, seems to have imported bells from Italy 
to England in 680, but their use in Ireland and 
Scotland is probably of earlier date. The old¬ 
est of those existing in Great Britain and Ire¬ 
land, such as the “ bell of St. Patrick’s will ” 
and St. Ninian’s bell, are quadrangular and 
made of thin iron plates hammered and riveted 
together. Until the thirteenth century they 
were of comparatively small size, but after the 
casting of the Jacqueline of Paris (6$ tons) in 

1400, their weight rap¬ 
idly increased. Among 
the more famous bells 
are the bell of Cologne, 
11 tons, 1448; of Dant- 
zic, 6 tons, 1453; of 
Halberstadt, 7$, 1457; 

of Rouen, 16, 1501; of 
Breslau, 11, 1507; of Lu¬ 
cerne, 7$ 1636; of Ox¬ 
ford, 7$, 1680; of Paris, 
12|, 1680; of Bruges, 

10$, 1680; of Vienna, 
17f, 1711; of Moscow 
(the monarch of bells), 
193, 1736; three other 

bells at Moscow ranging 
Queen Mary’s Hand Bell. from 16 to 31 tons> and 

a fourth, of 80 tons, cast in 1819; the bell of 
Lincoln (Great Tom), 5$, 1834; of York Min¬ 
ster (Great Peter), lOf, 1845: of Montreal, 13$, 
1847, the largest bell in America; of Westmin¬ 
ster (Big Ben), 15$, 1856; (St. Stephen), 13$, 
1858; the Great Bell of St. Paul’s, 17$, 1882. 
Others are the bells of Ghent (5), Gorlitz (10$), 
St. Peter’s, Rome (8), Antwerp (7$), Olmutz (18), 
Brussels ($), Novgorod (31), Pekin (53$). 


Besides their use in churches bells are em¬ 
ployed for various purposes, the most com¬ 
mon use being to summon attendants or do¬ 
mestics in private houses, hotels, etc. Bells 
for this purpose are of small size and may be 
held in the hand and rung, but most commonly 
are rung by means of wires stretched from the 
various apartments to the place where the bells 
are hung. Bells rung by electricity are now 
becoming common in hotels and other establish¬ 
ments. 

Bells, as the term is used on shipboard, are 
the strokes of the ship’s bell that proclaim 
the hours. Eight bells, the highest number, 
are rung at noon and every fourth hour after¬ 
ward; i. e., at 4, 8, 12 o’clock, and so on. The 
intermediary periods are indicated thus: 12:30, 
1 bell; 1 o’clock, 2 bells; 1:30, 3 bells, etc., until 
the eight bells announce 4 o’clock, when the 
series recommences: 4:30, 1 bell; 5 o’clock, 2 
bells, etc. The even numbers of strokes thus 
always announce hours, the odd numbers half- 
hours. 

The manufacture of a bell is a difficult and 
interesting process, and the success of a bell 
depends in the first place on the amount of ac¬ 
curacy with which its dimensions have been 
figured out beforehand. The thickness of the 
bell’s edge must bear a certain proportion to 
its diameter and height. It must also be of 
just the right thickness in its various parts. 
There are exact rules for calculating the di¬ 
mensions and the proportions of the metal to 
the size of the bell. Copper and tin are used 
for large bells, but the mixture varies widely. 
About four parts of copper are used with each 
part of tin. When the design has been made 
for a bell it goes to a pattern maker. This 
workman cuts out two long strips of wood, one 
of them just the contour of the inside of the 
projected bell and the other the contour of the 
outside. A basin for the mold is made in the 
foundry. It is constructed in the earth and 
consists mainly of fire brick and clay, a stout 
post perfectly plumb is planted in the center 
and is of the same height as the proposed bell. 
The two contour pieces are pivoted to the post 
so that they will swing around in either direc¬ 
tion. In the center of the basin and around 
the post is built a little furnace of brick so 
large that it almost reaches the sweep of the 
inside of the contour leg of the compass. It is 
then pieced out on top with fire clay until it 
exactly conforms to the sweep of the contour 
pieces. It is made very smooth and is allowed 
to harden. This forms a core. Then grease 
is applied, then more clay, until it reaches and 
is swept smooth by the upper contour leg. 
This covering of clay is exactly the size and 
shape of the projected bell. If there are to be 
any designs or inscriptions on the bell they are 
worked in in reverse order and plugged in with 
wax. When it is dry it is smeared with grease 
and another layer of clay, called a mantle, 
which is packed on roughly, a hole being left 
in the top through which the molten metal 
can be poured. After this has hardened, the 
whole mass is shaped by building a hot fire in 
the interior furnace. The wax in the inscrip- 







Bell 


Belladonna Lily 


tions and the grease vaporize and pass off. 
The mantle, or the mold for the outer part of 
the bell, can now be easily lifted off. When 
the next layer of clay is removed and the 
mantle replaced, the space left between it and 
the core furnishes the bell mold. The great 
mass of bell metal is brought from the furnace 
and poured into the mold. Small pieces of 
broken bells are thrown into the crucible to 
cool the metal. When the mold is full the 
pouring is complete. The mold is left for 
several weeks to grow cool and shrink because 
if it were broken open at once the bell would 
cool more rapidly on the outside than on the 
inside and would break. When the mold is 
taken off, the bell is tested and if it gives out a 
single pure tone it is regarded as a perfect 
cast. If the tone is not pure the bell can 
sometimes be tuned by filing away parts of 
the inside surface. 

Bell, Alex. Graham, a noted physicist, b. 
in Edinburgh, 1847. He was trained in his 
father’s system of removing impediments of 
speech, in the university of Edinburgh, and 
matriculated 1867, at London university, but 
left on account of failing health. He removed 
to Canada, 1870, where he designed and partly 
constructed the telephone exhibited in Phila¬ 
delphia, 1876. His residence had been in Bos¬ 
ton from 1872, being professor of Vocal Physi¬ 
ology at Boston university. His fame and for¬ 
tune are due to the commercial importance of 
the telephone of which he holds the patent. 
Elisha Gray filed his caveat in the patent of¬ 
fice two hours after Bell’s application. After 
Bell, a large number of experimenters appeared, 
suggesting endless modification but no essen¬ 
tially new principle. In a lecture delivered by 
Reis in Frankfort, in the year 1861, an ap¬ 
paratus was described which has given rise 
to much discussion concerning priority of 
invention. 

The Photophone , the joint work of Bell and 
Taintor, in which a vibratory beam of light is 
substituted for a wire in conveying speech, 
was introduced to the public, 1880. In 1881 
Bell and Taintor, with an improved form of 
Hughes’s induction balance, attempted unsuc¬ 
cessfully to locate the ball which caused Gar¬ 
field’s death. Another interesting experiment 
of Bell’s was attempting to record speech 
by photographing the vibrations of a jet of 
water. Bell resides in Washington and is a 
member of many learned societies. He intro¬ 
duced into the U. S. his father’s system of ed¬ 
ucating deaf mutes. 

Bell, Henry (1767-1830), the first successful 
applier of steam to the purposes of navigation 
in Europe, was born in Linlithgowshire. In 
1798 he turned his attention specially to the 
steamboat, the practicability of steam naviga¬ 
tion having been already demonstrated. - In 
1812 the Comet, a small thirty-ton vessel built 
at Glasgow under Bell’s direction, and driven 
by a three horse-power engine made by him¬ 
self, commenced to ply between Glasgow and 
Greenock, and continued to run till she was 
wrecked in 1820. This was the beginning of 
Steam navigation in Europe. Bell is also cred¬ 


ited with the invention of the “discharging 
machine’’ used by calico-printers. 

Bell, John (1797-1869), born near Nashville, 
Tenn. He was graduated at what is now the 
university of Nashville in 1814, was admitted 
to the bar in 1816, and was elected to the state 
senate in 1817. He served in Congress as a 
Whig, 1827-41, winning reputation as a de¬ 
bater. He became an ardent supporter of the 
protective tariff. He supported General Jack- 
son as candidate for the Presidency in 1832. 
In 1834 he was elected speaker of the House of 
Representatives. He favored the reception of 
petitions for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia. In 1841 he was ap¬ 
pointed secretary of war by President Harri¬ 
son. He was in the U. S. Senate 1849-59. He 
opposed the Texas annexation policy, advo¬ 
cated Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850, voted 
against the Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1850, and 
opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compro¬ 
mise. Mr. Bell was nominated for President, 
with Edward Everett for Vice-President, by a 
convention of the “Constitutional Union’’ in 
1860, when secession was threatened by the 
Southern States, and he received the electoral 
votes of Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. 
He, with seven other citizens of Tennessee, 
issued an address recommending his state to 
preserve an armed neutrality in 1861, and on 
April 23, 1861, he delivered an address in Nash¬ 
ville in support of the Southern policy. Mr. 
Bell did not serve in the Civil War. 

Belladonna, a European plant, the deadly 
nightshade. It is native in Britain. All the 
parts of the plant are poisonous, and the in¬ 
cautious eating of the berries has often pro¬ 
duced death. The inspissated juice is com¬ 
monly known by the name of extract of bella¬ 
donna. It is narcotic and poisonous, but is of 
great value in medicine, especially in nervous 
ailments. It has the property of causing the 
pupil of the eye to dilate. The fruit of the 
plant is a dark, brownish-black, shining berry. 
The name signifies “beautiful lady,” and is said 
to have been given from the use of the plant 
as a cosmetic. 

Belladonna Lily, so called on account of 
its beauty, with delicate blushing flowers clus- 



Belladonna. a.—flower, 5.—fruit, 


Bellaire 


Bellows 


tered at the top of a leafless flowering stem. 
It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope and of 
the West Indies. 

Bellaire, Belmont co., O., 5 mi. below Wheel¬ 
ing, on the Ohio; numerous manufacturing 
works. Pop. 1900, 9,912. 

BeJIamy, Edward, b. in Massachusetts, 1850; 
was admitted to the bar in 1871. He was con¬ 
nected with the Springfield, Mass., and New 
York press, and in 1888 published Looking Back¬ 
ward, a dream of perfect socialism. D. 1898. 

Bellary (bel-a' ri), a town in India, presidency 
of Madras, capital of a district of the same 
name, 280 mi. n. w. of Madras; a military 
station, with a fort crowning a lofty rock, and 
other fortifications. Pop. 59,407. The district 
was ceded to the British in 1800. Area 5,975 
sq. mi; pop. 900,126. 

Bellay (bel-a), Joachim du (1524-1560), 
distinguished French poet, known as the 
French Ovid. In 1555 he became canon of 
Notre Dame, and a short time before his death 
he was made archbishop of Bordeaux. Spen¬ 
ser translated some of his sonnets into English. 

BelFbird, the name given to a South Ameri¬ 
can passerine bird, so named from its sonorous, 
bell-like notes; and also to a bird of Australia, 
a bird of the family Meliphagidas (honey-suck¬ 
ers), whose notes also resemble the sound of a 
bell. 

Bell=crank, in machinery, a rectangular 
lever by which the direction of motion is 
changed through an angle of 90°, and by 
which its velocity ratio and range may be 
altered at pleasure by making the arms of 
different lengths. It is much employed in 
machinery, and is named from its being the 
form of crank employed in changing the direc¬ 
tion of the bell wires of house bells. 

BelI=AHiance, a farm 13 mi. s. of Brussels, 
famous as the position occupied by the center 
of the French Army in the battle of Waterloo, 
June, 1815. 

Bel!e=Islc (bel-el) (or Belle-Isle-en-Mer), a 
French Island in the Bay of Biscay, dep. of 
Morbihan, 8 mi. s. of Quiberon Point; length 
11 mi.; greatest breadth 6 mi. Pop. 10,000,177, 
largely^engaged in the pilchard fishing. The 
capital is Le Palais on the n. e. coast. 

Belle=Isle (bel-Il), a rocky island, 9 mi. long, 
at the eastern entrance to the Strait of Belle- 
Isle, the channel, 15 mi. wide, between New¬ 
foundland and the coast of Labrador. Steam¬ 
ers from Glasgow and Liverpool to Quebec 
round the north of Ireland commonly go by 
this channel in summer as being the shortest 
route. 

Belter'ophon (or Hippon'oiis), in Greek 
mythology, a hero who, having accidentally 
killed his brother, fled to Prcetus, king of Ar¬ 
gos, whose wife, Antaea, fell in love with him. 

Belles=lettres (bel-let-r), polite or elegant 
literature; a word of somewhat vague signifi¬ 
cation. Rhetoric, poetry, fiction, history, and 
criticism, with the languages in which the 
standard works in these departments are writ¬ 
ten, are generally understood to come under 
the head of belles-lettres. 

Belleville, St. Clair co., Ill., on Richland 


Creek, 14 mi. s. e. of St. Louis. Railroads; 
Illinois Central; L. & N.; L. E. & St. L.; St. 
L. B. & S. Industries: nail mills, four flour¬ 
ing mills, four iron foundries, machine shops, 
keg, clothing, and glass factories, and four 
farm implement factories. Surrounding coun¬ 
try agricultural and mineral. The town was 
first settled in 1814 and became a city in 1850. 
Pop. 1900, 17,484. 

Belleville, a town of Canada, prov. Ontario, 
capital of Hastings co., on the Bay of Quinte, 
at the mouth of the Moira, with flourishing 
trade and manufactures. It is rather a fine 
town, and has a Methodist Episcopal univer¬ 
sity for men and women (two colleges). Pop. 
10 , 100 . 

Bellini (bel-e-ne), Jacopo, and his two sons, 
Gentile and Giovanni, the founders of the 
Venetian school of painting. The father ex¬ 
celled in portraits, but very little of his work 
is extant. He d. about 1470. Gentile was b. 
in 1421, and in 1479 went to Constantinople, 
Mohammed II having sent to Venice for a 
skillful painter; d. at Venice in 1501. Gio¬ 
vanni was b. about 1424, and d. about 1516. 
He contributed much to make oil-painting 
popular, and has left many noteworthy pic¬ 
tures. Titian and Giorgione were among his 
pupils. 

Bellini (bel-e'ne), Vincenzo (1802-1835), a 
celebrated composer, b. at Catania in Sicily. 
He was educated at Naples under Zingarelli, 
commenced writing operas before he was 
twenty, and composed for the principal mu¬ 
sical establishments in Europe. His most cel¬ 
ebrated works are IMontecchi e Capuleti (1S29); 
La Somnarnbula (1831); Norma, his best and 
most popular opera; and IPuritani (1834). 

Beilmann, Karl Mickel (1740-1795), the 
most original among the Swedish lyric poets. 
His songs, in which love and liquor are com¬ 
mon themes, are sung over the whole country, 
and “Beilmann” societies hold an annual fes¬ 
tival in his honor. 

Bello na, the goddess of war among the 
Romans, often confounded with Minerva. She 
was the sister of Mars, or, according to some, 
his daughter or his wife. She is described by 
the poets as armed with a bloody scourge, her 
hair disheveled, and a torch in her hand. 

Bel'lows, an instrument or machine for 
producing a strong, current of air, and princi¬ 
pally used for blowing fires, either in private 
dwellings or in forges, furnaces, mines, etc. It 
is so formed as, by being dilated and con¬ 
tracted, to inhale air by an orifice which is 
opened and closed with a valve, and to propel 
it through a tube upon the fire. It is an 
ancient contrivance, being known in Egypt, 
India, and China many ages ago, while forms 
of it are used among savage tribes in Africa. 
Bellows of very great power are called blowing 
machines, and are worked by machinery driven 
by steam. The blowing machines now almost 
exclusively used for blast furnaces are of the 
cylinder and piston type. At first the blowing 
cylinders had the power of propelling a blast 
only when the piston was moving in one direc¬ 
tion. The cylinder engines of the present day 


Bellows-ffsh 


Belt 


may be classed in two chief systems, according 
as the cylinder is placed horizontally or ver¬ 
tically. In the former case the steam and blast 
cylinders are usually in one line, the same rod 
carrying the pistons of both, and being guided 
on both sides, while a fly-wheel is employed as 
regulator. In the vertical systems the steam 
and blowing cylinders are sometimes similarly 
connected, but in the larger engines, they are 
generally placed one at each end of a beam con¬ 
necting their pistons. Another kind of blow¬ 
ing engine consists of a barrel-shaped vessel 
supported horizontally by the two ends of its 
axis. The cylinder is divided longitudinally 
by a plane extending from the middle of the 
internal surface above (the barrel being in its 
position of rest) to near the opposite side. 
Suppose the cylinder partly filled with water 
and made to turn a little way round on its axis, 
the air on one side will be compressed by the 
water, while that on the other will be rarefied. 
A valve opening outward from the condensed 
side admits the air to a cavity from which a 
nozzle pipe proceeds, while a valve opening in¬ 
ward on the rarefied side admits external air. 
With additional and corresponding valves the 
process is repeated on the reverse oscillation of 
the cylinder. Thus by swinging the cylinder 
from side to side, by a crank and rod connected 
with the engine, alternate puffs of air are pro¬ 
pelled into a regulative air chest of special 
construction, which then supplies a steady 
blast. 

Fan-blast machines are frequently employed in 
the cupola furnaces where anthracite is burned. 
In one common form the fan consists of four 
spokes of a rimless wheel, tipped with vanes 
and made to rotate in a cylindrical chest, in 
which it has often a slightly eccentric position. 
There are openings on both sides round the 
spindle for admission of air, which, sucked in 
by the centrifugal action of the fan as it 
quickly rotates, flows toward the vanes, and 
is driven through an exit pipe attached to 
another part of the cylinder. A new form of 
blower has a chamber in which three drums of 
equal size are enclosed, two in a line below 
and one above; the upper one is provided with 
wings, and the two lower have wide slots along 
their entire length, allowing the wings to enter 
in the course of rotation. The function of the 
two lower drums is to supply alternately abut¬ 
ments to prevent the escape of the air. They 
are caused to revolve in proper relation with 
the motion of the upper drum by spur-wheels 
on the journals, which mesh into another spur- 
wheel on the shaft of the upper drum. In the 
moving parts of this machine there are no 
parts that come into actual contact except the 
teeth of the spur-wheels. 

Bellows=fish, a fish, called also the Trumpet- 
fish or Sea-snipe. It is not uncommon in the 
Mediterranean. It is 4 or 5 inches long, and 
has an oblong oval body and a tubular elon¬ 
gated snout, which is adapted for drawing 
from among sea-weed and mud the minute 
Crustacea on which it feeds. 

Bell Rock (or inch cape), a dangerous reef 
surmounted by a lighthouse, situated in the 
19 


German Ocean about 12 mi. from Arbroath, 
nearly opposite the mouth of the river Tay. 
The lighthouse was erected in 1808-11 by Robert 
Stevenson from Rennie’s plan 
at a cost of upward of $300,- 
000. It rises to a height of 
120 feet; has a revolving light 
showing alternately red and 
white every minute, and vis¬ 
ible for upward of 15 mi. 

It also contains two bells 
which are rung during thick 
weather. The reef is partly 
uncovered at ebb-tides. 

Belluno (bel-16'no), a city 
of Northern Italy, capital of 
a province of the same name, 
on the Piave, 48 mi. n. of 
Venice. Has a cathedral, a 
handsome theater, etc.; and 
manufactures of silk, straw- 
plait, leather, etc. Pop. 16,- 
000. The province has an 
area of 1,271 sq. mi. and a pop. 
of 195,419. Section of Bell 

Beloit, Rock co., Wis., 69 Rock Lighthouse, 
mi. s.w. of Milwaukee, the seat of Beloit 
college; various factories. Pop. 1900, 10,436. 

Bel'per, a town, England, Derbyshire, in a 
valley, on the Derwent, 7 mi. n. of Derby, 
with large cotton mills, foundries, etc., and in 
the neighborhood numerous collieries. Pop. 
10,420. 

Belshaz'zar, the last of the Babylonian 
kings, who reigned conjointly with his father, 
Nabonadius. He perished b. c. 538, during the 
successful storming of Babylon by Cyrus. 
This event is recorded in the book of Daniel. 

Belt, belting, a flexible endless band, or its 
material, used to transmit motion or power 
from one wheel, roller, or pulley to another, 



and common in various kinds of machinery. 
Driving belts are usually made of leather or 
india-rubber, or some woven material, but 
ropes and chains are also used for the same 
purpose, 




































Belt 


Benedictine 


There are a number of ways of lacing a belt, 
but every machinist has his own favorite 
method. One rather complex but effective 
method is to punch 24 holes, 13 on one side 
and 11 on the other side, as shown in cut. 
The lace is doubled in the center of its length 
and run through the middle hole (13) of the 
second row on that side of the joint which 
contains 11 holes. The lace is passed over and 
under from side to side, bringing both ends of 
the lace out of the middle hole (1), and there 
the ends are tied on the outside of the belt. 
By this means there is no crossing of the lace 
on either side, and there can be no side play 
and the lace will not creep. When a light belt 
is called upon to do little work, it is customary 
to lace the belt shoe-string fashion, back and 
forth through single rows of holes, always 
beginning the lacing in the center of the belt. 
Imperfectly adjusted belting is a fruitful cause 
of power waste, and a poorly laced joint is the 
principal cause of loss of transmitted energy. 
If a lace be crossed on the under side the belt 
is raised from the pulley every time the joint 
comes around, and not only is the power 
wasted, but the lace is soon worn through. 
Sometimes the lace on the other side is covered 
by a piece of belting, scraped thin and 
cemented to the joint. In many cases the 
ends of the belt are scarfed, the laps cemented 
together and the whole strengthened by rivets. 
For lacing wide belts which are too heavy to 
be stretched by hand, the stretching clamp is 
used. This holds the ends firmly until the 
belt is laced. 

Belt, The Great and Little, two straits con¬ 
necting the Baltic with the Cattegat, the 
former between the islands of Zealand and 
Funen, about 18 mi. in average width; the 
latter between Funen and the coast of Schles¬ 
wig, at its narrowest part not more than a 
mile in width. 

Bel'tane, a sort of festival formerly observed 
in Ireland and Scotland, and still kept up in a 
fashion in some remote parts. It is celebrated 
in Scotland on the first day of May usually by 
kindling fires on the hills and eminences. In 
early times it was compulsory on all to have 
their domestic fires extinguished before the 
Beltane fires were lighted, and it was custom¬ 
ary to rekindle the former from the embers 
of the latter. This custom no doubt derived 
its origin from the worship of the sun. 

Belton, Bell co., Tex., 55 mi. n.e. of Austin, 
the seat of the Chamberlain institute; two 
banks, and a Masonic temple. Pop. 3,700. 

Beluga (be-16'ga), a kind of whale or dol¬ 
phin, the white whale or white fish, found in 
the northern seas of both hemispheres. It is 
from 12 to 18 feet in length, and is pursued for 
its oil (classed as “porpoise oil”) and skin. In 
swimming the animal bends its tail under its 
body like a lobster, and thrusts itself along 
with the rapidity of an arrow. A variety of 
sturgeon found in the Caspian and Black Seas 
is also called beluga. 

Belzo'ni, Giovanni Battista (1778-1823) 
(John Baptist), an enterprising traveler, was 
b. at Padua. In 1803 he emigrated to Eng¬ 


land. In 1815 he visited Egypt, where he made 
a hydraulic machine for Mehemet Ali. He 
then devoted himself to the exploration of the 
antiquities of the country. He succeeded in 
transporting the bust of Memnon (Rameses II) 
from Thebes to Alexandria, from whence it 
came to the British Museum; explored the 
great temple of Rameses II at Abu-Simbel; 
opened the tomb of Seti I, from which he ob¬ 
tained the splendid alabaster sarcophagus 
bought by Sir John Soane for $10,000, and he 
also succeeded in opening the second of the 
pyramids of Ghizeh. 

Bembecidas (-bes'i-de), a family of wasp-like 
insects with stings, mostly natives of warm 
countries, and known also as sand-wasps. The 
female excavates cells in the sand, in which 
she deposits, together with her eggs, various 
larvae or perfect insects stung into insensibil¬ 
ity, so as to furnish support for her progeny 
when hatched. They are very active, fond 
of the nectar of flowers, and delight in sun¬ 
shine. Bembex is the typical genus of this 
family. 

Ben, oil of, the expressed oil of the bennut, 
the seed of the ben or horse-radish tree of India. 
The oil is inodorous, does not become rancid 
for many years, and is used by perfumers and 
watchmakers. 

Benares (be-na'rez), a town in Hindustan, 
Northwest Provinces, administrative head¬ 
quarters of a district and division of the same 
name, on the left bank of the Ganges, from 
which it rises like an amphitheater, presenting 
a panorama of temples, mosques, palaces, and 
other buildings. It is the headquarters of the 
Hindu religion. Benares carries on a large trade 
in the produce of the district and manufac¬ 
tures silks, shawls, embroidered cloth, jewelry, 
etc. The population, including the neighboring 
cantonments at Sikraul (Secrole), 229,467. The 
district has an area of 1,009 sq. mi., and a pop. 
of 921,943. 

Bencoo'Ien, a seaport of Sumatra, on the s. 
w. coast. The English settled here in 1685, and 
retained the place and its connected territory 
till 1825, when they were ceded to the Dutch 
in exchange for the settlements on the Malay 
Peninsula; since then Bencoolen has greatly 
declined. Pop. 15,000. 

Bender' , a town and fortress of Russia, in 
Bessarabia, on the Dniester. Its commerce is 
important, and it carries on some branches of 
manufacture. Pop. 24,625. 

Ben'edict, the name of fourteen popes from 
574 to 1758. 

Benedict, Sir Julius (1804-1885), pianist 
and composer, b. at Stuttgart, d. at Lon¬ 
don. He took up his residence in England in 
1835, and was knighted in 1871. Principal 
works: the operas of The Gypsy's Warning , 
Undine , St. Cecilia, Lily of Killarney, and 
Graziella. 

Benedic'tine, a liquor prepared by the 
Benedictine monks of the abbey of Fecamp, in 
Normandy, France, consisting of spirit (fine 
brandy) containing an infusion of the juices 
of plants, and said to possess digestive, anti- 
spasmodic, and other virtues, and to have 


Benefit of Clergy 

prophylactic efficacy in epidemics. Made in 
the same way since 1510. 

Benefit of Clergy was a privilege by which 
formerly in England, the clergy accused of 
capital offenses were exempted from the juris¬ 
diction of the lay tribunals, and left to be dealt 
with by their bishop. Though originally it was 
intended to apply only to the clergy or clerks, 
latterly every one who could read was con¬ 
sidered to be a clerk, and the result of plead¬ 
ing “his clergy ’’ was tantamount to acquittal. 
A layman could only receive the benefit of 
clergy once, however, but he was not allowed 
to go without being branded on the thumb, a 
punishment which latterly might be commuted 
to whipping, imprisonment, or transportation. 
Abolished in 1827. 

Beneven'to, a city of Southern Italy, the see 
of an archbishop, in a prov. of same name, on 
a hill between the rivers Sabato and Calore, 
occupying the site of the ancient Beneventum, 
and largely built of its ruins. Few cities have 
so many remains of antiquity, the most perfect 
being a magnificent triumphal arch of Trajan, 
built in 114. The cathedral is a building of 
the twelfth century in the Lombard-Saracenic 
style. Pop. 22,699. The prov. has an area of 
680 sq. mi., and a pop. of 238,425. 

Bengal (ben-gal'), a presidency of British 
India, which includes the whole of British 
India except what is under the governors of 
Madras and Bombay; area 151,543 sq. mi.; pop. 
71.346,987. The feudatory states connected 
with it have an aggregate area of 36,634 sq. mi., 
and a pop. of 2,845,405. 

As a whole Bengal consists of plains, there 
being few remarkable elevations, though it is 
surrounded with lofty mountains. It is in¬ 
tersected in all directions by rivers, mostly 
tributaries of its two great rivers, the Ganges 
and Brahmaputra, which annually, in June 
and July, inundate a large part of the region. 
The country is subject to great extremes of 
heat, which, added to the humidity of its 
surface, renders it generally unhealthy to 
Europeans. The seasons are distinguished by 
the terms hot (March to June), rainy (June to 
October), and cold (the remainder of the year). 
The most unhealthy period is the latter part 
of the rainy season. The mean temperature 
of the whole year varies between 80° F. in 
Orissa and 74° F. in Assam, that of Calcutta 
being 79°. In the hill station of Darjeeling 
the mean is about 54°, occasionally falling as 
low as 24° in the winter. The heaviest rain¬ 
fall occurs in Eastern Bengal, the annual aver¬ 
age amounting to over 100 in., an amount 
greatly exceeded in certain localities. Besides 
rice and other grains, which form along with 
fruits the principal food of the population, 
there may be noted among the agricultural 
products indigo, opium, cane-sugar, tobacco, 
betel, cotton, and jute and sunn plants. Tea 
is now extensively grown in some places, not¬ 
ably in Darjeeling district and Chittagong. 
Cinchona is cultivated in Darjeeling and Sik¬ 
kim. The forests cover 12,000 sq. mi., the 
principal forest trees being the s41 on the Him¬ 
alaya slopes, s41 and teak in Orissa. Wild 


Bengal 

animals are most numerous in the Sundarbans 
and Orissa, snakes being remarkably abun¬ 
dant in the latter district. The principal min¬ 
erals are coal, iron, and salt. Coal is worked 
at Raniganj, in Bardwdn district, where the 
seams are about 8 ft. in thickness, and iron in 
the district of Birbhum, in the same division. 
Salt is obtained from the maritime districts of 
Orissa. The principal manufactures are cotton 
piece-goods of various descriptions, jute fabrics, 
blanketing, and silks. Muslins of the most 
beautiful and delicate texture were formerly 
made at Dacca, but the manufacture is almost 
extinct. Sericulture is carried on more largely 
in Bengal than in any other part of India, and 
silk weaving is a leading industry in many of 
the districts. The commerce, both internal 
and external, is very large. The chief exports 
are opium, jute, indigo, oil-seeds, tea, hides 
and skins, and rice; the chief import is cot¬ 
ton piece-goods. The foreign trade is chiefly 
with Britain, China, the Straits Settlements, 
France, the U. S., and Ceylon. Internal com¬ 
munication is rendered easy by a very com¬ 
plete railway and canal system, while the boat 
trade on the rivers is, for magnitude and vari¬ 
ety, quite unique in India. The people of Bengal 
are mainly of Hindu race except in the valleys 
of Chittagong, where they are chiefly Bur¬ 
mese. Over 20,000,000 are Mohammedans in 
religion, more than double this profess Hindu¬ 
ism. The dialects spoken are Bengali in Ben¬ 
gal proper, Hindi in Patna division, andUrfya 
in Orissa. The first rudiments of education 
are usually given in the primary schools that 
have been developed out of the native schools, 
and are now connected with government. 
There are also a number of secondary and 
superior schools established by government, 
including eight government colleges. The 
highest educational institution is the Calcutta 
university, the chief function of which is to 
examine and confer degrees. The population 
of Bengal beyond the capital, Calcutta, and 
its suburbs, is largely rural. There are alto¬ 
gether 33 towns with upward of 20,000 in¬ 
habitants, and 200 with over 5,000, but many 
of these towns are mere collections of rural 
hamlets in which all the operations of hus¬ 
bandry are carried on. 

The first of the East India Company’s settle¬ 
ments in Bengal were made early in the seven¬ 
teenth century. The rise of Calcutta dates 
from the end of the same century. The greater 
part of Bengal came into the hands of the 
East India Company in consequence of Clive’s 
victory at Plassy in 1757, and was formally 
ceded to the Company by the nabob of Bengal 
in 1765. Chittagong had previously been ceded 
by the same prince, but its government under 
British administration was not organized till 
1824. Orissa came into British hands in 1803. 
In 1858 the country passed to the crown, and 
since then the history of Bengal has been, on 
the whole, one of steady and peaceful prog¬ 
ress. 

Bengal, Bay of, that portion of the Indian 
Ocean which lies between Hindustan and 
Farther India, or Burmah, Siam, and Malacca, 


Bengali 


Ben-Nevis 


and may be regarded as extending south to 
Ceylon and Sumatra. It receives the Ganges, 
Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy. Calcutta, Ran¬ 
goon, and Madras are the most important 
towns on or near its coasts. 

Benga'li, one of the vernacular languages 
of India, spoken by about 50,000,000 people in 
Bengal, akin to Sanskrit and written in char¬ 
acters that are evidently modified from the 
Devanagari (Sanskrit). Its use as a literary 
language began in the fourteenth century with 
poetry. Large numbers of Bengali books are 
now published, as also newspapers. A large 
number of words are borrowed from Sanskrit 
literature. 

Benguela (ben-ga'la), a district belonging 
to the Portuguese on the w. coast of South 
Africa; area, perhaps 150,000 sq. mi. Copper, 
silver, iron, salt, sulphur, petroleum, and other 
minerals are found. Pop. est. at 2,000,000. 
The capital, also called Benguela (or San Felipe 
de^Benguela), is situated on the coast, on a bay 
of the Atlantic, in a charming but very un¬ 
healthy valley. It was founded by the Portu¬ 
guese in 1617, and was formerly an important 
center of the slave-trade, but has now only a 
spasmodic trade in ivory, wax, gum copal, etc. 
Pop. about 3,000. 

Bent (ba'ne), a river, South America, state 
of Bolivia. It rises in the eastern slopes of the 
Andes, and after a course of 900 mi. joins the 
Mamore to form the Madeira, which flows into 
the Amazon near Serpa. 

Benin', a negro kingdom of West Africa, on 
the Bight of Benin, extending along the coast 
on both sides of the Benin River, w. of the 
lower Niger, and to some distance inland. 
The chief town is Benin (pop. 15,000), situated 
on the river Benin, one of the mouths of the 
Niger. The country, which gradually rises as 
it recedes from the coast, is well wooded and 
watered, and rich in vegetable productions. 
Cotton is indigenous, and woven into cloth by 
the women, and sugar-cane, rice, yams, etc., 
are grown. The religion is Fetichism, and hu¬ 
man sacrifices are numerous. There is con¬ 
siderable trade in palm-oil. In consequence of 
a massacre of a British mission, the king was de¬ 
posed, and the country annexed by the British 
in 1897. 

Benjamin, Judah P. (1811-1884), “the brains 
of the Confederacy,” b. at St. Croix, W. I., d. 
at Paris; studied law in New Orleans; elected 
U. S. senator for Louisana 1857, and became 
a member of the cabinet under Jefferson Davis 
(1861); in 1865 escaped to England; soon became 
famous as a lawyer there. 

Benlo'mond, a mountain of Scotland in 
Stirlingshire, rising to a height of 3,192 feet and 
giving a magnificent prospect of the vale of 
Stirling, the Lothians, the Clyde, Ayrshire, Isle 
of Man, hills of Antrim, etc. 

Ben=Mac=Duhi (or Ben-Muich-Dhui) (-mik- 
do' i), the second highest mountain in Scotland, 
situated in the southwest of Aberdeenshire, on 
the borders of Banffshire, forming one of a 
cluster of lofty mountains, among which are 
Brae-riach, Cairntoul, and Cairngorm. Height, 
4,296 feet. 


Benne (ben'e) oil, a valuable oil expressed 
from the seeds of Sesamum orientale and S. in- 
dicum, much cultivated in India and Egypt, 
etc., and used for similar purposes with olive 
oil. Also called sesamum oil and gingelly oil. 

Bennett, James Gordon (1795-1872), Ameri¬ 
can journalist, originator and editor of the New 
York Herald , was by birth a Scotchman. Des¬ 
tined for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic 
church, he was educated in a seminary at 
Aberdeen. But it became evident that he was 
naturally unfit for the priestly calling. The 
reading of Franklin’s Autobiography led him to 
emigrate to America in the spring of 1819. 
Landing at Halifax, he earned a poor living 
there for a short time by giving lessons in 
French, Spanish, and bookkeeping; he passed 
next to Boston, where starvation almost threat¬ 
ened him till he got employment in a printing 
office; and in 1822 he went to New York. An 
engagement as a translator of Spanish for a 
newspaper took him for a few months to 
Charleston, S. C. On his return to New York 
he projected a school, and did subordinate work 
for the journals. In 1825 he made his first at¬ 
tempt to establish a journal of his own, and the 
next ten years were occupied in a variety of 
similar attempts, which proved futile. During 
that period, however, he became Washington 
correspondent of the Inquirer; and his letters, 
written in imitation of the letters of Horace 
Walpole, attracted attention. Notwithstanding 
all his hard work and his resolutely abstemi¬ 
ous life, he was still a poor man. In 1835 ap¬ 
peared the first number of a small one-cent 
paper, bearing the title of New York Herald , and 
issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor 
and editor played also the part of salesman. By 
his immense industry and practical sagacity, 
variety of news, spicy correspondence, supply 
of personal gossip and scandal, the paper be¬ 
came a great commercial success. Bennett con¬ 
tinued to edit the Herald till his death. The 
successful mission of Stanley to Central Africa 
in search of Dr. Livingstone, of whom nothing 
had long been heard, was undertaken by his 
desire and at his expense; and he thus showed 
in the last year of his life the inextinguishable 
spirit of enterprise which had animated him 
throughout his whole career. 

Bennett, James Gordon, Jr., son of the 
above, b. 1841; proprietor N. Y. Herald; at his 
father’s death projected Stanley’s expedition 
to Africa in search of Livingstone and the 
Jeanette polar expedition; associated with 
Mackay in Commercial Cable. 

Bennett, William Sterndale (1816-1875), 
an English composer, b. at Sheffield, where 
his father was organist; became pupil of the 
Royal Academy in 1826, studying under Cip- 
rani Potter, Crotch, and Lucas, and afterward 
Moscheles. He studied in Leipsic from 1836 
to 1838. He was appointed professor of music 
at Cambridge in 1856, and was knighted in 
1871. 

Ben=Ne'vis, the most lofty mountain in 
Great Britain, in Inverness-shire. It rises to 
the height of 4,406 ft., and in clear weather 
yields a most extensive prospect. An observa- 


Bennington 


Benzoin 


tory was established on its summit in May, 1881, 
by the Scottish Meteorological Society. 

Bennington, a town in Vermont where, on 
Aug. 16, 1777, General Stark at the head of 
1,600 American militia was victorious over the 
British. Pop. 1900, 5,656. 

Benson, Edward White (1829-1896), arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, was b. in Birmingham, 
England, and took the highest classical honors 
at Cambridge in 1852. He was ordained priest 
in 1857, became headmaster of Wellington col¬ 
lege in 1858, and was consecrated bishop of 
Truro, 1877. In December, 1882, he was con¬ 
secrated archbishop. His son gained some 
fame as a society novelist. 

Bentham (ben'tham), George (1800-1884), 
English botanist, nephew of Jeremy Bentham. 
He early attached himself to botany, and 
having resided in Southern France (where his 
father had an estate) in 1814-26 he published 
in French (1826) a work on the Plants of the 
Pyrenees and Lower Languedoc. Along with 
Sir J. D. Hooker he produced the great work 
of descriptive botany, Genera Plantarum; 
another great work of his was the Flora Aus- 
traliensis. 

Ben'tham, Jeremy (1748-1832), the real 
founder of the Utilitarian school of philos¬ 
ophy, and an eminent writer on jurisprudence 
and legislation, was b. at London. He was 
educated at Westminster school, and Queen’s 
college, Oxford, where he graduated at the 
age of sixteen. He studied at Lincoln’s Inn 
for the bar at the request of his father. When 
a boy, he had been nicknamed the “philos¬ 
opher,” from his tendency to speculation, and 
he now devoted himself to the criticism of 
ethics and legislation. His first work, A Frag¬ 
ment of Government , which was an ingenious 
criticism of Blackstone’s Commentaries , was 
published in 1776, and brought him into no¬ 
tice. It was followed by his Principles of 
Morals and Legislation in 1780; his Defense of 
Usury, in 1787; his Introduction to the Principles 
of Morals and Legislation in 1789: Discourses on 
Civil and Penal Legislation in 1802: A Treatise 
on Judicial Evidence in 1813; and The Book of 
Fallacies in 1824. 

Benton, Thomas Hart (1782-1858), Ameri¬ 
can statesman, b. Hillsborough, N. C. His 
father, Col. Jesse Benton, was a lawyer of North 
Carolina, and private secretary to Governor 
Tryon. He was partly educated at the uni¬ 
versity of North Carolina, but removed to 
Tennessee. Thomas studied law with St. 
George Tucker, was admitted to the bar of 
Nashville in 1811. In 1810 he entered the 
U. S. army, and was Jackson’s aide-de-camp. 
Subsequently he had a quarrel with Andrew 
Jackson, which resulted in a personal combat 
with knives and pistols, and a long and bitter 
feud. He also raised a regiment of which he 
was appointed colonel, and when this was dis¬ 
banded in 1813, he was made lieutenant-colonel 
by President Madison. In 1815 he moved to 
St. Louis, where he practised law and founded 
The Missouri Inquirer , a journal of strong pro¬ 
slavery proclivities. He advocated the ad¬ 
mission of Missouri as a slave state, and when 


it was included in the Union in 1820, he was 
chosen to the U. S. Senate, where he served 
for thirty years. He caused the adoption of a 
bill throwing the mineral and saline lands of 
Missouri open for occupancy; was an advocate 
of a railroad to the Pacific; favored the open¬ 
ing of trade with New Mexico; encouraged the 
establishment of military stations in Missouri; 
gave attention to post-roads, and, during the 
political agitation caused by President Jack- 
son’s determination to overthrow the U. S. 
Bank and to place the currency on a me¬ 
tallic basis, he advocated that measure, and 
received the name of “Old Bullion.” He took 
an active part in the discussions in regard to 
the Oregon boundary, the annexation of Texas, 
and during the Mexican War he was useful to 
the government. He opposed Henry Clay’s 
compromise measures in 1850, and his strug¬ 
gle against J. C. Calhoun’s resolutions cost 
him his seat in the Senate. In 1852 he was 
elected to the House of Representatives, 
where he opposed the policy of President 
Pierce, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and in 
1854 was defeated for Congress by a coalition 
of his former political opponents. He then re¬ 
tired from public life, and devoted himself to 
completing his Thirty Tears' View, or a History 
of the Working of the American Government from 
1820 to 1850. Gen. John C. Fremont married 
his daughter, Jessie. 

Ben'zine, a liquid hydrocarbon obtained 
from coal-tar and petroleum. It may also be 
got by distilling 1 part of crystallized benzoic 
acid intimately mixed with 3 parts of slaked 
lime. It is quite colorless, of a peculiar, ethe¬ 
real, agreeable odor, is used by manufacturers 
of india-rubber and gutta-percha, on account 
of its great solvent powers, in the preparation 
of varnishes, and for cleaning gloves, remov¬ 
ing grease-spots from woolen and other cloths, 
etc., on account of its dissolving fats and resins. 
It is highly inflammable. 

Benzo'ic Acid, a vegetable acid obtained 
from benzoin and other resins and balsams, as 
those of Peru and Tolu. It forms light feath¬ 
ery needles; taste pungent and bitterish; odor 
slightly aromatic. 

Benzoic Ether, a colorless, oily liquid, with 
a feeble aromatic smell and a pungent aro¬ 
matic taste, obtained by distilling together 4 
parts alcohol, 2 of crystallized benzoic acid, and 
1 of concentrated hydrochloric acid. 

Ben'zoin, a solid, brittle, vegetable sub¬ 
stance, the concrete resinous juice flowing 
from incisions in the stem or branches of the 
Styrax Benzoin, a tree 70 or 80 feet high, nat. 
order Styracaceae. In commerce several va¬ 
rieties are distinguished, of which the yellow, 
the Siam, the amygdaloidal—the last contain¬ 
ing whitish tears of an almond shape—and Su¬ 
matra firsts are the finest. It is imported from 
Siam, Singapore, Bombay, and occasionally 
from Calcutta; it is found also in South Amer¬ 
ica. The pure benzoin consists of two principal 
substances; viz., a resin, and an acid termed hen- 
zoic. It has little taste, but its smell is fra¬ 
grant when rubbed or heated, and it is used as 
incense in the Greek and Roman Catholic 


Beowulf 


Bergamo 


churchy. It is insoluble in water, but solu¬ 
ble in alcohol, in which form it is used as a 
cosmetic and in pharmacy. Benzoin may be 
produced by the contact of alkalies with the 
commercial oil of bitter almonds. It is also 
known as benjamin, or gum benjamin. 

Be'owulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, the 
only ’existing MS. of which belongs to the 
eighth or ninth century and is in the Cottonian 
Library (British Museum). It recounts the ad¬ 
ventures of the hero Beowulf, especially his 
delivery of the Danish kingdom from the mon¬ 
ster Grendel and his equally formidable mother, 
and, lastly, the slaughter by Beowulf of a fiery 
dragon, and his death from wounds received 
in the conflict. The character of the hero is 
attractive through its noble simplicity and dis¬ 
regard of self. The poem, the longest and 
most important in Anglo-Saxon literature, is in 
many points obscure, and the MS. imperfect. 

B6ranger (ba-ran-zha), Pierre Jean de 
(1780-1857), a famous French lyric poet. He 
applied in 1804 to Lucien Bonaparte for assist¬ 
ance, and succeeded in obtaining from him 
first, a pension of 1,000 francs, and five years 
later a university clerkship. Many of his songs 
became extremely popular, and in 1815 the first 
collection of them was published. A third col¬ 
lection appeared in 1825, and in 1828 a fourth, 
which subjected him to a state prosecution, 
an imprisonment of nine months, and a fine of 
10,000 francs. In 1833 he published his fifth 
and last collections, thereafter remaining si¬ 
lent till his death. He died at Paris. 

Berar', otherwise known as the Hyderabad 
Assigned Districts, a province of India, in the 
Deccan, under the British resident at Hydera¬ 
bad; area 17,717 sq. mi. The principal town is 
Ellichpore. Coal and iron ore are both found 
in the province, the pop. of which is 2,897,491. 

Berber, a town of Egypt on the right bank 
of the Nile, about 20 miles below the conflu¬ 
ence of the Atbara, a station for merchants 
on the route from Sennaar and Khartoum 
to Cairo, and also from Suakim. Pop. 8,000. 

' Ber bers, a 

people spread 
over nearly 
the whole of 
Northern 
Africa, from 
whom the 
name Barbary 
is derived. 
The chief 
branches into 
which the 
Berbers are 
divided are: 
first, the Ama- 
zirgh (or Ama- 
zigh), of Nor¬ 
thern Morocco 
numbering 
from 2,000,000 
n . w to 2,500,000. 

Berber Woman. They are for 

the most part quite independent of the Sul¬ 
tan of Morocco, and live partly under chief¬ 


tains and hereditary princes and partly in small 
republican communities. Second, the Shuluh 
(Shillooh, or Shellakah), who number about 
1,450,000 and inhabit the south of Morocco. 
They are more highly civilized than the Ama- 
zirgh. Third, the Kabyles in Algeria and 
Tunis, who are said to number 960,000 souls; 
and fourth, the Berbers of the Sahara, who in¬ 
habit the oases. The Berbers generally are 
about the middle height; their complexion is 
brown, and sometimes almost black, with 
brown and glossy hair. They are sparely built 
but robust and graceful; the features approach 
the European type. Their language has affini¬ 
ties to the Semitic group, but Arabic is spoken 
along the coast. 

Berbice (ber-bes'), a district of British Gui¬ 
ana watered by the river Berbice. Area 750 sq. 
mi.; pop. 51,176. It contains the town of Ber¬ 
bice (or New Amsterdam), which has three 
churches and several public buildings. Pop. 
8,903. 

Berdiansk', a seaport of Southern Russia, 
gov. of Taurida, on the north shore of the Sea 
of Azof, with an important export and inland 
trade. Pop. 20,000. 

Ber'ditchef, a city of European Russia, gov. 
of Kiev, with broad streets, well-built houses, 
numerous industrial establishments, and a 
very large trade, having largely attended 
fairs. Pop. 98,824, chiefly Jews. 

Berenice (ber-e-nl'se), the name of several 
distinguished women of antiquity; in particu¬ 
lar the wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, king of 
Egypt. When her husband went to war in 
Syria she made a vow to devote her beautiful 
hair to the gods if he returned safe. She ac¬ 
cordingly hung it in the temple of Venus, 
from which it disappeared, and was said to 
have been transferred to the skies as the con¬ 
stellation Coma Berenices. Also the wife of 
Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, put to 
death by her husband (about 71 b. c.), lest she 
should fall into the hands of Lucullus. 

Beresford, William Charles de la Poer, 
b. in Ireland, 1846. He entered the British 
navy and distinguished himself at the bom¬ 
bardment of Alexandria, 1882, and in the Khar¬ 
toum expedition in 1885. He is a member of 
Parliament, and served a term at the Admi¬ 
ralty Board, but resigned in 1889 to accept a 
naval command. 

Berez'ina, a tributary of the Dnieper, in the 
Russian province of Minsk, rendered famous 
by the disastrous passage of the French army 
under Napoleon during the retreat from Mos¬ 
cow, Nov. 27^29, 1812. 

Ber'gama (ancient Pergamos), town, Turkey 
in Asia, n. of Smyrna; contains fine ruins of 
a Roman palace, etc. Pop. 16,070. 

Ber'gamo, a town of North Italy, capital of 
the province of Bergamo (1,098 sq. mi., 419,599 
inhabitants), consists of two parts, the old 
town situated on hills and having quite an 
ancient appearance, and the new.town almost 
detached and on the plain. It trades largely 
in silk, silk goods, corn, etc., has the largest 
annual fair in North Italy, and extensive manu¬ 
factures. Pop. 39,129. 



Bergamot 

Bergamot, a fruit-tree, a variety or species 
of the genus Citrus, variously classed with the 
orange, the lime, or made a distinct species. 
It is probably of Eastern origin though now 
grown in Southern Europe, and bears a pale- 
yellow, pear-shaped fruit with a fragrant and 
slightly acid pulp. Its essential oil is in high 
esteem as a perfume. Bergamot is also a 
name given to a number of different pears. 

Bergen (ber'gen), a seaport on the w. coast 
of Norway. The trade is large; timber, tar, 
train oil, cod-liver oil, hides, and particularly 
dried fish (stock-fish) being exported in return 
for corn, wine, brandy, coffee, cotton, woolens, 
and sugar. In 1445 a factory was established 
here by the Hanseatic cities of Germany. Pop. 
53,684. 

Bergen-op-zoom (ber'gen-op-zom), a town, 
Holland, in a marshy situation on the Scheldt, 
20 mi. n.p.w. of Antwerp. It was formerly of 
great strength, both from the morasses sur¬ 
rounding it and from its fortifications, and 
successfully resisted the attacks of the Duke 
of Parma in 1581 and 1588, and of Spinola in 
1622, but was taken by the French in 1747 and 
1794, and unsuccessfully attempted by the 
British in 1814. Pop. 12,478. 

Bergerac (barzh-rak), town, France, depart¬ 
ment of the Dordogne. It has iron works, 
manufactures paper, hosiery, earthenware, 
liquors, etc., and gives its name to the wine 
of the Dordogne district, sometimes termed in 
France petit champagne. * Pop. 14,735. 

Bergh, Henry (1823-1888), founder of the 
American Society for the Prevention of Cru¬ 
elty to Animals. After studying at Colum¬ 
bia college, he went to Europe, where he 
spent twelve years, and in 1862 was appointed 
secretary of the American legation in St. 
Petersburg. This position he resigned. In 
1864 he returned to this country, and resolved 
to devote his time to the protection of ani¬ 
mals. The first American society of the class 
was incorporated, with Mr. Bergh as its pres¬ 
ident, 1866. In the face of ridicule and oppo¬ 
sition, Mr. Bergh created a reform recognized 
as one of the beneficent movements of the age. 
In 1886 thirty-nine states of the Union, Brazil, 
and the Argentine Republic had adopted the 
original laws procured for him by the legisla¬ 
ture of New York. Mr. Bergh received no sal¬ 
ary for his services. He invented artificial 
pigeons for the sportsman’s gun, and procured 
an ambulance for removing injured animals 
from the street. In 1874 he rescued a little 
girl from brutal treatment, which led to the 
founding of a Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children. 

Bergman (ber/i'man), Torbern Olof (1735- 
1784), a Swedish physicist and chemist. 
He studied under Linnaeus at Upsala; in 
1758 became Doctor of Philosophy and pro¬ 
fessor of physics there; and in 1767 became 
professor of chemistry. He succeeded in 
the preparation of artificial mineral waters, 
discovered the sulphureted hydrogen gas 
of mineral springs, and published a classi¬ 
fication of minerals on the basis of their 
chemical character and crystalline forms. His 


Berkeley 

theory of chemical affinities greatly influenced 
the subsequent development of chemistry. 

Berhampur, the name of two Indian towns: 
1, A town and military station in the n. e. por¬ 
tion of Madras presidency, the headqdarters 
of Ganjdm district, with a trade in sugar and 
manufactures of silk. Pop. 25,653. 2, A mu¬ 
nicipal town and the administrative headquar¬ 
ters of Murshiddbdd district, Bengal; formerly 
a military station, and having still larger bar¬ 
racks. It was the scene of the first overt act 
of mutiny in 1857. Pop. 22,515. 

Ber'iberi, a disease endemic in parts of In¬ 
dia, Ceylon, etc., characterized by paralysis, 
numbness, difficult breathing, and often other 
symptoms, attacking strangers, especially sail¬ 
ors, as well as natives, and generally fatal. 

Berkeley, Alameda co., Cal., a flourishing 
town, seat of State university and Agricultural 
college; also state institution for deaf, dumb, 
and blind. Pop. 1900, 13,214. 

Berkeley (berk'li), Dr. George (1685-1753), 
Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, celebrated for his 
ideal theory. Became fellow of Trinity col¬ 
lege, Dublin, in 1707; went to England in 
1713; traveled on the continent in 1714, and 
again in 1716-20. In 1721 he was appointed 
chaplain to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the 
Duke of Grafton. In 1724 he became dean of 
Derry. He now published his proposals for the 
conversion of the American savages to Chris¬ 
tianity by the establishment of a college in the 
Bermuda Islands; and subscriptions having 
been raised, he set sail for Rhode Island in 
1728, proposing to wait there till a promised 
grant of $100,000 had been got from the govern¬ 
ment. Berkeley’s philosophy maintains that 
the belief in the existence of an exterior ma¬ 
terial world is false and inconsistent with it¬ 
self; that those things which are called sensible 
material objects are not external but exist in 
the mind and are merely impressions made 
on our minds by the immediate act of God, ac¬ 
cording to certain rules termed 'laws of nature, 
from which he never deviates; and that the 
steady adherence of the Supreme Spirit to 
these rules is what constitutes the reality of 
things to his creatures, and so effectually dis¬ 
tinguishes the ideas perceived by sense from 
such as are the work of the mind itself or of 
dreams, that there is no more danger of con¬ 
founding them together on this hypothesis 
than on that of the existence of matter. He is 
well-known for his verses wherein occurs the 
expression, “westward the course of empire 
takes its way.’’ 

Berkeley, Sir William, colonial governor of 
Virginia. He was sent as governor to Virginia 
in 1641. When Cromwell attained to the 
control of the British government, Governor 
Berkeley offered an asylum in Virginia to 
loyalist gentlemen. He was compelled to re¬ 
sign. On the death of Samuel Mathews, the 
governor who had succeeded him, Berkeley 
was temporarily elected governor, and received 
his commission from Charles II, after the res¬ 
toration. Several harsh measures adopted by 
him caused considerable dissatisfaction among 
the colonists, particularly his faithlessness and 


Berkhamstead 


Berlioz 


obstinacy in dealing with Indians. In 1665 
the king demanded his return; nevertheless 
Berkeley continued his authority in Virginia 
for eleven years longer. In 1675 he was prema¬ 
turely recalled to England. 

Berk'hamstead, Great, a town in England, 
Hertfordshire, with manufactures of straw- 
plait and wooden ware. Birthplace of the 
poet Cow per, Pop. 5,034. 

Berkshire (or Berks), a county of England, 
area 752 sq. mi. Few manufactures are carried 
on, the principal being agricultural implements 
and artificial manures, flour, paper, sacking 
and sail-cloth, and biscuits (at Reading). Malt 
is made in great quantities. The minerals are 
unimportant. Pop. 238,496. 

Berlin', the largest town in Germany; cap¬ 
ital of the Prussian dominions find of the Ger¬ 
man empire, in the province of Brandenburg, 
on a sandy plain on both sides of the Spree, 
here about 200 feet broad. The original portion 
of the city lies on the right bank of the river, 
and is irregularly built. The more modern por¬ 
tion is regular in its plan, and the streets are 
lined with lofty and well-built edifices mostly 
of white freestone, or brick covered with a 
coating of plaster or cement. Of the numerous 
bridges, the finest is the Castle (Schloss) Bridge, 
104 feet wide, and having eight piers sur¬ 
mounted by colossal groups of sculpture in 
marble. The principal and most frequented 
street, Unter den Linden (“under the lime- 
trees”), is about two thirds of a mile in length 
and 160 feet wide, the center being occupied 
by a double avenue of lime-trees. At the e. 
end of this street, and round the Lustgarten (a 
square with which it is connected by the Schloss 
Bridge) are clustered the principal public 
buildings of the city, such as the royal palace, 
the palace of the crown prince, the arsenal, 
the university, the museums, royal academy, 
etc.; while at the w. end is the Brandenburg 
Gate, regarded as one of the finest portals in 
existence. Immediately beyond this gate is the 
Thiergarten (zoological garden), an extensive 
and well-wooded park containing the palace of 
Bellevue and places of public amusement. 
There are also several other public parks. The 
principal public buildings are the royal palace 
or Schloss, a vast rectangular pile; the museum 
(opposite the Schloss), a fine Grecian building, 
with an extensive collection of sculpture and 
painting; the royal theater is also a fine Gre¬ 
cian edifice. The royal library and palace of 
the emperor are united; the former contains 
above 900,000 volumes and 15,500 manuscripts 
and charts. The arsenal, besides arms and ar¬ 
tillery, contains flags and other trophies of 
great antiquity. The university, the exchange, 
the Italian opera house, the principal Jewish 
synagogue, the townhall, and the old archi¬ 
tectural academy are all beautiful structures. 
The town contains altogether about twenty- 
five theaters, thirty hospitals, sixteen barracks, 
ten or twelve cemeteries, etc. The prevailing 
style of the newer buildings, both public and 
private, is Grecian, pure or Italianized. One 
of the most remarkable of modern monuments 
is that erected in. 1851 to Frederick the Great 


in the Unter den Linden — the chef d'oeuvre of 
Rauch and his pupils. The literary institu¬ 
tions of the city are numerous and excellent 
they include the university, having an educa¬ 
tional staff of nearly 260 professors and teachers, 
and attended by over 4,000 students, exclusive 
of 1,200 to 1,400 who do not matriculate; the 
academy of sciences; the academy of fine arts, 
and the technical high school or academy of 
architecture and industry (occupying a large 
new building in the suburb of Charlottenburg). 
The manufactures are various and extensive, 
including steam engines and other machinery, 
brass founding, and various articles of metal, 
sewing machines, paper, cigars, pottery and 
porcelain, pianos and harmoniums, artificial 
flowers, etc. In the royal iron foundry, busts, 
statues, bas-reliefs, etc., are cast, together 
with a great variety of ornaments of unri¬ 
valed delicacy of workmanship. The oldest 
parts of the city were originally poor villages, 
and first rose to some importance under Mark- 
graf Albert (1206-20), yet about two centuries 
ago Berlin was still a place of little consequence, 
the first important improvement being made 
by the great Elector Frederick William, who 
planted the Unter den Linden, and in whose 
time it already numbered 20,000 inhabitants. 
Under his successors, Frederick I and Freder¬ 
ick the Great, the city was rapidly enlarged and 
improved, the population increasing fivefold 
in the hundred years preceding the death of 
Frederick the Great and tenfold in the century 
succeeding it. Pop. 1900, 1,884,151. 

Treaty of Berlin, the treaty signed July 13, 
1878, at the close of the Berlin Congress, which 
was constituted by the representatives of the 
six great powers and Turkey. The treaty of 
San Stefano previously concluded between 
Turkey and Russia was modified by the Ber¬ 
lin treaty, which resulted in the division of 
Bulgaria into two parts, Bulgaria proper and 
Eastern Roumelia, the cession of parts of Ar¬ 
menia to Russia and Persia, the independence 
of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro, the 
transference of Bosnia and Herzegovina to 
Austrian administration, and the retrocession 
of Bessarabea to Russia. Greece was also to 
have an accession of territory. By a separate 
arrangement previously made between Britain 
and Turkey the former got Cyprus to ad¬ 
minister. 

Berlin, Green Lake co., Wis., on Fox River, 
97 mi. n. w. of Milwaukee. Railroad: C. M. 
& St. P. Industries: shoe co., one feed mill, 
two iron foundries, two wagon factories, and 
others. First settled in 1848 by Nathan 
Strong, and called “Strong’s Landing.” Be¬ 
came a city in 1857. Pop. 1900, 4,489. 

Berlin', a town of Canada, prov. Ontario, 
about 60 mi. w. s. w. of Toronto, with some 
manufactures. Pop. 7,425. 

Berlin Spirit, a coarse spirit distilled from 
potatoes, beets, etc. 

Berlioz (ber-li-os), Hector (1803-1869), a 
French composer, the leader of the Romantic 
school of music in his native country. He 
forsook medicine to study music at the Paris 
Conservatoire, where he gained the first prize 


Bermondsey 

in 1830 with his cantata Sardanapale. As critic 
of the Journal des Debats and feuilletonist he 
displayed scarcely less originality than in his 
music. His musical works belong to the Ro¬ 
mantic school, and are specially noteworthy 
for the resource they display in orchestral 
coloring. 

Ber'mondsey, a parish near and part of 
London, England, on the Surrey side of the 
Thames, between Southwark and Rotherhithe. 
Large tan yards and wharfs. Pop. 64,682. 

Bermu'da Grass, a grass cultivated in the 
West Indies, U. S., etc., a valuable fodder grass 
in warm climates. 

Bermu'das (or Somers Islands), a cluster of 
small islands in the Atlantic Ocean belonging 
to Britain; area 20 sq. mi. They were first 
discovered by Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard, in 
1522; iq 1609 Sir George Somers, an English¬ 
man, was wrecked here, and, after his ship¬ 
wreck, formed the first settlement. The most 
considerable are St. George, Bermuda or Long 
Island (with the chief town Hamilton, the 
seat of the governor), Somerset, St. David’s, 
and Ireland. They form an important British 
naval and military station. An immense iron 
floating dock, capable of receiving a vessel of 
3,000 tons, was towed from London to the 
Bermudas in 1868. The climate is generally 
healthy and delightful, but they have been 
sometimes visited by yellow fever. Numbers 
of persons from the U. S. and Canada now pass 
the colder months of the year in these islands. 
Pop. 16,000. 

Bern, a town in Switzerland, capital of the 
canton Bern, and, since 1848, of the whole 
Swiss Confederation. Among the public build¬ 
ings are the great Gothic cathedral, built be¬ 
tween 1421 and 1502; the church of the Holy 
Spirit; the federal-council buildings (or par¬ 
liament house), commanding a splendid view 
of the Alps: the university, the town house, a 
Gothic edifice of the fifteenth century; the 
mint; etc. Bern has an academy and several 
literary societies, and an excellent public 
library. Manufactures: woolens, linens, silk 
stuffs, stockings, watches, clocks, toys, etc. 
Bern became a free city of the empire in 1218. 
In 1353 it entered the Swiss Confederacy. Pop. 
47,620. The canton of Bern has an area of 
2,657 sq. mi. Of the surface over 58 per cent, 
is under cultivation or pasture. Agriculture 
and cattle-rearing are the chief occupations; 
manufactures embrace linen, cotton, silk, iron, 
watches, glass, pottery, etc. Bienne and Thun 
are the chief towns after Bern. Pop. 536,679. 

Bernadotte (ber-na-dot) (1764-1844), Jean 
Baptiste Jules, a French general, afterward 
raised to the Swedish throne, was the son of 
an advocate of Pau. He enlisted at seventeen, 
became sergeant major in 1789, and subaltern 
in 1790. In 1794 he was appointed a general 
of division, and distinguished himself greatly 
in the campaign in Germany, and on the 
Rhine. In 1798 he married Mademoiselle 
Clary, sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte. The 
following year he became for a short time 
minister of war, and on the establishment of 
the empire was raised to the dignity of mar- 


Bernhardt 

shal of France, and the title of Prince of 
Ponte-Corvo. On the death of the Prince of 
Holstein-Augustenburg the heir apparency to 
the Swedish crown was offered to the Prince 
of Ponte-Corvo, who accepted with the con¬ 
sent of the emperor, went to Sweden, abjured 
Catholicism, and took the title of Prince 
Charles John. In the maintenance of the in¬ 
terests of Sweden a serious rupture occurred 
between him and Bonaparte, followed by his 
accession in 1812 to the coalition of sovereigns 
against Napoleon. At the battle of Leipsic he 
contributed effectually to the victory of the 
allies. At the close of the war strenuous 
attempts were made by the Emperor of Aus¬ 
tria and other sovereigns to restore the family 
of Gustavus IV to the crown; but Bernadotte, 
retaining his position as crown prince, became 
king of Sweden on the death of Charles XIII 
in 1818, under the title of Charles XIV. Dur¬ 
ing his reign agriculture and commerce made 
great advances, and many important public 
works were completed. He was succeeded by 
his son Oscar. 

Ber'nard, Great St., a celebrated Alpine 
pass in Switzerland, canton Valais, on the 
mountain road leading from Martigny in Swit¬ 
zerland to Aosta in Piedmont, and rising to a 
height of 8,150 ft. Almost on the very crest 
of the pass, near a small lake on which ice 
sometimes remains throughout the year, is the 
famous hospice, next to Etna observatory the 
highest inhabited spot in Europe. The hos¬ 
pice was founded in 962 by St. Bernard of 
Menthon, an Italian ecclesiastic, for the bene¬ 
fit of pilgrims to Rome. In May, 1800, Na¬ 
poleon led an army of 30,000 men, with its 
artillery and cavalry, into Italy by this pass. 

Bernard, Little St., a mountain, Italy, be¬ 
longing to the Graian Alps, about 10 mi. s. of 
Mont Blanc. The pass across it, one of the 
easiest in the Alps, is supposed to be that which 
Hannibal used. Elevation of hospice, 7,192 ft. 

Ber' nard, Saint, of Clairvaux (1091-1153),one 
of the most influential ecclesiastics of the Middle 
Ages, b. at Fontaines, Burgundy. In 1113 he be¬ 
came a monk at Citeaux; in 1115 first abbot of 
Clairvaux, the great Cistercian monastery near 
Langres. In 1140 he secured the condemna¬ 
tion of Abelard for heresy. Seventy-two mon¬ 
asteries owed their foundation or enlargement 
to him; and he left no fewer than 440 epistles, 
340 sermons, and 12 theological and moral 
treatises. He was canonized in 1174. 

Bernburg (bern'bur4), a town, Germany, 
duchy of Anhalt, on both sides of the Saale, 
divided into the old, the new, and the high 
town; the first two communicating by a bridge 
with the latter. It contains an oil mill, brewer¬ 
ies, distilleries; and manufactures paper, earth¬ 
enware, copper and tinwares, etc. Pop. 28,326. 

Bernese Alps, the portion of the Alps which 
forms the northern side of the Rhone Val¬ 
ley, and extends from the Lake of Geneva to 
that of Brienz, comprising the Finsteraarhorn, 
Schreckhorn, Jungfrau, Monk, etc. 

Bernhardt (ber-nar), Rqsine Sara, a French 
actress, born at Paris 1844. Of Jewish descent, 
her father French, her mother Dutch, her 


Bernina 

early life was spent largely in Amsterdam. In 
1858 she entered the Paris Conservatoire and 
gained prizes for tragedy and comedy in 1861 
and 1862; but her debut at the Theatre Fran- 
9 ais in Jphigenie and Scribe’s Valerie was not 
a success. After a brief retirement she reap¬ 
peared at the Gvmnase and the Porte Saint- 
Martin in burlesque, and in 1867 at the Odeon 
in.higher drama. Her success in Hugo’s Buy 
Bias led to her being recalled to the Theatre 
Fran^ais, since which she has abundantly 
proved her dramatic genius. In 1879 she 
visited London, and again in 1880, about which 
time she severed connection with the Comedie 
Frai^aise under heavy penalty. In 1882 she 
married M. Damala, a Greek, from whom she 
was shortly afterward divorced. Her tours 
both in Europe and America have never failed 
to be successful. 

Bernina (ber-ne'na), a mountain in the 
Rhsetian Alps, 13,000 ft. high, with the large 
Morteratsch Glacier. The Bernina Pass on the 
west of the mountain is 7,695 ft. in height. 

Bernouilli (or Bernoulli) (ber-nb-yo), a fam¬ 
ily which produced eight distinguished men 
of science. The family fled from Antwerp 
during the Alva administration, going first to 
Frankfort, and afterwards to Bale. Of these 
James, b. at Bale 1654, became professor of 
mathematics there 1687, and d. 1705. He ap¬ 
plied the differential calculus to difficult ques¬ 
tions of geometry and mechanics; calculated 
the loxodromic and catenary curve, the log- 
arithmetic spirals, the evolutes of several 
curved lines, and discovered the so-called num¬ 
bers of Bernouilli. John, b. at Bale 1667, wrote 
with his brother James a treatise on the differ¬ 
ential calculus; developed the integral calcu¬ 
lus, and discovered, independently of Leibnitz, 
the exponential calculus. In 1694 he became 
doctor of medicine at Bale, and in 1695 went, 
as professor of mathematics,, to Groningen. 
After the death of his brother in 1705 he re¬ 
ceived the professorship of mathematics at 
Bale, which he held until his death in 1748. 

Bern'storff, the name of a German noble 
family, of whom the most distinguished was 
Johann Hartwig Ernst (1712-1772), Count 
von-Bernstorff, Danish statesman under Fred¬ 
erick V. and Christian VII. He was the most 
influential member of the government, which 
distinguished itself under his direction by a 
wise neutrality during the Seven Years’ War, 
etc., by measures for improving the condition of 
Danish peasantry; by promoting science, and 
sending to Asia the expedition which Neibuhr 
accompanied. By his efforts Denmark ac¬ 
quired Holstein. 

Berri (or Berry), formerly a province and 
dukedom, with Bourges as capital, almost in 
the center of France. It is now mainly com¬ 
prised in the departments Indre and Cher. It 
gave the title of Duke to a noted French 
soldier (1778-1820). 

Berry, a succulent fruit, in which the seeds 
are immersed in a pulpy mass inclosed by a 
thin skin. The name is usually given to fruits 
in which the calyx is adherent to the ovary 
and the placentas are parietal, the seeds 


Beryl 

finally separating from the placenta and lying 
loose in the pulp. The term, however, is fre¬ 
quently used to include fruits in which the 
ovary is free and the placentas central, as the 
grape. Popularly it is applied to fruits like 
the strawberry, bearing external seeds on a 
pulpy receptacle, but not strictly berries. 

Bersaglieri (ber-sal-ya/re), a corps of Italian 
sharpshooters organized early in the reign of 
Victor Emmanuel by General Alessandro della 
Marmora. Two battalions took part in the 
Crimean War and distinguished themselves at 
the battle of Tchernaya (Aug. 16, 1855). They 
are the “show” soldiers of the Italian armjq 
and at reviews execute all movements, like 
the Zouaves, at a sharp run. 

Berthier (bert-ya), Alexander (1753-1815), 
prince of Neuchatel and Wagram, marshal, 
vice-constable of France, etc. While yet young 
he served in America with Lafayette, and after 
some years’ service in France he joined the 
army of Italy in 1795 as general of division and 
chief of the general staff, receiving in 179S the 
chief command. In this capacity he entered 
Rome, abducted Pius VI, abolished the papal 
government, and established a consular one. 
He followed Bonaparte to Egypt as chief of 
the general staff; was appointed by him minis¬ 
ter of war after the 18th Brumaire; accompa¬ 
nied him to Italy in 1800, and again in 1805, to 
be present at his coronation; and was appointed 
chief of the general staff of the grand army in 
Germany. After Napoleon’s abdication he 
was taken into the favor and confidence of 
Louis XVIII. 

BertholJet (ber-to-la), Claude Louis, Count 
(1748-1822), an eminent French chemist. His 
chief chemical discoveries were connected 
with the analysis of ammonia, the use of chlo¬ 
rine in bleaching, the artificial production of 
nitre, etc. 

Berwick (ber'ik) (or more fully Berwick-on- 
Tweed), a seaport town of England, on the 
Scottish border. Chief industries: iron-found¬ 
ing, the manufacture of engines and boilers, 
agricultural implements, feeding-cake, ma¬ 
nures, ropes, twine, etc.; there is a small ship¬ 
ping trade. In the beginning of the twelfth 
century, during the reign of Alexander I, Ber¬ 
wick was part of Scotland, and the capital of 
the district called Lothian. In 1216 the town 
and castle were stormed and taken by King 
John; Bruce retook them in 1318; but, after 
undergoing various sieges and vicissitudes, 
both were surrendered to Edward IV in 1482, 
and have ever since remained in possession of 
England. Pop. 13,929. The county of Ber¬ 
wick, the most eastern border county of Scot¬ 
land, is divided into the three districts of 
Lauderdale (the valley of the Leader), Lam- 
mermoor, and the Merse, or March (the valley 
of the Tweed). Total area 464 sq. mi.; pop. 
32,406. The minerals are unimportant, though 
freestone and marl are abundant. The county 
is in high repute for agriculture, but has few 
manufactures, the principal being paper. The 
county town is Greenlaw. 

Ber'yl, a colorless, yellowish, bluish, or less 
brilliant green variety of emerald, the pre- 


Berzelius 


Bessemer Steel 


vailing hue being green of various shades, but 
always pale, the want of color being due to 
absence of chromium, which gives to the em¬ 
erald its deep 
rich green. Its 
crystals, which 
are six-sided, 
are usually 
longer and lar¬ 
ger than those 
of the precious 
emerald, a n d 
its structure 
more distinctly 

Beryl, in its primary form. foliated. 'Ihe 

best beryls are 

found in Brazil, in Siberia, and Ceylon, and in 
Dauria, on the frontiers of China. Beryls are 
also found in many parts of the U. S. Some 
of the finer and transparent varieties of it are 
often called aquamarine. 

Berzelius, John James, Baron (1779-1848), 
Swedish chemist; studied medicine at Upsala, 
and was appointed lecturer in chemistry in 
the Stockholm military academy in 1806, and 
the following year professor of pharmacy and 
medicine. He discovered selenium and tho¬ 
rium, first exhibited calcium, barium, stron¬ 
tium, tantalum, siliciun, and zirconium in the 
elemental state, and investigated whole classes 
of compounds, as those of fluoric acid, the 
metals in the ores of platinum, tantalum, 
molybdenum, vanadium, sulphur salts, etc., 
and introduced a new nomenclature and 
classification of chemical compounds. His 
writings comprise an important Text-book of 
Chemistry. 

Besan^on (be-san-son), a town of Eastern 
France, capital of the dept. Doubs, sur¬ 
mounted by a strong citadel. It is further 
strengthened by a system of forts on neighbor¬ 
ing eminences. The manufactures comprise 
linen, cotton, woolen, and silk goods, iron¬ 
mongery, etc.; but the principal industry is 
watchmaking, which employs about 13.000 
persons. Besanson is the ancient Yesontio, Be- 
sontium, or Bisontium described by Caesar. In 
the fifth century it came into possession of 
the Burgundians; in the twelfth passed with 
Franche-Comte to the German empire. In 
1679 it was ceded to France along with the 
rest of the Franche-Comte, of which it re¬ 
mained the capital till 1793, with a parlia¬ 
ment, etc., of its own. Pop. 56,055. 

Besant', Annie, English theosophist; is the 
divorced wife of the Rev. F. Besant, of Sibsey, 
Lincolnshire. She was for years the associate 
of Bradlaugh and then embraced theosophy 
and Madame Blavatsky. 

Besant', Walter, English novelist, b. 1838. 
He is best known by his novels, a number of 
which were written in partnership with the 
late Mr. James Rice, including Ready-Money , 
Mortiboy; This Son of Vulcan; The Case of Mr. 
Lucraft; The Golden Butterfly; The Monks of 
Thelema; etc. Since Mr. Rice’s death (1882) he 
has written All Sorts and Conditions of Men; All 
in a Garden Fair; Dorothy Foster; The World 
Went ve?'y Well Then; etc. 


Bessara'bia, a Russian province between the 
Pruth and Danube and the Dniester. It was 
conquered by the Turks 1474, taken by the 
Russians 1770, ceded to them by peace of Bu¬ 
charest in 1812; the s. e. extremity was given 
to Turkey in 1856, but restored to Russia by 
treaty of Berlin, 1878, in exchange for the 
Dobrudsha. It is fertile in grain, but is largely 
used for pasturage. Capital, Kishenef. Area 
17,619 sq. mi.; pop., chiefly Wallachians, Gyp¬ 
sies, and Tartars, 1,723,450. 

Bes'sel, Friedrich Wilhelm (1784-1846), 
a German astronomer appointed in 1810 di¬ 
rector of the observatory at Konigsberg. In 
1840 he called attention to the probable exist¬ 
ence of a planetary mass beyond Uranus, re¬ 
sulting in the discovery of Neptune. 

Bessemer, Jefferson co., Ala., on Valley 
Creek, 13 miles s. w. of Birmingham. Rail¬ 
roads: Ala. Gt. Southern; L. & N.; Georgia 
Pacific; K. C . M. & B.; Southern; Bessemer & 
Birmingham; Birmingham, Powderly & Besse¬ 
mer. Industries: two iron foundries, flour 
mill, coke ovens, etc. Surrounding country 
agricultural and mineral. It is the sixth city 
in taxable values, and the seventh in popula¬ 
tion, in Alabama. The town became a city 
in 1888. Pop. 1900, 6,358. 

Bessemer, Henry, an English engineer and 
inventor, was b. in Hertfordshire in 1813, and 
is chiefly known in connection with the cele¬ 
brated process for making steel which bears 
his name—a process which has effected an en¬ 
tire revolution in the steel trade. This im¬ 
portant invention is described in the following 
article. B. has distinguished himself by many 
other inventions and scientific improvements. 
In 1875 considerable attention was attracted 
by what was known as the B.-saloon steamer, 
which was designed to counteract the unpleas¬ 
ant motion of the sea by means of a swinging 
cabin, to be kept in position by an ingenious 
arrangement of machinery. But after several 
experiments in the English Channel with a 
large steamer built for the purpose, the inven¬ 
tion has apparently failed. In 1871 B. was ap¬ 
pointed president of the Iron and Steel Insti¬ 
tute, and in 1879 received the honor of knight¬ 
hood. D. at London Mch. 15, 1898. 

Bess'emer Steel is steel made direct from 
pig iron by a process patented in 1855, and 
subsequently, by Henry B. This process, as 
now worked, is briefly as follows: The pig 
iron is remelted in a cupola, and poured into a 
large vessel called a converter, lined with fire 
brick and capable of revolving upon horizontal 
trunnions. The converter is then turned up, 
and air at a high pressure is blown upward 
through the liquid metal. Most of the silicon 
is first burnt out, a dull flame appearing at the 
mouth of the converter; presently the carbon 
begins to burn (combining with the oxygen of 
the blast), and the flame increases to a dense, 
white, roaring blaze, accompanied by most 
violent ebullition. This continues until the 
decarburization is complete, when the flame 
suddenly contracts. The converter is then 
turned down, and a measured quantity (about 
6 or 8 per cent.) of spiegeleisen (iron containing 







Betel 


Beust 


about 10 per cent, of manganese) is run into it. 
This is sufficient to add the required amount 
of carbon for the steel, and after the occur¬ 



rence of a further short “flaming reaction,” 
the liquid steel is run out into ladles, and 
thence into molds. 

The use of spiegeleisen was patented by Rob¬ 
ert Mushet in 1856, but the patent was subse¬ 
quently allowed to lapse. It is, however, of 
the greatest importance in the B. process, not 
only for the reason mentioned, but also because 
the manganese combines with the oxygen left 
in the iron by the passage through it of such a 
large body of air, which would otherwise have 
a most deleterious effect on the quality of the 
steel produced. 

In Sweden and Germany, where manganif- 
erous ores are frequently used, the decarburiz- 
ing oP the liquid metal is generally stopped 
short at the required point, and the steel run 
off; the exact instant at which the point for 
turning down the converter is reached being 
determined by the spectroscope. This beauti¬ 
ful application of the principles of spectrum 
analysis is due to Sir Henry E. Roscoe. The 
remelting of the pig in a cupola is also fre¬ 
quently dispensed with abroad. 

Bet'el (bet'le), a species of pepper, a creep¬ 
ing or climbing plant, native of the East In¬ 
dies. The leaves are employed to enclose a 
piece of the areca or betel nut and a little lime 
into a pellet, which is extensively chewed in 
the East. The pellet is hot and acrid, but has 
aromatic and astringent properties. It tinges 
the saliva, gums, and lips a brick-red, and 
blackens the teeth, 

Betel nut, the kernel of the fruit of a beau¬ 
tiful palm, found in India and the East, and 
named from being chewed along with betel 
leaf. When ripe it is of the size of a cherry, 
conical in shape, brown externally, and mot¬ 


tled internally like a nutmeg. Ceylon alone 
exports 70,000 cwt. annually. 

Beth'any (now called El’Azariyeh or Laza- 
rieh), a village of Palestine at the base of Mount 
Olivet, about two mi. e. of Jerusalem, formerly 
the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and 
the place near which the ascension of our Lord 
took place. 

Bethes'da (“house of mercy”), a pool in Je¬ 
rusalem near St. Stephen’s Gate and the Tem¬ 
ple of Omar. It is 460 ft. long, 130 broad, 
and 75 deep, and now known as Birket Israel. 
See John 5 : 2-9. 

Beth'lehem, the birthplace of Christ; a vil¬ 
lage, formerly a town in Palestine, a few miles 
south from Jerusalem. Pop. about 3,000, 
chiefly Christians, who make rosaries, cruci¬ 
fixes, etc., for pilgrims. There are three con¬ 
vents for Catholics, Greeks, and Armenians. 
A richly adorned grotto lighted with silver 
and crystal lamps, under the choir of the fine 
church built by Justinian, is shown at the ac¬ 
tual spot where Jesus was born. 

Bethlehem, a town of Pennsylvania founded 
by Moravians in 1741, on the Lehigh, across 
which is a bridge connectingitwithSouth Beth¬ 
lehem, the seat of Lehigh University. Pop. 
7,293. The vast Bethlehem iron works here 
produce armor plate and guns for the Ameri¬ 
can navy and coast defense service. 

Bel'tis (or Bitlis), a town, Turkish Armenia, 
not far from Lake Van, one of the most ancient 
cities of Kurdistan. Pop. (Turks, Kurds, and 
Armenians) from 5,000 to 10,000. 

Beust (boist), Friedrich Ferdinand, Count 
von (1809-1886), Saxon and Austrian statesman. 
He adopted the career of diplomacy, and as a 
member of embassies or ambassador for Saxony 
resided at Berlin, Paris, Munich, and London. 




Betel vine. 


He lent his influence on the side of Austria 
against Prussia before the war of 1866, after 
which, finding his position in Saxony difficult, 
he entered the service of Austria as minister 



























Beuthen 


Bheels 


of foreign affairs, became president of the 
ministry, imperial chancellor, and in 1868 was 
created count. In 1871-78 he was ambassador 
in London, in 1878-82 in Paris. 

Beuthen (boi'tn), a town in Prussian Silesia 
near the s.e. frontier, in the government of 
Oppeln; the center of a mining district. Manu¬ 
factures of cloth and linens. Pop. 22,811. 

Beveland (be've-lant), North and South, two 
islands in the estuary of the Scheldt, Nether¬ 
lands, province of Zealand; area of North 
Beveland, 18 sq. mi., pop. 6,000; area of South 
Beveland, 25 sq. mi., pop. 23,000; chief town, 
Goes, 5,000. It is very fertile, and has manu¬ 
factures of salt, leather, beer, etc. 

Bev'erley, town of England, East Riding 
of Yorkshire, 10 mi. n.n.w. of Hull, and 1 
from the river Hull, with which it has canal 
connection ; has a fine Gothic minster, com¬ 
pleted in the reign of Henry III, and in some 
regards unsurpassed. Pop. 12,539. 

Beverly, Mass., about 18 mi. n.e. of Boston ; 
a fine harbor, various manufactures. Pop. 
1890, 10,821. 

Bewick (bu'ik), Thomas (1753-1828), a cele¬ 
brated English wood engraver. He executed 
the woodcuts for Hutton’s Mensuration. In 
1775 he received the Society of Arts prize for 
the best wood engraving. He became known 
as a skilled wood engraver and designer by 
his illustrations to Gay's Fables, FEsop's Fables, 
etc. He quite established his fame by the 
issue of his History of Quadrupeds. Among his 
other works may be cited the engravings for 
Goldsmith’s Traveler and Deserted Village, Par¬ 
nell’s Hermit, and Somerville’s Chase. 

Bey rout (bi rot') (or Beirut; ancient Berytus), 
the chief seaport of Syria, pashalic of Acre, 
60 mi. n.w. of Damascus; pop. 83,729, mostly 
Christians. Its chief exports are, olive oil, 
cereals, sesame, tobacco, and wool; its manu¬ 
factures are silk and cotton. In ancient times 
Beyrout was a large and important Phoenician 
city. The Byzantine emperor Theodosius II 
raised it to the rank of a metropolis, and it 
again rose to importance during the Crusades. 
In later times it was long in the possession of 
the Druses. It was bombarded and taken by 
the British in 1840. 

Be'za (properly, de Beze), Theodore (1519— 
1605), next to Calvin the most distinguished man 
in the early reformed church of Geneva; born of 
a noble family at Vezelay, Burgundy, educated 
in Orleans under Melchior Yolmar, a German 
scholar devoted to the Reformation; in 1539 
became a licentiate of law, and went to reside 
at Paris. In 1549 he became professor of Greek 
at Lausanne. He rendered service to the cause 
of the reformers at the court of the king of 
Navarre and in attendance upon Conde and 
Coligny. In 1564 the administration of the 
Genevese church fell entirely to his care. 
Among his many works, his History of Calvin¬ 
ism in France from 1521 to 1563, and Theological 
Treatises, are still esteemed; but he is most fa¬ 
mous for his Latin translation of the New 

0 $ t m 0nt 

B6ziers (ba-zyar), a town in Southern 
France, dep. Herault, beautifully situated on a 


height and surrounded by old walls, its chief 
edifices being the cathedral, a Gothic structure 
crowning the height on which the town stands, 
and the old episcopal palace, now used for 
public offices; manufactures: woolens, hosiery 
liquors, chemicals, etc., with a good trade in 
spirits, wool, grain, oil, verdigris, and fruits. 
In 1209 Beziers was the scene of a horrible 
massacre of the Albigenses. Pop. 45,475. 

Be'zoar, a concretion or calculus, of a round¬ 
ish or ovate form, met with in the stomach or 
intestines of certain animals, especially rumi¬ 
nants. Nine varieties of bezoars have been 
enumerated, broadly divisible into those which 
consist mainly of mineral and those which 
consist of organic matter. The true oriental 
bezoars, obtained from the gazelle, belong to 
the second class. They are formed by accre¬ 
tion round some foreign substance, a bit of 
wood, straw, hair, etc., and were formerly re¬ 
garded as efficacious in preventing infection 
and the effects of poison. 

Bhagalpur (bha-gal-pbr), a city in Bengal, 
capital of a district of the same name. There 
are several indigo works in the neighborhood. 
Pop. 69,106. The district of Bhagalpur has an 
area of 4,327 sq. mi. and a pop. (chiefly Hindus 
and Mohammedans) of 2,032,696. 

Bhagavad=Gita, a philosophical Sanscrit 
poem supposed to belong to the first century 
before Christ, which containing some didactic 
and philosophical doctrines, is read in the 
English translation by the theosophists. 

Bhamo, a town of Burmah on the Upper Irra¬ 
waddy, about 40 mi. from the Chinese front¬ 
ier. It is the starting point of caravans to 
Yunnan, and is in position to become one of 
the great emporiums of the east in event of a 
regular overland trade being established be¬ 
tween India and West China. Pop. 8,018. 

Bhang. See Hashish. 

Bhar'trihari, Indian poet, reputed author of 
a book of apophthegms, according to legend 
a dissolute brother of King Vikramaditya (first 
century b. c.), who became a hermit and as¬ 
cetic. The collection of 300 apophthegms 
bearing his name is, however, probably an 
anthology; 200 of them were translated into 
English and published at Niirnberg by Abra¬ 
ham Roger as early as 1653, the first Indian 
writings known in Europe. 

Bheels (or Bhils), a Dravidic race inhabit¬ 
ing the Vindhya, Satpura, and Satmala Hills, 
a relic of the Indian aborigines driven from 
the plains by the Aryan Rajputs. They ap¬ 
pear to have been orderly and industrious un¬ 
der the Delhi emperors; but on the transfer 
of the power in the eighteenth century from 
the Moguls to the Marathas they asserted their 
independence, and being treated as outlaws 
took to the hills. Various attempts to subdue 
them were made by the Gaekwar and by the 
British in 1818 without success. A body of 
them was, however, subsequently reclaimed 
and a Bheel corps formed, which stormed the 
retreats of the rest of the race and reduced 
them to comparative order. The hill Bheels 
wear little clothing, and live precariously on 
grain, wild roots, and fruits, vermin, etc., but 


Bhopal 


Bible 


the lowland Beels are in many respects Hindu- 
ized. Their total numbers are about 750,000. 

Bhopal (bho-pal'), a native state of Central 
India under British protection, on the Ner- 
budda, in Malwah. Area 6,784 sq. mi. Chief 
exports: sugar, tobacco, ginger, and cotton. 
Pop. 952,486. The capital of above state, also 
called Bhopal, is on the boundary between 
Malwah and Gundwana. Pop. 55.402. 

Bhurtpore' (or Bhartpur'), a native state, 
India, in RajputJna. Area 1,982 sq. mi. Chief 
productions: corn, cotton, and sugar. Under 
British protection since 1826. Pop. 640,303. 
The capital, which has the same name, is a 
fortified place, and was formerly of great 
strength, Lord Lake being compelled to raise 
the siege in 1805 after losing 3,100 men. It was 
taken by Lord Combermere in 1827. Pop. 
66,163. 

Bhutan (bhu-tan'), an independent state of 
India, in the Eastern Himalayas, with an area 
of about 10,000 sq. mi. Pop. 20,000 or 30,000. 

Biaf'ra, Bight of, an African bay running 
in from the Gulf of Guinea, having the Cam¬ 
eroon Mountains at its inner angle, and con¬ 
taining the island of Fernando Po. 

Biar'ritz, a small seaport, France, Besses- 
Pyrenees, near Bayonne. It became a fash¬ 
ionable watering place during the reign of 
Napoleon III, who had an autumn residence 
there. Pop. 9,117. 

Bi as, one of the seven sages of Greece, 
b. at Priene, in Ionia; flourished about 570 
b. c. He appears to have been in repute as 
a political and legal adviser, and many say¬ 
ings of practical wisdom attributed to him are 
preserved by Diogenes Laertius. 

Bible (Greek biblia, books, from biblos, the 
inner bark of the papyrus, on which the an¬ 
cients wrote), the collection of the Sacred 
Writings or Holy Scriptures of the Christians. 
Its two main divisions, one received by both 
Jews and Christians, the other by Christians 
only, are improperly termed Testaments, ow¬ 
ing to the confusion of two meanings of the 
Greek work diatheke, which was applied indif¬ 
ferently to a covenant and to a last will or 
testament. The Jewish religion being repre¬ 
sented as a compact between God and the 
Jews, the Christian religion was regarded as 
a new compact between God and the hu¬ 
man race; and the Bible is, therefore, properly 
divisible into the Writings of the Old and 
New Covenants. The books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment received by the Jews were divided by 
them into three classes: 1, The Law, con¬ 
tained in the Pentateuch or five books of 
Moses. 2, The Prophets, comprising Joshua, 
Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isa¬ 
iah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor 
prophets. 3, The Ketubim (or Hagiograpna) 
{holy writings) containing the Psalms, Prov¬ 
erbs, Job, in one division; Ruth, Lamenta¬ 
tions, Ecclesiastes, Esther, the Song of Solo¬ 
mon, in another division; Daniel, Ezra, Nehe- 
miah, 1 and 2 Chronicles, in a third. These 
books are extant in the Hebrew language; 
others, rejected from the canon as apocryphal 
by Protestants, found only in Greek or Latin. 


The books of Moses were deposited, accord¬ 
ing to the Bible, in the tabernacle, near the 
ark, the other sacred writings being similarly 
preserved. They were removed by Solomon 
to the temple, and on the capture of Jerusalem 
by Nebuchadnezzar probably perished. Ac¬ 
cording to Jewish tradition Ezra, with the 
assistance of the great synagogue, collected 
and compared as many copies as could be 
found, and from this collation an edition of the 
whole was prepared, with the exception of 
the writings of Ezra, Malachi, and Nehemiah, 
added subsequently, and certain obviously 
later insertions in other books. When Judas 
Maccabaeus repaired the temple, which had 
been destroyed by Antiochus Epiphanes, he 
placed in it a correct copy of the Hebrew 
Scriptures, whether the recension of Ezra or 
not is not known. This copy was carried to 
Rome by Titus. The exact date of the deter¬ 
mination of the Hebrew canon is uncertain, 
but no work known to be written later than 
about 100 years after the captivity w r as ad¬ 
mitted into it by the Jews of Palestine. The 
Hellenistic or Alexandrian Jews, however, 
were less strict, and admitted many later writ¬ 
ings, forming what is now known as the Apoc¬ 
rypha, in which they were followed by the 
Latin Church. The Protestant churches at 
the reformation gave in their adherence to the 
restricted Hebrew canon, though the apocry¬ 
pha was long included in the various editions 
of the Bible. The division into chapters and 
verses, as it now exists, is of comparatively 
modern origin, though divisions of some kind 
were early introduced. Cardinal Hugo de 
Sancto Caro, in the thirteenth century, di¬ 
vided the Latin translation known as the 
Vulgate into chapters for convenience of refer¬ 
ence, and similar divisions were made in the He¬ 
brew text by the Rabbi Mordecai Nathan in 
the fifteenth century. About the middle of the 
sixteenth century the verses in Robert Steph- 
anus’s edition of the Vulgate were for the 
first time marked by numbers. 

The earliest and most famous version of the 
Old Testament is the Septuagint, or Greek 
translation, executed by Alexandrian Greeks, 
and completed probably before 130 b. c., dif¬ 
ferent portions being done at different times. 
This version was adopted by the early Chris¬ 
tian church and by the Jews themselves, and 
has always held an important place in regard 
to the interpretation and history of the Bible. 
The Syriac version, the Peshito, made early in 
the second century after Christ, is celebrated 
for its fidelity. The Coptic version was made 
from the Septuagint in the third or fourth 
century. The Gothic version, by Ulphilas, 
was made from the Septuagint in the fourth 
century, but mere insignificant fragments of 
it are extant. The most important Latin ver¬ 
sion is the Vulgate, executed by Jerome, partly 
on the basis of the original Hebrew, and com¬ 
pleted in 405 a. d. 

The printed editions of the Hebrew Bible 
are very numerous. The first edition of the 
entire Hebrew Bible was printed at Soncino in 
1488. The Brescian edition of 1494 was used 


Bible 


Bible 


by Luther in making his German translation. 
The editions of Athias (1661 and 1667) are much 
esteemed for their beauty and correctness. 
Van der Hooght followed the latter. Doctor 
Kennicott did more than any one of his prede¬ 
cessors to settle the Hebrew text. His Hebrew 
Bible appeared at Oxford in 1776-80, two vols. 
folio. The text is from that of Van der Hooght, 
with which 680 MSS. were collated. De Rossi, 
who published a supplement to Kennicott’s edi¬ 
tion (Parma, 1784-99, five vols. 4to), collated 
958 MSS. The German Orientalists, Gesenius, 
De Wette, etc., in recent times, have done very 
much toward correcting the Hebrew text. 
The oldest MS. of the Hebrew Bible belongs 
to 1106, and presents what is known as the 
Massoretic text; that is, the text provided 
with the vowel points and other markings 
which were inserted by Jewish scholars known 
as the Massoretes. 

The books of the New Testament were all 
written in Greek, unless it be true, as some 
critics suppose, that the gospel of St. Mat¬ 
thew was originally written in Hebrew. Most 
of these writings have always been received as 
canonical; but the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
commonly ascribed to St. Paul, that of St. 
Jude, the second of Peter, the second and 
third of John, and the Apocalypse, have been 
doubted. The three oldest MSS. are: 1, the 
Sinaitic MS., discovered by Tischendorf in a 
convent on Mount Sinai in 1859, assigned to 
the middle of the fourth century; 2, the Vati¬ 
can MS. at Rome, of similar date; 8, the 
Alexandrine MS. in the British Museum, as¬ 
signed to the middle of the fifth century. 
Each MS. contains also the Septuagint Greek 
of the Old Testament in great part. The Vul¬ 
gate of Jerome embraces a Latin translation 
of the New as well as of the Old Testament, 
based on an older Latin version. The division 
of the text of the New Testament into chap¬ 
ters and verses was introduced later than that 
of the Old Testament; but it is not precisely 
known when or by whom. The Greek text 
was first printed in the Complutensian Poly¬ 
glot, in 1514; in 1516 an edition of it was pub¬ 
lished at Basel by Erasmus. Among recent 
valuable editions are those of Lachmann, 
Tischendorf, Tregelles, and Westcott and 
Hort. 

Of translations of the Bible into modern 
languages the English and the German are the 
most celebrated. Considerable portions were 
translated into Anglo-Saxon, including the 
Gospels and the Psalter. Wyclitfe’s^transla- 
tion of the whole Bible (from the Vulgate), 
begun about 1356, was completed shortly be¬ 
fore his death, which took place in 1384. The 
first printed version of the Bible in English was 
the translation of William Tindall (or Tyndale), 
whose New Testament was printed in quarto 
at Cologne in 1525, a small octavo edition ap¬ 
pearing at the same time at Worms. Tonstall, 
bishop of London, caused the first edition to 
be bought up and burned. The Pentateuch 
was published by Tindall in 1530, and he also 
translated some of the prophetical books. Our 
translation of the New Testament is much in¬ 


debted to Tindall’s. A translation of the entire 
Bible was published by Miles Coverdale in 1535. 
It was undertaken at the instance of Thomas 
Cromwell, and being made from German and 
Latin versions was inferior to Tindall’s. After 
the death of Tindall, John Rogers undertook 
the completion of his translation and the prepa¬ 
ration of a new edition. In this edition the 
latter part of the Old Testament (after 2 
Chronicles) was based on Coverdale’s version. 
A revised edition was published in 1539 under 
the superintendence of Richard Taverner. In 
the same year as Taverner’s, another edition 
appeared, printed by authority, with a preface 
by Cranmer, and hence called Cranmer’s Bible. 
This was the first Bible printed by authority 
in England, and a royal proclamation in 1540 
ordered it to be placed in every parish church. 
This continued, with various revisions, to be 
the authorized version till 1568. In 1557-60 
an edition appeared at Geneva, based on Tin¬ 
dall’s—the work of Whittington, Coverdale, 
Goodman, John Knox, and other exiles—and 
commonly called the Geneva (or Breeches) Bible 
(from “breeches” standing instead of “aprons” 
in Gen. 3:7). This version, for 60 years the 
most popular in England, was allowed to be 
printed in England under a patent of monopoly 
in 1561. It was the first printed in Roman 
letters, and was also the first to adopt the plan 
previously adopted in the Hebrew of a division 
into verses. It omitted the Apocrypha, left 
the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
open, and put words not in the original in 
italics. The Bishops’ Bible, published 1568 to 
1572, was based on Cranmer’s, and revised by 
Archbishop Parker and eight bishops. It suc¬ 
ceeded Cranmer’s as the authorized version, 
but did not commend itself to scholars or people. 
In 1582 an edition of the New Testament, trans¬ 
lated from the Latin Vulgate, appeared at 
Rheims, and in 1609-10 the Old Testament was 
published at Douay. This is the version rec¬ 
ognized by the Roman Catholic Church. 

In the reign of James I a Hebrew scholar, 
Hugh Broughton, insisted on the necessity of 
a new translation, and at the Hampton Court 
Conference (1604) the suggestion was accepted 
by the king. The work was undertaken by 
forty-seven scholars divided into six compa¬ 
nies, two meeting at Westminster, two at Ox¬ 
ford, and two at Cambridge, while a general 
committee meeting in London revised the por¬ 
tions of the translation finished by each. The 
revision was begun in 1607, and occupied three 
years, the completed work being published in 
folio in 1611. By the'general accuracy of its 
translation and the purity of its style it super¬ 
seded all other versions. In response, how¬ 
ever, to a widely-spread desire for a transla¬ 
tion even yet more free from errors, the Con¬ 
vocation of Canterbury in 1870 appointed a 
committee to consider the question of revis¬ 
ing the English version. Their report being 
favorable, two companies were formed, one for 
the Old Testament and one for the New, con¬ 
sisting partly of members of Convocation and 
partly of outside scholars. Two similar com¬ 
panies were also organized in America to work 


Bibliography 

along with the British scholars. The result 
was that the revised version of the New Tes¬ 
tament was issued in 1881; that of the Old 
Testament in 1884. The revision has been 
carried out in a spirit of reverence toward the 
older version, and few alterations have been 
admitted but such as have been called for on 
the score of accuracy, clearness, and uniform¬ 
ity. See the revisers’ prefaces. 

In Germany some seventeen translations of 
the Bible, partly in the High German partly 
in the Low German dialect, appeared between 
the invention of printing and the Reforma¬ 
tion. but they had all to make way for Lu¬ 
ther’s great translation — the New Testament 
in 1522, and the whole Bible in 1534. 

Bibliog'raphy (Gr .biblion, a book, and grapho, 
I describe), the knowledge of books, in refer¬ 
ence to the subjects discussed in them, their 
different degrees of rarity, curiosity, reputed 
and real value, the materials of which they are 
composed, and the rank which they ought to 
hold in the classification of a library. The 
subject is sometimes divided into general, na¬ 
tional , and special, bibliography according as it 
deals with books in general, with those of a 
particular country, or with those on special 
subjects or having a special character (as, early 
printed books, anonymous books). A subdi¬ 
vision of each of these might be made into 
material and literary, according as books were 
viewed in regard to their mere externals or in 
regard to their contents. American literature 
has already given rise to a series of bibliograph¬ 
ical works; e. g., Bibliographical Catalogue of 
Books, Translations of the Scriptures, and other 
publications in the Indian tongues of the U. S,, 
1849; Duychinch's Cyclopedia of American Litera¬ 
ture, 1856; Trubner's Bibliographical Guide to 
American Literature, 1856; and the General 
American Catalogue. 

Bicarbonate, a carbonate derived from car¬ 
bonic acid by replacing one of the atoms of 
hydrogen by a metal. Bicarbonate of sodium 
is used as an ant-acid, and effervescing liquors 
are usually produced by mixing it with tar¬ 
taric acid. It is also the chief ingredient of 
baking powder. 

Bice, the name of two colors used in paint¬ 
ing, one blue, the other green, and both native 
carbonates of copper, though inferior kinds 
are also prepared artificially. 

Biceps, the large muscle in front of the up¬ 
per arm. See Anatomy. 

Bichat (bo-sha), Marie Francois Xavier 
(1771-1802), French anatomist and physiolo¬ 
gist, b. at Thoriette. Bichat was the first who 
recognized the identity of the tissues in the dif¬ 
ferent organs. 

Bicycle. In 1818 something in the nature of 
a bicycle was introduced into England by 
Baron von Drais, a Frenchman, resident at 
Mannheim, and was known as the Draisnene (or 
Celerifere); while velocipedes or manumotive 
machines with three or more wheels were in 
occasional use in England even before that 
date, one of the earliest being an invention of 
Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1767). The Drais¬ 
nene consisted of two wheels, about 30 inches 


Bicycle 

in diameter, running one in the wake of the 
other, and connected by a beam of wood, upon 
which, midway from each end, was placed a 
saddle or perch. At the fore-end of the beam 
an arm-rest was secured, and this roughly 
completed the apparatus. The rider placed 
his leg over the beam, got into the saddle, and, 
resting his arms upon the support referred to, 
pushed the “dandy-horse” ahead by kicking 
the ground with his right and left foot alter¬ 
nately. The fashioning of the first practical 
bicycle (1846) is credited to one Gavin Dalzell, 
a Scotch cooper, who lived at Lesmahagow, in 
Lanarkshire. It went by the name of the 
“wooden-horse,” being constructed chiefly of 
wood; the saddle was low, and the pedal move¬ 
ments or “stirrups,” which moved backward 
and forward alternately, were connected by 
iron rods with the cranked axle of the driving- 
wheel. The next revival of cycling may be 
said to date from 1867. A few years previous 
to this it occurred to an inventive genius, M. 



The “Dandy-horse.” 


Michaux, to fit to the hobby-horse a pair of 
pedals by which the front wheel might be 
revolved with the feet. A transverse handle 
was affixed to the front wheel, which admitted 
of its being turned even to a right angle. This 
newcomer was known as the bicycle, but it is 
now irreverently alluded to in all quarters as 
the “boneshaker”—probably because it was 
made of wood and shod with iron tires instead 
of rubber. The utility of the cycle is proved 
beyond all question. It has become the poor 
man’s carriage, and the rich man’s hobby in 
more senses than one. Clergymen visit their 
parishioners, medical men their patients, and 
tens of thousands transact their business or 
follow their pleasures by its means, while it is 
next to impossible to pass through any of our 
towns without seeing that the cycle, in some 
of its numerous shapes, is ably ministering to 
the wants of the community. As with most 
other sports or pastimes, cycling is strong in a 
clubdom of its own. Hundreds of local clubs 
exist in different parts of the country. Cycle¬ 
racing, by both amateurs and professionals, 
has developed into a fine art. Cinder-paths, 
specially constructed for the purpose, exist in 
nearly all the more important centers, and 
amateur race meetings are of frequent occur- 






Bicycles 

rence during the summer season. Cycling is 
not only extremely popular among the sterner 
sex, but ladies innumerable have taken to the 
pastime. Many devices for reducing the labor 
required to propel a machine over heavy roads 
and up steep gradients have from time to time 
been devised. A simple method of ascertain¬ 
ing how a machine is geared is to multiply the 
diameter of the driving-wheels by the number 
of teeth in the lower cog-wheel, and then 
divide by the number of teeth in the cog upon 
the main axle; e. g., a 40-inch wheel has 20 
teeth upon its lower cog-wheel, and fifteen 
upon the upper; this gives a gearing of 53i 
inches. 

Trick-riding is an art which the American 
riders assiduously practise, and in which they 
naturally excel; so much so, that many pro¬ 
fessors thereof have from time to time visited 
Europe to exhibit their prowess to the multi¬ 
tude. Within the last few years skilled and 
competent engineers and mechanics have 
turned their attention to the perfecting of the 
cycle. There are a large number of flourish¬ 
ing cyclist clubs in the large cities, such as 
New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, 
and Washington. As might be expected, man¬ 
ufacturing enterprise has kept pace with the 
demand; and America is also well supplied 
with cycling literature. 

The parts of a bicycle that separately rep¬ 
resent different allied industries are the chain, 
the pedals, the handle, the saddle, the rims, 
and the tires. Every part may be, and fre¬ 
quently is, bought of specialty makers and as¬ 
sembled in almost any make of machine that 
is not an infringement of name. Many fac¬ 
tories make all of the bicycle except the chain, 
saddle, pedals, steel bearing-balls, and the tires. 
The tubing that is used in the make-up of a 
bicycle comes to the factory in lengths of 12 
to 20 feet. It is then cut into lengths needed 
in the construction of the bicycle. The tub¬ 
ing employed in making a light bicycle is 
from a half inch to an inch and a quarter in 
diameter and varies from 20 to 24 gauge in re¬ 
spect to the thinness of the shell. Tubing of 
24 gauge is very thin compared with the heavy 
material used a few years ago, and the tend¬ 
ency is to adopt tubings of large diameter 
and very light gauge. The cuts of tubing are 
sent to the forges and prepared for joining at 
the different points in putting together the 
frame of the bicycle. The frame consists of 
eight pieces of tubing, the upper, lower and 
middle braces, rear fork, rear brace, and the 
head, including the bracket or cylinder at¬ 
tached at the lower junction where the shaft 
turns. The frame is put together by the braz¬ 
ing process. This consists in joining together 
two pieces of metal by first covering the ends 
with borax and spelter, and then heating the 
joint in a furnace, until the spelter accom¬ 
plishes a complete union of the parts. Spelter 
is copper and zinc or a high grade of brass in 
granulated form. The frame is then ready to 
receive the enamel. It is dipped into a vat of 
enamel, the ends having been first plugged 
with cork, and hung up to dry. The next step 


Bicycles 

is to bake it. It is put into an oven where a 
tremendous heat is brought to bear, and the 
enamel becomes so hard it is almost a part of 
the metal. The frames hang from brackets 
overhead until they are dry, and they are then 
brought to the department known as the as¬ 
sembling room. Pieces of steel for the hubs 
and other turned parts come in the form of 
bars, and are reduced to about the shape wanted 
by means of a machine that works automatic¬ 
ally. The machines are started and allowed 
to run until thejbars are cut into screws, hubs, 
or whatever is wanted. All these pieces are 
sent to the different departments to be tem¬ 
pered, polished, and nickeled, the hubs finally 
going to the room where the spokes are put in. 
Hollow material is employed wherever possi¬ 
ble in order to decrease the weight of the ma¬ 
chine. Crank brackets are made of tubing 
instead of forging, and wherever an ounce 
can be drilled out or turned off it is done 
in the search for lightness with attendant 
strength. 

The manufacture of wooden rims like the 
manufacture of pneumatic tires constitute a 
separate industry. The bicycle wheel belongs 
to the order of suspension wheels. The wheel 
is made up of a drop-forged steel hub, steel 
wire spokes, and a steel or wooden rim. The 
wooden rims are brought into the factory where 
the spoke holes are drilled into them. A set of 
spokes require slanting holes in the rim, and 
every hole must slant in an opposite direction. 
There are 16 spoke holes in the front wheel, 
18 in the rear wheel. The wire for the spokes 
comes in spools or bundles and must be straight¬ 
ened out before it is cut into proper lengths. 
The spoke at the tire and hub ends is twice as 
thick as the original wire. The metal is driven 
down on to itself, giving the spoke more body 
at the ends. Another machine cuts a thread 
on the rim, and still another bends the head or 
spoke end so that it will hook into the flange of 
the hub. The spokes are then plated with 
nickel, polished, and taken to the assembling 
room. The steel hub comes from the drop 
forge in a solid piece, but not bored out. A 
series of lathes shape the hub and bore it for 
the spindle, and a gang drill which bores eight 
holes at once fits it for receiving the spokes. 
The hub comes to meet the rim and spokes all 
fitted with ball-bearings. The wire spokes are 
slipped through the holes in the flanges, after 
which the rim is put on. The spokes are 
fastened on the outside of the rim by means of 
screws. After the rim has been put on, the 
wheel is put in a spindle which is perfectly 
true. The hub of the wheel is also perfectly 
true, and the hub will revolve squarely and 
evenly on this test spindle. The rim, however, 
does not at first revolve uniformly, or in other 
words, it is not true. A gauge is set near the 
edge of the rim, and the wheel is revolved. The 
fault is corrected by a workman who fastens 
and tightens first one spoke and then another 
until the tension is the same on all sides. The 
projecting ends of the spokes are ground down 
even, and the wheel is ready to receive the 
pneumatic tire. The polished steel balls, 


Biddle 


Bienville 


which make the ball-bearings, are examined 
very closely with a magnifying glass and care¬ 
fully sorted. If there are any imperfections in 
any of the balls, they are thrown out. In the 
assembling room the finished parts of the 
machine are all brought to the benches of the 
workmen, who quickly set up the bicycle and 
rfiake it ready for the crate in which it is to be 
shipped. 

Biddle, James (1783-1848), American naval 
officer. He was educated at the University of 
Pennsylvania; entered the navy as a midship¬ 
man in 1800; served in the war with Tripoli; 
was captured in the frigate Philadelphia, and 
confined for four months. During the War 
of 1812 he was on the Wasp, and led in the 
action against the Frolic, which he com¬ 
manded after its capture. Both vessels were 
taken by the British ship Poictiers, and con- 
vejmd to the Bermudas. After his exchange 
in March, 1813, he was given command of a 
flotilla of gunboats on the Delaware, and trans¬ 
ferred to the Hornet, in Decatur’s squadron, 
blockaded at New London, Conn. He escaped 
and captured the Penguin off the island Tristan 
d’Acunha, in March, 1813, for which Congress 
gave him a gold medal. In February, 1815, he 
became captain. During his command of the 
Mediterranean squadron, 1831, he negotiated a 
commercial treaty with Turkey, and was en¬ 
gaged in diplomatic service in China in 1845. 

Biddeford, York co., Me., on Saco River, 
100 mi. n. of Boston. Railroads: Boston & 
Maine; Eastern & Electric. Industries: cot¬ 
ton mills, brass and iron foundries, lumber 
mills, shoe, box, and other factories. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural. The town was 
first settled in 1630 at the Pool, which was 
then “Winter Harbor,” and embraced the 
city of Saco, directly across the harbor, until 
1718 when it was incorporated as a town, and 
became a city in 1855. Pop. 1900, 16,145. 

Biddle, John (1615-1662), father of the mod¬ 
ern Unitarians, Gloucestershire. He was ed¬ 
ucated at Oxford, and became master of a 
free-school at Gloucester. He was repeatedly 
imprisoned for his views. A general act of 
oblivion in 1652 restored him to liberty, when 
he immediately disseminated his opinions by 
his Twofold Scripture Catechism. He was again 
imprisoned, and the law of 1648 was to be put 
in operation against him when Cromwell ban¬ 
ished him to St. Mary’s Castle, Scilly, and as¬ 
signed him 100 crowns annually. Here he 
remained three years. He then continued to 
preach his opinions till the death of Cromwell, 
and also after the Restoration, when he was 
committed to jail in 1662. 

Bideford (bid'e-ford), a seaport of England, 
county Devon, 44 mi. n. of Plymouth, pictur¬ 
esquely situated on both sides of the Tor- 
ridge, 4 miles from the sea. Its industries 
embrace coarse earthenware, ropes, sails, etc. 
Its shipping trade was formerly large, but is 
not now of much importance. Pop. 7,908. 

Bidery, an alloy primarily, composed of 
copper, lead, tin, to every 3 oz. of which 16 oz. 
of spelter (zinc) are added. Many articles of 
Indian manufacture, remarkable for elegance 


of form and gracefully engraved patterns, are 
made of it. It is said not to rust, to yield lit¬ 
tle to the hammer, and to break only when vio¬ 
lently beaten. Articles formed from it are 
generally inlaid with silver or gold and pol¬ 
ished. 

Biddle, Nicholas (1750-1778), American na¬ 
val officer, b. in Philadelphia. He entered 
the British navy in 1770, but absconded and 
sailed under Nelson in the Carcass in the ex¬ 
ploring expedition of Captain Phipps. At 
the beginning of the War of Independence he 
returned to Philadelphia, was made captain 
of the brig Andrew Doria, with 14 guns and 
120 men; served in Commodore Hopkins’s at¬ 
tack on New Providence, and cruised off New¬ 
foundland. In February, 1777, he was ap¬ 
pointed commander of the Randolph, a frigate 
of 32 guns. Soon afterward he was made 
commander of a small squadron and cruised 
in the West Indies, where he encountered the 
Yarmouth, a British frigate of 64 guns, and 
was wounded in the action. During the en¬ 
gagement the magazine of Commodore Bid¬ 
dle’s vessel exploded, and he and his crew 
were blown up. Only 4 of the 315 men es¬ 
caped. 

Biddle, Nicholas ( 1786-1844 ), American 
banker. He studied law, became secretary to 
James Monroe, who was then minister to Eng¬ 
land, and was elected to the legislature of 
Pennsylvania in 1810. In 1819 he became a di¬ 
rector, and four years later was president of 
the U. S. bank 1825-39. He had a protracted 
fight with General Jackson over the with¬ 
drawal of the government deposits in 1833. 
He was one of the founders of Girard College. 

Biela's Comet (be'la), discovered by M. 
Biela (1782-1856), an Austrian officer, in 1826. 
Its periodic time was determined as six years, 
thirty-eight weeks. It returned in 1832, 1839, 
1846, and 1852. On the latter two occasions 
it was in two parts, each having a distinct 
nucleus and tail. It has not since been seen 
as a comet; but in 1872, 1879, and 1885, when 
the earth passed through the comet’s track, 
immense flights of meteors were seen, which 
have been connected with the broken up and 
dispersed comet. 

Bielefeld (be'le-felt), a town of Prussia, in 
the province of Westphalia, 38 mi. e. of Mun¬ 
ster; one of the chief places in Germany for 
flax spinning and linen manufacture. Pop. 
39,950. 

Bienne (bi-an) (or Biel), a town, Switzer¬ 
land, canton of Bern, 16 mi. n. w. of Bern, 
beautifully situated at the n. end of the lake 
of same name, and at the foot of the Jura. 
Pop. 18,487. The lake is about 10 mi. long 
by 3 broad. It receives the waters of Lake 
Neufchatel by the Thiel and discharges itself 
into the Aar. 

Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur 
de (1680-1768), governor of Louisiana. He 
accompanied Iberville, who was commissioned 
by the French government to explore the 
mouth of the Mississippi and erect a fort 
there. They settled at Biloxi, 1699, and Bien¬ 
ville explored the country and erected a fort 


Bierstadt 


BUI 


54 mi. above the mouth of the river in 1700. 
In 1701 he became director of the colony, and 
removed its capital to Mobile, but was dis¬ 
charged from his office in 1707. A new colony 
having been formed by Law’s Mississippi com¬ 
pany, Bienville was made its governor, and 
founded the city of New Orleans in 1718. He 
transferred the capital of Louisiana to New 
Orleans in 1723, and in January, 1724, was called 
to France. He was removed from his post on 
Aug. 9, 1726, but in 1733 he was again made 
governor of Louisiana, with the rank of lieu¬ 
tenant general. He published a code which 
regulated the condition of slaves, prohibited 
every religion except the Roman Catholic, and 
banishecf Jews from the colony; this remained 
in force until Louisiana was purchased by the 
U. S. 

Bierstadt, Albert, painter, b. 1830 in Diissel- 
dorf, Germany; came to America when a child. 
He studied art in Europe, but chose California 
and Colorado as the field for his work. His 
specialty is mountain scenery, and he painted 
Laramie Peak, Lander’s Peak, Mt. Hood, and 
other peaks of the Rockies and the Sierra 
Nevada. He is a member of the National 
Academy and of the St. Petersburg Academy 
of Fine Arts. 

Bigelow, John, journalist, b. 1817 in Malden, 
N. Y.; became part owner of the New York 
Evening Post in 1849, and managed that paper 
until 1861. In 1861 he was sent to Paris as con¬ 
sul, and was U. S. minister there 1865-67. In 
1867-68 he went over to the Democratic party, 
and was elected secretary of state of New 
York. Mr. Bigelow has written lives of Fre¬ 
mont, Bryant, and has edited Franklin’s auto¬ 
biography and Tilden’s speeches. 

Biggar, Joseph Gillis (1828-1890), Irish 
politician. He was elected to Parliament from 
Cavan as a Home Ruler in 1874, and became 
known as the champion obstructionist of the 
House of Commons. He was twice prosecuted 
for sedition and conspiracy, but both juries 
disagreed. 

Big Horn, a river of Wyoming and Mon¬ 
tana, the largest tributary of the Yellowstone. 
Course, 400 mi. 

Big-horn, the wild sheep of the Rocky 
Mountains, named from the size of its horns, 
which are 3^ ft. long, the animal itself being of 
the same height at the shoulder. The big¬ 
horns are gregarious, going in herds of 20 or 
30, frequenting the craggiest and most inac¬ 
cessible rocks, and are wild and untamable. It 
is called also Rocky Mountain goat. 

Bigno'nia, a genus of plants of many spe¬ 
cies, inhabitants of hot climates, usually 
climbing shrubs furnished with tendrils; flow¬ 
ers mostly in terminal or axillary panicles; 
corolla trumpet-shaped, hence the name of 
trumpet-flower commonly given to these plants. 
All the species are splendid plants when in 
blossom, and many of them are cultivated in 
our gardens. 

Big Rapids, Mecosta co., Mich., on Muskegon 
River, 56 mi. n. of Grand Rapids. Railroads: 
G. R. & I.; C. & W. M.; and D. G. R. & W. 
Industries: furniture manufacturing, flour 


mill, and a number of smaller factories. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural. The town was 
first settled in 1854 and became a city in 1869. 
Pop. 1900, 4,686. 

Bikaner' , a native state of RJjputJna, India, 
under the superintendence of a political agent 
and the governor general’s agent for RJjputJna. 
Area 23,090sq. mi.; pop. 831,955. Bikaner, the 
capital, is surrounped by a fine wall 3| miles in 
circuit. It has a fort, containing the rajah’s 
palace, is irregularly built, but with many 
good houses, and manufactures blankets, 
sugar candy, pottery, etc. Pop. including sub¬ 
urbs, 56,252. 

Bilaspur (bi-las-por'), a district of the Cen¬ 
tral Provinces of India. Area 7,798 sq. mi.; 
pop. 1,017,327. The administrative headquar¬ 
ters of the district are at Bilaspur, which is 
also the principal town. Pop. 7,775. 

Bilba o, a city in Northern Spain, capital 
of the province of Biscay (or Bilbao), on the 
navigable Nervion, 8 miles from the sea. It 
has a cathedral and several convents; also 
manufactures of hardware, earthenware, 
leather, and paper, and possesses large ship¬ 
yards and iron foundries. It exports large 
quantities of iron ore. Pop. 50,772. 

Bilboes (bil'boz), an apparatus for confin¬ 
ing the feet of offenders, especially on board 
ships, consisting of a long bar of iron with 
shackles sliding on it and a lock at one end 
to keep them from getting off, offenders being 
thus “put in irons.” 

Bile, a yellow, bitter liquor, separated from 
the blood by the primary cells of the liver, 
and collected by the biliary ducts, which unite 
to form the hepatic duct, whence it passes into 
the duodenum, or by the cystic duct into the 
gall bladder to be retained there till required 
for use. The most obvious use of the bile is 
to aid in the digestion of fatty substances and 
to convert the chyme into chyle. Every 
kind of bile contains two essential constituents, 
the bile salts and the bile coloring matter as¬ 
sociated with small quantities of cholesterine, 
fats, chloride of sodium, phosphates, and iron. 
When bile is not secreted in due quantity from 
the blood the unhealthy condition of bilious¬ 
ness results. 

Bil'iary Cal'cuius, a concretion which 
forms in the gall bladder or bile-ducts; gall¬ 
stone. It is generally composed of a peculiar 
crystalline fatty matter which has been called 
cholesterine. 

Bill, a written or printed paper containing a 
statement of any particulars. In common use 
a tradesman’s account, or a printed proclama¬ 
tion or advertisement, is thus called a bill. In 
legislation a bill is a draft of a proposed stat¬ 
ute submitted to a legislative assembly for ap¬ 
proval; but not yet enacted or passed and made 
law. When the bill has passed and received 
the necessary assent, it becomes an act. 

Bill of Exchange (including promissory notes 
and inland bills or acceptances). —A bill of ex¬ 
change is defined as an order in writing ad¬ 
dressed by one person to another, signed by 
the person giving it, requiring the person to 
whom it is addressed to pay on demand pr at a 


Bill 


Bill 


fixed or determinable future time a certain 
sum of money to or to the order of a specified 
person or to bearer. Bills of exchange are di¬ 
vided into foreign and inland bills, but in mer¬ 
cantile usage the term bill of exchange is sel¬ 
dom applied to other than foreign bills. An 
inland bill of exchange, generally called a bill 
of acceptance, has more in common with a 
promissory note than with a foreign bill of ex¬ 
change. We give the common forms of the 
three documents. 

(1) Promissory Note. 

$ 110 . 00 . 

Chicago, April 2, 1898. 

Three months after date I promise to pay to 
the order of W. S. [or “to W. S. or his order”] 
the sum of One Hundred and Ten Dollars, for 
value received. (Signed) J. D. 

(2) Inland Bill of Acceptance. 

$ 110 . 00 . 

Philadelphia, Jan.l, 1898. 

Three months after date pay to our order 
[or “to the order of J. S.”] the sum of One 
Hundred and Ten Dollars, for value received. 

(Signed) F. G. & Co. 

To Messrs. A. B. & Co., Baltimore, Md. 

This form is accepted by writing across the 
body of the bill:— 

“Accepted. * 

A. B. & Co.” 

(3) Foreign Bill of Exchange. 

$ 110 . 00 . 

Lima, O., Jan. 1, 1898. 

At sixty days’ sight of this first of ex¬ 
change (second and third of sarrte tenor and 
date unpaid) pay to the order of W. S. the sum 
of One Hundred and Ten Dollars, value as ad¬ 
vised [or, “ which charge to our account,” or 

“ to account of-as advised.”] 

(Signed) F. & Co. 

To F. B. & Co., Liverpool. 

(Second and third drawn in same form as 
first, one only of the set being negotiable. In¬ 
stead of three copies being used, which is 
called drawing a bill in parts, one only may be 
drawn, the form then used being “ this sola of 
exchange.”) 

The acceptor of this bill writes across it the 
date on which it is presented, together with 
his signature, thus:— 

“Accepted, Feb. 4, 1898. 

F. B. & Co.” 

The person who makes or draws the bill is 
called the drawer , he to whom it is addressed 
is, before acceptance, the drawee, and after ac¬ 
cepting it, the acceptor; the person in whose 
favor it is drawn is the payee; if he endorse 
the bill to another, he is called the endorser, 
and the person to whom it is thus assigned is 
the endorsee or holder. A bill when properly 
stamped is negotiable, and may be discounted 
at a bank, or may pass from hand to hand by 
the process of endorsement; many names being 
frequently attached to one bill as endorsers, 


each of whom is liable to be sued upon the 
bill if it be not paid in due time. The last 
phase in the negotiation of a bill is usually 
its being discounted with a banker. The 
merchant may either discount it with a bill- 
broker, who re-discounts it with the banker, 
or he may take it direct to the banker. The 
broker or banker deducts (as do also the pre¬ 
vious negotiators of a bill) a discount, or equiv¬ 
alent for the use of the money he pays until the 
due date of the bill, when he expects it will be 
repaid him. When a bill reached the date of 
payment, and was not duly paid, it used to 
be noted or protested, but this is now only done 
with foreign bills. Protesting is a legal form, 
in which the payee is declared responsible for 
all consequences of the non-payment of the 
bill. Noting is a temporary form, used as a 
preliminary to protesting. It consists in a 
record by a notary public of the presentation 
of the bill, and of the refusal of the payee to 
honor it. Unless a bill is noted for non-pay¬ 
ment on the due date, the endorsers are freed 
from responsibility to pay it. In determining 
the due date of a bill, a legal allowance, varying 
in different countries, called days of grace, has 
to be taken into account. A bill of exchange 
drawn and accepted merely to raise money on, 
and not given, like a genuine bill of exchange, 
in payment of a debt, is called an accommoda¬ 
tion bill. 

Bill of Health, a certificate or instrument 
signed by consuls or other proper authorities, 
delivered to the masters of ships at the time of 
their clearing out from all ports or places sus¬ 
pected of being particularly subject to infec¬ 
tious disorders, certifying the state of health 
at the time that such ships sailed. 

Bill of Indictment, a written accusation sub¬ 
mitted to a grand jury. If the grand jury 
think that the accusation is supported by prob¬ 
able evidence, they return it to the proper offi¬ 
cer of the court endorsed with the words “a 
true bill, ” and thereupon the prisoner is said 
to stand indicted of the crime and bound to 
make answer to it. If the grand jury do not 
think the accusation supported by probable 
evidence, they return it with the words “no 
bill, ” whereupon the prisoner may claim his 
discharge. 

Bill of Lading, a memorandum of goods 
shipped on board a vessel, signed by the mas¬ 
ter of the vessel, who acknowledges the re¬ 
ceipt of the goods and promises to deliver them 
in good condition at the place directed, dangers 
of the sea excepted. Bills of lading can be 
transferred by endorsement; the endorsement 
transfers all rights and liabilities under the 
bill of lading of the original holder or con¬ 
signee. 

Bill of Sale, a formal instrument for the con¬ 
veyance or transfer of personal chattels, as 
household furniture, stock in a shop, shares of 
a ship. It is often given to a creditor in se¬ 
curity for money borrowed, or obligation other¬ 
wise incurred, empowering the receiver to sell 
the goods if the money is not repaid with in¬ 
terest at the appointed time, or the obligation 
not otherwise discharged. 



Billeting 

Billeting, a mode of feeding and lodging 
soldiers when they are not in camp or bar¬ 
racks by quartering them on the inhabitants of 
a town. The necessity for billeting occurs 
chiefly during movements of the troops or 
when any accidental occasion arises for quarter¬ 
ing soldiers in a town which has not sufficient 
barrack accommodation. The billeting of sol¬ 
diers on private householders is prohibited in 
America except in war time. 

Billiards is a well-known indoor game of 
skill, played on a rectangular table with ivory 
balls, which are driven by means of an ash 
rod or stick called a “cue ” against each other 
according to certain defined rules. Of the ori¬ 
gin of billiards comparatively little is known 
— some considering that the game was in¬ 
vented by the French, and others that it was 
improved by them out of an ancient German 
diversion. Even the French themselves are 
doubtful on the point, some of their writers 
ascribing the game to the English. Billiards 
appear to be derived from the game of bowls. 
The strokes are all made with a cue, which is 
a long stick of ash, or other hard wood, gradu¬ 
ally tapering to the end, which is tipped with 
leather and rubbed with chalk to prevent it 
slipping off the surface of the ball struck. 
The mace or hammer-headed cue, once com¬ 
mon, is now no longer used, even by ladies. 
The cue is taken in the right hand, gen¬ 
erally between the fingers and the thumb, and 
is not grasped in the palm; and with the left 
hand the player makes a bridge, by resting the 
wrist and the tips of the fingers on the table, 
arching the latter, and extending the thumb 
in such a way as to allow a passage in which 
the cue may slide. The shape of the table 
has varied from time to time. At first it was 
square, with a hole or pocket at each corner 
to receive the balls driven forward with a cue 
or mace; then it was lengthened and pro¬ 
vided with two other pockets; and occasion¬ 
ally it has been made round, oval, triangu¬ 
lar, or octagonal, with or without pockets, 
according to the game required. It is covered 
by a fine green cloth, and surrounded by elas¬ 
tic india-rubber cushions. The table must be 
perfectly level and sufficiently firm to prevent 
vibration; and its usual height from the floor 
to the surface is three feet. 

The game as played in America, has taken 
a distinctive character, both in regard to the 
manner in which, and the tables on which, it 
is played. The older American game was the 
four-ball game (now rarely played by experts), 
and it was at first played on a six-pocket table, 
after the English pattern, and then on a four- 
pocket table, and finally on a pocketless table. 
Formerly the caroms were combined with win¬ 
ning hazards, losing hazards counting against 
the player. Caroms and hazards counted two 
and three points respectively; but latterly, since 
the abolition of pockets, the points of the game 
number usually thirty-four, each carom uni¬ 
formly counting one. At the commencement 
of the game the players “string for lead,” 
which is done by each simultaneously driving 
his ball against the bottom cushion, the ball 


Billiards 

approaching and resting nearer to the head 
cushion on the rebound deciding the winner 
both as to choice of balls and order of play. 
If the striker fail to hit any ball with his ball, 
he forfeits one to the opposing side, or if he 
drive his cue ball off the table he forfeits three. 
If, however, the player’s ball be in contact 
(“froze”) with another ball at the time he 
makes a stroke, he does not forfeit if he fail 
to strike some other ball. Foul strokes are 
made when one player plays another’s ball, 
when he plays at a ball in motion; when a 
player does not withdraw his cue from his 
ball before that ball comes in contact with an¬ 
other; when a stroke is made while the red 
ball is off the table and its spot is unoccupied; 
when a player in making a shot touches his 
cue-ball twice; when a player in any way ob¬ 
structs the motion of a ball; when a player 
has not at least one foot on the floor while 
making a shot; when a player does not cause 
a ball in hand to pass outside the string be¬ 
fore touching an object ball or a cushion, ex¬ 
cept when an object ball lies partly outside 
and partly inside the string; when a player 
plays directly at a ball inside the string; when 
a miss is given inside the string when a player 
is in hand; when a player at some one’s sug¬ 
gestion alters his intended stroke. 

The three-ball game is played with two 
white and one red ball. The table has two 
spots, one each at head and foot of table. The 
spot at head of table is called the white spot, 
and the one at the foot the red spot. The game 
is begun by stringing for lead as already de¬ 
scribed in the four-ball game. Should the first 
player fail to count, his opponent can play at 
either ball on the table. A carom consists in 
hitting both object balls with the cue ball. 
Each carom scores one. Each miss forfeits one 
to the opposite side. If a ball jumps off the 
table after counting, the count is good and the 
ball must be spotted. The foul strokes are about 
the same as have been given above. When the 
cue ball is in contact with another the balls 
are respotted and the player plays ball in hand 
as at the commencement of the game. The ob¬ 
ject balls are considered crotched when they 
lie within a four-and-one-half-inch square at 
either corner of the table. When in such posi¬ 
tion three counts only will be allowed unless 
one or both the object balls be forced out of the 
square. The crotch has at times on special oc¬ 
casions been enlarged to restrict rail play, but 
such enlargement is not generally accepted. 
The cushion carom game is a highly scientific 
play, it being necessary to a successful carom 
that the cue ball shall, in the course of the 
stroke, strike not only both object balls, but 
the cushion as well. The balk line is another 
limitation which has been imposed on the older 
game; in this form of the game a balk line 
either eight or fourteen inches from the rail is 
established, and the player is compelled to drive 
one or both object balls outside the line in order 
to count. The points of the game are usually 
thirty-four, fifty, or one hundred. In match 
games various handicaps are agreed on, but 
the social game is generally played as above. 


Billiard Balls 


Bingen 


In the English game the object of the player 
is to drive one or other of the balls into one or 
other of the pockets, or to cause the striker’s 
ball to come into successive contact with two 
other balls. This game resembles the Ameri¬ 
can game of pool more than billiards. 

Billiard Balls are made usually from ivory. 
When a tusk reaches the manufacturer of bill¬ 
iard balls it is examined very carefully for 
flaws. If it be found perfect the workmen 
measure the tusk into proper distance to be cut 
into blocks. It is then sawed into lengths of 
2£ to 3 inches, according to the size of the balls 
to be made, and the turners take the blocks in 
hand. In order to save the corners, the turn¬ 
ers cut a ring at each end and slowly deepen 
it until a rough ring drops off. Two rings are 
cut from each billiard ball block, after which 
it is almost round. It is then laid aside to dry 
for about six months. When it has been sea¬ 
soned it is chiseled down smooth and exactly 
round. The ball is then polished by means of 
a machine, and treated to a rubbing with chalk 
and chamois skin, and finally with a plain, soft 
leather. 

Every particle of sawdust and shavings from 
the ivory is carefully saved. These are treated 
with chemicals, submitted to an enormous hy¬ 
draulic pressure, and molded into small arti¬ 
cles so perfect that only an expert can tell them 
from solid ivory. The most expert carvers are 
the Japanese and Chinese, who spend years on 
a single piece. 

Bil'lingsgate, the principal fish market of 
London, on the left bank of the Thames, a lit¬ 
tle below London Bridge. It has been fre¬ 
quently improved, and was rebuilt in 1852 and 
again in 1874-76. From the character, real or 
supposed, of the Billingsgate fish-dealers, the 
term Billingsgate is applied generally to coarse 
and violent language. 

Billiton', a Dutch East Indian island be¬ 
tween Banca and the s.w. of Borneo. It pro¬ 
duces iron and tin, and exports sago, cocoa- 
nuts, pepper, tortoise-shell, trepang, edible 
birds’-nests, etc. It was ceded to the British 
in 1812 by the sultan of Palembang, but in 
1824 it was given up to the Dutch. Area 
1,863 sq. mi.; pop. 29,115. 

Bil'lon, an alloy of copper and silver, in 
which the former predominates, used in some 
countries for coins of low value, the object 
being to avoid the bulkiness of pure copper 
coin. 

Bimetallism, that system of coinage which 
recognizes coins of two metals (silver and gold) 
as legal tender to any amount; or in other 
words, the concurrent use of coins of two 
metals as a circulating medium, the ratio of 
value between the two being arbitrarily fixed 
by law. It is contended by advocates of the 
system that by fixing a legal- ratio between the 
value of gold and silver, and using both as 
legal tender, fluctuations in the value of the 
metals are avoided, while the prices of com¬ 
modities are rendered steadier. 

Binding=twine. The best binding-twine is 
made of East India manilla hemp. This is a 
product of the banana palm which grows in 


the Philippine Islands. Some hemp is also 
grown in Southern Mexico and Yucatan. This 
is a product of the plant known as the Ameri¬ 
can aloe. This hemp comes to the factory in 
bales containing 275 to 375 pounds. The bales 
are torn apart and the separate bunches, which 
are knotted at the end, are shaken out. They 
are nearly white and very coarse, the fibers 
varying from two to six feet in length. The 
hemp goes to the scutching frame, which is a 
broad wheel about eight feet in diameter, the 
outer surface being covered with short, sharp 
pegs set close together. This is covered all 
over with a shield which is pierced at one side 
with square holes. Through these holes the 
hemp bunches are switched until the teeth 
have combed the fibers out straight, tearing 
out a good deal of dust and valueless fibers. 
The hemp now goes to the first spreader or 
breaker. This consists of two sets of belts, 
both covered with short, metallic teeth or pegs, 
the first moving more slowly than the second. 
In this machine the hemp is spread out, carded, 
and straightened. The second belt pulls it 
apart longitudinally and makes the ribbon 
finer. From the end of the first spreader, the 
big, loose rope is guided into tin pails from 
which it is fed into the second spreading ma¬ 
chine, and so on through eight of them until 
the hemp ribbon is smooth and thin and much 
finer than at first. It is then run over numer¬ 
ous spools and rollers which smooth it down, 
twist it, making it finer and more compact. 
It goes then to the spindles. Here the ribbon 
of hemp runs from the pails through a very 
small hole where it is pulled very fast so that 
it grows finer, at the same time being twisted 
to a certain extent. It is then fed on big 
spools or bobbins in the form of finished twine, 
650 feet to a spool. The twine is tested by a 
binder adjustment to see if it is perfect. The 
bobbins are now sent to the balling department 
where the twine is wound by machines from 
the bobbins into the shape of twine balls. The 
balls are made so that the twine unwinds 
from the inside out instead of from the out¬ 
side in. They are then ready for use in the 
harvest field. 

Bind=weed, the common name for plants of 
the genus Convolvulus, especially of C. arvensis, 
and also of plants of the allied genus Calyste- 
gia , especially C. Soldanella and C. sepium. The 
black bryony is called black bind-weed; smilax 
is called rough bind-weed. Solanum Dulcamara 
(the bittersweet) is the blue bind-weed of Ben 
Jonson. 

Bing'en, a town of Germany, in the grand 
duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, at the confluence 
of the Nahe with the Rhine. Pop. 7,654. The 
district is noted for the culture of the vine, 
and the exquisite Rudesheimer is produced in 
the neighborhood. There are manufactures of 
tobacco, glue, starch, and leather, besides a 
brisk retail and river trade. The Bingerloch , 
formerly a dangerous rapid in the Rhine, lay 
below the town; but blasting operations car¬ 
ried on by the Prussian government in 1834 
have entirely removed the danger to the navi¬ 
gation of the river. A tower, the Mausethurm, 


Bingham 

in the middle of the Rhine, erected probably 
about the year 1000, by Willigis, archbishop 
of Mainz, as a defense for the district, is cele¬ 
brated in legend as the scene of the destruc¬ 
tion by rats of the hardhearted Bishop Hatto 
in 969, the subject of one of Southey’s best- 
known ballads. Restored in 1856, the tower 
now serves as a beacon, warning ships, by 
means of a flag, if the Bingerloch is clear. 
The town is familiar to every one 'from the 
poem, “ Bingen on the Rhine” so popular in 
schools. 

Bingham, John A., lawyer, b. in Mercer, 
Pa., in 1815; became a lawyer, and was 
elected to Congress from Ohio as a Republican 
and served from 1855-1863. He became judge- 
advocate in the army, and in 1864 solicitor of 
the Court of Claims. He took part in the trial 
of Lincoln’s assassins. He returned to Con¬ 
gress 1865-1873, and was one of the managers 
of the impeachment proceedings against An¬ 
drew Johnson. He was U. S. minister to 
Japan, 1873-1885. 

Bing'hampton, Broome co., N. Y., on Sus¬ 
quehanna river. Railroads: Erie; D. L. & W. 
and branches; and D. H. C. Co. Industries: 
cigar factory, four flouring mills, and two 
foundries, carriage, comb, button, whip, shirt, 
cigar box, brush, chair, glass, sleigh, bicycle, 
and other factories. Surrounding country 
agricultural. The town was first settled in 
1787 and became a city in 1867. Population 
1900, 39,647. 

Bin nacle (or bittacle), a case or box on the 
deck of a vessel near the steering apparatus, 
containing the compass and lights by which it 
can be read at night. 

Binoc'ular, a field-glass or opera-glass, or 
a microscope suited for viewing objects with 
both eyes at once. 

Binomial, in algebra, a quantity consisting 
of two terms or members, connected by the 
sign -f- or —. The binomial theorem is the 
celebrated theorem given by Sir Isaac Newton 
for raising a binomial to any power, or for ex¬ 
tracting any root of it by an approximating in¬ 
finite series. 

Bin tang, an island of the Dutch East In¬ 
dies, at the s. extremity of the Malay Penin¬ 
sula; area 468 sq. mi.; pop. 12,430; yields 
catechu and pepper. 

Bi'obio, a Chilean river, rises in Lake Huch- 
ueltui, flows in a n. w. direction for 180 miles, 
and falls into the Pacific at the city of Concep¬ 
cion. It gives name to a province of the coun¬ 
try, with 100,000 inhabitants; area 4,158 sq. mi. 

Biogen' esis, the history of life development 
generally; specifically, that department of bio¬ 
logical science which speculates on the mode 
by which new species have been introduced; 
often restricted to that view which holds that 
living organisms can spring only from living 
parents. 

Biog'raphy, that department of literature 
which treats of the individual lives of men or 
women; and also, a prose narrative detailing 
the history and unfolding the character of an 
individual written by another. When written 
by the individual whose history is told, it is 


Biology 

called an autobiography. This species of writ¬ 
ing is as old as literature itself. In the first 
century after Christ Plutarch wrote his Paral¬ 
lel Lives; Cornelius Nepos, the Lives of Military 
Commanders; and Suetonius, the Lives of the 
Twelve Caesars. Modern biographical literature 
may be considered to date from the seventeenth 
century, since which time individual biogra¬ 
phies have multiplied enormously. Diction¬ 
aries of biography have proved extremely use¬ 
ful, Mor&ri’s Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, 
1671, being perhaps the first of this class. Dur¬ 
ing the present century have been published 
the Biographie Universelle , 85 vols., 1811-62; 
Nouvelle Biographie Cenex ale, 46 vols., 1852-66; 
Chalmers’s General Biographical Dictionary, 32 
vols., 1812-17; Rose’s Biographical Dictionary, 
12 vols., 1848-50; Leslie Stephen’s Dictionary of 
National Biography, to be completed in about 
50 volumes, the first of which appeared in Jan¬ 
uary, 1885; and Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of Amer¬ 
ican Biography, 6 vols. (1887-1889). 

Biology, a composite science embracing all 
the sciences which bear on the phenomena of 
life. We study life in the vegetable (see Botany ) 
and animal (see Zoology) kingdoms; we study it 
as it is manifested in function (see Physiology), 
or in form (see Embryology, Anatomy, Compara¬ 
tive Anatomy, Morphology ) or as it is seen re¬ 
sponding to the great general laws which 
govern the movements of all matter through¬ 
out the universe (see Evolution). Up to the 
latter half of the eighteenth century, Biology 
was not recognized as an important science; 
nor was it considered possible to formulate 
laws which would be equally applicable to all 
forms and manifestations of life, whether 
animal or vegetable. Through the labors of 
Kant, Lamarck, E. and C. Darwin, Cuvier, 
von Baer and many others, but more than all, 
through the general tendency to inductive 
reasoning, which was the chief glory of the 
science of the century ending 1850, we now 
know it is possible to include all life under one 
broad definition, and that its laws are the 
same in whatever shape or f unction we find it. 
A good example of the difference between 
the immature biological thought of the early 
eighteenth century, and the more complete 
life-study of the present generation, is found by 
comparing Bichat’s definition of life, as “the 
sum of all those forces that go to resist 
death”—a mere play upon words,—with Her¬ 
bert Spencer’s deeply philosophical state¬ 
ment, that it is “the definite combination 
of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous 
and successive, in correspondence with ex¬ 
ternal co-existences and sequences.” 

It is apparent from the definition by Mr. 
Spencer just cited, that the essence of life is 
the ability to change the organism from time 
to time — or rather, continuously,— in order 
to bring it into more favorable relations to the 
environments from which it must derive its 
sustenance. When this ability to change 
ceases, death must immediately ensue through 
starvation of the tissues. The simplest form 
of life is represented in the protozoa, in which 
the functions of reproduction, respiration, ali- 


Biology 


Birch 


mentation, circulation, secretion, are all car¬ 
ried on within the walls of a single cell. With 
increased complexity of life, comes aggrega¬ 
tion into cell-masses with specialization of 
function, certain duties being assigned to cer¬ 
tain cells. Thus we see arising more or less 
highly differentiated cell-groups, to which we 
give the names of organs, as heart, liver, brain, 
lungs, kidney, stomach, etc.; or systems, as 
digestive, genito, urinary, muscular, vascular, 
nervous, etc. In response to a demand for cells 
of the varying sizes, shapes, resistances, tensile 
and contractile strengths, nervous energy, stor¬ 
age or metabolic qualities, etc,, required in a 
complex animal, we find developing tissues 
which make up the above mentioned specialized 
cell groups, as bone, muscle, epithelium, nerves, 
connective tissue, blood vessels, fat. gland, 
etc.; or among plants, where cell differentia¬ 
tion fails to reach the perfection found in ani¬ 
mals, we still find the parent cell modifying 
itself in the bark, trunk, leaf, root, or flower. 
Out of those variations in form, which chang¬ 
ing environments and increase in cell num¬ 
bers have forced the cell mass to assume in 
order that it may nourish, protect, and repro¬ 
duce itself, have arisen species, genera, orders, 
classes, subkingdoms, and probably the ani¬ 
mal and vegetable kingdoms themselves. 
Cells, or cell aggregations, thus possessed of 
life are said to be organic, in contradistinction 
to mineral substances, which are not capable 
of intelligent change in correspondence with 
environments, and are therefore lifeless and 
inorganic. Inseparably associated with these 
cell-masses endowed with life and function, we 
find the ability to develop, to grow, to repro¬ 
duce, and the inevitable necessity to decay. 
These processes seem to exist as phases in a 
vito-chemical cycle, during the early stages of 
which, assimilation, repair and growth are in 
the ascendant, but in which, beyond the acme 
marked by the consummation of the reproduc¬ 
tive functions, secretion, waste, and decay con¬ 
stitute the order of the day, until presently, 
the life-endowed molecules part entirely with 
their power to lead an organic existence, and 
sink back into the inorganic world. It is 
probable that the ability to appropriate the 
unstable element nitrogen from the surround¬ 
ing media, constitutes the essential difference 
between living and the non-living matter. It 
is a matter of observation that those tissues 
and organisms containing the greatest admix¬ 
ture of this element seem to be associated with 
the most intense manifestations of life. 

The cell is at the foundation of all life, and 
all manifestations of life, however complex, 
must be regarded as originating therein, and 
produced through the reaction between cell 
and environments. The law, “omnis cettulw 
cellulo ” (all cells from one cell), formulates 
this fact which was first made clear by the re¬ 
searches of Schleiden in Botany, and Schwann 
in Zoology (1838-39). These researches were 
made possible through the development of the 
compound microscope, by means of which the 
anatomy and physiology of the cell may be 
studied. Through the study of cellular 


Biology, the active principle of life has been 
found not alone in the cell but also in a definite 
constituent of the cell itself. Every cell is 
made up of a clear substance known as pro¬ 
toplasm, enclosed within a cell-wall. Floating 
in the protoplasm and nourishing itself from 
it, is a nucleus made up of fine granular 
particles, tending to arrange themselves into 
threads, and called, from the fact that they 
stain more readily than the clear substance 
surrounding them, chromatin granules and 
filaments. It is within these granules that the 
life of the cell, and therefore the life of the 
entire organism, is now thought to reside. For 
it has been observed that the chromatin origi¬ 
nates all the phenomena of cell life, and that, 
when the nucleus with its contained chromatin 
is removed, the cell presently perishes. Not¬ 
withstanding these morphological and physio¬ 
logical observations, which are distinct addi¬ 
tions to our biological knowledge, we cannot be 
said to stand to-day any nearer to the secret of 
the motive power of life than did Aristotle— 
the first true student of Biology. We study its 
manifestations of form and function, and for¬ 
mulate laws therefrom; but the propelling 
force is still as mysterious to the philosopher 
as to the child. 

The following table shows the comprehensi¬ 
bility of Biology: 

Sheep 
Goat 
Dog 
Cat 

Ostrich 
Swallow 
Trout 
Salmon 
Cedar 
Oak 
Brier 
Bramble 
Balm 
Hyssop 


!1 


Beast 


j- Bird 
j-Fish 
j- Tree 
j- Shrub 
\ Herb 


> Animal 
0 Zoology) 


> Plant 
( Botany) 


* Organism 
{Biology) 


W. H. Allport. 

Biot (be-o), Jean Baptiste (1774-1862), 
French mathematician and physicist. He be¬ 
came professsor of physics in the College do 
France in 1800, in 1803 member of the Academy 
of Sciences, in 1804 was appointed to the Ob¬ 
servatory of Paris, in 1806 was made member 
of the Bureau des Longitudes, in 1809 became 
also professor of physical astronomy in the 
University of Paris. In connection with the 
measurement of a degree of the meridian he 
visited Britain in 1817. He is especially cele¬ 
brated as the discoverer of the circular polariza¬ 
tion of light. 

Birch, a genus of trees which comprises only 
the birches and alders which inhabit North 
America, Europe, and Northern Asia. The 
common birch is indigenous throughout the n., 
and on high situations in the s. of Europe. It 
is extremely hardy, and only one or two other 
species of trees approach so near to the n. pole. 
The wood of the birch, which is light in color, 
and firm and tough in texture, is used for 
chairs, tables, bedsteads, and the woodwork of 
furniture generally, also for fish-casks and 






Birds 


Bird=catching Spider 


hoops, and for smoking hams and herrings, as 
well as for many small articles. In France 
wooden shoes are made of it. The bark is 



Branch Common Birch, in Flower. 


whitish in color, smooth and shining, separa¬ 
ble in thin sheets or layers. Fishing-nets and 
sails are steeped with it to preserve them. In 
some countries it is made into hats, shoes, 
boxes, etc. In Russia the oil extracted from 
it is used in the preparation of Russian leather, 
and imparts the well-known scent to it. In 
Lapland bread has been made from it. The 
sap, from the amount of sugar it contains, 
affords a kind of agreeable wine, which is pro¬ 
duced by the tree being tapped during warm 
weather in the end of spring or beginning of 
summer, when the sap runs most copiously. 
The dwarf birch, a low shrub, two or three 
feet high at most, is a native of all the 
most northerly regions. The cherry-birch of 
America, and the black birch of the same 
country, produce valuable timber, as do other 
American species. The largest of these is the 
yellow birch which attains the height of 80 ft. 
It is named from its bark being of a rich yellow 
color. The paper birch of America has a bark 
that may be readily divided into thin sheets 
almost like paper. From it the Indian bark 
canoes are made. 


Bird=catching Spider, a name applied to 



Bird-catching Spider. 


gigantic spiders, more especially to one, a native 
of Surinam and elsewhere which preys upon 
insects and small birds which it hunts for and 
pounces on. It is about two inches long, very 
hairy, and almost black; its feet when spread 
out occupy a surface of nearly a foot in diame¬ 
ter. 

Birdlime, a viscous substance used for en¬ 
tangling birds so as to make them easily caught, 
twigs being for this purpose smeared with it 
at places where birds resort.' It is prepared 
from holly-bark, being extracted by boiling; 
also.from the viscid berries of the mistletoe. 

Bird of Paradise, the name for members of 
a family of birds of splendid plumage allied 
to the crows, inhabiting New Guinea and the 
adjacent islands. The family includes eleven 
or twelve genera and a number of species, 
some of them remarkably beautiful. The larg¬ 
est species is over 2 ft. in length. The king¬ 
bird of paradise is possibly the most beautiful 
species, but is rare. It has a magnificent plume 
of feathers, of a delicate yellow color, coming 
up from under the wings, and falling over the 



The Great Bird of Paradise. 


back like a jet of water. The feathers of two 
other species are those chiefly worn in plumes. 
These splendid ornaments are confined to the 
male bird 

Birds form the second class of the great di¬ 
vision of vertebrate animals, the connecting 
link between the Mammalia and Reptilia, but 
are more closely allied to the latter. In com¬ 
mon with the Mammalia they have warm 
blood, though of a higher and uniform tem¬ 
perature (8° to 12° higher), a heart with two 
auricles and two ventricles, and breathe by 
lungs; but differ from them in having feathers 
for a covering, two feet, wings, by means of 
which most of them are enabled to fly, a horny 
bill, and reproduction by eggs. The feathers, 
the development of which resembles essen¬ 
tially that of hair, constitute appendages of a 
unique kind, as being developed only in con¬ 
nection with the bird-class. The under-plum- 



















Birds 


Birds 


age of most birds is formed by a thick coating 
of small shaftless feathers, embedded in the 
skin and called down. Various names are given 
to feathers according to their position; thus the 
long quills on the part of the wing correspond¬ 
ing to the hand are called 'primaries, those on 
the lower fore-arm secondaries , and those on 
the upper part of the fore-arm tertiaries, those 
on the shoulder-blade and humerus scapulars. 
The feathers covering the bases of the wing- 
quills are called wing-coverts , and those cover¬ 
ing the rectrices, or great feathers of the tail, 
tail-coverts. Birds molt or renew their feath¬ 
ers periodically, and in many cases the winter 
plumage displays a different coloring from the 
summer plumage. The plumage in most cases 
is changed frequently before it attains its 
characteristic and full-grown state. 

The mouth of birds takes the form of a 
beak or bill; the jaws or mandibles are hard 
and horny, and more or less prolonged into a 
point, while there are no fleshy lips and no 
teeth (except in certain fossil birds); a horny 
sheathing, generally smooth, but sometimes 
serrated, takes the place of the latter. The 
beak is variously modified in accordance with 
the habits of the bird and the nature of the 
food on which it subsists. The sense of taste 
is not keen, their tongue being generally slen¬ 
der, pointed, and more or less horny, though 
some birds, as the parrots, have it fleshy. 
The nostrils open upon the side, or at the base 
of the beak. Their sense of smell is often 
very delicate. A circle of naked skin called 
the cere in many birds surrounds the base of 
the , mandibles. The sight of birds is ex¬ 
tremely keen, and equally adapted for near 
and for distant objects. A peculiar feature in 
the eye is the nictitating membrane, a sort of 
third translucent eyelid which rests in the 
inner angle of the eye, but can be drawn over 
it so as to protect from too strong a light. 
Birds have no external ear, with the exception 
of the nocturnal tribes; these have a large ex¬ 
terior conch in the form of a thin leathery 
piece of flesh. The internal ear is very large, 
and the sense of hearing very quick. 

The bone-tissue of birds is light and com¬ 
pact. The bones are whiter and contain a 
larger proportion of phosphate of lime than 
those of the Mammalia and lower vertebrates. 
The bones of most birds are pneumatic; that is, 
contain air instead of marrow, to adapt them 
for flight; the air being admitted by means of 
special apertures which- are connected with 
certain sacs, termed air-cells , filled with air 
from the lungs. In many birds, however, the 
long bones are filled with marrow, as are also 
all the bones of young birds. The humeri, 
cranial bones, and sternum are most generally 
pneumatic, the femora more rarely so. The 
vertebrae vary considerably in number in dif¬ 
ferent species. The neck is always more or 
less elongated and flexible, and consists of 
from 9 to 23 vertebrae. The dorsal region, or 
region of the back, is composed of from 4 to 9 
vertebrae, and is generally firm, forming a sup¬ 
port for the movements of the wings. In all 
birds the neck is of sufficient length to reach 


the oil-gland situated at the tail, the secretion 
of which is used for “preening” or dressing 
the feathers. The vertebrae interposed be¬ 
tween the dorsal vertebrae and those of the 
tail are united to form the sacrum, the num¬ 
ber of vertebrae which may thus coalesce vary¬ 
ing from 9 to 20. The caudal or tail vertebrae 
may number ten, the last two or more of 
which unite to form a bone, called from its 
shape “plowshare” bone. In some species 
this bone is absent, undeveloped, or modified. 
The bones of the skull become firmly united 
at an early period, so as to leave few or no 
sutures or lines of union, as in mammals, a com¬ 
plete bony case being thus formed. The skull 
is joined, as in reptiles, to the spinal column 
by a single process, or condyle, of the occipital 
bone or hindermost bone of the skull. The 
chest or thorax is enclosed posteriorly by the 
dorsal vertebrae, laterally by the ribs, and in 
front by the sternum or breast-bone and the 
sternal ribs. The ribs correspond in number 
with the dorsal vertebrae, from 6 to 9 pairs of 
ribs being thus found in birds, the first two 
being generally unattached, that is, they do 
not reach the sternum in front. The sternum 
is large and strong, and serves as the point of 
attachment for the most powerful of the mus¬ 
cles b}' - which the wings are set in motion. It 
is provided with 9 , medial crest or keel, which 
is most prominent in the birds of most power¬ 
ful flight, and is altogether absent in the os¬ 
trich and cassowary, birds which do not fly. 
Upon the upper or anterior portion of the ster¬ 
num the coracoid bones are borne, which form 
the chief supports of the fore-limbs. At its 
upper portion each coracoid bone articulates 
with the scapula or shoulder-blade, and with 
one of the clavicles. The clavicles, or collar¬ 
bones are united in most birds to form the 
furculum or merry-thought. The wing of the 
bird exhibits the essential skeletal elements 
found in the fore-limb of all other vertebrates. 
The humerus, or bonfe of the upper arm, is 
generally short; the fore-arm, composed of the 
radius and ulna, being the longest segment 
of the fore-limb. The ulna is larger and 
better developed than the radius, which is 
slender and attenuated. In the bones which 
form the extremity of the wing we recognize 
the rudiments of a thumb and two fingers, one 
of which has two phalanges and the other only 
one. The femur or thigh is short, the tibia or 
shin bone forming the chief element in the 
leg; while the fibula is attenuated and gener¬ 
ally ossified to the tibia. The toes generally 
number four; the hallux, or great toe, when 
present, being composed of two phalanges, and 
the other toes of three, four, and five phalan¬ 
ges respectively. The muscles of birds are 
firm and dense, and are generally colored deep 
red. The chief body-muscles are the pec¬ 
torals, or those of the breast, which are de¬ 
voted to the movements of the wings. 

There are three stomachs or stomachic dila¬ 
tations in birds; the first is the crop, a consid¬ 
erable pouch attached to the (esophagus or gul¬ 
let; then the ventriculus succenturiatus, a slight 
dilatation of the oesophagus, with thick and 


Birds 


Birds 


glandular walls; then immediately after this 
is the gizzard , a strong and muscular cavity. 
In granivorous birds the crop is large, and 
serves as a reservoir for the seeds swallowed by 
them, which are here moistened by a secretion 
before passing into the gizzard. In these birds 
the gizzard is extremely strong, having toper- 
form the task of grinding down the hard sub¬ 
stances subjected to its action, a process which 
is facilitated by the small stones which these 
birds generally swallow. The ventriculus se¬ 
cretes the gastric juice, and so far represents a 
real stomach. In birds which live on flesh or 
fish the gizzard is weaker and less distinct 
from the ventriculus, while the crop becomes 
smaller, and in some species completely dis¬ 
appears. The intestinal canal is relatively 
smaller than in Mammalia and presents fewer 
circumvolutions. It terminates in an opening 
called the cloaca , which is also the common 
termination of the ureters and oviduct. The 
liver is generally large, and colored a distinct 
brownish hue, which is deepest in aquatic 
birds. A gall-bladder is absent in a few cases 
only, as in the ostrich, pigeons, and some par¬ 
rots. The kidneys are two in number, of large 
size and elongated shape. The spleen is usu¬ 
ally of small size, rounded or oval, but may 
also be elongated, or broad and flattened. The 
heart is highly muscular, four-chambered; the 
blood, deep red in color, circulates rapidly and 
vigorously. The lungs are confined to the back 
portion of the body, and are attached to the 
ribs, instead of being free, as in Mammalia. 
They are not divided into lobes, and are usu¬ 
ally of a bright red color. They are envel¬ 
oped in a membrane pierced with large holes 
which permit the air to pass into the cav¬ 
ities in the breast and in the abdomen, 
and, in some species, even into the in¬ 
terior of the bones. The trachea or wind¬ 
pipe is of great relative length in birds, and 
is adapted to the length of the neck. The 
nervous system evinces a marked superiority 
over that of reptiles. The cerebrum, or true 
brain, is larger than in the latter, but its 
surface is not convoluted, as in most Mam¬ 
malia. The eggs are hatched by the process 
of incubation. Very great differences exist in 
the size, form, and number of eggs which may 
be produced by birds, and in the time required 
for their hatching. The varieties of nests in 
which they are deposited, as to mode and ma¬ 
terials used in construction, are endless. 

Many birds migrate at certain seasons from 
one country to another, and a recent report on 
migration shows, that with very few excep¬ 
tions, there is scarcely a bird of either the pal- 
aearctic or nearctic regions that is not, to a 
greater or less degree, migratory in some part 
or other of its range. See Migration. 

As for the classification of birds many sys¬ 
tems have been proposed. A common division 
is into seven orders, to which an eighth, the 
Saururce of Huxley, is often added, to include 
the extinct archaeopteryx. These orders are:— 

Order I.— Raptores (or Accipitres). Birds of 
prey, as eagles, vultures, hawks, and owls. 
Beak strong and curved, sharp at the edges. 


Feet adapted for seizing and destroying other 
animals. Claws sharp, much hooked, and 
retractile. Hind toe on the same level with 
the others. Wings well developed. 

Order II.— Insessores ( Passeres ), or perching 
birds, by far the most numerous order. It in¬ 
cludes all the singing birds, and indeed ex¬ 
cluding the birds of prey, most birds which 
live habitually among trees. Feet formed for 
grasping and perching, claws moderately 
curved and not retractile. Hind toe on the 
same level as the rest. This order is usually 
divided into four tribes or sub-orders: cone¬ 
billed; tooth-billed; slender-billed; cleft-billed. 

Order III. — Scansores (or Zygodactyli). 
Climbing birds, as the parrots, woodpeckers, 
cuckoos, toucans, etc. Feet formed for climb¬ 
ing, two of the toes directed forward and two 
backward; powers of flight not in general 
great; bill variously shaped. 

Order IV.— Rasores (or Gallince). Domestic 
fowls, pheasants, pigeons, etc. Legs large 
and strong. Feet with the hind toe situated 
above the heel, suited for scratching. Bill 
short, thick, and arched above. 

Order V.— Cursores (or Struthionidce). Run¬ 
ning birds, as the ostrich, emu, cassowary, 
etc. Wings rudimentary, and quite useless 
for flight; legs long and strong; hind toe want¬ 
ing or merely rudimentary; breast-bone with¬ 
out a ridge or keel. 

Order VI.— Gr all at ores (or Grallce). 
Waders, as the cranes, herons, snipes, sand¬ 
pipers, etc. Legs long, bare of feathers from 
above the knee; toes often half-webbed. Bill 
in general long and slender. 

Order VII.— Nat at ores (or Palmipedes). 
Swimmers: web-footed birds, as ducks, geese, 
gulls, etc. Feet formed for swimming, in 
general webbed, that is the toes connected by 
a membrane. Hind toe elevated above the 
plane of the others. Bill various, mostly 
flattened. 

Mr. Sclater (partly following Huxley and 
others) has proposed a system of classification 
which has met with much acceptance, and is 
based partly on external, partly on internal 
features. Regarding the class Aves as di¬ 
vided into two subclasses, Carinatce and Batitce , 
the former containing all birds that have a 
prominent keel on the sternum (Lat. carina ), 
the latter having the sternum flat and raft-like 
(Lat. ratis, a raft), he divides the former into 
23 and the latter into 3 orders, thus:— 

Carinat^e.— 1. Passeres, with four sub¬ 
orders (including more than half of all known 
birds, and substantially corresponding with 
the older order Passers, or Insessores). 2. Pic- 
aree, with six sub-orders (woodpeckers, swifts, 
goat-suckers, trogons, toucans, cuckoos, etc.) 
3. Psitacci (parrots). 4. Striges (owls). 5. Ac¬ 
cipitres (eagles, hawks, vultures, and other 
diurnal birds of prey). 6. Steganopodes (peli¬ 
can, cormorant, gannet, etc.). 7. Herodiones 
(herons, storks, bittern, etc.). 8. Odontog- 
loss^e (flamingoes). 9. Palamede^e (scream¬ 
ers). 10. Anseres (geese, ducks, swans). 
11. CotjUMb^e (pigeons). 12. Pterocletes 
(sand-grouse). 13. Gallince (fowls, partridges, 


Bird’s=eye=Maple 


Biscay 


pheasants, grouse, etc.). 14. Opistohocomi 
(includes only one bird, the hoatzin). 15. 
Hemipodii (hemipodes, a small group). 
1G. Fulicari^e (rails, coots, etc.). 17. Alec- 
torides (cranes, bustards, trumpeter). 18. 
Limicol/E (snipe, woodcock, curlew, plover, 
etc.). 19. Gavi^e (gulls). 20. Tub in ares 
(petrels). 21. Pygopodes (divers, auks, grebes). 
22. Impennes (penguins). 23. Crypturi (tina- 
mous). Sub-class Ratit^e. —24. Apteryges 
(apteryx). 25. Casuarii (cassowary and emu). 
20. Struthiones (ostrich, rhea). 

Birds are not numerous as fossil organisms. 
Among the most important and interesting 
bird fossils we at present possess are the two 
specimens of archaeopteryx found in the slate- 
quarries of Solenhofen, Bavaria. This bird 
differed from all existing birds in the elongated 
reptilian nature of its tail, which was com¬ 
posed of simple vertebrae, each bearing a 
single pair of quill-feathers. It had also teeth. 
They certainly tend to prove the evolution of 
birds from reptiles. Other two most interest¬ 
ing fossil birds are the ichthyornis and the 
hesperornis, both found in the cretaceous for¬ 
mation of North America and both provided 
with teeth; but while the former must have 
had powerful wings the latter was quite wing¬ 
less. 

Bird’s=eye=riaple, curled maple, the wood of 
the sugar-maple when full of little knotty spots 
somewhat resembling bird’s eyes, much used in 
cabinet-work. 

Bird’s=nest, a name popularly given to 
several plants, as, Indian pipe or bird’s-nest, a 
yellowish-white plant, common in woods from 
Canada to Georgia and west to Illinois. 

Birds’-nests, Edible, the nests of the salan- 
gane and other species of swifts (or swiftlets) 
found in the Indian seas. They are particularly 
abundant in the larger islands of the Eastern 
Archipelago. The nest has the shape of a 
common swallow’s nest, is found in caves, par¬ 
ticularly on the seashore, and has the appear¬ 
ance of fibrous, imperfectly concocted isin¬ 
glass. When procured before the eggs are laid 
the nests are of a waxy whiteness and are then 
esteemed most valuable; when the bird has laid 
her eggs they are of second quality; when the 
young are fledged and flown, of third quality. 
They appear to be composed of a mucilaginous 
substance secreted by special glands, and not, 
as was formerly thought, made from a gluti¬ 
nous marine fucus or seaweed. The Chinese 
consider the nests as a great stimulant and 
tonic, and it is said that about 8£ millions of 
them are annually imported into Canton. 

Birds of Passage, birds which migrate with 
the season from a colder to a warmer, or from 
a warmer to a colder climate, divided into 
summer birds of passage and winter birds of pas¬ 
sage. Such birds always breed in the country 
to which they resort in summer; i. e., in the 
colder of their homes. In America the robin 
is a familiar example. 

Bi'ren (or Bi'ron), Ernest John von (1687- 
1772), duke of Courland. He gained the favor 
of Anna, duchess of Courland and niece of 
Peter the Great of Russia, and when she as¬ 


cended the Russian throne (1730) Biren was 
loaded by her with honors, and introduced at 
the Russian court. He was made duke of 
Courland in 1737, and continued a powerful 
favorite during her reign, freely indulging his 
hatred against the rivals of his ambition. On 
the death of Anna he became regent, but he 
was exiled to Siberia in 1741. On the acces¬ 
sion of Elizabeth to the throne she permitted 
his return to Russia, and in 17G3 the duchy of 
Courland was restored to him. 

Bir'kenhead, a town of England, in Chesh¬ 
ire, on the estuary of the Mersey, opposite 
Liverpool. It has commodious docks with a 
lineal quay space of over nine miles, and a 
complete system of railway communication 
for the shipment of goods and direct coaling 
of steamers. The principal industries are 
ship-building and engineering. Its commerce 
is in all respects a branch of that of Liver¬ 
pool. The communication with Liverpool is 
by large steamboats and by a railway tunnel 
under the bed of the Mersey 44 miles long in¬ 
cluding the approaches, 21 feet high, 2G feet 
wide, the roof being about 30 feet below the 
bed of the river; cost $G,250,000. Pop. 99,857. 

Birmingham, Jefferson co., Ala., and the 
most important seat of the iron industry in 
the South, is 95 mi. n.n.w. of Montgomery, 
with foundries, mills, factories, and machine 
shops; iron has developed its growth from 
3,000 in 1880 to 38,415 in 1900. Its property is 
over $35,000,000. 

Bir'mingham, a great manufacturing city 
of England, in the county of Warwick, 112 mi. 
n.w. of London, and 97 s.e. of Liverpool. It is 
the principal seat of the hardware manufact¬ 
ure in Britain, producing metal articles of all 
kinds from pins to steam engines. It manu¬ 
factures fire-arms in great quantities, swords, 
jewelry, buttons, tools, steel pens, locks, lamps, 
bedsteads, gas-fittings, sewing machines, arti¬ 
cles of papier-mache, railway carriages, etc. 
The quantity of solid gold and silver plate 
manufactured is large, and the consumption of 
these metals in electroplating is very great. 
Japanning, glass manufacturing, and glass- 
staining or painting form important branches 
of industry, as also does the manufacture of 
chemicals. Pop. 478,113. 

Bir'nam, a hill in Perthshire, Scotland, 1,324 
feet high, once covered by the royal forest im¬ 
mortalized by Shakespeare in Macbeth. 

Birs Nimrud, a famous mound in Babylonia, 
on the west side of the Euphrates, G mi. s.w. 
of Hillah, generally identified as the remains of 
the Tower of Babel. 

Bis'cay, a province of Spain near its n.e. 
corner, one of the three Basque provinces (the 
other two being Alava and Guipuzcoa); area 
850 sq. mi.; pop. 235,659. The surface is gen¬ 
erally mountainous; the most important min¬ 
eral is iron, which is extensively worked; cap¬ 
ital, Bilbao. 

Biscay, Bay of, that part of the Atlantic 
which lies between the projecting coasts of 
France and Spain, extending from Ushant to 
Cape Finisterre, celebrated for its dangerous 
navigation. 


Biscuit 


Bismuth 


Biscuit (bis'ket) (Fr. “twice baked’’), a 
kind of hard, dry bread which is not liable to 
spoil when kept. Biscuits are either fermented 
or unfermented, the kinds in ordinary use 
being generally fermented, while the unfer¬ 
mented biscuit is much used at sea, and hence 
called sea-biscuit. More than a hundred dif¬ 
ferent sorts of biscuit are manufactured, and 
owing to the immense demand manual labor 
has long since been superseded in the larger 
works by machinery, In making sea-biscuit 
the flour is mixed with water, converted into 
dough by a revolving shaft armed with knives, 
kneaded with rollers, cut, stamped, conveyed 
on a framework drawn by chains through an 
oven open at both ends, and thence passed to 
a drying room—all without being touched by 
hand. Two thousand lbs. weight of biscuits 
can thus be turned out of a single oven in a 
day of 10 hours. In many fancy biscuits the 
process is of course more elaborate, but even 
in these, machinery plays an important part. 
Sea-biscuit should continue sound for 18 
months or two years; its nutritive properties 
are to those of bread as 18 to 24. Meat biscuits 
are made of flour mixed with the soluble ele¬ 
ments of meat. The popular American name 
for most varieties of biscuits is crackers. 

Biscuit, in pottery a term applied to porce¬ 
lain and other earthenware after the first firing 
and before glazing. At this stage it is porous 
and used for wine-coolers, etc. 

Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley (1780-1855), 
English musical composer. From 1809, when 
his first opera, The Circassian Bride , was pro¬ 
duced at Drury Lane, until his masque, The 
Fortunate Isles , written to celebrate Queen Vic¬ 
toria’s marriage, he composed about a hun¬ 
dred works for the stage. 

Bis'kara (or Biskra), a town, Algeria, the 
chief military post of the Sahara, with an im¬ 
portant caravanserai. Pop. 8,000. 

Bismarck, capital of North Dakota. Pop. 
2,260. 

Bismarck Archipelago, the name given by 
the Germans to New Britain, New Ireland, and 
other islands adjoining their portion of New 
Guinea. 

Bismarck=Schonhausen (bis' mark-shewn' - 
hou-zen), Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince, one 
of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth 
century; b. of a noble family of the “Mark” 
(Brandenburg), at Schbnhausen, April 1, 1815; 
studied at Gottingen, Berlin, and Greifswald; 
entered the army and became lieutenant in the 
Landwehr. After a brief interval devoted to his 
estates and to the office of inspector of dikes, 
he became in 1846 a member of the provincial 
diet of Saxony, and in 1847 of the Prussian 
diet. In 1851 he was appointed representative 
of Prussia in the diet of the German Federa¬ 
tion at Frankfort, where with brief interrup¬ 
tions he remained till 1859, exhibiting the 
highest ability in his efforts to checkmate 
Austria and place Prussia at the head of the 
German states. From 1859-62 he was ambassa¬ 
dor at St. Petersburg, and in the latter year, 
after an embassy to Paris of five months’ dura¬ 
tion, was appointed first minister of the Prus¬ 


sian crown. The Lower House persistently 
refusing to pass the bill for the reorganization 
of the army, Bismarck at once dissolved it 
(October, 1862), closing it for four successive 
sessions until the work of reorganization was 
complete. When popular feeling had reached 
its most strained point, the Schleswig-Holstein 
question acted as a diversion, and Bismarck— 
by the skillful manner in which he added the 
duchies to Prussian territory, checkmated 
Austria, and excluded her from the new Ger¬ 
man confederation, in which Prussia held the 
first place—became the most popular man in 
Germany. As chancellor and president of the 
Federal Council he secured the neutralization 
of Luxemburg in place of its cession by 
Holland to France; and though in 1868 he 
withdrew for a few months into private life he 
resumed office before the close of the year. A 
struggle between Germany and France appear¬ 
ing to be sooner or later inevitable, Bismarck, 
having made full preparations, brought mat¬ 
ters to a head on the question of the Hohen- 
zollern candidature for the Spanish throne. 
Having carried the war to a successful issue, 
he became chancellor and prince of the new 
German empire. Subsequently, in 1872, he 
alienated the Roman Catholic party by promot¬ 
ing adverse legal measures and expelling the 
Jesuits. He then resigned his presidency for 
a year, though still continuing to advise the 
emperor. Toward the close of 1873 he re¬ 
turned to power, retaining his position until, 
in March, 1890, he disagreed with the emperor 
and tendered his resignation. In 1878 he pre¬ 
sided at the Berlin Congress, in 1880 at the 
Berlin Conference, and in 1884 at the Congo 
or Colonial Conference. He retired from the 
chancellorship in 1890, and since has been at¬ 
tending to his private affairs. In March, 1895, 
Emperor William II visited him on the occa¬ 
sion of the celebration of the “ Iron Chancel¬ 
lor’s’’eightieth birthday. Died July 30, 1898. 

Bismuth, a metal of a yellowish or red¬ 
dish-white color, and a lamellar texture. It is 
somewhat harder than lead and not malleable, 
Avhen cold being so brittle as to break easily 
under the hammer, so as to be reducible to 
powder. Its internal face or fracture exhibits 
large shining plates variously disposed. It 
fuses at 476 F., and expands considerably as it 
hardens. It is often found in a native state, 

crystall i z e d 
in rhombs or 
i ^tnhHrms, 

\ or in the form 

\ j // of dendrites, 
\ I / / or thin lami- 
\ nae investing 

vthe ores of 
other metals, 
and Crystal. particul a r 1 y 

cobalt. Bismuth is used in the composition of 
pewter, in the fabrication of printers’ types, 
and in various other metallic mixtures. Eight 
parts of bismuth, 5 of lead, and 3 of tin, con¬ 
stitute the fusible metal sometimes called New¬ 
ton’s, from the discoverer, which melts at 202° 
F., and may be fused over a candle in a piece 





Bison 


Bitter»king 


of stiff paper without burning the paper. It 
forms the basis of a sympathetic ink; and a 
derivative from it is used in medicine. A 
special feature of interest is its diamagnetic 
property. The subnitrate or basic nitrate of 
bismuth is used as a paint and as a cosmetic, 
and is known as Pearl White or Pearl Powder. 

Bi son, the name applied to two species of 
ox. One of these, the European bison or 
aurochs is now nearly extinct, being found 
only in the forests of Lithuania and the Cau¬ 
casus. The other, or American bison, im¬ 
properly termed buffalo, was found only in the 
region lying north and south between the 
Great Slave Lake and the Yellowstone River, 
and in parts of Kansas and Texas, and has al¬ 
most become extinct in the wild state, though 
formerly to be met with in immense herds. 
The two species closely resemble each other, 
the American bison, however, being for the 
most part smaller, and with shorter and weaker 
hind quarters. The bison is remarkable for 
the great hump or projection over its fore 
shoulders, at which point the adult male is al¬ 
most six feet in height; and for the long, 
shaggy, rust-colored hair over the head, neck, 
and forepart of the body. In summer, from 
the shoulders backward, the surface is cov¬ 
ered with a very short fine hair, smooth and 
soft as velvet. The tail is short and tufted at 



American Bison. 


the end. The American bison used to be much 
hunted for sport as well as for its flesh and 
' skin. Its flesh is rather coarser grained than 
that of the domestic ox, but was considered by 
hunters and travelers as superior in tenderness 
and flavor. The hump is highly celebrated for 
its richness and delicacy. Their skins, espe¬ 
cially that of the cow, dressed in the Indian 
fashion, with the hair on, make admirable de¬ 
fenses against the cold, and are known as buf¬ 
falo robes; the wool has been manufactured 
into hats and a coarse cloth. The American 
bison has been found to breed readily with the 
common ox, the issue being fertile among 
themselves. The construction of the trans¬ 
continental railroads and the great extent to 
which they have been hunted lias caused the 
almost complete extinction of the bison. To¬ 
day the farmer plows where twenty ye^rs ago 
a million buffaloes wallowed. A few herds are 
in private possession and a herd is preserved 
in the Yellowstone National Park. 

Bisque (bisk), a kind of unglazed white 
porcelain used for statuettes and ornaments. 


Bissell, William H. (1811-1860), b. near 
Cooperstown, N. Y., d. at Springfield, Ill. 
He practised medicine and afterward law, 
was a member of the legislature of Illi¬ 
nois in 1840, served in the Mexican War, 
and took a prominent part in the battle 
of Buena Yista. He served in Congress as an 
independent Democrat, 1849-55, but left the 
Democratic party over the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, and was elected governor of Illinois as a 
Republican in 1856. He was reelected but d. 
before his term expired. Jefferson Davis at 
one time challenged Bissell, but when the 
latter promptly accepted and named muskets 
at short range as the weapons, Mr. Davis 
backed down. 

Bissell, Wilson S., American statesman, 
b. in Rome, N. Y., 1847, graduated at Yale 
College, 1869. He was Grover Cleveland’s law 
partner when the latter became mayor of Buf¬ 
falo. His reputation is that of a railroad at¬ 
torney. President Cleveland appointed him 
postmaster general in 1893. He resigned in 
1895. 

Bistre (or bister), a warm brown pigment, 
a burned oil extracted from the soot of wood, 
especially beech. It furnishes a fine trans¬ 
parent wash, but is chiefly employed in the 
same fashion as sepia and Indian ink for mono¬ 
chrome sketches. 

Bit, the part of a bridle which goes into the 
mouth of a horse, and to which the reins are 
attached. Also one of the movable boring 
tools used by means of the carpenter’s brace. 
There is a great variety of forms, to which 
special names are given. 

Bithoor ( bit-hor') (Bithuror Bittoor), a town, 
India, n.w. provinces, 12 mi. n.w. of Cawn- 
pore, on the Ganges, long the abode of a line 
of Mahratta chiefs, the last of whom died 
without issue in 1851. His adopted son, Nana 
Sahib, who claimed the succession, was the 
instigator of the massacre at Cawnpore. Pop. 
6,685. 

Bithyn'ia, an ancient territory in the n.w. 
of Asia Minor, on the Black Sea and Sea of 
Marmora, at one time an independent king¬ 
dom, latterly a Roman province. The cities 
of Chalcedon, Heraclea, Nicomedia, Nicaea, 
and Prusa were in Bithynia. In the eleventh 
century it was conquered by the Seljuks, and 
in 1298 a new kingdom was founded there by 
the Ottoman Turks, of which, prior to the 
capture of Constantinople, Prusa (Broussa) 
was the capital. 

Biton'to, a town, Italy, province of Bari, 
the seat of a bishop, with a handsome cathe¬ 
dral. The environs produce excellent wine. 
Pop. 27,060. Here, in 1734, the Spaniards 
won a victory over the Austrians which de¬ 
cided the fate of Naples. 

Bitter=ash, a tree, native of the West Indies, 
the bark of which is used as a tonic. Others 
of the same genus have also the same name, a 
species of Jamaica having wood almost as 
bitter as quassia, and being .called Jamaica 
quassia. 

Bitter=gourd, a plant, called also Colocynth. 

Bitter=king, a tree of the quassia order pe- 




Bittern 


Bivalves 


culiar to the Moluccas and Fiji Islands, the 
root and bark of which, bruised and macerated, 
are used in the East as an emetic and tonic. 

Bit'tern, the name of several wading birds 
of the heron family. The common bittern is 
about 28 in. in length, about 44 in extent of 
wing; general color, dull yellowish-brown, with 
sx)Ots and bars of black or dark brown; feathers 
on the breast long and loose; tail short, bill 
about 4 in. long. It is remarkable for its cu¬ 
rious booming or bellowing cry, from which 
come the provincial names of miredrum and 
bulterbump , etc. The eggs (greenish-brown) 
are four or five in number. The little bittern 
is not more than 15 in. in length. The Ameri¬ 
can bittern has some resemblance to the com¬ 
mon European bittern, but is smaller. 



The Common Bittern. 


Bittern, the syrupy residue from evaporated 
sea water after the common salt has been 
taken out of it. It is used in the preparation 
of Epsom salt (sulphate of magnesia), of Glau¬ 
ber’s salt (sulphate of soda), and contains also 
chloride of magnesium, iodine, and bromine. 

Bitter=nut, a tree of North America, of the 
walnut order, the swamp hickory, which pro¬ 
duces small and somewhat egg-shaped fruits, 
with a thin, fleshy rind; the kernel is bitter 
and uneatable. 

Bitter=root, a plant of Canada and part of 
the U. S., so called from its root being bitter 
though edible, and indeed esteemed as an 
article of food by whites as well as Indians. 
From the root, which is long, fleshy, and 
tapering, grow clusters of succulent green 
leaves, with a fleshy stalk bearing a solitary 
rose-colored flower rising in the center, and 
remaining open only in sunshine. Flower and 
leaves together, the plant appears above 
ground for only about six weeks. Californian 
bitter-root and Natal bitter-root both belong 
to the gourd family. 


Bitters, a liquor (frequently spirituous) in 
which bitter herbs or roots have been steeped. 
Gentian, quassia, angelica, bog bean, chamo¬ 
mile, hops, centaury, etc., are all used for 
preparations of this kind. The well-known 
Angostura bitters have aromatic as well as 
bitter properties. Bitters are employed as 
stomachics, anthelmintics, etc. 

Bitter=spar (rhomb-spar), the crystallized 
form of dolomite or magnesian limestone. 

Bitter=wood, the timber of two trees noted 
for the extreme bitterness of the wood. The 
name is also given to other bitter trees, as the 
bitter-ash. 

Bitu'men, a mineral substance of a resin¬ 
ous nature, composed principally of hydrogen 
and carbon, and appearing in a variety of 
forms which pass into each other and are 
known by different names, from naphtha, the 
most fluid, to petroleum and mineral tar, which 
are less so, thence to maltha or mineral pitch, 
which is more or less cohesive, and lastly 
to asphaltum and elastic bitumen (or elaterite), 
which are solid. It burns like pitch, with 
much smoke and flame. It consists of 84 to 
88 of carbon and 12 to 16 of hydrogen, and is 
found in the earth, occurring principally in 
the secondary, tertiary, and alluvial forma¬ 
tions. It is a very widely spread mineral, and 
is now largely employed in various ways. As 
the binding substance in mastics and cements 
it is used for making roofs, arches, walls, cel¬ 
lar-floors, etc., water-tight, for street and other 
pavements, and in some of its forms for fuel 
and for illuminating purposes. The bricks of 
which the walls of Babylon were built are said 
to have been cemented with bitumen, which 
gave them unusual solidity^. 

Bituminous Shale (or Schist), an argilla¬ 
ceous shale impregnated with bitumen and 
very common in the coal measures. It is 
largely worked for the production of paraffin, 
etc. 

Bi' valves, molluscous animals having a. 
shell consisting of two halves or valves that 
open by an elastic hinge and are closed by 
muscles; as the oyster, clam, mussel, cockle, 
etc. 



Longitudinal Section through a Fresh-water Mussel. 

a, edge of mantle; b, foot, with position of gan¬ 
glion indicated; c, gills; d, mouth; e, tentacles 
or palps; /, posterior adductor muscle; g, ante¬ 
rior adductor; h, head-ganglion; i, ventricle of 
heart; j, auricle of heart; h, rectum; l, kidney; 
m, exhalent aperture; n, inhalent aperture, 
















Bivouac 


Blackburn 



Several Forms of Bivalves. 

A, Avicula; B, Pectunculus, with extended foot (a); 
C, Venus, with respiratory siphons (a, b) and ex¬ 
tended foot (c); D, Mya truncata, showing respira¬ 
tory siphons (a, b) and foot (c). 

Bivouac (biv'u-ak), the encampment of 
soldiers in the open air without tents, each re¬ 
maining dressed and with his weapons at hand. 
It was the regular practise of the French revo¬ 
lutionary armies, but is only desirable w'here 
great celerity of movement is required. 

Bijornson, Bjornstjerne (byewrn'styer-ne 
bytfwrn'son), Norwegian novelist, poet, and 
dramatist, b. 1832. He entered the Univer¬ 
sity of Christiania in 1852, and became known 
as a contributor of articles and stories to news¬ 
papers and as a dramatic critic. From 1857 to 
1859 he was manager of the Bergen theater, 
producing during that time his novel Arne, 
and his tragedy of Halte Hulda. He was at 
Christiania part editor of the Afteriblad in 1860, 
then lived several years abroad, and in I860 be¬ 
came editor of the Norsk Folkeblad. In 1 SCO- 
72 he was co-director of a Copenhagen period¬ 
ical, and much of his later life has been passed 
abroad. Among his tales and novels a num¬ 
ber of which may be had in English, are: Syn- 
riozve Solbakken; Arne; The Fishcrmaiden; A 
Happy Boy; Railways and Churchyards. Among 
his dramatic pieces are: The Newly Married 
Couple; Mary Stuart in Scotland; A Bankruptcy, 
etc. He has also written poems and songs. 

Black, the negation of all color, the opposite 
of white. There are several black pigments, 
such as ivory-black, made from burned ivory or 
bones; lamp-black, from the smoke of resinous 
substance; Spanish-black or cork-black, from 
burned cork, etc. 

Black, Jeremiah Sullivan (1810-1883), born 
in Somerset co., Pa. After receiving a good 
education, Jeremiah studied law, was admit¬ 
ted to the bar in 1831, and made prosecuting 
attorney of Somerset co. In 1842 he was raised 
to the bench and made judge of his district, 
and became chief justice in 1851. In 1857 he 
was called to the cabinet by President Bu¬ 
chanan as attorney general. He succeeded 
General Cass as secretary of state in Decem¬ 
ber, 1860, and held this place until the close of 
Buchanan’s administration. He became re¬ 
porter of the U. S. Supreme Court for a short 
time, after which he returned to the practise 


of his profession in York, Pa. He was one of 
the counsel against President Johnson. Among ( 
his noted cases were the Vanderbilt will case, " 
the Milliken case, and the McGarrahan claim. 
He was a member of the Pennsylvania consti¬ 
tutional convention in 1873. 

Black, Joseph (1728-1799), a distinguished 
Scotch chemist. In 1756 he was appointed 
professor of medicine and lecturer on chem¬ 
istry at Glasgow, and at Edinburgh in 1766. 
His fame, however, chiefly rests on his theory 
of “latent heat.” 

Black, William, novelist, b. in Glasgow in 
1841. His first novel, Love or Marriage, was 
moderately successful, but his In Silk Attire, 
Kilmeny the Monarch of Mincing Lane, and es¬ 
pecially A Daughter of Heth, gained him an 
increasingly wide circle of readers. His later 
works are The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton, 

A Princess of Thule, Three Feathers, Green 
Pastures and Piccadilly, Macleod of Dare, White 
Wings, The Beautiful Wretch, Judith Shakes¬ 
peare, The Strange Adventures of a House-Boat, 
etc. 

Black'bird, called also the merle, a well- 
known species of thrush, common in England. 

It is larger than the common thrush, its length 
being about 11 inches. The color of the male 
is a uniform deep black, the bill being an 
orange-yellow; the female is of a brown color, 
with blackish-brown bill. The nest is usually 
in a thick bush, and is built of grass, roots, 
twigs, etc., strengthened with clay. The eggs, 



Blackbird. 


generally four or five in number, are of a 
greenish-blue, spotted with various shades of 
brown. The song is rich, mellow, and flute- 
like, but of no great variety or compass. Its 
food is insects, worms, snails, fruits, etc. The 
blackbirds or crow-blackbirds of America are 
quite different from the European blackbird, 
and are more nearly allied to the starlings and 
crows. The red-winged blackbird, belonging 
to the starling family, is a familiar American 
bird that congregates in great flocks. 

Black'burn, a manufacturing town of Eng¬ 
land, in the county of Lancaster, 21 mi. n.n.w. 
from Manchester. Blackburn is one of the 
chief seats of the cotton manufacture, there 
being upward of 140 mills as well as works 
for making cotton machinery and steam en¬ 
gines, The cottons made in the town and 

















Blackburn 


Blacking 


vicinity have an annual value of about $25,- 
000,000. Pop. 120,064. 

Blackburn, JosErH Clay Styles, b. in 
Woodford co., Ky., 1838; practised law in Chi¬ 
cago 1858-60. He entered the Confederate 
army in 1861, and served through the Civil 
War. He was elected to the Kentucky legis¬ 
lature 1871 and 1873, and in 1875 entered Con¬ 
gress as a Democrat, was re-elected up to 1882, 
and in March, 1885, became U. S. senator, 
which position he held until 1897, when he 
was succeeded by Deboe. 

Blackcap, a European bird of the warbler 
family, 6 in. long, upper part of the head 
black, upper parts of the body dark gray with 
a greenish tinge, under parts more or less sil¬ 
very white. The female has its hood of a dull 
rust color. The blackcap is met with in 



Blackcap. 


England from April to September. Its nest is 
built near the ground; the eggs, from five to 
six, are reddish-brown, mottled with a deeper 
color. It ranks next to the nightingale for 
sweetness of song. The American blackcap 
is a species of titmouse, so called from the 
coloring of the head. 

Blackfeet Indians, a tribe of Indians, partly 
inhabiting the U. S., partly Canada, from the 
Yellowstone to Hudson’s Bay. 

Blackfish (or tautog), a fish caught on the 
American coast, especially in the vicinity of 
Long Island, whence large supplies are ob¬ 
tained for the New York market. Its back 
and sides are of a bluish or crow black; the 
under parts, especially in the males, are white. 
It is plump in appearance, and much esteemed 
for the table, varying in size from 2 to 12 lbs. 
Another fish, found in the Mediterranean and 
on the coasts of Western Europe, is also called 
blackfish. It belongs to the mackerel family. 
In Scotland the term is applied to foul or 
newly-spawned fish. In America two species 
of small whale also get this name. 

Black Fly, the name of two flies whose bite 
is very troublesome to man and beast in the 
northern states and Canada. 

Black Forest, a chain of European moun¬ 
tains in Baden and Wiirtemburg, running al¬ 
most parallel with the Rhine for about 85 
mi. The Danube, Neckar, Kinzig, and other 
streams rise in the Black Forest, which is 
rather a chain of elevated plains than of 
21 


isolated peaks; highest summit, Feldberg, 
4,900 feet. The principal mineral is iron, and 
there are numerous mineral springs. The for¬ 
ests are extensive, chiefly of pines and similar 
species, and yield much timber. The manu¬ 
facture of wooden clocks, toys, etc., is the 
most important industry, employing about 
40,000 persons. The inhabitants of the forest 
are quaint and simple in their habits, and the 
whole district preserves its old legendary as¬ 
sociations. 

Black Gum, an American tree yielding a 
close-grained, useful wood; fruit a drupe of 
blueblack color, whence it seems to get its 
name of “black”; it has no gum about it. 
It is called also pepperidge, and has been in¬ 
troduced into Europe as an ornamental tree. 

Black Hawk (1767-1838), a chief of the Sac 
and Fox tribes of Indians, b. in Kaskaskia, Ill., 
d. on the Des Moines River. He became a 
trusted brave and a successful chieftain in 
conducting sorties against the Osage and 
Cherokee tribes. He was grand-chieftain of 
the Sacs in* 1788. In 1804 the Sacs and Foxes 
agreed to cede to the U. S. lands extending 
about 800 miles along the Mississippi River. 
This contract Black Hawk repudiated, and 
claimed that the chiefs had been made drunk 
before they signed the documents. During 
the War of 1812 Black Hawk, tempted by Brit¬ 
ish agents, joined the enemy with about 500 
warriors; but soon retired from British ser¬ 
vice. In 1823 most of the Sacs and Foxes, 
under the leadership of Keokuk, removed to 
their reservation beyond the Mississippi River; 
but Black Hawk, with part of the tribe, re¬ 
fused to emigrate. Early in 1832 Black Hawk, 
with a band of Indians, crossed the Mississippi 
River, but, after several encounters, the Indians 
were defeated, and Black Hawk and his two 
sons became captives. The three were con¬ 
fined in Fortress Monroe until 1833. Later 
Black Hawk was succeeded by Keokuk. 

Blackheath, a village and heath, England, 
Kent, about 6 mi. s.e. of London Bridge. The 
heath contains about 70 acres within its pres¬ 
ent limits, and is much resorted to by pleas¬ 
ure parties. It has been the scene of many 
remarkable events, such as the insurrection¬ 
ary gatherings of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade, 
and the exploits of various highwaymen. 

Black Hills, a hilly region in South Dakota 
and n.e. Wyoming, rising to the height of 
6,700 ft., rich in timber, but especially in gold, 
as well as other minerals. 

Black Hole of Calcutta, a small chamber, 
20 ft. square, in the old fort of Calcutta, 
India, in which after their capture by Surajah 
Dowlah, the whole garrison of 146 men were 
confined during the night of June 21, 1756. 
Only twenty-three survived. The spot is now 
marked by a monument. 

Blackie, John Stuart, Scottish writer, long 
professor of Greek in the university of Edin¬ 
burgh; b. at Glasgow in 1809; d. March, 1895. 
Both in writing and upon the platform his name 
has beefl associated with various educational, 
social, and political movements. 

Blacking, for boots and shoes, etc., usually 


Black Lead 


Blackwood 


contains for its principal ingredients oil, vine¬ 
gar, ivory or bone black, sugar or molasses, 
strong sulphuric acid, and sometimes caout¬ 
chouc and gum-arabic. It is used either as 
liquid or in the form of paste, the only differ¬ 
ence being that in making the paste a por¬ 
tion of the vinegar is withheld. 

Black Lead. See Graphite. 

BIack=letter, the name commonly given to 
the Gothic characters which began to supersede 
the Roman characters in the writings of West¬ 
ern Europe toward the close of the twelfth 
century. The first types were in black-letter, 
but these were gradually modified in Italy un¬ 
til they took the later Roman shape introduced 
into most European states during the sixteenth 
centurv. 

Blackmail, a certain rate of money, corn, 
cattle, or the like, anciently paid, in the north 
of England and in Scotland, to certain men 
who were allied to robbers, to be protected by 
them from pillage. It was carried to such an 
extent as to become the subject of legislation. 
Blackmail was levied in the districts border¬ 
ing the Highlands of Scotland till the middle 
of the eighteenth century. The modern use 
of the term applies to money extorted from 
persons under threat of exposure in print for 
an alleged offense; hush money. 

Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, novelist, 
b. at Longworth, Berkshire, 1825; educated 
at Tiverton school and Exeter college, Oxford, 
where he graduated in 1847. In 1852 he was 
called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and 
afterward practised as a conveyancer. His 
' greatest success was Lorna Doone, a Romance of 
Exmoor. Other novels by him are: Clara 
Vaughan, Cradock, Nowell, A Tale of the New 
Forest, The Maid of Sker, Alice Lorraine, a Tale 
of the South Downs, Cripps the Carrier, Erema, 
Mary Anerley, ChristoweU, and Sir Thomas 
Upmore. Died Jan. 21, 1900. 

Black Mountains, the group which contains 
the highest summits of the Appalachian 
system, Clingman’s Peak being 6,701 ft.; 
Guyot’s Peak 6,661. 

Black-quarter, a kind of apoplectic disease 
which attacks cattle, indicated by lameness 
of the forefoot, one of the limbs swelling, and 
after death being suffused with black blood, 
which also is found throughout the body. 

Black Sea (ancient Pontus Euxinus), a sea 
situated between Europe and Asia, and mainly 
bounded by the Russian and Turkish domin¬ 
ions, being connected with the Mediterranean 
by the Bosporus, Sea of Marmora, and Darda¬ 
nelles, and by the Strait of Kertsch with the 
Sea of Azov, which is, in fact, only a bay of 
the Black Sea; area of the Black Sea and the 
Sea of Azov about 175,000 sq. mi., with a 
depth in the center of more than 150 fathoms 
and few shoals along its shores. The water 
is not so clear as that of the Mediterranean, 
and is less salt on account of the many large 
rivers which fall into it—the Danube, Dniester, 
Dnieper, Don, etc. Though not tidal, there 
are strong currents. The tempests on it are 
very violent, as the land which confines its 
agitated waters gives to them a kind of whirl¬ 


ing motion, and in the winter it is scarcely 
navigable. During January and February the 
shores from Odessa to the Crimea are ice¬ 
bound. It contains few islands, and those of 
small extent. The most important ports are 
those of Odessa, Kherson, Eupatoria, Sebasto¬ 
pol, Batum, Trebizond, Samsun, Sinope, and 
Varna. The fisheries are of some value. After 
the capture of Constantinople the Turks ex¬ 
cluded all but their own ships from the Black 
Sea until 1774, when, by the Treaty of Kainarji, 
they ceded to Russia the right also to trade in 
it. The same right was accorded to Austria 
in 1784, and by the Peace of Amiens to Britain 
and France in 1802. The preponderance there¬ 
after gained by Russia was one of the causes 
of the Crimean War, in which she was com¬ 
pelled to cede her right to keep armed vessels 
in it, the sea being declared neutral by the 
Treaty of Paris, 1856. In 1871, however, when 
France could not attend, owing to the Franco- 
German War, the sea was deneutralized by a 
conference of the European powers at London 
in response to the Russian protest. 

Black-snake, a common snake in North 
America, reaching a length of 5 or 6 feet, and 
so agile and swift as to have been named the 
Racer, with no poison fangs, and therefore 
comparatively harmless. It feeds on small 
quadrupeds, birds, and the like, and is espe¬ 
cially useful in killing rats. 

Black'stone, Sir William (1723-80), an em¬ 
inent English jurist. In 1765 he published 
the first volume of his famous Commentaries 
on the Laws of England, the other three vol¬ 
umes being produced at intervals during the 
next four years. Its merits as an exposition 
made it for a long period the principal text¬ 
book of English law. 

Blackstone, Worcester co., Mass., a thriving 
manufacturing town, 216 mi. s.e. of Worcester; 
has 7 churches, a bank and public library. 
Pop. 5,721. 

Black Tin, tin ore when dressed, stamped, 
and washed ready for smelting, forming a 
black powder. 

Blackwell, Elizabeth, the first woman who 
ever obtained the degree of M. D. She was 
born in England in 1821, and settled in Amer¬ 
ica with her parents in 1831, where from 1838 
to 1847 she was engaged in teaching. After 
numerous difficulties she was admitted into 
the College of Geneva, N. Y., and graduated 
M. D. in 1849. She afterward studied in 
Paris, and commenced practise in New York 
in 1851, where she has since chiefly resided. 
In 1854, with her sister Emily, she opened a 
hospital for women and children in New York. 

Black-wood, or Indian Rosewood, a legu¬ 
minous tree of Hindustan the timber of which 
is highly valued and much used in the manu¬ 
facture of fine furniture. The Australian 
Black-wood is of the acacia species. 

Blackwood, William (1776-1834), an Edin¬ 
burg publisher, b. at Edinburgh. He started 
as a bookseller in 1804, and soon became also 
a publisher. The first number of Blackicood's 
Magazine appeared April 1, 1817, and it has 
always been conducted in the Tory inter- 


B3adder=nut 


Blair 


est. After liis death the business, which lias 
developed into a large publishing concern, 
was carried on by his sons, and the magazine 
still keeps its place among the leading period¬ 
icals. 

Bladder=nut, a name of shrubs or small 
trees, natives of Europe, Asia, and North 



Bladder-nut. a.—Flower, b.— Fruit. 


America, the fruits of which consist of an in¬ 
flated bladdery capsule containing the seeds. 

Bladderwort, the common name of slender 
aquatic plants, species of which are natives of 
Britain, the U. S., etc., growing in ditchesand 
pools. They are named from having little 
bladders or vesicles, that fill with air at the 
time of flowering and raise the plant in the 
water, so that the blossoms expand above the 
surface. 

Bladensburg, a town of Maryland, 6 mi. 
n.e. of Washington, D. C. It was the scene of 
a battle Aug. 24, 1814, where the vastly supe¬ 
rior British invaders, under General Ross, de¬ 
feated a force of American militia. 

Bladud' , in legendary British history, the 
father of King Lear. He is said to have been 
the founder of the city of Bath, having been 
cured of his leprosy by its medicinal waters. 

Blaeu (Blaeuw, or Blauw) (blii'u), a Dutch 
family celebrated as publishers of maps and 
books. William (1571-1G38) established the 
business at Amsterdam, constructed celestial 
and terrestrial globes, and published some ex¬ 
cellent works. His son John (d. 1673) published 
various topographical plates and views of 
towns. The works of this family are still 
highly valued. 

Blaine, James Gillespie (1830-1893), states¬ 
man, was b. at West Brownsville, Washing¬ 
ton co., Pa. His father, Ephraim L., was a 
descendant of the old Scotch Covenanters and 
a rigid Presbyterian. His mother, Maria Gil¬ 
lespie, was of Irish and Scottish ancestry and 
a member of the Catholic church. Blaine 
was educated at Washington college, from 
which he graduated in 1847, being only seven¬ 


teen years of age. He left college self-depend¬ 
ent, went to Blue Lick Springs, Ky., and 
entered the profession of teacher. In 1850 his 
father died. In 1851 at Pittsburg, Pa., he was 
married to Miss Harriet Stanwood, of Augusta, 
Me., a descendant of the Puritan stock. In 
1852 he went to Philadelphia, where he taught 
in an asylum for the blind for two years. In 
1854 he moved to Augusta, Me., and entered 
editorial work on the Kennebec Journal , a 
weekly newspaper. From the Kennebec Jour¬ 
nal he took a more influential position on the 
Portland Daily Advei'tiser. In the fall election 
of 1858 he was elected to the state legislature 
where, by his speech-making, he attracted 
national attention. He served in the state 
legislature until 1862. In 1863 Blaine took 
his seat in the House of Representatives 
and thenceforward was a national man. In 
1865 he visited Europe for his health. He 
was made speaker of the House in 1869, which 
position he held until 1874. While in Congress 
he made a number of important speeches on 
financial and taxation questions and partici¬ 
pated in many celebrated debates. In 1876 
he was second in his candidature for presi¬ 
dential nomination by the Republican Na¬ 
tional Convention. About this time he was 
accused of speculating in railroad bonds. The 
charge was agitated by his political opponents 
and undoubtedly caused his defeat. He was 
again unsuccessful in his candidature in 1880, 
and James A. Garfield was elected president. 
Blaine was made secretary of state by Gar¬ 
field. After the death of Garfield Blaine 
resigned and began his Twenty Tears in Con¬ 
gress, a work which has had a most favorable 
reception. In 1884 he was nominated for 
president, but was defeated by Cleveland. 
When Harrison was elected president he was 
made secretary of state for the second time. 
He resigned from Harrison’s cabinet and be¬ 
came a candidate for the nomination of presi¬ 
dent in 1892, but was defeated in the conven¬ 
tion. Blaine was for many years the recognized 
leader of the Republican party, and was a great 
exponent of the doctrine of reciprocity. He 
was prominent in the seal-fisheries dispute, 
the reorganization of the Brazilian republic, 
and in many other questions of national im¬ 
portance. Though a private citizen at the 
time of his death he was mourned by the 
whole nation. 

Blair, Francis ‘Preston (1791-1876), Amer¬ 
ican statesman, b. in Virginia. Originally 
a Whig, he became editor of the Washington 
Globe, the organ of Jacksonian Democracy 
1829-45, and in 1856 was active in the organi¬ 
zation of the Republican party, and presided 
over the Pittsburg convention which nomina¬ 
ted Fremont. He was a leader in the Chicago 
convention of 1860, which nominated Lincoln. 
He endeavored to effect a peace with Jefferson 
Davis in 1864, but was unsuccessful. He op¬ 
posed the reconstruction measures after Lin¬ 
coln’s death, and became a Democrat. 

Blair, Francis Preston (1821-1875), son of 
the foregoing, b. in Lexington, Ky. He 
served in the Mexican War, edited the Missouri 




Blair 


BIast=furnace 


Democrat, and sat in the legislature of Mis¬ 
souri 1852-56. In 1856 he joined the Republi¬ 
can party, and was elected to Congress. He 
was reelected in 1860 and 1862. He entered 
the volunteer army as a colonel, became major- 
general 1862, and resigned his seat in Congress 
in 1863. He commanded a division at Vicks¬ 
burg, fought at Lookout Mountain and Mis¬ 
sionary Ridge, and marched with Sherman to 
the sea. He returned to the Democratic 
party. In 1868 he was on the presidential 
ticket with Horatio Seymour. In 1871 he re¬ 
entered the state legislature, and was elected 
to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate. In 1873 
he became state superintendent of insurance. 

Blair, Henry William, b. in New Hamp¬ 
shire, 1834, served in the Civil War, and from 
1866 to 1868, in the state house of representa¬ 
tives and senate. He was in Congress from 
1875 to 1879, became U. S. senator 1879, and 
was reelected in 1885. He is a strong advocate 
of prohibition and female suffrage. Mr. Blair 
in 1892 was elected to the fifty-third Congress. 

Blair, John Insley, b. in New Jersey 1802; 
organized the Lackawanna Coal and Iron 
Company, built the Delaware, Lackawanna 
& Western railroad, organized the railroad 
system of Iowa, and constructed 2,000 mi. of 
railroad in that state and Nebraska. He was 
one of the original directors of the Union Pa¬ 
cific. Mr. Blair was a Republican. He has 
given more than $500,000 for schools and 
churches. 

Blair, Montgomery (1813-1883), son of Fran- 
' cis P. Blair, Sr., b. in Kentucky. He grad¬ 
uated at West Point in 1835, and served in the 
Seminole War. In 1839 he became U. S. dis¬ 
trict-attorney, and in 1842 mayor of St. Louis. 
He held various judicial offices in Missouri, 
and after 1852 in Maryland. He was of coun¬ 
sel for the plaintiff in the Dred Scott case. 
From March, 1861, to September 23, he was 
postmaster-general, but afterward became a 
Democrat. 

Blake, Edward, Canadian lawyer and 
statesman, b. in 1833. He graduated from 
University College in 1857. In 1867 he became 
a member of the Canadian Parliament, and 
leader of the Liberal opposition. In 1871 he 
became premier of the Ontario legislature. In 
1873 he became a member of the Canadian 
cabinet. Mr. Blake was chosen leader of the 
liberal party in place of Mr. Mackenzie (1880). 
He was one of the ablest speakers in the Do¬ 
minion, and going to England was elected as a 
member of Parliament for an Irish constitu¬ 
ency as a pronounced Home Rule candidate. 

Blake, Robert (1599-1657), a celebrated 
British admiral, was b. at Bridgewater. He 
soon distinguished himself as a soldier in the 
Civil War, and in 1649 was sent to command 
the fleet "with Colonels Deane and Popham. 
His greatest achievements were in the Dutch 
war which broke out in 1652. In November, 
1654, he was sent with a strong fleet to enforce 
a due respect to the British flag in the Med¬ 
iterranean. 

Blanc, Mont. See Mont Blanc. 

Blanchard (blan-shar), Francois (1753-1809), 


French aeronaut. In 1785 he crossed the Eng¬ 
lish Channel in a balloon, for which feat he 
received a pension from the French king. He 
made many remarkable ascents in various parts 
of the world. His wife, b. 1778, was his com¬ 
panion in many of his voyages, and was killed 
by her balloon taking fire, 1819. 

Blanc=mange (ble-manzh'), in cookery, a 
name of different preparations of the consist¬ 
ency of a jelly, variously composed of dis¬ 
solved isinglass, arrow-root, maize-flour, etc., 
with milk and flavoring substances. 

Bland, Richard P., an American public 
man, b. near Hartford, Ky., Aug. 19, 1835; 
practised law in California and Nevada; has 
been member of Congress from Missouri since 
1874. He was the author of the Bland silver 
bill, passed in 1878. He advocated free coin¬ 
age of silver and tariff reform. D. June 15,1899. 

Blank Verse, verse without rhyme, first in¬ 
troduced into English poetry (from the Italian) 
by the Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 
1547. The most common form of English blank 
verse is the decasyllabic, such as that of Mil¬ 
ton’s Paradise Lost, or of the dramas of Shake¬ 
speare. From Shakespeare’s time it has been 
the kind of verse almost universally used by 
dramatic writers, who often employ an addi¬ 
tional syllable, making the lines not strictly 
decasyllabic. The first use of the term blank 
verse is said to be in Hamlet, ii. 2: “ The lady 
shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse 
shall halt for’t.” The term is not applied to 
the Anglo-Saxon and early English alliterative 
unrhymed verse. 

Blanqui, Louis Auguste (1805-1881), b. at 
Nice. He took part in scores of political plots 
and insurrections under Louis Philippe, and 
was condemned to death several times. He re¬ 
turned to France in 1870, participated in the 
communist revolt, was elected to the chamber, 
and antagonized the republic as he had the 
monarchy and the empire. 

Blantyre (-tlr'), a populous mining parish in 
Lanarkshire, Scotland, containing several vil¬ 
lages, at one of which Dr. Livingstone was b. 
Pop. 9,760. This parish has given its name to 
an African mission station founded in 1876 by 
the Established church of Scotland, on the 
heights which rise between the Upper Shire 
River and Lake Shirwa, now the center of set¬ 
tlement and trade. 

Blap'sidae, a family of nocturnal black bee¬ 
tles, whose wings are generally obsolete and 
their.elytra soldered together. They frequent 
gloomy, damp places, and when seized dis¬ 
charge, in self-defense, a liquid of a peculiar 
penetrating odor. 

Blar'ney, a village, Ireland, four mi. n.w. 
of the city of Cork, with Blarney Castle in its 
vicinity. A stone called the Blarney Stone , near 
the top of the castle, is said to confer on those 
who kiss it the peculiar kind of persuasive elo¬ 
quence alleged to be characteristic of the na¬ 
tives of Ireland. The “groves of Blarney” are 
extensive and interesting, and beneath the cas¬ 
tle there are also some curious natural caves. 

Blast=furnace, the name given to the com¬ 
mon smelting-furnace used for obtaining iron 


Blast=furnace Blasting 


from its ores with the aid of a powerful blast 
of air. This air-blast, which is propelled by a 
powerful blowing-engine and is now invariably 
heated to a high temperature (600° to 900° F.) 
is injected by pipes called tuyeres, situated in 
the lowest part of the furnace, near to the 
hearth. The conical part next above the 
hearth is termed the boshes, and the interior 
is continued upward, sometimes in a tapered 
body or cone, sometimes as a perpendicular 
cylinder, which is surmounted by an opening 
for the introduction of the materials from an 
external gallery. The exterior consists of 
massive masonry of stone or firebrick, the 
body part being lined with two shells of fire¬ 
bricks separated by a thin space to allow for 
expansion, this space being generally filled 
with sand, ground fire-clay, or the like, to hin¬ 
der the radiation of heat to the. outside. 
When the body rises in the form of a perpen¬ 
dicular cylinder it is called the barrel. The 
cone or barrel is sometimes clasped round on 
the outside by numerous strong iron hoops, or 
is cased with iron plates fastened to the ma¬ 
sonry by iron bolts. The boshes are lined 
with firebrick or firestone, and the hearth is 
built with large blocks of refractory stone. 
The charging of the furnace goes on all day 
and night, one charge consisting of a bar¬ 
row-load of coal and a barrow-load of ore, 
char, and lime, the last mineral acting 
as a flux. These charges are constantly pass¬ 
ing downward and undergoing a change 
as they come nearer the hotter parts of the 
furnace. Toward the lower part the earthy 
matter of the ore unites with the limestone 
and forms a slag, which finally escapes at an 
opening below the tuyeres, and the molten 
metal drops down and fills the lower part, to be 
drawn off at stated periods. This is done usu¬ 
ally twice in the twenty-four hours by means 
of a round hole called a tap. The furnace is 
constantly kept filled to within about 2 feet 
of the top. The ore 
put in at the top takes 
about thirty-six hours 
before it comes out as 
iron. Hematite yields 
on an average about 55 
per cent, of metal, and 
blackband about 40 to 
50. In the newer forms 
of furnaces the top is 
closed, and the gases 
formerly burned at the 
top are conveyed by 
pipes to be utilized as 
fuel in heating the blast 
and in raising steam for 
the blowing-engine. The principle adopted is 
to close the top by a bell-and-cone arrange¬ 
ment, which is opened and shut at pleasure 
by hydraulic or other machinery. The height 
of furnaces varies from 50 to 80, and even in 
some cases to upward of 100 feet, and the 
greatest width is about one third of this. 

On the Egyptian tombs at Thebes metal¬ 
workers are represented as using the blow-pipe 


more than 2,000 years before Christ, and Indian 
and other Oriental workers in metals still use 
a primitive bellows for this purpose, which was 
the germ of the blast furnace. Roman histori¬ 
ans say that iron was employed by the Britons 
in manufacturing spears and lances, which re¬ 
quired some sort of blast. The Romans them¬ 
selves, when they occupied Britain, employed 
iron to a considerable extent, as is evidenced 
by cinder heaps in the Forest of Dean, in Glou¬ 
cestershire, and elsewhere. But so rude was 
their process, that those heaps in the Forest of 
Dean furnished the chief supply of ore for 
twenty furnaces during 200 or 300 years. The 
English iron founders who employed these re¬ 
mains melted them in furnaces of a simple 
form, called “air-bloomeries,” which they 
erected on the tops of hills, in order to obtain 
the greatest possible blast of wind. 

Blasting, the operation of breaking up 
masses of stone or rock in situ by means of 
gunpowder or other explosive. In ordinary 
operations holes are bored into the rock of from 
1 to 6 inches in diameter, by means of a steel- 
pointed drill, by striking it with hammers, or 
allowing it to fall from a height. After the 
hole is bored to the requisite depth it is cleaned 
out, the explosive is introduced, the hole is 
“tamped ” or filled up with broken stone, clay, 
or sand, and the charge exploded by means of 
a fuse or by electricity. In larger operations, 
mines or shafts of considerable diameter take 
the place of the holes above described. Shafts 
are sunk from the tops of the rock to various 
depths, sometimes upward of 60 feet. This 
shaft joins a heading, or gallery, driven in 
from the face, if possible, along a natural joint; 
and from this point other galleries are driven 
some distance in various directions, with head¬ 
ings at intervals, returning toward the face of 
the rock and terminating in chambers for the 
charges. Enormous charges are frequently 
made use of, upward of twenty tons of gun¬ 


powder having been fired in a single blast. One 
of the greatest blasting operations ever at¬ 
tempted was the removal of the reefs in the 
East River, near New York, known as Hell 
Gate. An entrance shaft was sunk on the 
Long Island shore, from which the reef pro¬ 
jected. From this shaft nearly twenty tunnels 
were bored in all directions, extending from 
200 to 240 feet, and connected by lateral gal- 



Section of Hell Gate Tunnels. 













Blatchford 


Bligh 


leries. Upward of 52,000 lbs. of dynamite, 
rend-rock, and powder were used, and millions 
of tons of rock were dislodged. Numerous 
important improvements have been made in 
blasting by the substitution of rock-boring ma¬ 
chines for hand labor. Of such machines, in 
which the “jumper” or drill is repeatedly 
driven against the rock by compressed air or 
steam, being also made to rotate slightly at 
each blow, there are many varieties. 

Blatchford, Samuel, b. in New York, 1820; 
graduated at Columbia in 1837, and was admit¬ 
ted to the bar in 1842. He was law partner 
with William H. Seward, in 1867 became U. S. 
district judge for southern New York, and in 
1882, associate justice of the U. S. Supreme 
Court. Died 1893. 

Blat'tid^e, a family of insects of the order 
Orthoptera. They are extremely voracious, 
some species apparently eating almost every¬ 
thing that comes in their way. The type of 
the family is the well-known cockroach. 

Bleaching, the act or art of freeing textile 
fibers and fabrics and various other substances 
(such as materials for paper, ivory, wax, oils) 
from their natural color, and rendering them 
perfectly white, or nearly so. The ancient 
method of bleaching by exposing the fabrics, 
etc., to the action of the sun’s rays, and fre¬ 
quently wetting them, has been nearly super¬ 
seded, at least where the business is carried on 
on the large scale, more complicated proces¬ 
ses in connection with powerful chemical prep¬ 
arations being now employed. Among the 
„ latter the chief are chlorine and sulphurous 
acid, the latter being employed more especially 
in the case of animal fibers (silk and wool), 
while cotton, flax, and other vegetable fibers 
are operated upon with chlorine, the bleaching 
in both cases being preceded by certain clean¬ 
ing processes. The use of chlorine as a bleach¬ 
ing agent was first proposed by Berthollet in 
1786, and shortly afterward introduced into 
Great Britain, where it was first used simply 
dissolved in water, afterward dissolved in 
alkali, and then in the form of bleaching- 
powder, commonly called chloride of lime, 
the manufacture of which was patented by 
Mr. Tennant of St. Rollox, Glasgow, in 1799. 
In modern calico bleaching the preliminary 
process is singeing by passing the fabric over 
red-hot plates or through a gas-flame to remove 
the downy pile and short threads from the 
surface of the cloth. The goods next pass to 
the liming process, when they are uniformly 
and thoroughly impregnated with a supersatu¬ 
rated solution of lime. The next process is 
the hoicking or boiling for several hours, after 
which they are washed. They are then soured 
by being passed through a solution of hydro¬ 
chloric acid for the purpose of dissolving any 
traces of free lime which may have been left 
in the washing, and to decompose the calca¬ 
reous soap formed by the bowking process. 
After boiling in kiers with a solution of soda- 
ash and rosin and another washing, the cloth 
is ready for the processes of chemicking or 
liquoring with bleaching-powder, and ichite- 
souring with a very dilute sulphuric acid. 


Another thorough washing concludes the 
operations of bleaching proper, after which 
the cloth goes through various finishing proc¬ 
esses. Modifications of the same processes 
are adopted in bleaching linen, wool, silk, etc. 

Blende (blend), an ore of zinc, called also 
Mock-lead, False Galena, and Black-jack. Its 
color is mostly yellow, brown, and black. 
There are several varieties, but in general this 
ore contains more than half its weight of zinc, 
about one fourth sulphur, and usually a small 
portion of iron. It is a native sulphide of 
zinc. 

Blennerhassett, Harman (1764-1831), one 
of Aaron Burr’s victims, b. in Hampshire, 
England. In 1797 he sailed for New York 
City. A year later, Blennerhassett purchased 
Backus Island, in the Ohio River, which there¬ 
after became known by his name. In 1805 
Aaron Burr, on his way down the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers, visited him, and succeeded 
in interesting Blennerhassett in his schemes. 
He advocated the plans of Burr, and contrib¬ 
uted considerable money for boats, arms, pro¬ 
visions, etc. After President Jefferson issued 
a proclamation against the scheme, Blenner¬ 
hassett, fearing arrest, left the island to join 
Burr at the mouth of the Cumberland River. 
His island was overrun by a party of militia. 
Blennerhassett was arrested and imprisoned. 
From Lexington, Ky., he was taken to Rich¬ 
mond, Va., for trial but was discharged in 
1807. He then went to Natchez, Miss., where 
he bought cotton lands near Port Gibson, Miss. 
This venture proved unsuccessful. In 1819 he 
removed to Montreal, where he vainly endeav¬ 
ored to acquire a legal practise. In 1822 he 
sailed for Ireland, where he retired into ob¬ 
scurity on the island of Guernsey, where he d. 

Blenheim, a village in Bavaria on the Dan¬ 
ube. Near it was fought Aug. 13, 1704, during 
the War of the Spanish Succession the famous 
battle of Blenheim, in which the allied forces 
of England and Germany gained a victory over 
the French and Bavarians. The residence of 
the dukes of Marlborough at Woodstock, Ox¬ 
fordshire, was named from this victory. The 
estate of Woodstock, which belonged to the 
crown having been conferred by Queen Anne on 
the great commander, Parliament granted a 
perpetual pension of $20,000 a year, and $2,- 
500,000 to erect a suitable family seat. The 
present Duke of Marlborough, Count of Blen¬ 
heim, is married to Consuelo, daughter of 
W. H. Vanderbilt, of New York. 

Blenheim Dog, a variety of spaniel, bearing 
a close resemblance to the King Charles breed, 
but somewhat smaller, so named from having 
been bred by one of the dukes of Marlborough. 
It has a short muzzle, long silky hair without 
any curl, and long pendulous ears. 

Blesbok, an antelope of South Africa with 
a white marked face, a general purplish-choco¬ 
late color, and a “saddle” of a bluish color; 
found in great numbers in the Transvaal and 
Orange Free State, and much hunted. 

Bligh (bli), William (1753-1817), the com¬ 
mander of the ship Bounty, when the crew 
mutinied in the South Seas and carried her off. 


Blight 

He was b. at Plymouth, d. at London. The 
Bounty had been fitted out for the purpose of 
procuring plants of the bread-fruit tree, and 
introducing these into the West Indies. Bligh 
left Tahiti in 1789, and was proceeding on his 
voyage for Jamaica when he was seized, and, 
with eighteen men supposed to be well affected 
to him, forced into the launch, sparingly pro¬ 
visioned, and cast adrift not far from the is¬ 
land of Tofoa. By admirable skill and perse¬ 
verance they managed to reach the island of 
Timor in forty-one days. Bligh, with twelve 
of his companions, arrived in England in 1790, 
while the mutineers settled on Pitcairn Island, 
where their descendants still exist. Bligh be¬ 
came governor of New South Wales in 1800, 
but was shortly deposed and sent back to Eng¬ 
land. He afterward rose to the rank of ad¬ 
miral. 

Blight, a generic name commonly applied 
to denote the effects of disease or any other 
circumstance which causes plants to wither 
or decay. It has been vaguely applied to 
almost every disease of plants whether caused 
by the condition of the atmosphere or of the 
soil, the attacks of insects, parasitic fungi, etc. 
The term is frequently limited to disease in 
cereal crops. 

Blind y The, those who want, or are defi¬ 
cient in, the sense of sight. Blindness may 
vary in degree from the slightest impairment 
of vision to total loss of sight; it may also be 
temporary or permanent. It is caused by de¬ 
fect, disease, or injury to the eye, to the optic 
nerve, or to that part of the brain connected 
with it. Old age is sometimes accompanied 
with blindness, occasioned by the drying up 
of the humors of the eye, or by the opacity 
of the cornea, the crystalline lens, etc. There 
are several causes which produce blindness 
from birth. Sometimes the eyelids adhere to 
each other, or to the eyeball itself, or a mem¬ 
brane covers the eyes; sometimes the pupil of 
the eye is closed, or adheres to the cornea, or 
is not situated in the right place, so that the 
rays of light do not fall in the middle of the 
eye; besides other defects. The blind are often 
distinguished for a remarkable mental activity, 
and a wonderful development of the intel¬ 
lectual powers. Their touch and hearing, 
particularly, become very acute. 

As early as 1260 an asylum for the blind was 
founded in Paris by St. Louis for the relief of 
the Crusaders who lost their sight in Egypt 
and Syria; but the first institution for the in¬ 
struction of the blind was the idea of Valentin 
Hauy, brother of the celebrated mineralogist. 
In 1784 he opened an institution in which they 
were instructed not only in appropriate me¬ 
chanical employments, as spinning, knitting, 
making ropes or fringes, and working in paste¬ 
board, but also in music, in reading, writing, 
ciphering, geography, and the sciences. For 
instruction in reading he procured raised let¬ 
ters of metal; for writing he used particular 
writing-cases, in which a frame, with wires to 
separate the lines, could be fastened upon the 
paper; for ciphering there were movable figures 
of metal, and ciphering-boards in which the 


Blind Fish 

figures could be fixed; for teaching geography 
maps were prepared upon which mountains, 
rivers, cities, and the boundaries of countries 
were indicated to the sense of touch in various 
ways, etc. Similar institutions were soon 
afterward founded in Amsterdam, Berlin, 
Brussels, Copenhagen, Dresden, • Edinburgh, 
Liverpool, London, Vienna, and in many towns 
of the U. S. There are now comparatively few 
large cities that do not possess a school or in¬ 
stitution of some kind for the blind. The oc¬ 
cupations in which the blind are found capable 
of engaging are such as the making of baskets 
and other kinds of wicker-work, brushmaking, 
rope and twine making, the making of mats 
and matting, knitting, netting, fancy work of 
various kinds, cutting firewood, the sewing of 
sacks and bags, the carving of articles in wood, 
etc. Piano-tuning is also successfully carried 
on by some, and the cleaning of clocks and 
watches has even been occasionally practised 
by them. 

Various systems have been devised for the 
purpose of teaching the blind to read, some of 
which consist in the use of the ordinary Roman 
alphabet, with more or less modification, and 
some of which employ types quite arbitrary in 
form. In all systems the characters rise above 
the surface of the paper so as to be felt by the 
fingers. The type adopted by Haiiy was the 
script or italic form of the Roman letter. Be¬ 
fore this, Gall of Edinburgh made use of an 
embossed alphabet based on the ordinary Ro¬ 
man small letters, in which all curves were re¬ 
placed by angular lines, and in 1884 he pub¬ 
lished the Gospel of St. John in this character. 
Subsequently he introduced various improve¬ 
ments, and in particular the letters were pro¬ 
duced with serrated surfaces, thus giving 
greater distinctness. Alston of Glasgow, Howe 
of Boston, and others also used the Roman 
form; but the former (who was the first to print 
the whole Bible, in 1840) adopted the Roman 
capitals, while the latter adopted the small 
letters, printing in this type the Bible and 
many other books. Of alphabets deviating 
entirely or nearly so from the Roman letter, 
one consists of a stenographic shorthand 
invented by Lucas of Bristol; another is a 
phonetic shorthand devised by Frere of Lon¬ 
don. In Doctor Moon’s alphabet some of the 
characters are Roman, others are based'on or 
suggested by the Roman characters. The 
Braille system is one in which the letters are 
formed by a combination of dots. Doctor 
Moon’s system from its simplicity and the size 
of its characters is in very general use in books 
for the blind. There are also systems by which 
the blind are enabled to write. In the U. S. 
almost every state has a school for the blind. 

Blind fish, the name of several species of 
fish, family Amblyopsidse, inhabiting the 
American cave-streams. They are all small, 
the largest not exceeding five inches. In the 
typical species of the Mammoth Cave of Ken¬ 
tucky, the eyes are reduced to a useless rudi¬ 
ment hidden under the skin, the body is trans¬ 
lucent and colorless, and the head and body 
are covered with numerous rows of sensitive 


Blind=worm 

papillm, which form very delicate organs of 
touch. 



Blind Fish oi Mammoth Cave. 


Blind=worm (or slow-worm), a reptile, form¬ 
ing a connecting link between the lizards and 
the snakes, perfectly snake-like in form, hav¬ 
ing no appearance of external limbs, though 
the bones of the shoulders and pelvis exist in a 
rudimentary form; length about a foot, and of 
nearly equal thickness throughout. Its eyes, 
though brilliant, are small, and hence its com¬ 
mon name. It is common in Great Britain, 
and is spread over almost the whole of Europe, 
Western Asia, and Northern Africa. It is 
perfectly harmless, living upon worms, insects, 
and snails, and hibernating during the winter. 



Blind-worm. 


It receives its specific name of fragilis from 
the fact that when frightened it stiffens its 
muscles to such an extent, and becomes so 
rigid, that its tail may be snapped off by a 
slight blow. 

Bliss, Cornelius N., American merchant 
and statesman, b. in Mass. 1833. In 1866 he 
moved to New York City and became inter¬ 
ested in manufactures. He arose to political 
prominence as treasurer of the Republican 
national campaign committee. He is di¬ 
rector in several banks, trusts, etc. Presi¬ 
dent McKinley appointed him secretary of the 
interior in 1S97. He resigned Dec., 1898. 

Bliss, Philip Paul (1838-1876), an American 
evangelist, b. in Pa. In company with the 
evangelist Dwight L. Moody he held mission 
services in all parts of the U. S., leading in 
the singing of hymns of his own composition. 
Hold the Fort is the best-known of these. He 
was killed in the terrible Ashtabula, O., rail¬ 
road wreck. 


Block=system 

Blister, a topical application which, when 
applied to the skin, raises the cuticle in the 
form of a vesicle, filled with serous fluid, and 
so produces a counter-irritation. The Spanish 
fly-blister operates with most certainty and 
expedition, and is commonly used for this 
purpose, as well as mustard, hartshorn, etc. 

BIister=steel, iron bars which, when con¬ 
verted into steel, have their surface covered 
with blisters, probably from the expansion of 
minute bubbles of air. Steel is used in the 
blister state for welding to iron for certain 
pieces of mechanism, but is not employed for 
making edge-tools. It requires for this pur¬ 
pose to be converted into cast or shear steel. 

Block, a mechanical contrivance consisting 
of one or more grooved pulleys mounted in a 
casing or shell which is furnished with a hook, 
eye, or strap by which it may be attached to 
an object, the function of the apparatus being 
to transmit power or change the direction of 
motion by means of a rope or chain passing 
round the movable pulleys. Blocks are sin¬ 
gle, double, treble, or four-fold, according as 
the number of sheaves or pulleys is one, two, 
three, or four. A. running block is attached to 
the object to be raised or moved; a standing 
block is fixed to some permanent support. 
Blocks also receive different denominations 
from their shape, purpose, and mode of appli¬ 
cation. They are sometimes made of iron as 
well as of wood. Blocks to which the name of 
dead-eyes has been given, are not pulleys, being 
unprovided with sheaves. 

Blockade' is the rendering of intercourse 
with the seaports of an enemy unlawful on the 
part of neutrals, and it consists essentially in 
the presence of a sufficient naval force to make 
such intercourse difficult. It must be declared 
or made public, so that neutrals may have no¬ 
tice of it. If a blockade is instituted by a suf¬ 
ficient authority, and maintained by a suffi¬ 
cient force, a neutral is so far affected by it 
that an attempt to trade with the place in¬ 
vested subjects vessel and cargo to confiscation 
by the blockading power. The term is also 
used to describe the state of matters when hos¬ 
tile forces sit down around a place and keep 
possession of all the means of access to it, so 
as to entirely cut off its communication with 
the outside world, and so compel surrender 
from want of supplies. 

Block=house, a fortified edifice of one or 
more stories, constructed chiefiy of blocks of 
hewn timber. Block-houses are supplied with 
loopholes for musketry and sometimes with 
embrasures for cannon, and when of more than 
one story the upper ones are made to overhang 
those below, and are furnished with machico¬ 
lations or loopholes in the overhung floor, so 
that a perpendicular fire can be directed against 
the enemy in close attack. Block-houses are 
often of great advantage, and in wooded local¬ 
ities readily constructed. 

BIock=system, a system of working the 
traffic on railways according to which the line 
is divided into sections, each section gener¬ 
ally stretching from one station to the next, 
with a signal and telegraphic connection at 





























Blood 


Blodgett 

the end of each section. The essential princi¬ 
ple of the system is that no train is allowed to 
enter upon any one section till the section is 
signaled wholly clear, so that between two 
successive trains there is not merely an inter¬ 
val of time, but also an interval of space. 

Blodgett, Henry Williams, b. 1821, in Am¬ 
herst, Mass., an American jurist; studied law 
in Chicago, and began practice in 1845. In 
1852 he was elected to the Illinois legislature 
as an anti-slavery Republican, and in the fol¬ 
lowing year became state senator. He was for 
many years a railroad lawyer, and became pres¬ 
ident of the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad. 
In 1870 he was appointed U. S. district judge 
for the northern district of Illinois, which office 
he held for several years. 

Blodgett, Rufus, b. 1834, in Dorchester, N.H., 
American public man; became a banker and 
railroad superintendent, and was elected to the 
U. S. Senate from New Jersey in 1887. 

Bloemfontein (blom'fon-tm), the chief town 
and seat of government of the Orange Free 
State, South Africa, 680 mi. n. e. of Cape 
Town, situated in a high but healthy region. 
Pop, 5,817. 

Blois (blwii), capital of the French dep. Loir- 
es-Cher, 99 mi. s.w. Paris, on the Loire. The 
old castle, which has played an important part 
in French history, was restored by the govern¬ 
ment in 1845. The main entrance is by a fine 
Gothic portal opening into a quadrangle, on 
the east side of which is a pillared cloister, on 
the north a pile of buildings in the Renaissance 
style, on the west some unfinished buildings, 
and on the south is the ancient part begun by 
the Dukes of Orleans. There is also a cathe¬ 
dral of late date, the Church of St. Nicholas 
(twelfth century), a bishop’s palace, Roman 
aqueduct, etc. The castle was long occupied by 
the counts of the name; and became a favorite 
residence of the kings of France. Louis XII 
was born, Francis I, Henry II, Charles IX, and 
Henry III held their courts in it. Pop. 23,457. 

Blon'del, a French minstrel and poet of the 
twelfth century, a confidential servant and in¬ 
structor in music of Richard Cceur de Lion. 
While his master was the prisoner of the duke 
of Austria, Blondel, according to the story, 
went through Palestine and all parts of Ger¬ 
many in search of him. He sang the king’s 
own favorite lays before each keep and fortress 
till the song was at length taken up and an¬ 
swered from the windows of the castle of 
Loewenstein, where Richard was imprisoned. 
This story is preserved in the chronicles of 
Rheims, of the thirteenth century. 

Blondin, a noted French gymnast (1824- 
1897), was b. at St. Ouen, Pas de Calais. His 
real name was Jean Francis Gravelet. He 
had two brothers and three sisters, who were 
all tight rope performers. His first feat on 
the tight rope was in Lyons, when he was but 
six years old, and when he made an ascension 
to the height of 175 ft. Later he was placed 
by his father at the Ecole de Gymnase at 
Lyons, where he was trained to be an acrobat. 
Six months afterward he made his professional 
debut, and his success was instantaneous. For 


years he traveled through France attending 
village fairs, with success and profit. In 1851 
he joined the famous Ravel family of acrobats 
and came with them to America and appeared 
with them at Niblo’s Garden. He remained 
with the Ravels eight years, and during his 
travels with them on this continent he visited 
Niagara for the first time. Blondin was at 
once struck with the opportunity thus offered 
for his ambition, and he took up his abode 
near the Falls to study the practicability of his 
proposed feat. Then he set to work to bridge 
the distance with a hempen cord and made 
public the attempt. The rope was 1,100 ft. 
in length, and was stretched at an altitude of 
160 ft. above the river atone side and crowned 
the seething torrent at a height of 175 ft. 
On Aug. 17, 1859, he made the trip in the 
presence of 50,000 spectators. Not content 
with simply walking across, he elaborated his 
performance, and made other trips blindfolded, 
and with a man on his back. His most daring 
feat, however, was when, at an engagement at 
the Crystal Palace, London, he trundled a 
wheelbarrow across a rope 200 ft. long, with 
his baby daughter in it. Then, he has since 
confessed, he felt the sensation of fear for the 
first time, not for himself, but for the child. 
The following year Blondin repeated his Ni¬ 
agara feat in the presence of the Prince of 
Wales. Blondin made a great deal of money 
during his career, but it is said that he lost 
the most of it in unfortunate speculation. The 
receipts of one performance in London reached 
the enormous sum of $20,000. 

Blood, the fluid which circulates through 
the arteries and veins of the human body and 
that of other animals, which is essential to the 
preservation of life and nutrition of the tissues. 
This fluid is more or less red in vertebrates, 
except in the lowest fishes. In insects and in 
others of the lower animals there is an analo¬ 
gous fluid which may be colorless, red, bluish, 
greenish, or milky. The venous blood of mam¬ 
mals is a dark red, but in passing through the 
lungs it becomes oxidized and acquires a bright 
scarlet color, so that the blood in the arteries 
is of a brighter hue than that in the veins. 
The central organ of the blood circulation is 
the heart (which see). The specific gravity of 
human blood varies from 1.045 to 1.075, and its 
normal temperature is 99° F. 1,000 parts con¬ 
tain 783.37 of water, 2.83 fibrin, 67.25 albu¬ 
men, 126.31 blood corpuscles, 5.16 fatty 
matters, 15.08 various animal matters and 
salts. When ordinary blood stands for a time 
it separates into two portions, a red coagulated 
mass consisting of the fibrin, corpuscles, etc., 
and a yellowish watery portion, the serum. 
The blood corpuscles or globules are character¬ 
istic of the fluid. Those are minute, red and 
white bodies floating in the fluid of the blood. 
The red ones give color to the fluid, and are 
flattish discs, oval in birds and reptiles, and 
round in man and most mammals. In man 
they average a-^oth inch in diameter, and in 
the Proteus, which has them larger than any 
other vertebrate, ? } 0 th inch in length and 
y 2 d in breadth. The white or colorless 


Blood 


Bloodroot 


corpuscles are the same as the lymph or chyle 
corpuscles, and are spherical or lenticular, 
nucleated, and granulated, and rather larger 
than the red globules. 

Blood has come to have many commercial 
uses. The Scandinavians were the first people 
who, when they butchered animals, preserved 
the blood. They used this in making blood- 
cake and blood sausage. All the large packing 
houses save every drop of blood. It is manu¬ 
factured into fertilizers, and one large packing 
house in Chicago turns out from eight to twelve 
tons of it every day. This fertilizer is sold at 
from $32 to $45 a ton. The blood is caught in 
large pans in the slaughtering pen and is car¬ 
ried off to drying vats. Here it is heated in 
large caldrons at a temperature of 200 de¬ 
grees, the water in the blood, amounting to 
over 70 per cent*of the whole, is driven off in 
the form of steam, and the albumen is coagu¬ 
lated into a thick mass. This mass is run off 
into a great hydraulic press. The power is 
put on and more of the water is forced off 
through the burlap which forms the bottom of 
the press. When the pressure is released the 
blood comes out in solid, moist chunks. The 
chunks are then fed through huge revolving 
rollers. The rollers are heated by steam and 
still more water is pressed out of the blood. 
The product then comes out dry for the most 
part and hard. The finer dust and crumbs 
fall through a sieve and the large rough pieces 
which remain are carried along to the attrition 
mills where they are ground into fine powder. 
The attrition mill consists of two upright cyl- 
~ inders revolving in opposite directions, one in¬ 
side the other. The cylinders are made of 
steel rods set both together, and when the 
chunks of dried blood are put in at the top 
they are crushed against the rod and ground 
together, so that by the time they reach the 
bottom, they are as fine as powder. The prod¬ 
uct is placed in air-tight compartments until 
it is ready for mixing with potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid to make a complete fertilizer. On 
account of the large amount of nitrogen which 
it contains in the form of ammonia this is 
very valuable as a fertilizer. Ordinary blood 
contains about 17 per cent, of ammonia, of 
which about 13£ per cent, is pure hydrogen. 
Blood is also used in the manufacture of sugar. 
It is first dried at a temperature of 110 degrees 
in order to prevent the coagulation of the al¬ 
bumen. This is a long process, but when it is 
completed the product is in the form of big 
cakes. It is then taken to the sugar refinery, 
dissolved in warm water, and added to the 
sugar as a clarifier. The albumen collects all 
the floating products in the sugar and carries 
them to the bottom of the tank. Blood is also 
coming into use as a medicine, and nearly all 
drug stores keep defibrinated blood, and many 
physicians prescribe it in cases where the pa¬ 
tient’s blood is “thin,” or lacks the necessary 
amount of red corpuscles. The preparation is 
simple. The warm blood is caught in pans as 
it comes from the animal, and is whipped rap¬ 
idly until all the fibrin clings to the wood. 
The fibrin is then taken out and thrown away. 


The remaining part, the albumen and serum, 
are dried hard at a temperature of about 105 
degrees. The mass which remains is cut up 
and rolled into little pills and is then ready for 
use. Blood is also used in the manufacture of 
buttons. Many of the dark, rich-colored but¬ 
tons are made of blood pressed into the proper 
form by means of hydraulic machines. Imi¬ 
tation tortoise shell articles are composed 
largely of blood, and it is used extensively by 
the Japanese in lacquer work. The use of 
warm blood of higher animals is considered 
beneficial in the treatment of consumption 
and anaemia. It is important that the blood 
be obtained before it has been exposed enough 
to coagulate it. The blood should be drunk 
as it comes from the animal. Since the intro¬ 
duction of defibrinated blood the use of warm 
blood has fallen off. 

Bloodhound, a variety of dog with long, 
smooth, and pendulous ears, remarkable for 
the acuteness of its smell, and employed to 
recover game or prey which has escaped 
wounded from the hunter, by tracing the lost 
animal by the blood it has spilt; whence the 



Bloodhound. 


name of the dog. There are several varieties 
of this animal, as the English, the Cuban, 
and the African bloodhound. In former times 
bloodhounds were not only trained to the pur¬ 
suit of game, but also to the chase of man. In 
America they used occasionally to be employed 
in hunting fugitive slaves, but are now only 
used occasionally for tracking criminals and 
escaped convicts. 

BIood=money, the compensation by a homi¬ 
cide to the next of kin of the person slain, se¬ 
curing the offender and his relatives against 
subsequent retaliation; once common to Scan¬ 
dinavian and Teutonic countries, and still a 
custom among the Arabs. The term is also 
applied to money earned by laying or support¬ 
ing a charge implying peril to the life of an 
accused person. 

Bloodroot, a plant of Canada and the 
U. S. belonging to the poppy order, and so 
named from its root-stock yielding a sap of 
a deep orange color. Its leaves are heart- 
shaped and deeply lobed; the flower grows on a 
scape and is white or tinged with rose. The 





Bloodwood 

plant has acrid narcotic properties, and has 
been found useful in various diseases. Another 
American plant used as a mild tonic, is also 
known as bloodroot. 

Bloodwood, a name of several trees. In¬ 
dian bloodwood is a large tree of the henna 
family with wood of a blood-red color, used 
for many purposes. It is called also jarool. 

Bloody Assizes, those held by the English 
Judge Jeffreys in 1685, after the suppression of 
Monmouth’s rebellion. Upwards of 300 per¬ 
sons were executed after short trials; very 
many were whipped, imprisoned, and fined; 
and nearly 1,000 were sent as slaves to the 
American plantations. 

Bloom, a lump of puddled iron, which 
leaves the furnace in a rough state, to be sub¬ 
sequently rolled into the bars or other material 
into which it may be desired to convert the 
metal. Also a lump of iron made directly 
from the ore by a furnace called a “bloomery.” 

Bloomer Costume, a style of dress adopted 
about the year 1849 by Mrs. Bloomer of New 
York, who proposed thereby to effect a com¬ 
plete revolution in female dress, and add mate¬ 
rially to the health and comfort of women. It 
consisted of a jacket with close sleeves, a skirt 
reaching a little below the knee, and a pair 
of Turkish pantaloons secured by bands round 
the ankles. An improvement of this costume 
has obtained considerable popularity among 
female bicyclists. 

Bloomington, McLean co., Ill., 45 mi. s.e. 
of Peoria. Railroads: Illinois Central; Chi¬ 
cago & Alton; C. C. C. & St. L.; and Lake 
Erie & Western. Industries: railroad shops, 
two iron foundries, flour mill, candy and med¬ 
icine factories. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. One coal shaft in vicinity. The town 
was first settled in 1826 by two families from 
Ohio, and became a city in 1831. Pop. 1900, 
23,286. 

Blouse (blouz), alight, loose upper garment, 
resembling a smock-frock, made of linen or 
cotton, and worn by men as a protection from 
dust or in place of a coat. A blue linen blouse 
is the common dress of French workmen. 

Blowfly, a name for the various species of 

two-winged 
flies that de¬ 
posit their 
eggs on flesh, 
and thus taint 
it. 

Bio wing- 
Machine, any 

contri vance 
for supplying 
a curre nt of 
air, as for 
blowing glass, 
smelting iron, 
Blowfly. renewing the 

air in confined spaces, and the like. This may 
consist of a single pair of bellows, but more 
generally two pair are combined to secure con¬ 
tinuity of current. The most perfect blowing- 
machines are those in which the blast is pro¬ 
duced by the motion of pistons in a cylinder, 


Blowpipe 

or by some application of the fan principle. 
For smelting and refining furnaces, where a 
blast with a pressure of 3 or 4 lbs. to the square 
inch is required, blowing-engines of large size 
and power, worked by steam, are employed. 

Blowpipe, an instrument by which a cur¬ 
rent of air or gas is driven through the flame 
of a lamp, candle, or gas jet, and that flame 
directed 
upon a min- 
e r a 1 sub¬ 
stance, to 
fuse or vit¬ 
rify it, an 
intense heat 
being cre¬ 
ated by the 
rapid supply 
of oxygen 
and the con¬ 
centration of 
th e flame 
upon a small 
area. In its 
simplest 
form it is 
merely a 
conical tube 
of brass, Blowpipe. 

glass, or other substance, usually 7 in. long 
and f in. in diameter at one end, and ta¬ 
pering so as to have a very small aperture 
at the other, within 2 in. or so of which it 
is bent nearly to a right angle, so that the 
stream of air may be directed sideways to the 
operator. The flame is turned to a horizontal 
direction, assumes a conical shape, and con¬ 
sists of two parts of different colors. The 
greatest heat is obtained at the tip of the inner 
blue flame. Here the substance subjected to 
it is burned or oxidized, a small piece of lead 
or copper, for instance, being converted into 
its oxide. Hence the name of the oxidizing 
flame. By shifting the substance to the in¬ 
terior blue flame, which is wanting in oxygen, 
this element will be abstracted from the sub¬ 
stance, and a metallic oxide, for instance, will 
give out its metal; hence this is called a re¬ 
ducing flame. Thus various minerals can be 
either oxidized or reduced at pleasure, and the 
pipe forms a ready test in the hands of the 
mineralogist, who may use fluxes along with 
substances tested, watch how they color the 
flame, what vapor they give out, etc. The 
blowpipe may be provided with several mov¬ 
able nozzles to produce flames of different 
sizes. The current of air is often formed by 
a pair of bellows instead of the human breath, 
the instrument being fixed in a proper frame 
for the purpose. The most powerful blow¬ 
pipe is the oxyhydrogen or compound blow¬ 
pipe, an instrument in which oxygen and 
hydrogen (in the proportions necessary to form 
water, propelled by hydrostatic or other press¬ 
ure, and coming from separate reservoirs, are 
made to form a united current in a capillary 
orifice at the moment when they are kindled. 
The heat produced is such as to consume the 
diamond, and to dissipate in vapor or in gase- 









Blubber 


Bluefish 


ous forms most known substances. The blow¬ 
pipe is used by goldsmiths and jewelers in 
soldering, by glass-workers in sealing the ends 
of tubes, etc., and extensively by chemists and 
mineralogists in testing the nature and compo¬ 
sition of substances. 

The name is also given to the pipe or tube 
through which poisoned arrows are blown by 
the breath, used by South American Indians 
and natives of Borneo. The tube or blowpipe 
is 8 to 12 ft. long, with a bore scarcely large 
enough to admit the little finger; and the ar¬ 
row is forced through by a sudden expulsion 
of air from the lungs (like a pea from a boy’s 
pea-shooter), being sometimes propelled to a 
distance of 140 yards. 

Blubber, the fat of whales and other large 
sea animals, from which train oil is obtained. 
The blubber lies under the skin and over the 
muscular flesh. It is eaten by the Eskimo 
and the sea-coast races of the Japanese is¬ 
lands, the Kuriles, etc. The whole quantity 
yielded by one whale ordinarily amounts to 
40 or 50, but sometimes to 80 or more cwt. 

Bliicher (blii'Aer), Gebhard Lebereciit 
von (1742-1819), distinguished Prussian gen¬ 
eral. He entered the Swedish service when 
14 years of age and fought against the Prus¬ 
sians but was taken prisoner in his first cam¬ 
paign, and was induced to enter the Prussian 
service. He commanded with distinction on 
the Rhine in 1793 and 1794. In 1802, he took 
possession of Erfurt and Miihlhausen. > Oct. 
14, 1800, he fought at the battle of Auerstadt. 
After the peace of Tilsit he labored in the de¬ 
partment of war at Kbnigsberg and Berlin. 
In the campaign of 1812, when the Prussians 
assisted the French, he took no part. When 
seventy years old, he was appointed command¬ 
er-in-chief of the Prussians and the Russian 
corps under General Winzingerode. His hero¬ 
ism in the battle of Liitzen (May 2, 1813) was 
rewarded by the Emperor Alexander with the 
order of St. George. He led the Prussian 
army which invaded France early in 1814, and 
entered the capital of France. On the re¬ 
newal of the war in 1815 the chief command 
was again committed to him, and he led his 
army into the Netherlands. June 15 Napoleon 
threw himself upon him, and Bliicher, on the 
16th, was defeated at Ligny. In the battle of 
the 18th Bliicher arrived at the most decisive 
moment upon the ground, and taking Napo¬ 
leon in the rear and flank assisted materially 
in completing the great victory of Waterloo. 
His energy and rapid movements procured 
him the name of “Marshal Vorwarts ” (For¬ 
ward). 

Blue, one of the seven colors into which the 
rays of light divide themselves when refracted 
through a glass prism, seen in nature in the 
clear expanse of the heavens; also a dye or 
pigment of this hue. The substances used as 
blue pigments are of very different natures, 
and derived from .various sources; they are all 
compound bodies, some being natural and 
others artificial. They are derived almost en¬ 
tirely from the vegetable and mineral king¬ 
doms. The principal blues used in painting 


are ultramarine , which was originally prepared 
from lapis-lazuli or azure-stone—a mineral 
found in China and other oriental countries— 
but, as now prepared, it is an artificial com¬ 
pound of china clay, carbonate of soda, sul¬ 
phur, and charcoal; Prussian, or Berlin blue, 
which is a compound of cyanogen and iron; 
blue bice, prepared from carbonate of copper; 
indigo blue, from the indigo plant. Besides 
these, there are numerous other blues used in 
art, as blue-verditer, smalt- and cobalt-blue, from 
cobalt, lacmus, or litmus, etc. Before the dis¬ 
covery of aniline or coal-tar colors dyers chiefly 
depended for their blues on icoad, archil, indigo, 
and Prussian blue, but now a series of brilliant 
blues are obtained from coal tar, possessing 
great tinctorial power and various degrees of 
durability. 

Bluebeard, the hero of a well-known tale, 
originally French, founded, it is believed, on 
the enormities of a real personage, Giles de 
Laval, Count de Retz a great nobleman of 
Brittany, put to death for his crimes in 1440. 

Bluebird, a small bird, very common in the 
U. S. The upper part of the body is blue, and 
the throat and breast of a dirty red. It makes 



Bluebird. 

its nest in the hole of a tree or in the box that 
is so commonly provided for its use by the 
friendly farmer. The bluebird is the har¬ 
binger of spring; its song is cheerful, continu¬ 
ing with little interruption from March to Octo¬ 
ber, but is most frequently heard in the serene 
days of spring. It is also called blue robin or 
blue redbreast, and is regarded with the same 
sort of sentiments as the robin of Europe. 

Blue books, the official reports, papers, and 
documents printed for the British govern¬ 
ment and laid before the Houses of Parlia¬ 
ment. They are so-called from being stitched 
up in dark-blue paper wrappers, and include 
bills presented to and acts passed by the house; 
all reports and papers moved for by members, 
or granted by government on particular sub¬ 
jects; the reports of committees; statistics of 
the trade, etc., also, in America and England, 
a book containing the names of all persons 
holdingjmblic offices, with other particulars. 

Bluefish, a fish common on the eastern 
coasts of America, allied to the mackerel, but 
















Blue Grass 

larger, growing to the length of three feet or 
more, and much esteemed for the table. It is 
very destructive to other fishes. It is also called 
horse mackerel, greenfish, skipjack, etc. 

Blue grass, an American pasture grass of 
great excellence, especially abundant in Ken¬ 
tucky. It is exceedingly thrifty. 

Blue Laws, a name for certain laws said to 
have been made in the early government of 
New Haven, Conn., anent breaches of man¬ 
ners, morality, and religion. There were 
several codes enacted at different times. The 
most important of the Blue Laws are as fol¬ 
lows:— 

“No Quaker or dissenter from the estab¬ 
lished worship of this dominion shall be 
allowed to give a vote for the election of magis¬ 
trates or any officer. 

“No food or lodging shall be offered to a 
Quaker, adamite, or other heretic. 

“If any person turns Quaker, he shall be 
banished, and not suffered to return, but upon 
pain of death. 

“No priest shall abide in the dominion; he 
shall be banished and suffer death on his re¬ 
turn. Priests may be seized by any one with¬ 
out a warrant. 

“No one to cross a river but an authorized 
ferryman. 

“No one shall run on the sabbath day, or 
walk in his garden, except reverently to and 
from meeting. 

“No one shall travel, cook victuals, make 
beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on Hie 
sabbath day. 

“No woman shall kiss her child on the sab¬ 
bath or fasting day. 

“The sabbath shall begin at sunset on 
Saturday. 

“To pick an ear of corn growing in a neigh¬ 
bor’s garden shall be deemed theft. 

“A person accused of trespass in the night, 
shall be judged guilty, unless he clear himself 
by his oath. 

“When it appears that an accused has con¬ 
federates, and he refuses to discover them, he 
may be racked. 

“No one shall buy or sell lands without per¬ 
mission of the selectmen. 

“A drunkard shall have a master appointed 
by the selectmen who are to debar him from 
the liberty of buying and selling. 

“Whoever publishes a lie to the prejudice 
of his neighbor shall sit in the stocks, or be 
whipped fifteen stripes. 

“No minister shall keep a school. 

“ Men stealers shall suffer death. 

“Whoever wears clothes trimmed with gold, 
silver, or bone lace above two shillings by the 
yard, shall be presented by the grand jurors, 
and the selectmen shall tax the offender at 
300 pounds estate. 

“A debtor in prison, swearing he has no es¬ 
tate, shall be let out and sold, to make satis¬ 
faction. * 

“Whoever brings cards or dice into this 
dominion shall pay a fine of 5 pounds. 

“No one shall read common prayer, keep 
Christmas, or saint-days, make minced pies, 


Boa 

dance, play cards, or play on any instrument 
of music, except the drum, trumpet, and 
Jew’s-harp. 

“No gospel minister shall join people in 
marriage; the magistrates only shall join in 
marriage, as they may do it with less scandal 
to Christ’s church. 

“A man that strikes his wife shall pay a 
fine of 10 pounds. A woman that strikes her 
husband shall be punished as the court directs. 

“A wife shall be deemed good evidence 
against her husband. 

“Married persons must live together or be 
imprisoned. 

“Every male shall have his hair cut round 
according to a cap.” 

Blue Mountains, the central mountain 
range of Jamaica, the main ridges of which 
are from 6,000 to 8,000 ft. high. Also a 
mountain chain of New South Wales, part of 
the great Dividing Range. The highest peaks 
rise over 4,000 ft. above the sea. The range is 
now traversed by a railway, which attains a 
maximum height of 3,494 ft. 

Blue Peter, a blue flag having a white 
square in the center, used to signify that the 
ship on which it is hoisted is about to sail. 

Blue Pill, a preparation of mercury for 
medicinal use. It consists of two parts by 
weight of mercury triturated with three parts 
of conserve of roses till it loses its globular 
form. This is mixed with one part by weight 
of licorice-root powder, so that 5 grains of the 
mixture contain 1 grain of mercury. 

Blue Ridge, the most easterly ridge of the 
Alleghany (or Appalachian) Mountains. The 
most elevated summits are the Peaks of Otter 
(4,000 ft.) in Virginia. 

Bluewing, a genus of American ducks, so 
called from the color of the wing coverts. 
One series is brought in great quantities to 
market, the flesh being highly esteemed for its 
flavor. 

Boa, a genus of serpents, having the jaws so 



Head of Boa. 


constructed that these animals can dilate the 
mouth sufficiently to swallow bodies thicker 




Boabdil 


Board of Trade 


than themselves. They are also distinguished 
by having a hook on each side of the vent; the 
tail prehensile; the body compressed and larg¬ 
est in the middle, and with small scales, at 
least on the posterior part of the head. The 
genus includes some of the largest species 
of serpents, reptiles endowed with immense 
muscular power. They seize sheep, deer, etc., 
and crush them in their folds, after which 
they swallow the animal whole. The boas are 
peculiar to the hot parts of South America. 
The Boa Constrictor is not one of the largest 
members of the genus, rarely exceeding 20 ft. 
in length; but the name boa or boa constrictor 
is often given popularly to any of the large 
serpents of similar habits, and so as to include 
the pythons of the Old World and the ana¬ 
conda and other large serpents of America. 

Boabdil, Abu-Abdullah, last Moorish king 
of Granada, gained the throne in 1481 by ex¬ 
pelling his father, Muley Hassan; and became 
the vassal of Ferdinand of Aragon. By his 
tyranny he provoked the hostility of his own 
subjects, and Ferdinand, taking advantage of 
the dissensions which prevailed, laid siege to 
Granada. The Moors made a valiant defense, but 
Boabdil capitulated, and retired to a domain 
of the Alpujarras assigned him by the victor. 
He afterward passed into Africa, and fell in 
battle while assisting the king of Fez in an at¬ 
tempt to dethrone the king of Morocco. 

Boadice'a, queen of the Iceni, in Britain, 
during the reign of Nero. Having been treated 
in the most ignominious manner by the Ro¬ 
mans, she headed a general insurrection of the 
Britons, attacked the Roman settlements, re¬ 
duced London to ashes, and put to the sword 
all strangers to the number of 70,000. Sue¬ 
tonius, the Roman general, defeated her in a 
decisive battle (a. d. 62), and Boadicea. rather 
than fall into the hands of her enemies, put an 
end to her own life by poison. 




Wild Boar. 


Boar, the male of swine. The wild hog, the 
original of the domestic pig, is generally 
spoken of as the wild boar. 

Board of Trade (or Chamber of Commerce), is 
an association of merchants, traders, produc¬ 
ers, and other persons engaged in commercial 
pursuits for the purpose of facilitating trade 
by united action, of acting as a species of 


court of arbitration in commercial questions, 
and generally of attaining, by combination, 
advantages in trade beyond the reach of indi¬ 
vidual enterprise or responsibility. Marseilles, 
in France, was the first city in the world to 
establish a Board of Trade, or Chamber of 
Commerce. This partook partly of a political 
character, and shared in the control of mu¬ 
nicipal affairs. In 1700 the chamber of com¬ 
merce in Paris wag established, and a few 
years thereafter corresponding institutions 
were organized in the other leading cities of 
France. The Chamber of Commerce of Glas¬ 
gow is the oldest in Great Britain, having been 
established in 1783; the Edinburgh Cliamber 
was next organized, having taken the lead in 
the movement for the abolition of the Corn 
laws. The London Chamber of Commerce, or 
the Royal Exchange, is the grand center of the 
commerce of the Old World. Next to it in 
importance stands the Liverpool Exchange 
with which American commercial dealers have 
the most direct connection. The Manchester, 
Hull, Leeds, and other exchanges do an im¬ 
mense business and exercise a great influence 
over the trade of that kingdom. 

The Chamber of Commerce of New York 
was established in 1768, and was an important 
adjunct of the municipal government. The 
order in rank as to financial importance of the 
great metropolitan grain and produce exchanges 
of the country may be thus stated: 1, New 
York; 2, Chicago; 3, Boston; 4, Philadelphia; 
5, Baltimore. The produce exchange of New 
York City has now over 3,000 members, but 
the actual volume of trade done by it is not 
as great as that of the Chicago Board of Trade 
with its 1,840 members. The latter body was 
organized in 1848, with 82 members. The 
principal boards of trade in the West in re¬ 
gard to volume of business rank, after the 
Chicago board, as follows: 1, St. Louis; 2, 
Milwaukee; 3, Detroit; 4, Cleveland; 5, To¬ 
ledo; 6, Cincinnati; 7, Buffalo. 

The modern practise of trading on margins 
has grown to be a leading feature of the busi¬ 
ness of all boards of trades in this country, 
and to a large extent also of those in the Old 
World. This system consists in the trader put¬ 
ting up with.his broker a sufficient amount to 
cover the ordinary fluctuations of the security, 
and the broker furnishes the rest of the capi¬ 
tal necessary. When the margin is exhausted 
the broker notifies his principal, and if it is 
not made good, the whole amount “put up” 
by the trader is forfeited, and the broker 
“ closes out” the “ deal.” The distinction be¬ 
tween “long” and “short” transactions is that 
in the former the trader buys for an advance, 
and in the latter he sells for a decline. Carry¬ 
ing charges are in favor of the short seller. 
These charges are made up of storage, interest, 
and insurance, and are represented by the ex¬ 
cess of the price for future delivery over the 
cash price. 

The method of trading, specifically, is sub 
stantially the following on all boards of trade 
in the U. S. Suppose it to be in January, and 
the trader wishes to buy 5,000 bushels of wheat 






Board of Trade 


Board of Trade 


for February delivery. If lie buys at $1 a 
bushel, he advances his broker $250, which is 
five cents a bushel margin. If it advances to 
$1.05 he can order the broker to sell it, and if 
he chooses withdraw his margin and profit to 
the amount of $250. If the price recedes, he 
must either deposit enough margin with his 
broker to cover the falling off or lose what he 
has advanced. 

The prices of wheat have in the past ten 
years fluctuated as follows on the Chicago 
Hoard of Trade, which, of course, is an index 
to the fluctuations throughout the country, 
and it may also be added, to those in Europe 
as well:— 


Year. 

Months the 
lowest prices 
were reached. 

Range for the 
entire year. 

Months the 
highest prices 
were reached. 

1891 

July 

$ .85 @$1.16 

April 

1892 

October 

.69%@ -91% 

February 

1893 

July% 

.54%@ .88 

April 

1894 

September 

.50 @ .65% 

April 

1895 

January t 

•48%@ .85% 

June 

1896 

August 

.53 @ .82% 

November 

1897 

April 

.64%@ 1.09 

December 

1898 

October 

.62 @ 1.91 

May 

1899 

November 

.64 @ .79 * 1 /, 

May 

1900 

January 

.61 %@ .87% 

June 


Most boards of trade have their own clear¬ 
ing houses, and the rule that prevails in the 
clearing house of the Chicago Board may be 
taken as representative of the entire system in 
the U. S., to-wit: Parties whose reports show 
a net balance against them must accompany 
the report with a certified check for such bal¬ 
ance made payable to the order of the clearing 
house. The regulations of this clearing house 
are as thorough and strict as those of the bank¬ 
ers’ clearing houses. By common consent a 
basis of grading and inspection of grains and 
provisions has been established throughout the 
U. S., in which all the boards of trade unite. 
White winter wheat is divided into Nos. 1, 2, 
3, and 4; long red winter into Nos. 1 and 2; 
hard winter wheat into Nos. 1, 2, and 3: red 
winter into Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4; and Colorado 
wheat into Nos. 1, 2, and 3. There is also the 
Turkish red winter wheat. Spring wheat is 
classed: No. 1 northern spring, No. 1 spring, 
No. 2 spring, No. 3 spring, No. 4 spring, Nos. 

1, 2, and 3 white spring, Black Sea and flinty 
Fife wheat, and rice wheat. The same care¬ 
ful and close discrimination is made with re¬ 
gard to corn, oats, rye, barley, and all other 
articles. The most stringent regulations are 
made to prevent fraudulent inspection, and 
the present system may be considered one of 
al most absolute perfection. The least “ crook¬ 
edness ” on the part of any member, however 
prominent he may be, is visited with immedi¬ 
ate suspension, and his trial is prosecuted with 
a rigid impartiality not surpassed by the courts 
of law. 

While there is a considerable amount of cash 
buying and selling, the great preponderance of 
business is done on margins, like that on the 
stock exchanges. Thousands of persons trade 
“on ’change’’ who never see the inside of the 
board of trade. An immense amount of trad¬ 


ing is done by mail, telegraph, and telephone. 
There is a widespread misunderstanding in 
regard to transactions on the board, many 
persons believing that no property passes on 
purchases and sales on margins, whereas the 
rules of the board not only contemplate the de¬ 
livery of all property bought and sold on the 
floor, but express provision has been made 
therefor, and strict penalties prescribed for all 
damages that may arise in case of nondelivery 
upon the maturity of a contract. A board of 
trade contract matures on the last day of the 
term mentioned in it, and all transactions be¬ 
tween members for the purchase or sale of 
grain, etc., on the floor of the board are strictly 
contracts under its rules. 

A corner is an artificial scarcity in grain, 
pork, or other commodity, created by a com¬ 
bination organized for the purpose of holding 
the article affected off the market in order to 
extort abnormally high prices. The principal 
wheat corners on the Chicago Board of Trade, 
which have been mostly participated in to 
a large extent by dealers in other markets, 
east and west, have occurred on the follow¬ 
ing dates:— 

1867—On May 18 prices of wheat were forced 
to $2.85, closing at $2.16. 

1871— In August prices were advanced to 
$1.30, but closed at $1.10|. 

1872— During August wheat sold at $1.61, 
and closed at $1.19. 

1880— During May the price ranged from 
$1.12 to $1.19, closing at $1.14. 

1881— In August prices advanced from $1.19 
to $1.38, and closed at $1.38. 

1882— Corners were run in April. June, July, 
and September. 

1887— In June the memorable Cincinnati 
combination to corner wheat developed. Prices 
were advanced from 80fc to 94fc, but the cor¬ 
ner collapsed, and the price declined to 68c. 

1888— A successful corner was operated in 
September, wheat selling from 89fc to $2.00, 

1898—In May cash wheat went to $1.91 on 
account of the Leiter deal. 

Life on the board of trade of a great me¬ 
tropolis is intensely exciting. The fact that 
fortunes are sometimes made or lost in a day 
gives a feverish tenor to the career of a man 
who follows trading “on ’change” as his occu¬ 
pation. At the same time, the discipline of 
the experience which he has to undergo gives 
him a quickness of perception and a capability 
of prompt decision which he can scarcely gain 
anywhere else. The brokers on the Chicago 
Board of Trade, for example, have a nomen¬ 
clature peculiar to themselves, and to facili¬ 
tate operations in the “pits” (the circular 
depressions on the Board), the} r have a com¬ 
plete system of signs and motions by which 
they can make themselves understood above 
the din constantly prevailing, A sign made 
with open hand of the broker toward the person 
he is in communication with signifies “sell”; 
if he shows the back of his hand, it means 
“buy”; one finger raised means 5,000 bushels 
or other units of the article dealt in; two fin¬ 
gers raised signifies 10,000 bushels, etc. So 











Boat 


Boccaccio 


that, in the midst of all the noise and confu¬ 
sion which the outsider observes on the floor 
of the board during the hours when it is in 
session, there is a vast and thoroughly system¬ 
atized volume of business being transacted 
with a facility and celerity utterly incompre¬ 
hensible to the uninitiated. 

Boat, a small open vessel or water craft usu¬ 
ally moved by oars or rowing. The forms, 
dimensions, and uses of boats are very various, 
and some of them carry a light sail. The 
boats belonging to a ship of war are the launch 
or longboat, which is the largest, the barge, 
the pinnace, the yawl, cutters, the jolly-boat 
and the gig. The boats belonging to a mer¬ 
chant vessel are the launch or longboat, be¬ 
fore mentioned, the skiff, the jolly-boat or 
yawl, the stern boat, the quarterboat, and the 
captain’s gig. Every passenger ship is re¬ 
quired to carry a number of boats according 
to the following scale: two boats for every ship 
of less than 200 tons, three, when 200 and less 
than 400; four, 400 and less than 600; five, 600 
and less than 1,000; six, 1,000 and less than 
1,500; seven, 1,500 and upwards. One of such 
boats must in all cases be a longboat, and one 
a properly fitted lifeboat. 

Boatbill, a South American bird of the fam¬ 
ily of herons, about the size of a common fowl, 



Boatbill. 


with a bill not unlike a boat with the keel up¬ 
permost; its chief food is fish. 

Boat fly, an aquatic hemipterous insect 
which swims on its back; the hind legs aptly 



Water Boat Fly. 


enough resembling oars, the body representing 
a boat; hence the name. 


Boat'swain (commonly pronounced bo'sn), 
a warrant-officer in the navy who has charge 
of the sails, rigging, colors, anchors, cables, and 
cordage. His office is also to summon the crew 
to their duty, to relieve the watch, etc. In the 
merchant service one of the crew who has 
charge of the rigging and oversees the men. 

Bob'bin, a reel or other similar contrivance 
for holding thread. It is often a cylindrical 
piece of wood with a head, on which thread is 
wound for making lace; or a spool with a head 
at one end or both ends, intended to have 
thread or yarn wound on it, and used in spin¬ 
ning machinery (when it is slipped on a spin¬ 
dle and revolves therewith) and in sewing ma¬ 
chines (applied within the shuttle). 



Bobolink. 


Bobolink, a name given to two distinct 
birds. The first, also known by the name 
rice-bunting, a bird of the bunting family, 
which migrates over N. A. from Labrador to 
Mexico, appearing in Massachusetts about 
the beginning of May. Their food is insects, 
worms, and seeds, including rice in South 
Carolina. The song of the male is singular 
and pleasant. When fat their flesh is of a fine 
flavor. The other species is known as the rice 
bunting, also as the Java sparrow, and paddy 
bird. It belongs to the true finches, a group 
nearly allied to the buntings. It possesses a 
largely developed bill; the head and tail are 
black, the belly rosy, the cheeks of the male 
white, and the legs flesh-colored. It is dreaded 
in Southern Asia on account of the ravages it 
commits in the rice fields. It is frequently 
brought to Europe, and is found in aviaries. 

Boccaccio (bok-kat'cho), Giovanni (1313— 
1375), Italian novelist and poet, son of a Floren¬ 
tine merchant. He spent some years unprofit- 
ably in literary pursuits and the study of the 
canon law, but in the end devoted himself en¬ 
tirely to literature. In 1831 Boccaccio fell in 
love with Maria, daughter of King Robert. His 
first work, a romantic love tale in prose, Filocopo, 











































Bocca Tigris 


Bogardus 


was written at her command, as was also the 
Teseide, the first heroic epic in the Italian 
language. In 1341 he returned to Florence. 
In 1344 he returned to Naples. Dicameron, 
on which his fame rests, consists of 100 tales 
represented to have been related in equal por¬ 
tions in 10 days by a party of ladies and 
gentlemen at a country house near Florence 
while the plague was raging in that city. In 
1373 he was chosen by the Florentines to oc¬ 
cupy the chair which was established for the 
exposition of Dante's Divina Comedia. His 
lectures continued till his death. 

Bocca Tigris (orBogue), the embouchure of 
the principal branch of the Chu Kiang, or 
Canton River, China. 

Bochum (boA'um), a Prussian town, prov. of 
Westphalia, 5 mi. e.n.e. of Essen; manufacto¬ 
ries of iron, steel, hardwares, etc. Pop. 47,601. 

Bock, Bochbier, a variety of German beer 
made with more malt and less hops than ordi¬ 
nary German beer, and^therefore sweeter and 
stronger. 

Bockenheim (-him), town of Germany, form¬ 
ing almost a suburb of Hamburg; flourishing 
manufactures of machinery, etc. Pop. 18,730. 

Bode (bo'de), John Elert (1747-1826), Ger¬ 
man astronomer. His best works are his As¬ 
tronomical Almanac and his large Celestial Atlas, 
giving a catalogue of 17,240 stars (12,000 more 
than in any former chart). Bode's Law is the 
name given to an arithmetical formula, pre¬ 
viously made known by Kepler and Titius of 
Wittenberg, expressing approximately the dis¬ 
tances of the planets from the sun. The law 
has no theoretical foundation. 

Bodleian Library at Oxford, founded by Sir 
Thomas Bodley in 1598, opened 1602. It 
claims a copy of all works published in Britain, 
and for rare works and MSS. it is said to be 
second only to the Vatican. It contains over 
1,500,000 volumes. 

Bcehmeria (be-me'ri-a), a genus of plants, 



Boehmeria. a.— male flower; b — glomerule of female 
flowers; c.—single female flower; d.—pericarp. 

*52 


closely resembling the stinging nettle. A num¬ 
ber of the species yield tenacious fibers, used 
for making ropes, twine, net, sewing thread. 
One species is the Chinese grass, the Malay 
ramee which is shrubby and 3 or 4 ft. high. 
It is a native of China, Southeastern Asia, and 
the Asiatic Archipelago, where, and in India, 
it has long been cultivated. The plant has 
been introduced into cultivation inpartsof the 
U. S., Algeria, France, etc., under its Malay 
name of ramee (or ramie). 

Boeo'tia, a division of ancient Greece, lying 
between Attica and Phocis. Along with At¬ 
tica, Bceotia now forms a nomarchy of the 
kingdom of Greece, with a pop. of 185,364. 
Area 1,119 sq. mi. See Greece. 

Boers (borz; Dutch, boer , a peasant or hus¬ 
bandman), the Cape-Dutch name for the farm¬ 
ers of Dutch origin in South Africa. In 1836-37 
large numbers of the Boers, being dissatisfied 
with the British government in Cape Colony, 
migrated northward to what is now Natal. 
Here their ill-treatment of the natives soon 
led to war, and the British had to interfere 
and ultimately (1843) annex the country. The 
Boers again migrated, but their new settle¬ 
ment was annexed in 1848. They then or¬ 
ganized the Orange Free State and later the 
South African Republic. The latter became 
involved with the natives and appealed to 
Great Britain for aid, which was rendered on 
condition that the country should pass under 
British control. The Boers then rebelled 
against the British in 1880, and four years 
later gained their independence, but the Brit¬ 
ish still claimed suzerainty. This led to sev¬ 
eral disputes. The Jameson raid in 1895 was 
made for the purpose of obtaining equal privi¬ 
leges for the foreigners in the Transvaal. It 
was put down by the Boers, and the leader was 
punished by the British government. The de- 
- nial of the franchise to any but Boers led to 
serious dispute between the British and Boers 
and was made the pretext for the Boer war, 
which broke out in 1899. The two republics 
joined forces, although the Orange Free State 
was not concerned in the disputes. For a full 
account of the war between the Boer repub¬ 
lics, and the history of their occupation of 
South Africa, see Transvaal. The Boers are 
numerous in Cape Colony and Natal and were 
counted upon to aid the republics in the war 
against Great Britain, but there was no gen¬ 
eral movement among them in that direction. 
The Boers are rigid Calvinists, are frugal, in¬ 
dustrious and hospitable. They are remark¬ 
able for courage and love of freedom. 

Bog, a piece of wet, soft, and spongy ground, 
where the soil is composed mainly of decaying 
and decayed vegetable matter. Such ground 
is valueless for agriculture until reclaimed, but 
often yields abundance of peat for fuel. Bogs 
are generally divided into two classes; red 
bogs, or peat mosses, and black bogs, or moun¬ 
tain mosses. 

Bogar'dus, James (1800-1874), an American 
inventor, b. in Catskill, N. Y. Among his in¬ 
ventions were the “ring-flyer” or “ring-spin¬ 
ner” used in cotton manufacture, the eccentric 




Bog Oak 

mill, an engraving machine, and the first dry 
gas meter. In 1839 he gained the reward of¬ 
fered by the British government for the best 
plan for carrying out the penny postage system 
by the use of stamps. In 1847 he built the 
first complete cast-iron structure in the world, 
and the first wrought-iron beams were made 
from his design. His delicate pyrometer and 
deep-sea sounding machine were valuable ad¬ 
ditions to scientific instruments. 

Bog oak, trunks and large branches of oak 
found imbedded in bogs and preserved by the 
antiseptic properties of peat, so that the grain 
of the wood is little affected b} r the many ages 
during which it has lain interred. It is of a 
shining black or ebony color, derived from 
its impregnation with iron, and is frequently 
converted into ornamental pieces of furniture 
and smaller ornaments as brooches, earrings, 
etc. 

Bogota (formerly Santa Fe de Bogottf), a city 
of South America, capital of Colombia, and 
of the state or department of Cundinamarca. 
The inhabitants are mostly Creoles. Bogota 
is an emporium of internal trade, and has 
manufactures of soap, cloth, leather, etc., not 
of great importance. It was founded in 1538. 
Pop. 726,000. 

Bogue (bog), David (1750-1825), the origina¬ 
tor of the London Missionary Society. He 
studied at Edinburgh, and was licensed as a 
preacher of the church of Scotland. In 1771 
he was employed as usher in London, and 
afterward became minister of an Independent 
chapel at Gosport, where he formed an insti- 
' tution for the education of young men for the 
Independent ministry. He then began the 
formation of the grand missionary scheme 
which afterward resulted in the London Mis¬ 
sionary Society, and took an active part in the 
foundation of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society and the Religious Tract Society. 

Bohe'mia, a province with the title of king¬ 
dom belonging to the Austro-Hungarian mon¬ 
archy. Area 20,060 sq. mi.; pop. 5,837,603, 
of whom more than 2,000,000 are Germans, 
the rest mostly Czechs. The language of the 
country is the Czech dialect of the Slavonic. 
All sorts of grain are produced in abundance, 
as also large quantities of potatoes, pulse, sugar- 
beet, flax, hops, and fruits. The raising of 
sheep, horses, swine, and poultry is carried on 
to a considerable extent. The mines yield sil¬ 
ver, copper, lead, tin, zinc, iron, cobalt, arsenic, 
uranium, antimony, alum, sulphur, plumbago, 
and coal. There are numerous mineral 
springs, but little salt. Spinning and weaving 
of linen, cotton, and woolen goods are exten¬ 
sively carried on; manufactures of lace, metal 
and wood work, machinery, chemical prod¬ 
ucts, beet-root sugar, pottery, porcelain, etc., 
are also largely developed. Large quantities 
of beer are exported. The glassware of Bo¬ 
hemia, which is known all over Europe, 
employs 50,000 workers. The largest towns 
are Prague, Pilsen, Reichenberg, Budweis, 
Teplilz, Aussig, and Eger. The educational 
establishments include the Prague university 
and upward of 4,000 ordinary schools. The 


Bohemia 

province sends 92 representatives to the Aus¬ 
trian Parliament; the provincial diet consists 
of 241 members. 

Bohemia possesses a literature of considerable 
bulk, including in it also works written in 
Czech by Moravian and Hungarian writers. 
The earliest fragment is doubtfully referred to 
the tenth century, and it was not till after the 
thirteenth century that it attained to any devel¬ 
opment. The next century was a period of 
great activity, and to it belong versified leg¬ 
ends, allegorical and didactic poems, historical 
and theological works, etc. The most flourish¬ 
ing period of the older literature falls within 
1409-1620, John Huss (1639-1415) having initi¬ 
ated a new era, which, however, is more fertile 
in prose works than in poetry. 

Bohemia was named after a tribe of Gallic 
origin, the Boii, who were expelled from this 
region by the Marcomans at the commence¬ 
ment of the Christian era. The latter were in 
turn obliged to give place to the Germans, and 
these to the Czechs, a Slavic race who had 
established themselves in Bohemia by the 
middle of the fifth century, and still form the 
bulk of the population. The country was at 
first divided into numerous principalities. 
Christianity was introduced about 900. In 
1092 Bohemia was finally recognized as a king¬ 
dom under Wratislas II. In 1230 the mon¬ 
archy, hitherto elective, became hereditary. 
The monarchs received investiture from the 
German emperor, held one of the great offices 
in the imperial court, and were recognized as 
among the seven electors of the empire. 
Frequently at strife with its neighbors, 
Bohemia was successively united and disunited 
with Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, etc., accord¬ 
ing to the course of wars and alliances. Otto- 
kar II (1253-78) had extended his conquests 
almost from the Adriatic to the Baltic, when 
he lost them and his life in contest with 
Rudolph, the founder of the house of Haps- 
burg. After the close of the Przemysl dynasty 
(which had held sway for about six centuries) 
by the assassination of Ottokar’s grandson, 
Wenceslas III, the house of Luxemburg suc¬ 
ceeded in 1310, and governed Bohemia till 
1437, the reign of Charles II (1346-78) being 
especially prosperous. Toward the close of 
this second dynasty civil wars were excited by 
the spread of the Hussite movement, the cen¬ 
tral figure of the struggle being John Ziska, 
the leader of the Taborites. A temporary 
union between the moderate Hussites and the 
Catholics having proved a failure, the reformed 
party elected as king, in 1433, the Protestant 
noble, George Podibrad. On his death in 1471 
they chose Wladislas, son of Cassimir, king of 
Poland, who also obtained the crown of Hun¬ 
gary. His son Louis lost both crowns with 
his life in the battle of Mohacz against the 
Turks, and Ferdinand of Austria became in 
1527 sovereign of both kingdoms. Bohemia 
then lost its separate existence, being declared 
a hereditary possession of the house of Aus¬ 
tria; and its subsequent history pertains to 
that of the Austrian Empire. In 184S an at¬ 
tempt was made to assert its ancient inde- 


Bohemian Forest 


Boiler 


pendence against the Austrian dominion; a 
conflict took place, Prague was bombarded, 
and the insurrection suppressed. 

Bohemian Forest, a mountain ridge extend- 
ing from the Fichtelgebirge southward toward 
the confluence of the Ilz and the Danube, £nd 
separating Bavaria from Bohemia. The high¬ 
est peaks are the Arber (4,320 ft.) and the 
Rachel. 

Bohemond, Marc (1056-1111), son of the 
Norman adventurer, Robert Guiscard, who rose 
to be Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Bohemond 
threw his energy into the Crusades. He took 
a leading part in the campaign in Asia Minor, 
captured Antioch (1098), and assumed the 
principality, but was taken prisoner in 1101 and 
held captive for two years. 

Bohn (bon), Henry George (1796-1884), 
English bookseller. He was the publisher of 
the well-knowntfc^rar&s, pr collection of stand¬ 
ard works at moderate prices, to which he con¬ 
tributed some translations and works edited by 
himself. 

Boi'ars (or Boy'ars), an order of the old 
Russian aristocracy next in rank to the ruling 
princes. The order was abolished by Peter 
the Great, who gave its members a place in 
the Russian nobility. 

Boil, to heat a fluid up to the point at which 
it is converted into vapor. The conversion 
takes place chiefly at the point of contact with 
the source of heat, and the bubbles of vapor 
rising to the surface, and breaking there, pro¬ 
duce the commotion called ebullition. At the 
ordinary atmospheric pressure ebullition com¬ 
mences at a temperature which is definite for 
each liquid. The escape of the heated fluid 
in the form of vapor prevents any further rise 
of temperature in an open vessel when the 
boiling point has been reached. The exact defi¬ 
nition of the boiling-point of a liquid is “that 
temperature at which the tension of its vapor 
exactly balances the pressure of the atmos¬ 
phere.” The influence of this pressure ap¬ 
pears from experiments. In an exhausted 
receiver the heat of the human hand is suffi¬ 
cient to make water boil; while, on the con¬ 
trary, in Papin’s digester, in which it is 
possible to subject the water in the boiler to a 
pressure of three or four atmospheres, the 
water may be heated far above the normal 
boiling point without giving signs of ebulli¬ 
tion. From this relation between the ebulli¬ 
tion of a liquid and atmospheric pressure the 
heights of objects above sea-level may be cal¬ 
culated by comparing the actual boiling point 
at any place with the normal boiling point. 
The boiling point of water as marked on Fah¬ 
renheit’s thermometer is 312°; on the Centi¬ 
grade, 100°; on the Reaumur, 80°. Ether boils 
at about 96°, mercury at 662°. 

Boil, a small, painful swelling of a conical 
shape on the surface of the body. Its base is 
hard, while its apex is soft and of a whitish 
color. Boils are generally indicative of de¬ 
pressed health, intemperate habits, or disorder 
of the digestive organs. 

Boileau-Despr£aux (bwa-lo-da-pra-o), Nich¬ 
olas (1636-1711), a French poet. He studied 


in the College d’Harcourt and in the College 
de Beauvais, and entered the legal profession, 
but soon left it to devote himself entirely to 
belles-lettres. In 1660 appeared his first satire, 
Adieux d'un Poete a la Ville de Paris , followed 
rapidly by eight others, and ultimately by three 
more, to complete the series. In 1664 he wrote 
his prose Dialogue des Her os de Roman. His 
epistles appeared at various times from 1669 
onward. His masterpieces were the L'Art 
Poetique and Le Lutrin, published in 1674. In 
many respects his writings determined the 
trend of all subsequent French poetry, and he 
left, through his influence upon Dryden, Pope, 
and their contemporaries, a permanent mark 
upon English literature. 

Boiler, a vessel constructed of wrought iron 
or steel plates riveted together, with needful 
adjuncts, in which steam is generated from 
water for the purpose of driving a steam engine, 
or for other purposes. The first important 
point in preparing a steam boiler is to secure 
strength to resist the internal pressure of steam 
and prevent explosions; and accordingly the 
globular or spherical shape was very early 
adopted as one of greatest capacity, and as a 
shape which was not liable to distortion by 
pressure. It was set over an open fire, and the 
steam was confined until it was raised by the 
heat to the required pressure. But the open 
fire was wasteful of fuel, and the next step 
was to enclose the globular boiler in brickwork, 
and conduct the flames in a flue winding round 
the boiler, in contact with it. The next form 
of boiler was the cylindrical, which stood up¬ 
right like a bottle, the fire being placed at the 
bottom, and the flue winding round that part 
of the sides or walls of the boiler covered with 
water. For the sake of strength to resist the 
pressure of the steam, the bottom was hollowed 
or arched upward, and it presented a concave 
dome to the radiant heat of the tire and the 
impact of the flames; and the top was made 
hemispherical. In process of time boilers of 
much larger size came to be required, and the 
horizontal wagon-shaped boiler of James Watt 
was produced, and was succeeded by the cyl¬ 
indrical boiler having hemispherical ends, in 
which simplicity and strength of design for 
higher pressures were combined. This is a 
boiler that does not require any stays, and is 
valuable where there is plenty of room. 

But, for the sake of economy of fuel as well 
as of space, one or two cylindrical flues are 
commonly constructed within the boiler, into 
which one flue tube is fixed traversing the 
boiler from end to end. The internal flue was 
first applied by James Watt. The burning 
gases from the fire after having traversed the 
bottom of the boiler, return through the inter¬ 
nal flue to the front, where the current is di¬ 
vided, and returns toward the chimney along 
both sides of the boiler. In the Cornish boiler 
similarly constructed, the internal tube is 
made sufficiently large to receive the furnace 
inside the boiler; the boiler being “internally 
fired,” in contrast with the other boilers which 
have been described, and are “under-fired.” 
When two large furnace tubes for internal 


Boiler 


Boker 


firing are applied within the boiler it is known 
as the Lancashire boiler, and is the most gen¬ 
erally prevailing type of boiler for purposes on 
land. 

The shell of the boiler, or outer part, is of 
iron or steel plates. The steam chest or dome, 
on the upper side of the boiler, is a reservoir, 
whence the steam is supplied to the engine by 
the steam pipe, which is fitted with a stop valve. 
The furnace is the chamber for the combustion 
of the fuel. The flues or conduits for the 
burnt gases are either external or internal; cyl¬ 
indrical metal flues ar eflue tubes, and they are 
fixed at the ends into tube plates. The manhole 
is the entrance to the boiler for inspection, 
etc.; and it is closed by a manhole door or lid. 
Mudholes are placed at or near the bottom of 
the boiler, for the discharge of sediment, etc. 
The water is supplied by the feed apparatus; its 
level is indicated by a float. The water gauge 
also shows the level of the water; it may be a 
glass tube at the front of the boiler, connected * 
to it by two horizontal tubes, one at the upper 
end and one at the lower end of the glass tube, 
or it may be a series of two or three gauge 
cocks, connected at different levels. The boiler 
is emptied by the blow-off cock; the surface of 
the water is cleared by the scum cock. Brine 
pumps may be used instead of blow-off cocks 
to draw off the brine from marine boilers. 
Surplus steam escapes by the safety valves. 
Vacuum valves admit air into the boiler, when 
the pressure is less than that of the atmos¬ 
phere. Fusible plugs are inserted in the 
boiler, over the fire, which melt and give vent 
to the steam when the pressure and tempera¬ 
ture of the steam in the boiler become excess¬ 
ive and dangerous. The degree of pressure is 
indicated by the pressure gauge. The boiler is 
strengthened by stays, which may consist of 
rods, bolts, or gussets. The boiler is covered 
with clothing or cleading. The fire grate carries 
the fuel, and it consists of grate bar or fire 
bars, usually of cast iron, supported by cross¬ 
bearers or bar frames. The mouthpiece is the 
entrance to the furnace, and it rests on the 
dead plate. The fire door or pair of fire doors 
are fitted to and hung by it. The heating sur¬ 
face is the surface of the boiler exposed to the 
flame and burned gases from the furnace. 
The boiler room or internal capacity of the 
boiler is divided into the watei' room, occupied 
by water; and the steam-room, occupied by 
steam. 

There are many varieties of boilers specially 
adapted to circumstances. The marine boiler 
is of the shape of a cheese, standing upright, 
containing the furnace tubes in the lower part, 
and small flue tubes—the multitubular flue-— 
in the upper part. By inserting many small 
tubes in place of one or two large tubes, the 
body of water is subdivided, and the heat is 
effectively and rapidly distributed to the water. 
Locomotive boilers, also, are constructed with 
the multitubular flue, and the furnace or fire¬ 
box, surrounded with water, is placed at one 
end. There are many forms of upright or 
vertical boilers, consisting of upright cylin¬ 
drical shells, containing a fire-box at the lower 


part, from which the burned gases are carried 
up through a single, vertical flue, to the chim¬ 
ney above. In another form of upright boiler, 
cross water tubes are inserted in the upper 
part of the furnace, which absorb heat, both 
radiated and convected, and promote the cir¬ 
culation of the water in the boiler. 

Boiling, in cookery, is one of the most fre¬ 
quent and important operations connected with 
the preparation of food. It is a process appli¬ 
cable to almost all varieties of food and every 
kind of culinary preparation, and the necessary 
appliances are simple and inexpensive. In the 
boiling of animal food, if it is desired to retain 
the nutritive juices within the substance, the 
meat to be boiled should be suddenly plunged 
entire into boiling water, and briskly boiled a 
few minutes. This coagulates the albuminous 
matter in the outer portions of the meat, and 
prevents the exudation of the fluid juices 
within. Thereafter the water should be main¬ 
tained somewhat under the boiling point till 
the meat is sufficiently dressed, a period which 
varies according to the amount being operated 
on. By this means the meat is kept at once 
juicy, tender, and nutritious. The boiling of 
food starches such as arrowroot, corn flour, etc., 
ruptures the starch granules, and renders them 
digestible; and the same thing occurs in boil¬ 
ing meal, flour, and vegetables generally, which 
all contain starch in large proportions. Boiled 
food is more digestible than the same either 
roasted or stewed, but it wants the empyreu- 
matic odor and sapidity communicated by 
these processes. 

Bois de Boulogne (bwa-de-bo-lon), a pleas¬ 
ant grove near the gates on the w. of Paris, 
so named after the suburb Boulogne-sur- 
Seine. Its trees were more or less destroyed 
during the Franco-German War. It is still, 
however, one of the pleasantest Parisian holi¬ 
day promenades. 

Bois6 City, capital of the state of Idaho. It 
is situated on the site of an old trading post of 
the Hudson Bay Company, 285 mi. n.w. of 
Salt Lake City; contains the state capitol, 
penitentiary, and U. S. assay office. Pop. 
1900, 5,957. 

Bois=le-duc, (bwa-li-duk), a fortified city, 
North Brabant, Holland, founded by Godfrey 
of Brabant in 1184; has manufactures of cloth, 
hats, cotton goods, etc., and a good trade in 
grain, its water traffic being equal to that of a 
considerable maritime port. The cathedral is 
one of the finest in the Netherlands. Pop. 
25,517. The Duke of York was defeated here 
by the French in 1794. 

Bojador' , a cape on the West Coast of Africa, 
one of the projecting points of the Sahara; till 
the fifteenth century the southern limit of 
African navigation. The coast of the Sahara 
from Cape Blanco to this cape and a consider¬ 
able portion of the interior has been pro¬ 
claimed Spanish territory. 

Bcjol (bo-hol'), one of the Philippine Is¬ 
lands, n. of Mindanao, about 40 mi. by 30 
mi. Woody and mountainous. Pop. 187.000. 

Boker, George Henry (1823-1890), Ameri- 
caivpoet and man of letters. He published 


Bokhara 

several volumes of poems, notably war songs, 
and was the author of the tragedies of, Calay - 
nos, Anne Boleyn, and Francesca da Rimini. 
In 1872 he became U. S. Minister at Constanti¬ 
nople; in 1876 was sent to St. Petersburg and 
remained there two years. His last literary 
work, a volume of sonnets, appeared in 1886. 
Of his war-poems the most famous is that of 
the Black Regiment , founded on an incident 
at Port Hudson. 

Bokhara (Bochara) (bo-7*a'-ra), a khanate of 
Central Asia, vassal to Russia. Area 100,000 
sq. mi.; pop. 2,500,000. The only two towns 
of importance are the capital, Bokhara, and 
Karshi. The rule of the Emir is theoretically 
absolute. The manufactures are Unimportant, 
but there is a v^y considerable caravan trade, 
cotton, rice, silk, and indigo being exported, 
and woven goods, sugar, iron, etc., being im¬ 
ported. 

Bokhara was the ancient Sogdiana (orMara- 
canda), capital Samarkand; was conquered by 
the Arabs in the eighth century, by Genghis 
Khan in 1220, and by Timur in 1370, and was 
finally seized by the Usbeks in 1505. It has re¬ 
cently suffered much from the advances of the 
Russians, who, in 1868, compelled the cession 
of Samarkand and important tracts of territory. 
Since then the Emir Muzaffer-Eddin has sunk 
more and more into a position of dependency 
on Russia. After the Russian expedition to 
Khiva in 1873 an agreement was come to be¬ 
tween Russia and Bokhara by which Bokhara 
received a portion of the territory ceded by 
Khiva to Russia, while the Russians received 
various privileges in return. Bokhara, the 
capital of the khanate, is 8 or 9 mi. in circuit, 
and surrounded by a mud wall. The trade 
was formerly large with India, but has been 
almost completely absorbed by Russia. Pop. 
70,000. 

Bolan' Pass, a celebrated defile in the Hala 
Mountains, n.e. of Beluchistan, on the route 
between the Lower Indus (Scinde) and the 
table-land of Afghanistan. It is about 60 mi. 
long, hemmed in on all sides by lofty precipi¬ 
ces, and in parts so narrow that a regiment 
could defend it against an army. It is trav¬ 
ersed by the Bolan river. The crest of the 
pass is 5,800 feet high. 

Bolas (that is, “balls”), a form of missile 
used by the Paraguay Indians, the Patago¬ 
nians, and especially by the Gauchos of the 
Argentine Republic. It consists of a rope or 
line having at either end a stone, ball of metal, 
or lump of hardened clay. When used it is 
swung round the head by one end, and then 
hurled at an animal so as to entangle it. 

Bole, an earthy mineral occurring in amor¬ 
phous masses, and composed chiefly of silica 
with alumina, iron, and occasionally magne¬ 
sia. It is of a dull yellow, brownish, or red 
color, has a greasy feel, and yields to the nail. 
In ancient times, under the name of Lemnian 
bole or earth, one variety of it had a place 
in the materia medica. At present the best 
known bole of commerce is a coarse pigment 
known as Berlin and English red. 

Bolero, a popular Spanish dance of the bal- 


Bolivarey Ponte 

let class, for couples, or for a single female 
dancer. The music, which is in triple meas¬ 
ure, is generally marked by rapid changes of 
time, and the dancers mostly accompany the 
music with castanets. The interest of these 
dances largely depends upon the pantomime 
of passion, which forms an essential part of 
them. 

Boleyn (bul'in), Anne (1501-1536), second 
wife of Henry VIII of England. She attended 
Mary, sister of Henry, on her marriage with 
Louis XII to France, as lady of honor, return¬ 
ing to England about 1522, and becoming lady 
of honor to Queen Catharine. The king, who 
soon grew fond of her, without waiting for 
the official completion of his divorce from 
Catharine, married Anne in January, 1533, 
having previously created her Marchioness of 
Pembroke. Then Cramner declared the first 
marriage void and the second valid, and Anne 
was crowned at Westminster with unparal¬ 
leled splendor. On Sept. 7, 1533, she became 
the mother of Elizabeth. She was speedily, 
however, in turn supplanted by her own lady 
of honor, Jane Seymour. Suspicions of infi¬ 
delity were alleged against her, and in 1536 
the queen was brought before a jury of peers 
on a charge of treason and impropriety of con¬ 
duct. Smeaton, a musician, who was arrested 
with others, confessed, and on May 17 she was 
condemned to death. The clemency of Henry 
went no further than the substitution of the 
scaffold for the stake, and she was beheaded 
on May 19, 1536. Whether she was guilty 
or not has never been decided; that she was 
exceedingly indiscreet is certain. 

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount 
(1678-1751), a famous English tory states¬ 
man of the eighteenth century. In 1701 
he obtained a seat in the House of Com¬ 
mons, attaching himself to the Tories. 
He became secretary of war in 1706, though 
he retired with the ministry in 1708. In 1710 
he became one of the secretaries of state. In 
1712 he was called to the House of Lords by the 
title of Viscount Bolingbroke, and in 1713 con¬ 
cluded the Peace of Utrecht. Queen Anne 
made Bolingbroke prime minister, but died 
herself four days later. Bolingbroke, dismissed 
by King George while yet in Germany, fled to 
France in March, 1715, to escape the inevitable 
impeachment by which, in the autumn of that 
year, he was deprived of his peerage and ban¬ 
ished. James III, the Pretender, invited him to 
Lorraine and made him his secretary of state, 
but dismissed him in 1716 on a suspicion of 
treachery. In 1723 he was permitted to return 
to England. He withdrew entirely from poli¬ 
tics and spent the last years of his life in qui¬ 
etude at Battersea. Pope was indebted to 
him for suggestions for his Essay on Man. He 
was clever and versatile, but unscrupulous and 
insincere. 

Bolivarey Ponte, Simon (1783-1830), liber¬ 
ator and leader in the South American struggle 
for independence. He studied law in Madrid, 
and was married in 1801. Returning from 
Europe to South America (1809) he passed 
through the United States. He took part in 


Bolivia 


Bologna 


the revolutionary uprising in Caracas (April 19, 
1810). After an unsuccessful attempt for Ven¬ 
ezuelan independence (1811), B. went to Gra¬ 
nada to operate against the Royalists. With his 
cousin, Rebas, he reached the Venezuelan bor¬ 
der and kindled anew the tires of revolution. 
Jan. 13, 1813, he issued his famous proclama¬ 
tion of “war to the death.” General Mont- 
verde was defeated by Rebas, General Bolivar 
entering Caracas in triumph, Aug. 4, 1814, 
proclaimed himself liberator and dictator. Car¬ 
acas was retaken by the Royalists 1814. B. 
peaceably transferred the general government 
to Bogota and went to Kingston, Jamaica, 
(1815). His next victory was over Morillo at 
Barcelona (December, 1816). He fixed his head¬ 
quarters at Angostura (1817) and set out to 
effect a junction with General Santander, who 
commanded the Republican forces in^New 
Granada. He gained the splendid victory of 
Bojaca (Aug. 7, 1819), and was welcomed at 
Santa Fe as a deliverer. On Dec. 7, 1819, 
was promulgated the law uniting Venezuela 
and New Granada under the Republic of Co¬ 
lombia with B. as president. He practically 
ended the war in Venezuela when he defeated 
La Torre in the battle of Carabobo. B. entered 
Caracas (June 29, 1820), having for the third 
time rescued his native city from its oppress¬ 
ors. A constitution was adopted (Aug. 30, 
1829), and B. elected president. The consti¬ 
tution of Bolivia, framed by Bolivar and presen¬ 
ted to Congress, May 25, 1826, excited the fear 
that he wished to make himself perpetual dic¬ 
tator over united Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. 
The Peruvians abjured the Bolivian code and 
organized a provisional government for them¬ 
selves. From 1828-1830 B. exercised supreme 
power in Colombia. One of the states or de¬ 
partments of Colombia is named after him 
Bolivar. Its area is 21,345 sq. miles ; its pop. 
24,400. Capital Carthagena. 

Boliv'ia, formerly called Upper Peru, a re¬ 
public of S. A. Area 567,360 sq. mi.; pop. 2,- 
300,000. An unascertained proportion of the 
inhabitants belong to aboriginal races (the 
Aymaras and the Quichuas); the larger portion 
of the remainder being Mestizos or descend¬ 
ants of the original settlers by native women. 
The largest town is La Paz, but the executive 
government has its seat at Sucre (or Chuqui- 
saca); other towns are Potosi, Oruro, and Cocha¬ 
bamba. The broadest part of the Andes, where 
these mountains, encompassing Lakes Titicaca 
(partly in Bolivia) and Aullagas, divided into 
two chains, known as the Eastern and Western 
Cordilleras, lies in the western portion of the 
state. Here are some of the highest summits 
of the Andes, as Sorata, Illimani, and Sajama. 
The two chains enclose an extensive table-land, 
the general elevation of which is about 12,500 
ft., much of it being saline and barren, es¬ 
pecially in the s. The climate, though rang¬ 
ing between extremes of heat and cold, is very 
healthy, and cholera and yellow fever are un¬ 
known. The elevated regions are cold and 
dry, the middle temperate and delightful, the 
lower valleys and plains quite tropical. Among 
animals are the llama, alpaca, vicuna, chin¬ 


chilla, etc.; the largest bird is the condor. 
Bolivia has long been famed for its mineral 
wealth, especially silver and gold, the total 
value of these metals produced between 1545 
and 1875 being estimated at nearly $2,000,000,- 
000. The annual produce is still several mil¬ 
lions in value. The celebrated Potosi was once 
the richest silver district in the world. The 
country is capable of producing every product 
known to S. A., but cultivation is in a very 
backward state. Coffee, coca, cacao, tobacco, 
maize, and sugar-cane are grown, and there is 
an inexhaustible supply of india-rubber. The 
imports and exports are roughly estimated at 
about $6,000,000 and $9,000,000 respectively. 
The chief exports are silver (two thirds of the 
whole), cinchona or Peruvian bark, cocoa, 
coffee, caoutchouc, alpaca wool, copper, tin, 
and other ores. Roads are few and bad; and 
until these are improved and extended, rail¬ 
ways built (there is one short line connecting 
La Paz with Titicaca and thus with the Peru¬ 
vian Puno-Islay line), and the water communi¬ 
cation by way of the Amazon and its tributaries 
taken advantage of, the trade must remain 
small. Accounts are kept in bolivianos or dol¬ 
lars, value about 83 cts. 

By its constitution Bolivia is a democratic 
republic. The executive power is in the hands 
of a president elected for four years, and the 
legislative belongs to a congress of two cham¬ 
bers, both elected by universal suffrage. The 
finances are in a disorganized state. The re¬ 
ligion is the Roman Catholic, and public wor¬ 
ship, according to the rites of any other church 
is prohibited. Education is at an exceedingly 
low ebb. Bolivia under the Spaniards long 
formed part of the viceroyalty of Peru, latterly 
it was joined to that of La Platta or Buenos 
Ayres. Its independent history commences 
with the year 1825, when the republic was 
founded. The constitution was drawn up by 
Simon Bolivar, in whose honor the state was 
named Bolivia, and was adopted by congress 
in 1826. It has since undergone important 
modifications. But the country has been al¬ 
most continually distracted by internal and ex¬ 
ternal troubles, and can scarcely be said to 
have had any definite constitution. It suf¬ 
fered severely in the war which, with Peru, 
it waged against Chile in 1879 and subsequent 
years, and which ended in a serious loss of ter¬ 
ritory; and also from a continued state of an¬ 
archy since the close of that war. 

Bologna (bo-lon'ya), an important city of 
Italy, capital of the province of same name. 
It is the see of an archbishop, and has exten¬ 
sive manufactures of silk goods, velvet, artifi¬ 
cial flowers, etc. Among the principal build¬ 
ings are the Palazzo Pubblico, the Palazzo del 
Podesta; and the church or basilica of St. 
Petronio. Among the hundred other churches, 
S. Pietro, S. Salvatore, S. Domenico, S. Gio¬ 
vanni in Monte, S. Giacomo Maggiore,—all pos¬ 
sess rich treasures of art. The leaning towers 
Degli Asinelli and Garisenda, dating from the 
twelfth century, are among the most remark¬ 
able objects in the city; and the market is 
adorned with the colossal bronze Neptune of 


Bolor-Tagh 

Giovanni da Bologna. An arcade of 640 arches 
leads to the church of Madonna di S. Lucca, 
situated at the foot of the Apennines, near 
Bologna, and the resort of pilgrims from all 
parts of Italy. Bologna has long been Re¬ 
nowned for its university, claiming to have 
been founded in 1088, and having a library, at 
one time in the care of Cardinal Mezzofanti, 
which numbers over 200,000 volumes and 9,000 
MSS. The Instituto delle Scienze has a li¬ 
brary which numbers about 160,000 volumes, 
with 6,000 manuscripts. The Church of San 
Domenico has a library of 120,000 volumes. 
The Academy of Fine Arts has a rich collec¬ 
tion of paintings by native artists, such as 
Francia, and the later Bolognese school, of 
which the Caracfts, Guido Reni, Domenichino, 
and Albano were the founders. Bologna was 
founded by the Etruscans under the name of 
Felsina; became in 189 b. c. the Roman colony 
Bononia; was taken by the Longobards about 
728 a. d.; passed into the hands of the Franks, 
and was made a free city by Charlemagne. In 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was 
one of the most flourishing of the Italian re¬ 
publics; but the feuds between the different 
parties of the nobles led to its submission to 
the papal see in 1513. Several attempts were 
made to throw off the papal yoke, one of 
which, in 1831, was for a time successful. In 
1849 the Austrians obtained possession of it. 
In 1860 it was annexed to the dominions of 
King Victor Emmanuel. Pop. 142,460. The 
province of Bologna, formerly included in the 
papal territories, forms a rich and beautiful 
tract. Area 1,390 sq. mi.; pop. 457,474. 

Bolor=Tagh (also Bilaur, or Belut Tagh), a 
mountain range formerly imagined to exist in 
Central Asia between Eastern and Western 
Turkestan as the axis of the continent. At 
that point, however, there is really a lofty 
table-land called the Pamirs. 

Bolton (or Bolton-le-Moors), a manufactur¬ 
ing town of Lancashire, England, 10 mi. n. w. 
of Manchester. Its main growth has been of 
recent date, and in part due to the inventions 
of its residents Arkwright and Crompton. In 
manufacturing industries it is now surpassed 
by few places in Britain, and it contains some 
of the largest and finest cotton mills in the 
world. There are large engineering works, 
besides collieries, paper mills, foundries, chem¬ 
ical works, etc. Pop. 115,002. 

Bolt-ropes, ropes used to strengthen the 
sails of a ship, the edges of the sails being 
sewn to them. Those on the sides are called 
leech-ropes, the others head and foot ropes. 

Boma, a trading station on the right bank 
of the lower Congo River in Africa and seat of 
government of the Congo Free State. 

Bomarsund ', a Russian fortress on the Aland 
Islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, 
bombarded and forced to capitulate to the al¬ 
lied French and English in 1854 during the 
Crimean War, and then destroyed. 

Bomb (bom), a large, hollow iron ball or 
shell, filled with explosive material and fired 
from a mortar. The charge in the bomb is 
exploded by means of a fuse filled with pow- 


Bombay 

der and other inflammable materials, which 
are ignited by the discharge of the mortar. 
Conical shells shot from rifled cannon have 
supplanted the older bomb. The use of 
bombs and mortars is said to have been in¬ 
vented in the middle of the fifteenth century. 



Bombardier Beetle, a name given to a spe¬ 
cies of beetle because of the remarkable power 
they possess of being able to defend them¬ 
selves by expelling a pungent acrid fluid, which 
explodes with a pretty loud report on coming 
in contact with the air. 

Bombay' (Portuguese, “good harbor”), chief 
seaport on the west coast of India, and capital 
of the presidency of the same name. Bombay 
has many handsome buildings, both public 
and private, as the cathedral, the university, 
the secretariat, the new high court, the post 
and telegraph offices, etc. Various industries, 
such as dyeing, tanning, and metal-working, 
are carried on, and there are large cotton fac¬ 
tories. The commerce is very extensive, ex¬ 
ports and imports of merchandise reaching 
a total value of over $300,000,000 annually. 
The harbor is one of the largest and safest in 
India, and there are commodious docks. 
There is a large traffic with steam vessels be¬ 
tween Bombay and Great Britain, and regu¬ 
lar steam communication with China, Aus¬ 
tralia, Singapore, Mauritius, etc. The island 
of Bombay, which is about 11 mi. long and 3 
mi. broad, was formerly liable to be overflowed 
by the sea, to prevent which substantial walls 
and embankments have been constructed. 
After Madras, Bombay is the oldest of the 
British possessions in the East, having been 
ceded by the Portuguese in 1661. Pop. 821,- 
764. 

Bombay', one of the three presidencies of 
British India. It is divided into a northern, a 
central, and a southern division, the Sind di¬ 
vision, and the town and island of Bombay. 
The northern division contains the districts of 
Ahmedabad, Kaira, Panch Mahals, Broach, 
Surat, Thana, Kolaba; the central, Khandesh, 
Nasik, Ahmednagar, Poonah, Sholapur, Satara; 
the southern, Belgaum, Dharwar, Kaladgi, 
Kanara, Ratnagiri. Total area 124,192sq. mi.; 
pop. 18,901,123, including the city and territory 
of Aden in Arabia, 70 sq. mi. (pop. 34,860). 
The native or feudatory states connected with 
the presidency (the chief being Kathiawar) 
have an a*rea of 73,753 sq. mi., and a population 
of 6,941,249. The climate varies, being un¬ 
healthy in the capital, Bombay, and vicinity, 



Bombazine 


Bonaparte 


but at other places, such as Poonah, very 
favorable to Europeans. The chief productions 
of the soil are cotton, rice, millet, wheat, bar¬ 
ley, dates, and the cocoa-palm. The manu¬ 
factures are cotton, silk, leather, etc. The 
great export is cotton. The administration is 
in the hands of a governor and council. The 
chief source of revenue is the land, which is 
largely held on the ryotwar system. 

Bombazine (-zen') is a mixed tissue of silk 
and worsted, the first forming the warp, and 
the second the weft. It is fine and light in the 
make, and may be of any color, though black 
is now most in use. 

Bona, seaport and fortified city of Algeria, 
with manufactures of burnooses, tapestry, and 
saddles, and a considerable trade. Pop. 30,806. 

Bonan'za (Sp. “ fair weather,” “ a favoring 
wind”), a term applied in the U. S. to an 
abundance of precious metal or rich ore in a 
mine. 

Bonaparte (bon'a part), the French form 
which the great Napoleon was the first to give 
to the original Italian name Buonaparte , borne 
by his family in Corsica. As early as the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries there were 
families of this name in Northern Italy, mem¬ 
bers of which reached some distinction as 
governors of cities, envoys, etc. But the con¬ 
nection between the Corsican Bonapartes and 
these Italian families is not clearly established, 
though probably the former were descended 
from a Genoese branch of the family, which 
transplanted itself about the beginning of 
the sixteenth century to Corsica, an island 
then under the jurisdiction of Genoa. From 
that time the Bonapartes ranked as a distin¬ 
guished patrician family of Ajaccio. About 
the middle of the eighteenth century there re¬ 
mained three male representatives of this 
family at Ajaccio,viz., the archdeacon Luciano 
Bonaparte, his brother Napoleon, and the 
nephew of both, Carlo, the father of the em¬ 
peror Napoleon I. Carlo or Charles Bona¬ 
parte, b. 1746, studied law at Pisa university, 
and on his return to Corsica, married Letizia 
Ramolino. He fought under Paoli for the in¬ 
dependence of Corsica, but when further re¬ 
sistance was useless he went over to the side 
of the French, and was included by Louis XV 
amongst the 400 Corsican families who were 
to have rights in France as noble. In 1777 
he went to Paris, where he resided for several 
years, procuring a free admission for his second 
son Napoleon to the military school of Brienne. 
He d. in 1785 at Montpellier. By his marriage 
with Letizia Ramolino he left eight children: 
Giuseppe (or Joseph) (see below), king of Spain; 
Napoleon I, emperor of the French (see Na¬ 
poleon _Z); Lucien (see below), prince of Canino; 
Maria Anna, afterward called Elise, princess 
of Lucca and Piombino, and wife of Prince 
Bacciocchi (see Bacciocchi)', Luigi (or Louis) 
(see below), king of Holland; Carlotta, after¬ 
ward named Marie Pauline, princess Borghese 
(see Borghese)', Annunciata, afterward called 
Caroline, wife of Murat (see Murat), king of 
Naples; and Girolamo (or Jerome) (see below), 
king of Westphalia. 


Bonaparte, Elizabeth Patterson (1785- 
1879). Her father, William Patterson, emi¬ 
grated from Ireland to this country. At a 
ball in Baltimore, Miss Elizabeth Patterson 
met Jerome Bonaparte, a youth of nineteen, 
who had been serving in the French navy in 
the West Indies. He made a proposal of mar¬ 
riage, which she accepted. The marriage 
ceremony was performed in Baltimore, Dec. 
24, 1803. Napoleon declared the marriage 
null and void, excluded Jerome from his 
dynasty, and threatened him with imprison¬ 
ment unless he consented to repudiate his 
wife. In 1805 Jerome and Elizabeth embarked 
for Europe and arrived in Lisbon. She was 
not permitted to land, and leaving her, Jerome 
met Napoleon at Alessandria. The emperor 
declared that if Miss Patterson would return to 
the U. S., he would give her a pension of $12- 
000. Her vessel went to Amsterdam, but was 
prevented from landing, and Mme. Bonaparte 
sought refuge in England, where her son, 
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, was b. at Cam¬ 
berwell, near London, 1805. Mme. Bonaparte 
returned to Baltimore. Mme. Bonaparte, al¬ 
though obtaining a divorce in the Maryland 
courts, employed every means to maintain the 
legality of her marriage, and the legitimacy of 
her son, but Jerome appealed to the counsel 
of state to forbid Jerome “Patterson” from 
calling himself Jerome Bonaparte. Louis 
XVIII invited Mme. Bonaparte to court. In 
1819 she visited the Princess Borghese (Pau¬ 
line Bonaparte) in Rome. She left a fortune 
of $1,500,000 to her grandsons, Jerome Napo¬ 
leon Bonaparte, now in the French army, 
and Charles Joseph Bonaparte, a lawyer in 
Baltimore. 

Bonaparte, Jerome (1784-1860), youngest 
brother of Napoleon I, b. at Ajaccio; at an 
early age entered the French navy as a mid¬ 
shipman. In 1801 he was sent out on an ex¬ 
pedition to the West Indies, but the vessel, 
being chased by English cruisers, was obliged 
to put in to New York. During his sojourn in 
America Jerome Bonaparte became acquainted 
with Miss Elizabeth Patterson, and though 
still a minor, married her in spite of the 
protests of the French consul on Dec. 24, 
1803. After considerable service both in the 
army and navy, in 1807 he was created king 
of Westphalia, and married Catherine Sophia, 
princess of Wurtemberg. His government 
was not wise or prudent, and his extravagance 
and his brother’s increasing exactions nearly 
brought the state to financial ruin. The battle 
of Leipsic put an end to Jerome’s reign, and 
he was obliged to take flight to Paris. He re¬ 
mained faithful to his brother through all the 
events that followed till the final overthrow at 
Waterloo. After that, under the title of the 
Comte de Montfort, he resided in different 
cities of Europe, but latterly chiefly at Flor¬ 
ence. After the election of his nephew, Louis 
Napoleon, to the presidentship of the French 
Republic, in 1848, he became successively gov¬ 
ernor general of Les Invalides, a marshal of 
France, and president of the senate. He died 
in 1860. Of Jerome Bonaparte’s second mar- 


Bonaparte 

riage two children remain, Prince Napoleon 
Joseph, who assumed the name of Jerome, and 
the Princess Mathilde. From the marriage of 
Prince Napoleon, well-known by the nickname 
“Plon-Plon,” with Clotilde, daughter of Kijjg 
Victor Emmanuel of Italy, were b. three chil¬ 
dren—Victor (b. July 18, 1862), Louis, and 
Marie, the first of whom since the death of 
Napoleon Ill’s son, the Prince Imperial, is 
generally recognized by the Bonapartist party 
as the heir to the traditions of the dynasty. 
Both had to leave France in 1886, a law being 
passed expelling pretenders to the French 
throne and their eldest sons. 

Bonaparte, Joseph (1768-1844), the eldest 
brother of Napoleon I, was b. in Corsica, edu¬ 
cated in France %t the college of Autun, re¬ 
turned to Corsica in 1785, on his father’s death, 
studied law, and in 1792 became a member of 
the new administration of Corsica under Paoli. 
In 1793 he emigrated to Marseilles, and mar¬ 
ried the daughter of a wealthy banker named 
Clari. In 1796, with the rise of his brother to 
fame after the brilliant campaign of Italy, 
Joseph began a varied diplomatic and military 
career. At length in 1806, Napoleon, having 
himself assumed the imperial title in 1804, 
made Joseph king of Naples, and two years 
afterward transferred him to Madrid as king 
of Spain. His position here, entirely depend¬ 
ent on the support of French armies, became 
almost intolerable. He was twice driven from 
his capital by the approach of hostile armies, 
and the third time, in 1813, he fled, not to re¬ 
turn. After Waterloo he went to the U. S., 
and lived for a time near Philadelphia, assum¬ 
ing the title of Count de Survilliers. He sub¬ 
sequently went to England, finally repaired to 
Italy, and died at Florence. 

Bonaparte, Letizia Ramolino (1750-1836), 
the mother of Napoleon I, and, after Napoleon’s 
assumption of the imperial crown, dignified 
with the title of Madame M&re, was b. at 
Ajaccio, and was married in 1767 to Charles 
Bonaparte. She was a woman of much beau¬ 
ty, intellect, and force of character. Left a 
widow in 1785, she resided in Corsica till her 
son became first consul, when an establishment 
was assigned to her at Paris. On the fall of 
Napoleon she retired to Rome, where she died. 

Bonaparte, Louis (1778-1846), second 
younger brother of the Emperor Napoleon I, 
and father of Napoleon III, was b. in Corsica. 
He was educated in the artillery school at 
Chalons, accompanied Napoleon to Italy and 
Egypt, and subsequently rose to the rank of 
a brigadier general. In 1802 he married Hor- 
tense Beauharnais, Josephine’s daughter, and 
in 1806 was compelled by his brother to accept, 
very reluctantly, the Dutch crown. He ex¬ 
erted himself in promoting the welfare of 
his new subjects, and resisted as far as in him 
lay the tyrannical interference and arbitrary 
procedure of France; but disagreeing with his 
brother in regard to some measures of the lat¬ 
ter, he abdicated in 1810 and retired to Gratzun- 
der the title of the Count of St. Leu. He d. at 
Leghorn. He was the author of several works 
which show considerable literary ability. 


Bond 

Bonaparte, Louis. See Napoleon III. 

Bonaparte, Lucien (1775-1840), Prince of 
Canino, next younger brother of Napoleon I, 
was b. at Ajaccio. He emigrated to Mar¬ 
seilles in 1793, and having been appointed to a 
situation in the commissariat at the small 
town of St. Maximin in Provence, he married 
the innkeeper’s daughter. Here he distin¬ 
guished himself as a republican orator and 
politician, and was so active on this side that 
after Robespierre’s fall he was in some danger 
of suffering as a partisan. His brother’s in¬ 
fluence, however, operated in his favor, and in 
1798 we find him settled in Paris and a mem¬ 
ber of the newly elected Council of Five Hun¬ 
dred. Shortly after Napoleon’s return from 
Egypt in 1799 he was elected president of the 
Council, in which position he contributed 
greatly to the fall of the Directory and the 
establishment of his brother’s power, on the 
famous 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9). Next year, 
as Napoleon began to develop his system of 
military despotism, Lucien, who still held to 
his republican principles and candidly ex¬ 
pressed his disapproval of his brother’s con¬ 
duct, fell into disfavor and was sent out of the 
way as ambassador to Spain. Eventually, 
when Napoleon had the consulate declared 
hereditary, Lucien withdrew to Italy, settling 
finally at Rome, where he devoted himself to 
the arts and sciences, and lived in apparent 
indifference to the growth of his brother’s 
power. In vain Napoleon offered him the 
crown, first of Italy and then of Spain; but he 
came to France and exerted himself on his 
brother’s behalf, both before and after Water¬ 
loo. Returning to Italy, he spent the rest of 
his life in literary and scientific researches. 
Pope Pius VII made him prince of Canino. 
He was the author of several works, among 
which are two long poems. His eldest son, 
Charles Lucien Laurent Bonaparte (1803-1857), 
achieved a considerable reputation as a natu¬ 
ralist, chiefly in ornithology. He published 
a continuation of Wilson's Ornithology; Icono- 
grajia della Fauna Italica; Conspectus Generum 
Avium, etc. Another son, Pierre (1815-1881), 
led an unsettled and disreputable life, and be¬ 
came notorious in 1870 by killing, in his own 
house at Paris, the journalist Victor Noir, who 
had brought him a challenge. He got off on a 
plea of self-defense, but had to leave France. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon. See Napoleon I. 

Bond, an obligation in writing to pay a sum 
of money, or to do or not to do some particular 
thing specified in the bond. The person who 
gives the bond is called the obligor, the per¬ 
son receiving the bond is called the obligee. 
A bond stipulating either to do something 
wrong in itself or forbidden by law, or to omit 
the doing of something which is a duty, is 
void. No person who cannot legally enter into 
a contract, such as an infant or lunatic, can 
become an obligor, though such a person may 
become an obligee. No particular form of 
words is essential to the validity of a bond. 
A common form of bond is that on which 
money is lent to some company or corporation, 
and by which the borrowers are bound to pay 


Bone 


Boniface 


the lender a certain rate of interest for the 
money. Goods liable to customs or excise 
duties are said to be in bond when they are 
temporarily placed in vaults or warehouses 
under a bond by the importer or owner that 
they will not be removed till the duty is paid 
on them. Such warehouses are called bonded 
warehouses. 

Bone, a hard material constituting the 
framework of mammalia, birds, fishes, and 
reptiles, and thus protecting vital organs such 
as the heart and lungs from external pressure 
and injury. In the fetus the bones are formed 
of cartilaginous (gristly) substance, in differ¬ 
ent points of which earthy matter — phos¬ 
phates and carbonates of lime — is gradually 
deposited till at the time of birth the bone is 
partially formed. After birth the formation 
or bone continues, and, in the temperate zones, 
they reach their perfection in men between 
the ages of twenty and twenty-five. From 
this age till fifty they change but slightly; 
after that period they grow thinner, lighter, 
and more brittle. Bones are densest at the 
surface, which is covered by a firm membrane 
called the 'periosteum; the internal parts are 
more cellular, the spaces being filled with 
marrow, a fatty tissue, supporting fine blood¬ 
vessels. Bone consists of nearly 34 per cent, 
organic material and of 66 per cent, inorganic 
substances, chiefly phosphate, carbonate, and 
fluoride of lime and phosphate of magnesium. 
The organic material is converted into gela¬ 
tin by boiling. It is this which makes bones 
useful for yielding stock for soup. The inor¬ 
ganic substances may be dissolved out by 
steeping the bone in dilute hydrochloric acid. 
Bones, from the quantity of phosphates they 
contain, make excellent manure. The value 
of bones as manure arises chiefly from the 
phosphates and nitrogenous organic matters 
they contain; and where the soil is already 
rich in phosphates bone is of little use as ma¬ 
nure. It is of most service therefore where 
the soil is deficient in this respect, or in the 
case of crops whose rapid growth or small 
roots do not enable them to extract a sufficient 
supply of phosphate from the earth,— turnips, 
for instance, or late-sown oats and barley. 
There are several methods for increasing the 
value of bones as manure, by boiling out the 
fat and gelatin, for instance, the removal of 
which makes the bones more readily acted on 
by the weather and hastens the decay and dis¬ 
tribution of their parts, or by grinding them 
to dust or dissolving them in sulphuric acid, 
by which latter course the phosphates are 
rendered soluble in water. Before being util¬ 
ized in agriculture they are often boiled for 
the oil or fat they contain, which is used in 
the manufacture of soap and lubricants. 

Bone=ash (bone-earth), the earthy or min¬ 
eral residue of bones that have been calcined 
so as to destroy the animal matter and carbon. 
It is composed chiefly of phosphate of lime, 
is used for making cupels in assaying, etc. 

Bone black, ivory black, or animal char¬ 
coal, is obtained by heating bones in close 
retorts till they are reduced to small, coarse 


grains of a black carbonaceous substance. 
This possesses the valuable property of ar¬ 
resting and absorbing into itself the coloring 
matter of liquids which are passed through it. 
Hence it is extensively used in the process of 
sugar-refining, when cylinders of large dimen¬ 
sions filled with this substance are used as 
filters. After a certain amount of absorption 
the charcoal becomes saturated and ceases to 
act. It has then to be restored by reheating or 
other methods. Bone black has also the prop¬ 
erty of absorbing odors, and may thus serve 
as a disinfectant of clothing, apartments, etc. 

Boneset (or thoroughwort), a useful annual 
plant, indigenous to America, and easily recog¬ 
nized by its tall stem, 4 or 5 ft. in height, pass¬ 
ing through the middle of a large, double, hairy 
leaf, and surmounted by a broad, flat head of 
light purple flowers. It is much used as a 
domestic medicine in the form of an infusion, 
having tonic and diaphoretic properties. 

Bonham, Fannin co., Tex., on Bois d’Arc 
Creek, 70 mi. n. e. of Dallas. Railroad: Texas 
& Pacific. Industries: oil mills, 2 flouring 
mills. 2 ice factories, carriage and wagon, and 
a mattress factory. The town was first settled 
in 1837 and w'as called Old Fort Inglish, a fort 
having been built here to protect the settlers 
against the Indians. Bonham became a city 
in 1880. Pop. 1900, 5,042. 

Bonheur (bo-newr), Rosa, b. 1822; a dis¬ 
tinguished French artist and painter of ani¬ 
mals. When only eighteen years old she ex¬ 
hibited two pictures, Goats and Sheep , and 
Two Rabbits , which gave clear indications of 
talent. Since that time a long list of pictures, 
Tillage in Nivernais (1849), The Horse Fair (1853), 
Haymaking (1865), etc., have made her name 
famous throughout Europe. D. May 25, 1899. 

Bonifaccio (bo-ne-fach'6), a seaport in Cor¬ 
sica, on the strait of same name, which sep¬ 
arates Corsica from Sardinia. Wine and oil 
are exported, and a coral fishery is carried on. 
Pop. 3,594. The Strait of Bonifaccio is 7 mi. 
broad, and contains several small islands. 

Boniface. Nine popes have been so named, 
of whom only three are conspicuous in history. 
B. I (418-422), memorable as the earliest 
bishop of Rome who assumed the title of the 
first bishop of Christendom. B. VIII (1228- 
1303). In 1281 he was raised to the cardinal- 
ate, and was elected pope Dec. 24, 1294, when 
the kings of Hungary and Sicily held his 
bridle reins as he rode to the Lateran, and 
waited on him at table, wearing their crowns. 
The great principle of B.’s policy was to assert 
papal supremacy over states as well as 
over the church. There was hardly a question 
in which B. did not interfere. In the Scoto- 
English wars, in the affairs of Sicily, Denmark, 
Germany, Bohemia, etc., we see him meddling. 
His simony was well known, and he has found 
an unenviable immortality in Dante’s Inferno. 
B. IX (1389-1404). He practised simony 
without concealment or restriction; trafficked 
in indulgences and dispensations; overawed 
Rome by fortresses; and to protect himself 
against the enemies whom his imperious spirit 
had raised against him, he had to purchase the 


Boniface 


Book 


services of powerful allies by grantingthem as 
fiefs portions of the patrimony of the church. 

Boniface, St. (680-755), the apostle of Ger¬ 
many, whose original name was Winfrid, was 
b. in Devonshire of a noble Anglo-Saxon fam¬ 
ily. In his thirtieth year he took orders as a 
priest. In 723 he was made a bishop, and in 
732 an archbishop and primate of all Germany. 
He was slain in West Friesland by some bar¬ 
barians, and was buried in the abbey Fulda. 

Bonito (bo-ne'to), a name applied to several 
fishes of the mackerel family, one of which, 
the bonito of the tropics, or stripe-bellied 
tunny, is well known to voyagers from its per¬ 
sistent pursuit of the flying-fish. It is a beau¬ 
tiful fish, steel blue on the back and sides, sil¬ 
very on the belly, with four brown longitudi¬ 
nal bands on each side. It is good eating, 
though rather dry. 

Bon Marche, an immense retail store in 
Paris on the Rue du Bac. About 3,000 per¬ 
sons are employed in the store and the annual 
business amounts to about $30,000,000. It was 
founded in 1852 by M. Jacques Boucicaut, who 
introduced the system of sharing the profits 
with the employees. Madame Boucicaut car¬ 
ried on the business after the death of her hus¬ 
band, and instituted a retiring fund for the 
old employees. The business is now in the 
hands of a joint stock company. 

Bonn, an important German town in Rhen¬ 
ish Prussia, situated on the left bank of the 
Rhine. It has some trade and manufactures, 
but is chiefly important for its famous uni¬ 
versity founded in 1777 by Elector Maximilian 
Frederick of Cologne. Enlarged and amply 
endowed by the king of Prussia in 1818, it is 
now one of the chief seats of learning in Eu¬ 
rope, with a library of more than 200,000 vol¬ 
umes, an anatomical hall, mineralogical and 
zoological collections, museum of antiquities, 
a botanical garden, etc. The teachers in the 
five faculties are above a hundred, and the 
students number about 1,100. Lane, Niebuhr, 
Ritschl, Brandis, and other names famous in 
science or literature are connected with Bonn, 
and Beethoven was b. there. Bonn was long 
the residence of the electors of Cologne, and 
finally passed into the hands of Prussia by the 
arrangements of the Congress of Vienna in 
1815. Pop. 39,805. 

Bonner, Robert (1824-99), American pub¬ 
lisher, b. near Londonderry, Ireland, came to 
the U. S. when a boy, and became a composi¬ 
tor in Hartford, Conn. In 1844 he went to 
New York, and in 1851 purchased the New 
York Ledger, which he built up to a great cir¬ 
culation. He had a fondness for fast horses, 
although he refused to let them race; and 
owned Maud S. and Dexter. In his later years 
Mr. Bonner devoted himself to treatises on the 
diseases of the horse’s hoof. 

Bonnet=rouge (bo-na-rozh; Fr. “red-cap”), 
the emblem of liberty during the French 
Revolution, and then worn as a head-dress by 
all who wished to mark themselves as suffi¬ 
ciently advanced in democratic principles; 
also called cap of liberty. 

Bonnivard (bon-e-var), Francis de (1496- 


1570), the “prisoner of Chillon,” of Byron’s 
famous poem. ,An ardent republican, he took 
the side of the Genoese against the pretensions 
of the dukes of Savoy. In 1530 he fell into 
the hands of the duke, and was imprisoned 
till 1536 in the castle of Chillon, when the 
united forces of the Genevese and the Bernese 
took Chillon. 

Bonny, a river of Western Africa, one of the 
mouths of the Niger, where a considerable 
trade is done. 

Bon'tebok, the pied antelope of South 
Africa, with white markings . on the face, 
allied to the blesbok. 

Bonus, something given over and above 
what is required to be given, especially an 
extra dividend to the shareholders of a joint- 
stock company, holders of insurance policies, 
etc., out of accrued profits. 

Bony Pike (or gar-fish), a remarkable genus 
of fishes inhabiting North American lakes and 
rivers, and one of the few living forms that 
now represent the order of ganoid fishes so 
largely developed in previous geological 
epochs. The body is covered with smooth 
enameled scales, so hard that it is impossible 
to pierce them with a spear. The common 
gar-fish attains the length of five feet, and is 
easily distinguished by the great length of its 
jaws. See Gar-fish. 

Bonzes, the name given by Europeans to 
the priests of the religion of Fo (or Buddha) in 
Eastern Asia, particularly in China, Burmah, 
Tonquin, Cochin-China, and Japan. They do 
not marry, but live together in monasteries. 
There are also female bonzes, whose position 
is analogous to that of nuns in the Roman 
Catholic church. 

Booby, a swimming bird nearly allied to 
the gannet, and so named from the extraor¬ 
dinary stupidity with which, as the older voy¬ 
agers tell, it would allow itself to be knocked 
on the head without attempting to fly. The 



Booby. 


booby lives on fish, which it takes, like the 
gannet, by darting down upon them when 
swimming near the surface of the water. 

Book, the name applied to a printed compo¬ 
sition forming a volume. The tree is some¬ 
times called the parent of the book, as the 
words from which the name is derived mean 
tree. The earliest writings were upon monu- 






Book 


Bookbinding 


ments, chosen because they would last longest. 
The idea of perpetuity in architecture is found 
in the pyramids; in the two columns men¬ 
tioned by Josephus, one of stone, the other of 
brick, on which the children of Seth wrote 
their inventions and astronomical discoveries; 
in the pillars of Crete; in the leaden tablets 
containing the works of Hesiod; in the com¬ 
mandments of stone delivered to Moses; and in 
the laws of Solon inscribed on planks of wood. 
The notion of a literary production surviving 
the materials on which it was written was un¬ 
known before the discovery of substances for 
systematic transcription. Tablets of ivory or 
metal were in common use among the Greeks 
and Romans. When made of wood, some¬ 
times citron, but usually of beech or fir, their 
inner sides were coated with wax on which the 
letters were traced with a pointed pen or sty¬ 
lus, one end of which was used for erasure. It 
was with his stylus that Caesar stabbed Cassius 
in the arm when attacked by his murderers. 
Two such tablets joined together at the back 
with wires which act as hinges, furnish our 
earliest specimen of book-binding. A raised 
margin was left around the pages to prevent 
rubbing. The oldest specimen of these tablets 
is found in the museum at Florence and be¬ 
longs to the year 1301. 

The leaves of the palm, the inner bark of 
lime, ash, maple, and elm were all used in¬ 
stead of tablets. The earliest flexible mate¬ 
rial of importance was the inner part of the 
Egyptian papyrus, from which is derived our 
word paper. The length of the papyri is from 
eight to sixteen inches, although some have 
been found as long as thirty-two. They were 
written on with reeds dipped in gum-water, 
colored with soot of resin. The writing could 
be obliterated easily with a sponge. It is wor¬ 
thy of note that our printer’s ink of to-day is 
made principally of the same material, oil and 
resin. The papyri were sometimes coated 
with a wash or varnish. Pliny mentions the 
ink of the cuttlefish, and also a decoction of 
lees of wine for writing. Red ink consisted of 
a preparation from cinnabar. The next ma¬ 
terial employed was a parchment made from 
the skins of the sheep or lamb. Vellum, a 
finer substance, was made from calfskin. Writ¬ 
ing on skins is mentioned by Herodotus. The 
parchment superseded the use of papyrus 
about the seventh century. At first parch¬ 
ment was written on one side only and the 
other side stained; afterward it was written on 
both sides. Its costliness in classical times led 
to the practise of erasing the original writing 
for the purpose of substituting new. 

Paper made from cotton came into use about 
the end of the ninth century, and opportunely 
checked the total destruction of old manu¬ 
scripts, which the scarcity of parchment and 
demand for books of devotion threatened. 
Cicero’s De Republica was discovered in the 
Vatican library written under a commentary 
of St. Augustine on the Psalms, and other valu¬ 
able writings were discovered in the same 
manner. The invention of linen paper gave 
the first real impetus to book production. This 


date is disputed but is about 1300. The inven-. 
tion is credited by various writers, to the Ger¬ 
mans, Italians, the Greeks, Chinese, and the 
Saracens in Spain. The form of ancient books 
differed with the material used. Flexible ma¬ 
terial was rolled upon a staff as are our maps of 
to-day; the pieces of parchment or papyrus 
being joined together, the complete roll was 
called a volumen, hence our volume. Ovid 
speaks of his fifteen books as so many volumen, 
as too bulky to be rolled upon one stick. The 
title was either written upon the outside or sus¬ 
pended like a ticket from the roll. The volumen 
usually contained much less matter than is in 
the ordinary octavo book of to-day. The libra¬ 
ries or rooms in which the rolls were kept were 
lined with shelves, and the rolls were laid hori¬ 
zontally upon them. Copyists were employed 
to write the books which the spread of civili¬ 
zation demanded, and the prices for loan or 
purchase were exorbitant. A catalogue of the 
books in the Sarabone in Paris, in 1792, con¬ 
sisting of 1,000 volumes, was valued at $19,000, 
and the French library of 825 volumes sent to 
England in 1425 was valued at $11,115. The 
sizes of early printed books were usually quarto 
or folio on account of the large type used when 
the art of printing was in its infancy. The 
size of a book was taken from the dimensions 
of the paper and the number of leaves into 
which it was folded. The ordinary sizes were 
royal, the largest demy and crown. A sheet 
of royal (about 19x24 inches) folded in the cen¬ 
ter making two leaves (four pages) was a royal 
folio, if folded a second time, making four 
leaves each 9£x 12 inches (eight pages) it was 
a royal quarto, if folded again making eight 
leaves 6 x 9£ inches (1C pages) it was a royal 
octavo. The number of leaves was represented 
by the folio, quarto, or octavo, and the size of 
the page by the size of the paper, that is, royal, 
demy, or crown. At this time the sizes of both 
paper and press were limited, and these terms 
were explicit; but with improvements in ma¬ 
chinery, which made larger sheets of paper 
and power presses possible, the terms, octavo, 
quarto, etc., are almost meaningless as far as 
designating the size of the book is concerned. 
In England the sizes are still expressed as 
above, but in our country the size in inches is 
given by most publishers. If you wish to de¬ 
termine what size the book is, count the num¬ 
ber of leaves, not pages, from the binder’s 
thread, in the middle of the sheet to the next 
like one. This rule will not apply, however, to 
old black-letter books. 

Bookbinding is the art of fastening to¬ 
gether the sheets of a book and enclosing them 
in cases of binder’s board covered with leather, 
cloth, or other material to protect them while 
in use. When books were rareties and expen¬ 
sive on account of the patient labor of copying 
or the slow productions of the printing press 
during the infancy of typography, they were 
very highly prized, and as much labor was ex¬ 
pended in the binding as would build a house 
to-day. The wooden cover of a book with its 
metal hinges, bosses, guards, and clasps, seems 
in all but dimensions fit for a church door; but 


Bookbinding 


Bookbinding 


the improvement in all mechanical arts, the 
extension of education to all classes and conse¬ 
quent demand for books, has led to radical 
changes in the art of bookbinding. From the 
fifth to the end of the fifteenth century 
books were exceedingly rare and costly, and 
few bindings illustrating the art during the 
Dark Ages have been preserved. From the 
patient tasks of slaves during the Roman 
Empire, the transcribing of books became 
the duty of monks, who copied and bound 
the works, which were among their chief 
treasures. The monastic bindings were thick, 
heavy, solid, and, according to our ideas, 
clumsy. Books for common use were encased 
in boards covered with leather, with metallic 
bosses, corner plates, and clasps. The liter¬ 
ary treasures of kings and the church were 
encased with ivory sides and carved with 
appropriate designs. Silver and gold were 
used, and they were often enriched with 
gems and jewels, and encased in boxes or 
cases also richly adorned. Silk and velvet for 



Byzantine Style of Bookbinding. 


binding came into use about the time of the 
Renaissance. Thin sides covered with leather, 
parchment, and vellum came into use with the 
invention of printing. LeGascon, Gibson, and 
Roger Payne among others have left behind 
works of art in bindings which are much 
sought after by book-lovers of to-day. The 
operations of bookbinding are now carried on 
upon a scale which could not have ‘been 
thought of at the beginning of this century. 
Then the only machine necessary was a small 
but powerful screw press. To-day improved 
machinery is used for every possible operation, 
the former labor of weeks has become a matter 
of hours, and the elaborate binding of the last 
century is almost a lost art. 

Modern bookbinding is divided into two 
principal branches, leather work and cloth 
casing. The sheets of an octavo book are 


usually printed with 32 pages on each side and 
delivered to the binder flat. The sheets with 
the pages from 1 to 32 upon them, duplicated 
upon each side, are piled upon the feed table 
of the folding machine, which rises automat¬ 
ically as the sheets are fed into it. Each sheet 
is picked up by an automatic feeder and 
pushed into the folder. It is straightened by 
contact with a gauge, and a dull blade de¬ 
scends upon the center of the sheet, the long 
way, and pushes it down between two rollers 
which pinch it together, folding it in the cen¬ 
ter. The sheet is carried forward on endless 
tapes and cut in two by a revolving knife. 
These pass under another blade similar to the 
first, and a second fold and cut is made, the 
sheet descending with the width of the rollers 
at each operation. Here the sheets separate, 
two going to the right and two to the left. 
The third rollers, set at right angles to the 
first, are passed in like manner, and the four 
pieces with 16 pages properly folded are 
dropped into wooden holders and carried to 
tables near by. When the sheets of the entire 
book are folded, they are laid upon a revolving 
table, each 16 pages (or section as it is usually 
called) in a pile. The belt is thrown on and 
the table revolved. The girls seated along 
the side pick otf each section as it passes and 
when one revolution of the table is made, 
they have sheets for a complete book in their 
hands. This is called “gathering.” Other 
girls grasp the gathered book at the front and 
run over the sections rapidly, watching the 
signature number on the bottom of the first 
page of every 16-page section, to guard against 
omissions or duplications. This is called “ col¬ 
lating.’’ The sheets are then carried to a 
large, heavy press constantly opening and clos¬ 
ing, called a smasher, and the loose, bulky 
sheets are pressed into compact form. The 
books next go to the sewing machines, which 
are marvels of ingenuity, and are described 
under that head. When the book is sewed it 
is returned to the smasher, and again passed 
through, then goes to the lining-up table, 
when the end sheets are tipped on to the front 
and last sections, and the book goes to the 
cutting machine. The books are placed back 
to back upon a revolving table, and a knife 
descends cutting the edges, one edge at a time, 
as the table is turned around. The book is 
then ready to have the edges either sprinkled, 
colored, marbled, or gilded. Sprinkling is 
done by mixing the desired colors with a thin 
paste or size, and spattering it on to the edges 
of the books by passing a stiff brush dipped 
into the mixture over a sieve. In uniform 
coloring the books are put into a press and the 
coloring matter applied with a sponge. Mar¬ 
bling is a separate trade and requires consider¬ 
able skill. The different colors are thrown 
with a brush into a shallow trough filled with 
prepared gum-water and float upon the surface 
usually in the form of spots. To make a wave 
pattern a stick is drawn from side to side of 
the trough and the colors follow the motion 
of the stick. If a comb pattern is desired the 
stick is followed by a comb drawn through the 






































Bookbinding 


Bookkeeping 


trough from end to end. When the proper 
pattern is formed upon the mixture, the edges 
of the book are dipped into it, and upon re¬ 
moval the colors adhere to the edge of the 
book. After one dip, the colors are removed, 
and the operation is again repeated. In gild¬ 
ing, the front edge is first operated on. The 
books are fastened into a large laying press 
and the edges scraped smooth with a flat, steel 
knife, and a mixture of white of egg and 
water, called glaire, is spread on with a camel,’s 
hair brush. The gold leaf is laid on. When 
the covered edge becomes dry, it is rubbed 
with bloodstone and agate burnishers. The 
top and bottom edges are then treated in the 
same way. Gilt edges in early books had de¬ 
signs pressed upon them (gaffre), but very 
little, such work is now done. The book then 
goes to the forwarder. It is straightened up 
and the back glued. When dry it is rounded 
by beating on the back with a hammer. It is 
then placed between the jaws of a roller-backer 
which press it very tight, and a roller is passed 
back and forth over the back, which forms 
the joint for the boards to fit into. The 
boards, which are then laced on, fit into these 
grooves. The back is then covered with glue, 
and a thin piece of cloth, projecting over the 
sides about an inch, is put on. A strip of 
paper, almost the length of the book, and 
double the width, is then glued on to one side, 
and the back is covered with it and the other 
edge turned back. This forms what is usu¬ 
ally, though improperly, termed a spring back. 
This serves to strengthen the book. The 
board used to cover the sides is received from 
the mill in large sheets, and is cut into-strips, 
by rotary knives adjusted to the proper width, 
and then trimmed in the same manner to 
the required length. These are next fastened 
to the book by lacing the cords back and forth 
through the board, and the ends are opened 
out and beaten down. The book is then placed 
in press until it is thoroughly dry. The ma¬ 
terials for covering are very numerous. Skins 
of the calf, kid, sheep, goat, and cow are all 
used. Some are dyed with various colors and 
grained to represent different patterns. The 
leather, cut to the size wanted, is beveled on 
the edges by passing through a machine cov¬ 
ered with sandpaper fastened upon a roller 
which revolves at a speed of about 2,500 revo¬ 
lutions a minute. It is then moistened with 
water, covered on the inside with paste or glue 
and is pulled tight over the back of the book 
and the edges turned in by the forwarder, 
and concealed from view by the end sheets, 
which are afterward pasted to the board. 
After thoroughly drying, the book is ready for 
the finisher who washes the back with thin 
paste, and covers it with two coatings of 
glaire. When dry the gold leaf is laid on and 
the lettering stamped with hot, brass type. 
Other gold work, such as ornaments or rolls, is 
applied in the same manner. The superflu¬ 
ous gold is cleaned off and the back polished 
with a hot iron. The end sheets are then 
pasted up and the book placed in press until 
dry, when it is wrapped ready for delivery. 


In cloth work the operation is the same up to 
the time the edges are finished; the case, how¬ 
ever, is made by the case-makers apart from 
the book. The boards and cloth cut to the 
proper size are laid in a pile. The cloth is 
glued upon the wrong side and the board laid 
into the right angles of a gauge which is set to 
the thickness of the back of the book. The 
edges of the cloth are then turned in, the 
space for the back is lined with a strip of pa¬ 
per, the case run through between rollers to 
smooth it, and it is then laid out to dry. The 
cases are then taken to the embossing room, 
where they are finished. This is done by a 
large, heavy stamping press. If the design is 
in several colors of ink a brass die for each 
color is required. This is placed in the press, 
heated by gas or steam and the design blended 
or creased into the cloth. Afterward the same 
design and press, cold, is used for inking each 
color of ink, passing through the press twice. 
If gold or other metal is used, the case is sized 
with a powdered albumen, the leaf of metal is 
laid on, and the heated design is stamped in by 
the press. The surplus metal is brushed off, 
and the case is ready for the inside of the 
book which has been working its way through 
the bindery. The books are piled upon a 
table, the sides covered with paste and passed 
to a workman who places them properly in 
the case. They are then placed into the large 
standing presses. A board with a projecting 
brass edge is fitted into the hinge between 
each layer of books. Here they dry under 
a pressure of about two tons to the square 
inch. The books are then sent to the ship¬ 
ping room for wrapping and delivery. 

Bookkeeping is the art or method of record¬ 
ing mercantile or pecuniary transactions, so 
that at any time a person may be able to ascer¬ 
tain the details and the extent of his business. 
It is divided according to the general method 
pursued, into bookkeeping by single or by 
double entry. Bookkeeping by single entry is 
comparatively little used, except in retail busi¬ 
nesses of small extent, where only the simplest 
record is required. In its simplest form debts 
due to the trader are entered in the day-book 
at the time of the transaction to the debit of 
the party who owes them; and debts incurred 
by the trader to the credit of the party who 
gave the goods. From this book the accounts 
in a summarized form are transferred to the 
ledger, where one is opened for each different 
person, one side being for Dr., and the other 
for Cr. When a balance-sheet of the debts 
owing and owed is made, this, together with 
stock and cash in hand, shows the state of the 
business. 

Bookkeeping by double entry, a system first 
adopted in the great trading cities of Italy, 
gives a fuller and more accurate record of the 
movement of a business, and is necessary in 
all extensive mercantile concerns. The chief 
feature of double entry is its system of checks, 
by which each transaction is twice entered, to 
the Dr. side of one account and then to the Cr. 
side of another. An important feature of the 
system consists in adopting, in addition to the 


Bookkeeping 


Boom 


personal accounts of debtors and creditors con¬ 
tained in the ledger, a series of what are called 
book accounts , which are systematic records in 
the form of debtor and creditor of particular 
classes of transactions. For every debt in¬ 
curred some consideration is received. This 
consideration is represented under a particular 
class or name in the ledger, as the debtor in 
the transaction in which the party from whom 
the consideration is received is the creditor. 
Thus A buys goods to the value of $500 from 
B. He enters these in his journal—Stock Acct. 
Dr. $500 (for goods purchased) To B, $500. 
The first $500 appears in the Dr. column of the 
journal, and is posted in the ledger to the debit 
of Stock Account; the second appears in the 
Cr. column, and is posted in the ledger to the 
Cr. of B. In like manner, when the goods are 
paid, Cash, for which an account is opened in 
the ledger, is credited with $500, and B is 
debited with the same. When the goods are 
sold (for cash) Stock is credited, and Cash is 
debited. If the amount for which they sell is 
greater than that for which they were bought, 
there will be a balance at the debit of Cash, 
and a balance at the credit of Stock. The one 
balance represents the cash actually on hand 
(from this transaction), the other the cause of 
its being on hand. If there is a loss on the 
transaction, the balance will be on the other 
side of these accounts. Ultimately the balance 
thus arising at Dr. or Cr. of Stock is trans¬ 
ferred to an account called Profit and Loss, 
which makes the stock account represent the 
present value of goods on hand, and the profit 
and loss account, when complete, the result of 
the business. In this system the risk of omitting 
any entry, which is a v»ry common occurrence 
in single bookkeeping, is reduced to its small¬ 
est, as unless a particular transaction is omitted 
in every step of its history, the system will in¬ 
exorably require that its whole history should 
be given to bring the different accounts into 
harmony with each other. 

In keeping books by double entry, the books 
composing the set may be divided into two 
classes, called principal and subordinate books. 
The subordinate books are those in which the 
transactions are first recorded, and vary both 
in number and arrangement with the nature 
of the business and the manner of recording 
the facts. The most important of these (all of 
which are not necessarily to be found in the 
same set) are Stock Book, Cash Book, Bill 
Book, Invoice Book, Account Sales Book. The 
principal books are made up exclusively from 
the subordinate books and classified documents 
of the business. In the most perfect system 
of double entry they consist of two, the 
Journal and Ledger. The journal contains a 
periodical abstract of all the transactions con¬ 
tained in the subordinate books, or in docu¬ 
ments not entered in books, classified into 
debits and credits. The ledger contains an 
abstract of all the entries made in journal 
classified under the heads of their respective 
accounts. It is an index to the information 
contained in the journal, and also a complete 
abstract of the actual state of all accounts, 


but gives no further information; while the 
journal gives the reason of each debit and 
credit, with a reference to the source where 
the details of the transaction are to be found. 

Book=trade, the production and distribu¬ 
tion of books commercially. Even in ancient 
times, before the invention of printing, this 
trade had attained a high degree of develop¬ 
ment at Alexandria, and later at Rome. 
Copies of books were readily multiplied in 
those times, as we hear of as many as a thou¬ 
sand slaves being employed at one time in 
writing to dictation. After the fall of Rome 
down to the twelfth century, the trade in 
books was almost entirely confined to the 
monasteries. But with the rise of the uni¬ 
versities the trade received a new develop¬ 
ment, and in all university towns booksellers 
and book agents became numerous. The in¬ 
vention of printing had a powerful effect on 
the trade of bookselling. The printers were 
originally at the same time publishers and 
booksellers, and they were in the habit of dis¬ 
posing of their books at the chief market- 
towns and places frequented by pilgrims. 

For the most part these two departments of 
the trade are carried on separately, but it is 
not uncommon for them to be united. Very 
frequently books are printed at the cost of the 
author or some learned society, and published 
on commission. The publisher brings himself 
into connection with the retail booksellers, 
who are the direct means of distributing the 
book to the public. Second-hand booksellers 
belong to a special department of the retail 
book-trade. The book-trade of North Amer¬ 
ica, the chief seats of which are Chicago, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Boston, is now very 
large. Canada and Australia are also develop¬ 
ing a considerable business of this kind. The 
largest bookselling business in the world is 
in Australia, in the city of Melbourne. This 
store has over a million books in stock. The 
shelves are crowded from floor to ceiling, and 
stretch away from the entrance into the far 
distance. People are allowed to go in and 
read, and spend hours on the comfortable 
lounges provided by the owner for his pat¬ 
rons. The greater number of those who avail 
themselves of this permission go away with¬ 
out making a single purchase. This privilege 
involves a certain amount of risk and loss 
to the bookseller, but he finds that on the 
whole it pays him well. The great center of 
the German book-trade is at Leipsic, and the 
fair held in the latter city at Easter is the occa¬ 
sion on which all the accounts made in the 
book-trade during the past year are settled. 

In publishing new books, besides the expense 
of copyright, paper, presswork, etc., the pub¬ 
lisher has to consider the number of presenta¬ 
tion copies required for reviews, the percent¬ 
age off the price allowed to the retail book¬ 
seller, and the expenses of advertising. 

Boom, a long pole or spar run out from va¬ 
rious parts of a ship or other vessel for the pur¬ 
pose of extending the bottom of particular sails. 
Also a strong beam, or an iron chain or cable, 
fastened to spars extended across a river or the 


Boomerang 


Boots and Shoes 


mouth of a harbor, to prevent an enemy’s ships 
from passing. A noted boom was made across 
the Hudson River at West Point in the Revo¬ 
lutionary War. 

Boo'merang, a missile instrument used by 
the Australian aborigines, and by some peoples 
of India, made of hard wood, about the size of a 
common reaping-hook, and of a peculiar curved 



Forms of Boomerang. 


shape, sometimes resembling a rude and very 
open V. The boomerang, when thrown as if 
to hit some object in advance, instead of going 
directly forward, slowly ascends in the air, 
whirling round and round to a considerable 
height, and returns to the position of the 
thrower. If it hits an object, of course it falls. 
The Australians are very dextrous with this 
weapon, and can make it go in almost any di¬ 
rection, sometimes making it rebound before 
striking. 

Boone, Daniel (1735-1820), a famous Amer¬ 
ican pioneer. His grandfather emigrated from 
Bradninch, near Exeter, England. His father, 
Squire Boone, moved to North Carolina about 
1748. Boone’s education was limited to read¬ 
ing and writing. Skilled in woodcraft, strong 
and brave, he was the peer of any Indian in 
sagacity and fearlessness. Incited by the ac¬ 
counts of John Finley, with a company of six 
kindred spirits he penetrated into the unknown 
regions of Kentucky, starting on his journey 
May 1, 1769. He built a fort called Boones- 
borough on the Kentucky River, and there 
brought his family and about thirty volunteers. 
Boone was captured by the Indians and carried 
to Old Chillicothe on the Miami, where he was 
adopted by a Shawnese chief. Learning of an 
intended raid upon Boonesborough, he escaped 
(June 16), and reached home in four days, hav¬ 
ing but one meal during his journey. He 
found his family gone, but with others repelled 
the attack of the Indians. In 1780 he brought 
his family back to Kentucky. The battle of 
“Blue Licks,” in which Boone’s sons fought 
by his side, took place 1782. Kentucky was 
admitted into the Union Feb. 4, 1791, and in 
the survey of the state the title to Boone’s land 
was disputed. He sought a new borne at Point 
Pleasant, and in 1795 moved to Missouri, then 
a Spanish province. There he received a 
grant of 8,000 acres of land. When the Spanish 
possessions passed into the hands of the U. S., 


Boone again lost his land. Congress granted 
him 850 acres. The charm of woodcraft clung 
to him to the last, and in his 82d year he 
went on a hunting excursion. In 1845 the re¬ 
mains of Boone and his wife were removed to 
the Frankfort cemetery a few miles from the 
fort of Boonesborough. Enoch Boone, his son, 
was the first white male child b. in Kentucky. 

Boots and Shoes. — The sandal is the sim¬ 
plest form of foot protector, and consists of a 
sole attached to the foot by a leather thong. 
Primitive races made a shoe out of a single 
piece of untanned hide, which was laced with 
a thong. Shoes laced and ornamented and 
extending far up the leg were in use by the 
ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. 
Boot means a leather covering for the foot 
and leg. Half-boots -were worn by Anglo- 
Saxons and Normans. In the reign of Edward 
IV the boot proper was a part of the knightly 
dress. In the reign of Charles I a boot made 
of Spanish leather was used. The highly 
decorated French boot was introduced in the 
reign of Charles II, and the jack-boot was 
worn by cavalry soldiers and by horsemen gen¬ 
erally. The jack-boot was strongly made, ex¬ 
tended above the knee with a capacious top, 
had a high heel, and around the ankle was a 
leather band bearing the spur. Boots with 
yellow tops were so com monly worn in the eight¬ 
eenth century as to be a distinguishing feature 
of the Englishman’s dress. Even in the ear¬ 
lier years of the present century top-boots were 
seen in the House of Commons. They still 
remain in use by fox-hunters and jockeys. 
The Hessian boot, worn over tight pantaloons, 
was a handsome article of gentleman’s attire, 
and, as it contributed an elegant appearance 
to the nether costume, easily supplanted the 
top-boot. This in turn was supplanted by the 
Wellington boot, introduced by the great gen¬ 
eral and worn under the trousers. Even this 
has now given place to the short ankle boot or 
shoe. In the Cluny Museum, Paris, is a col¬ 
lection illustrating the innumerable forms of 
foot-covering of ancient, mediaeval, and mod¬ 
ern times. The wooden shoe made from a 
single piece of wood is largely used in Europe. 
Clogs, or pattens, are wooden soles to which 
uppers of heavy leather are attached. Clogs 
are used by agricultural laborers on the Con¬ 
tinent, *and in England and the U. S. by dyers, 
bleachers, tanners, etc. Fancy clogs are used 
for clog-dancing. 

Until lately shoemaking was pure hand¬ 
craft, but now machinery performs almost 
every operation in the art. The difficulty of 
fastening together the soles and uppers by 
machinery was overcome in a measure by the 
David Reed Randolph patent, 1809, which 
provides for fastening the soles and heels to 
the insoles by little nails. The last used was 
covered at the bottom with plates of metal, 
and the nails when driven through the inner 
soles were turned and clinched by coming 
against the metal plate. This invention laid 
the foundation for machine-bootmaking. In 
1810 M. I. Bunel patented machinery for fast- 
ening soles to uppers by means of metallic 




Boots and Shoes 


Booth 


pins or nails. The use of screws and staples 
was patented by Richard Woodman, 1810. 
Besides sewing by hand, there are three differ¬ 
ent methods for attaching soles to uppers. 
“ Pegging ” is done by driving small wooden 
pegs throughout sole and insole, catching be¬ 
tween them the edges of the uppers. In “riv¬ 
eting, or clinching ’’ iron or brass nails are 
used. “Screwing” has come into extensive 
use since the introduction of the screwing 
machine, which is an American invention. 
The screw, making its own hole, fits tightly in 
the leather, and the two soles, being both com¬ 
pressed and screwed together, make a per¬ 
fectly water-tight and solid sole. In 1858 
Lyman R. Blake, U. S., took the first step in 
the difficult problem of sewing together by 
machinery soles and uppers. This machine 
was ultimately perfected as the Mackay sole- 
sewing machine, one of the most successful 
and lucrative inventions of modern times. 
Blake secured his first patent in England in 
1859. His original machine was incapable of 
sewing in the toe of the shoe, but Gordon Mac¬ 
kay and Blake together effected improvements, 
and in 1860 took out a patent which secured 
to them the monopoly for 21 years. In 1873 
the income from royalties in the U. S. alone 
amounted to $589,973 and continued to rise 
until the patent expired in 1881. Numerous 
inventors have appeared, and there is not a 
single operation in shoe-making for which a 
machine has not been devised, In the mod¬ 
ern American shoe factory, division of labor is 
carried to the greatest extent. Uppers and 
linings are generally stitched in one depart¬ 
ment, where the buttonholes are worked, 
buttons put on, and eyelets punched for laced 
shoes. The first process in bottoming is to 
wet the soles, which, after being partially 
dried, are passed under a heavy roller. They 
are then, if for machine-sewing, run through 
the channeling machine, which takes out a 
thread of leather from the outside edge in the 
bottom of the sole, leaving a thin, narrow 
flap all around, so that when the stitches are 
laid in the place of the removed leather, the 
bottom may be hammered down so smoothly 
as hardly to indicate where the surface was 
raised. The upper is then drawn over the 
last and tacked on the insole, and the outsole 
is tacked on. The last is now withdrawn and 
the shoe passed to the sewing-machine, where 
the stitch is made through both outsole and 
insole, the edge of the upper being between 
them. The flap is then laid and cemented 
over the seam. The heel is put on in the 
rough, and the edges of both heel and sole 
trimmed and burnished. In making a “ turn ” 
shoe, the sole is shaped before tacking to the 
last; the upper, with the stiffening in, is then 
pulled over, wrong side out, then lasted and 
sewed, the last being taken out, after sewing, 
and the surplus upper cut away. The shoe is 
then turned right side out, the last again put in, 
and the sole and stiffening hammered into 
proper form. A “team ” of shoemakers com¬ 
prises from four to nine men,—lasters, heelers, 
trimmers, burnishers, and finishers. These 
23 


complete the shoe after the uppers are made 
and the soles cut. The number of men in a 
“team” varies with the kind of work. A 
very considerable trade exists in boots and 
shoes with outer sole of gutta-percha; the 
headquarters of the trade being in Glasgow, 
Scotland. The manufactory of india-rubber 
galoshes, shoes, fishing-boots, etc., forms an 
important branch of the india-rubber trade. 
Making of shoes right and left began shortly 
after the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

Booth, Barton (1681-1733), an English actor 
of celebrity in the reigns of Queen Anne and 
George I. He eloped from school at the age of 
seventeen, and joined a company of strolling 
players. After performing in the Irish capital 
with great applause, he returned in 1701 to 
London, where, having joined the Drury Lane 
Company, his reputation reached its height 
with the performance of Cato in Addison’s 
famous tragedy. He was buried in Westmin¬ 
ster Abbey. 

Booth, Edwin Thomas (1833-1893), an Ameri¬ 
can actor, son of the distinguished English 
actor, Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1852; spent 
most of his life in the U. S.). He was b. in 
Bel Air, Md., and made his first appearance at 
Boston in 1849. He is eminent for his persona¬ 
tion of Shakespearian characters,—Othello, 
Richard III, Iago, Shylock, etc.,—and is re¬ 
garded as the leading American tragedian. In 
1882 he made a professional tour in Europe, 
and was f&vorably received. 

Booth, John Wilkes (1838-1865), the assas¬ 
sin of President Lincoln, brother of Edwin 
Booth. As an actor he never rose to distinction. 
He inherited from his father a touch of in¬ 
sanity that rendered his life erratic. During 
the Civil War his sympathies were for negro 
slavery, and early in 1865 he formed a con¬ 
spiracy with others to murder President Lin¬ 
coln and the principal officers of the govern¬ 
ment. On the evening of April 15 he entered 
Ford’s theater, in Washington, where the 
president was sitting in a private box, and shot 
him. He shouted “Sic semper tyrannis ,” 
leaped on the stage below, breaking his leg in 
the effort, and in the confusion escaped 
through a back door, mounted a horse that 
was held in waiting, and fled to Virginia. 
Here he was concealed for a time by sym¬ 
pathizers; but, on being discovered in a barn, 
he refused to surrender and was shot. 

Booth, William, general of the Salvation 
Army, b. at Nottingham, England, April 10, 
1829. He was reared in the Episcopalian 
Church, but being converted in a Wesleyan 
chapel, he joined the Methodist Church, and 
in 1850 became a minister, He was appointed 
to hold special evangelistic services in con¬ 
nection with his other work until 1861, when, 
being requested to settle in the ordinary cir¬ 
cuit work, he resigned and began his career as 
an evangelist proper. In 1855 he had married 
Miss Catherine Mumford, who, in this new de¬ 
parture, proved an able coadjutor. Until her 
death in 1890 she was always by the general’s 
side,' encouraging him in all his undertakings, 
at the same time caring for their family. 


Boothia Felix 


Bordeaux 


General Booth organized in London (1865) “The 
Christian Mission,” which grew into the mili¬ 
tary organization re-christened the “Salvation 
Army” in 1878. Under this name that useful 
organization has spread itself into many parts 
of the world. It is widely known for the zeal 
and self-denial of its rank and file. A dis¬ 
tinctive feature of the Salvation Army is what 
has been called “the ministry of all the tal¬ 
ents;” that is, giving every convert some part 
in the work. The War Cry, a weekly publi¬ 
cation, was established in 1880 and has a wide 
circulation, General Booth has published 
many hymns for the use of the army, and it has 
gone forth “singing itself around the world.” 
In Darkest England, published in 1890, Gen¬ 
eral B. outlines his plans for the suppression 
of poverty and vice. General B.’s sons and 
daughters have been trained in the work and 
have been associated with him in the army. 
Ballington, his second son, after carrying on 
the work in America for a number of years, 
withdrew, and in 1896 formed a new organi¬ 
zation called The American Volunteers, with 
headquarters in New York City. 

Boo'thia Felix, a peninsula of British 
North America, stretching northward from 
the Arctic Circle, discovered by Captain Ross 
in 1830. In the west coast of this country 
Ross was able to localize the north magnetic 
pole. 

Boo'tie, a town of England, in Lancashire, 
adjoining Liverpool, the docks of which great 
seaport extend into the borough, so that 
Bootle may be looked upon as a Liverpool sub¬ 
urb. Pop. 49,217. 

Bo'ra, Katharina von (1499-1552), wife of 
Martin Luther. She took the veil early; but 
applied, with eight other nuns, to Luther. 
The nuns were released from their convent, 
and in 1525 Luther married her, having him¬ 
self by this time laid aside the cowl. After 
Luther’s death she kept boarders for her sup¬ 
port. She died at Torgau. 

Boracic Acid, boric acid, a compound of the 
element boron, with hydrogen and oxygen. 
Boracic acid is found as a saline incrustation 
in some volcanic regions, is an ingredient in 
many minerals, and is contained in the steam 
which, along with sulphurous exhalations, 
issues from fissures in the soil in Tuscany. 
The steam from the fumaroles here is now an 
important source of the acid, a system of con¬ 
densation and evaporation being employed. 
The acid forms white, shining, scaly crystals, 
which on heating melt into a transparent 
mass, when cooled resembling glass. It dis¬ 
solves in water, and has a slight acid taste; it 
colors blue litmus purple, and the yellow color¬ 
ing matter turmeric brown. The chief use of 
the acid is as a source of borax, the biborate of 
sodium. 

Bor'age, a genus of plants having rough 
hairy foliage and blue, panicled, drooping 
flowers, and characterized by mucilaginous, 
and emollient properties. Borage officinalis, a 
common plant, gives a coolness to beverages 
in which its leaves are steeped, and was 
ranked formerly as one of the cordial flowers, 



Common Borage. 


flower. 


Borax, bibor¬ 
ate of sodium. 
Native borax 
has long been 
obtained under 
the name of 
tincal, from In¬ 
dia, the main 
source being 
not India but a 
series of lakes 
in Thibet. As 
imported it is 
in small pieces 
of a dirty yel¬ 
lowish color, 
and is covered 
with a fatty or 
soapy matter. 
Tincal, which 
contains vari¬ 
ous impurities, 
was formerly 
the only source 
of borax; but 
besides Tus¬ 


cany, other sources of boracic acid, more par¬ 
ticularly in North and South America, and 
the salt mines at Stassfurt, etc., in Germany, 
have been rendered available. America yields 
large deposits, there being rich deposits of 
borax and boracic minerals on the Pacific slope 
and especialty noticeable are the vast depos¬ 
its in Death Valley. Pure borax forms large 
transparent, six-sided prisms which dissolve 
readily in water, effloresce in dry air, and 
when heated melt in their water of crystal¬ 
lization, swell up, and finally fuse to a trans¬ 
parent glass. Borax has a variety of uses. In 
medicine it is employed in ulcerations and 
skin diseases. It has valuable antiseptic and 
disinfecting properties, and is now much used 
for the preservation of meat, fish, and milk. 
It is also employed in soldering metals, and in 
making fine glaze for porcelain, as it. renders 
the materials more fusible. It is used in en¬ 
ameling, and in making beads, glass, and 
cement. 

Bor'da, Jean Charles (1733-1799), a French 
mathematician and physicist. He served in 
the army and navy, and distinguished him¬ 
self by the introduction of new methods and 
instruments connected with navigation, ge¬ 
odesy, astronomy, etc., being in particular the 
inventor of the reflecting circle. He was one 
of the men of science who framed the new 
system of weights and measures adopted in 
France. 

Bordeaux (bor-do'), one of the most impor¬ 
tant cities and ports of France, capital of the 
dep. of Gironde, on the Garonne, about 70 mi. 
from the sea. In the old town are the Cathe¬ 
dral of Saint Andre, St. Michael’s Church, 
with its superb front of florid Gothic, the Ho¬ 
tel de Ville, and the Palais de Justice. The 
chief exports are wine and brandy; sugar and 
other colonial produce and wood are the chief 
imports. Ship-building is the chief industry, 
and there are sugar refineries, woolen and cot- 



Bordelais Wines 


Borgia 


ton mills, potteries, soap works, distilleries, etc. 
Bordeaux is the Burdigala of the Romans. By 
the marriage of Eleanor, daughter of the last 
Duke of Aquitaine, to Henry II of England, 
Bordeaux was transferred to the English crown. 
Under Charles VII in 1451, it was restored 
again to France. Montaigne and Montesquieu 
were born in the neighborhood; the latter is 
buried in the Church of St. Bernard. Pop. 
256,906. 

Bordelais Wines, the wines of Bordeaux 
and district, the name of vin de Bordeaux be¬ 
ing generally given to the wines made in the 
eleven departments of the s.w. of France, 
Gironde, Landes, Lot, Tarn et Garonne, etc., 
though it is in the Gironde alone that the 
famous growths are found. The soil of Medoc 
(a sandy and calcareous loam) produces such 
famous wines as Bhateau-Margaux, Chateau- 
Lafitte, and Chateau-Latour. The wines of 
this country are the best which France pro¬ 
duces. Their characteristics are fine bouquet, 
velvety softness on the palate, and the faculty 
of acting beneficially on the stomach without 
mounting too readily to the head. Besides 
the red wines of the Bordelais, known under 
the general name of claret , there are also white 
wines, of which the finest growths are Sauterne, 
Preignac, Barsac, etc. 

Borden, Gail (1801-1874), American inventor. 
Early in life he lived in Covington, Ky., and 
later in Madison, Ind. In 1822 young Borden 
went to Mississippi, where he became school¬ 
teacher, county surveyor, and U. S. deputy 
surveyor. In 1829 he visited Texas and took 
charge of the official surveys of that territory. 
When the republic of Texas was established 
he became the first collector of the port of 
Galveston; in 1837 made the first surveys of 
that city. About 1849 he produced “pemmi- 
can ” and the “meat-biscuit.” The latter 
gained him a medal at the World’s Fair in 
London, and he was chosen an honorary mem¬ 
ber of the London Society of Arts. Unsuc¬ 
cessful, pecuniarily, with his biscuit, he lost 
his entire means. In 1853 he applied for a 
patent for concentrating milk by evaporation, 
but did not receive it until 1856. Soon after¬ 
ward the New York Condensed Milk Company 
was formed, and its works were established at 
Brewster’s Station, N. Y., and Elgin, Ill. This 
enterprise proved an immense success, and 
enriched the inventor. Afterward Mr. Bor¬ 
den established an extract-of-beef factory at 
Borden, Tex., and also produced condensed 
preparations of tea, coffee, cocoa, and various 
kinds of fruit. 

Bor'dentown, Burlington co., N. J., on 
Delaware River, 28 mi. e. of Philadelphia. Rail¬ 
roads: Penn. Junction to N. Y. via Trenton (2) 
via South Amboy; routes to the seaside resorts. 
Industries: worsted mills, flouring mills, three 
iron foundries, woolen mill, shirt factory, saw¬ 
mill, shipyard, and steam forge. Steamboats 
ply between Bordentown and Philadelphia 
daily. The town was first settled in 1776 by 
Quakers and Dutch, and became a city in 
1849. Pop. 1900, 4,110. 

Border (or Borders), The, the territory ad¬ 


jacent to the frontier line between England 
and Scotland, the scene of frequent fights and 
forays, among neighboring clans and families 
from the eleventh till the end of the seven¬ 
teenth century. The dividing line varied at 
different times, shifting according to the surg¬ 
ing of the tide of war or diplomacy. At pres¬ 
ent the line consists partly of natural and 
partly of imaginary outlines from near the 
mouth of the Tweed to the Solway. 

Bore (or Eagre), a sudden influx of the tide 
into the estuary of a river from the sea, the in¬ 
flowing water rising to a considerable height 
and advancing like a wall against the current. 
The most celebrated bores in the Old World 
are those of the Ganges, Indus, and Brahma¬ 
putra. The last is said to rise to a height of 
12 ft. In some rivers in Brazil it rises to the 
height of 12 to 16 ft. 

Bo reas, the name of the north wind as 
personified by the Greeks and Romans. 

Borghese (bor-ga'ze), a Roman family, orig¬ 
inally of Sienna, where it held the highest of¬ 
fices from the middle of the fifteenth century. 
Pope Paul Y, who belonged to this family, and 
ascended the papal chair in 1605, loaded his 
relations with honors and riches. He bestowed, 
among other gifts, the principality of Sulmone 
on Marco Antonio Borghese, the son of his 
brother Giovanni Battista, from whom is de¬ 
scended the present Borghese family. Bor¬ 
ghese, Camillo, Prince (1775-1832). When 
the French invaded Italy he entered their ser¬ 
vice, and in 1803 he married Marie Pauline, 
the sister of Napoleon (b. at Ajaccio 1780, d. 
at Florence, 1825). In 1806 he was created 
Duke of Guastalla, and was appointed governor 
general of the provinces beyond the Alps. After 
the abdication of Napoleon he broke up all 
connection with the Bonaparte family, and 
separated from his wife. The Borghese Palace 
at Rome was begun in 1590, and completed by 
Paul Y. It contains one of the richest collec¬ 
tions of art in the city. The Villa Borghese , a 
celebrated country-house just outside the Porta 
del Popolo, Rome, belonging to the Borghese 
family, also contains a valuable art collection, 
and the surrounding grounds are very beauti¬ 
ful. 

Borgia, Cesare (Che'zare-bor'ja) (1478- 
1507), the natural son of Pope Alexander YI 
and of a Roman lady named Yanozza. He was 
raised to the rank of cardinal in 1492, but af¬ 
terward divested himself of the office, and was 
made Due de Yalentinois by Louis XII. In 
1499 he married a daughter of King John of 
Navarre, and accompanied Louis XII to Italy. 
He found means to get the treasures of his 
father into his possession, and assembled his 
troops in Rome; but enemies rose against him 
on all sides, one of whom was the new pope, 
Julius II. 

Borgia, Lucretia (1480-1523), daughter of 
Pope Alexander YI, and sister of Cesare Bor¬ 
gia. In 1493 she was married to Giovanni 
Sforza, lord of Pesaro, but after she had lived 
with him four years, Alexander dissolved the 
marriage, and gave her to Alphonso, nephew 
of Alphonso II of Naples. Two years after, 


Boring 


Borodino 


this new husband was assassinated by the 
hired ruffians of Cesare Borgia. Her third 
husband was Alphonso d’Este, son of the duke 
of Ferrara. She was accused by contempo¬ 
raries of incest, poisoning, and almost every 
species of enormous crime. She was a pat¬ 
roness of art and literature. 

Boring, the process of perforating wood, 
iron, rocks, or other hard substances by means 
of instruments adapted for the purpose. For 
boring wood the tools used are -awls, gimlets, 
augers , and bits of various kinds, the latter 
being applied by means of a crank-shaped in¬ 
strument called a brace, or else by a lathe, 
transverse-handle, or drilling machine. Bor¬ 
ing in metal is done by drills or boring bars, 
revolved by boring machines. Boring in the 
earth or rock for mining, geologic, or engi¬ 
neering purposes is elfected by means of au¬ 
gers, drills, or jumpers, sometimes wrought by 
hand, but now usually by machinery driven 
by steam or frequently by compressed air. 
In ordinary mining practise a bore-hole is 
usually commenced by digging a small pit 
about 6 ft. deep, over which is set up a shear- 
legs with pulley, etc. The boring rods are 
from 10 to 20 ft. in length, capable of being 
jointed together by box and screw, and hav¬ 
ing a chisel inserted at the lower end. A 
lever is employed to raise the bore-rods to 
which a slight twisting motion is given at 
each stroke, when the rock at the bottom of 
the hole is broken by the repeated percussion 
of the cutting tool. Various methods are em¬ 
ployed to clear out the triturated rock. The 
work is much quickened by the substitution 
of steam power, water power, or even horse 
power, for manual labor. Of the many forms 
of boring machines now in use may be men¬ 
tioned the diamond boring machine, invented 
by Leschot, a Swiss engineer. In this the 
cutting tool is of a tubular form, and receives 
a uniform rotatory motion, the result being 
the production of a cylindrical core from the 
rock of the same size as the inner periphery 
of the tube. The boring bit is a steel thimble, 
about 4 in. in length, having two rows of 
Brazilian black diamonds firmly embedded 
therein, the edges projecting slightly. The 
diamond teeth are the only parts which come 
in contact with the rock, and their hardness 
is such that an enormous length can be bored 
with but little appreciable wear. 

Bor'neo (the name of a state on its n.w. 
coast), one of the islands of the Malay Archi¬ 
pelago, and the third largest in the world. 
Area 306,800 sq. mi.; pop. 1,700,000. There 
are several chains of mountains ramifying 
through the interior, the culminating summit 
(13,698 ft.) being Kini-Balu, near the northern 
extremity. The rivers are very numerous, 
and several of them are navigable for a con¬ 
siderable distance by large vessels. There are 
a few small lakes. Borneo contains immense 
forests of teak and other trees, besides pro¬ 
ducing various dye-woods, camphor, rattans 
and other canes, gutta-percha and india-rub¬ 
ber, honey and wax, etc. Its wild animals 
comprise the elephant, rhinoceros, tapir, leop¬ 


ard, buffalo, deer, monkeys (including the 
orang-outang), and a great variety of the birds. 
The mineral productions consist of gold, anti¬ 
mony, iron, tin, quicksilver, zinc, and coal, 
besides diamonds. It is only portions of the 
land on the coast which are well cultivated. 
Among cultivated products are sago, gambier, 
pepper, rice, tobacco, etc. Edible birds’-nests 
and trepang are important articles of trade. 
The climate is not considered unhealthy. The 
southwestern, southern, and eastern portions 
of the island are possessed by the Dutch, 
under whom are a number of semi-independ¬ 
ent princes. On the n.w. coast is the Malay 
kingdom of Borneo, or Bruni. Its chief town 
is Bruni, on the river of the same name, a 
place of considerable trade, and the residence 
of the sultan. Since 1841 there has been a 
state under English rule (though not under 
the British crown) on the w. coast of the is¬ 
land, namely, Sarawak, founded by Sir James 
Brooke, while Labuan, an island off the n.w. 
coast, is a British colony. Recently an Eng¬ 
lish commercial company, with a charter from 
the British government, has acquired sover¬ 
eign rights over the northern portion of the 
island, including some adjacent islands. 
British North Borneo has an area of about 
31,000 sq. mi. (slightly greater than Scotland), 
several splendid harbors, a fertile soil, and a 
good climate. At present the population is 
sparse, and a large part of the territory con¬ 
sists of virgin forests. The soil is believed to 
be well adapted for coffee, sago, tapioca, sugar, 
tobacco, cotton, etc. Probably there are val¬ 
uable mineral deposits also, gold having been 
already found. The chief settlement is San- 
dakan, the capital, on Sandakan Bay. The 
government is similar to that of British col¬ 
onies. The revenue is from customs and ex¬ 
cise duties, licenses, etc. Birds’-nests, rattans, 
gutta-percha, timber, etc., are exported, the 
trade being chiefly with Singapore and Hong 
Kong. Pop. est. at 150,000. 

Bor'nu, a negro kingdom of the Central 
Soudan, Africa, on the w. side of Lake Chad, 
with an area of about 79,000 sq. mi., and a 
pop. est. at 5,000,000. The people practise 
agriculture and also various arts and manu¬ 
factures. They are Mohammedans. The Mai, 
or sultan, has an army of 30,000 men, many 
armed with firearms. Kuka, the capital (pop. 
60,000), near the western shore of Lake Chad, 
is one of the greatest markets in Central Af¬ 
rica, a large trade being done in horses, the 
breed of which is famed throughout the 
Soudan. Another large town, on the shore of 
the lake, is Ngornu. The whole policy of the 
state is based on slaveiy. 

Borodino', Battle of (called also battle of 
the Moskwa), a sanguinary battle fought near a 
village of this name on the river Moskwa, 
Sept. 7, 1812, between the French under Na¬ 
poleon and the Russians under Kutusoff. 
Each party claimed the victory. At the end 
of the day the Russians retreated in good or¬ 
der, no pursuit taking place. The French 
numbered about 150,000; the Russians, some 
less; 50,000 dead and dying covered the field. 


Borromeo 


Boston 


Borrome o, Carlo, Count (1538-1584), a cele¬ 
brated Roman Catholic saint and cardinal. 
He improved the discipline of the clergy, 
founded schools, libraries, hospitals, and was 
indefatigable in doing good. His nephew, 
Count Federigo Borromeo (1564-1631), also 
cardinal and archbishop of Milan, equally dis¬ 
tinguished for the sanctity of his life and the 
benevolence of his character, is celebrated as 
the founder of the Ambrosian Library. 

Bor row, George (1803-1881), English writer. 
He had a passion for foreign tongues, stirring 
scenes, and feats of bodily prowess. He asso¬ 
ciated much with the gypsies, and acquired an 
exact knowledge of their language, manners, 
and customs. As agent for the British and 
Foreign Bible Society he traveled France, Ger¬ 
many, Russia, and the East; spent five years 
in Spain, and published The Gypsies in Spain 
(1841), and The Bible in Spain (1842), the best 
known of his works. 

Bosch=bok (bosh'bok), the bush-buck, a 
name given to several South African species of 
antelope. 

Bosch=vark (bosh'viirk), the bush hog or 
bush pig of South Africa, one of the swine 
family, about five feet long, and with very 
large and strong tusks. The Kaffirs esteem its 
flesh as a luxury, and its tusks, arranged on a 
piece of string and tied around the neck, are 
considered great ornaments. 

Bos'cobel, locality in Shropshire, England, 
remarkable historically as the hiding place of 
Charles II for some days after the battle of 
Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651. At one time he was 
compelled to conceal himself among the 
branches of an oak in Boscobel Wood, where it 
is related that he could actually see the men 
who were in pursuit of him, and hear their 
voices. The “royal oak,’’ which now stands 
at Boscobel, is said to have grown from an 
acorn of this very tree. 

Bosna=Serai (or Serajevo) (-se-ri', se-r-a 
ya'vo), the capital of Bosnia, 570 mi. w.n.w. of 
Constantinople. It contains a serai, or palace, 
built by Mohammed II, to which the city owes 
its name. It was formerly surrounded with 
walls, but its only defense now is a citadel, 
built on a rocky height at a short distance east 
from the town. Bosna-Serai is the chief mart 
in the province, the center of the commercial 
relations between Turkey, Dalmatia, Croatia, 
and South Germany, and has, in consequence, 
a considerable trade, with' various manufac¬ 
tures. Pop. est. at 46,000. 

Bos' nia, a Turkish province in the northwest 
of the Balkan Peninsula, w. of Servia, by the 
Treaty of Berlin (1878) to be administered for 
an undefined future period by the Austrian 
government; area (including Herzegovina and 
Novi-bazar), 20,177 sq. mi. (of which Bosnia 
proper occupies 16,000), with 1,454,365 inhab¬ 
itants, mostly of Slavonian origin, and speak¬ 
ing the Serbian language. They are partly 
Mohammedans, partly Roman and Greek 
Catholics. The country is level toward the 
north, in the south mountainous. Its chief riv¬ 
ers are the Save, the Yerbas, the Bosna, Rama, 
and Drina. About half the area is covered 


with forests. Tillage is carried on in the val¬ 
leys and low grounds; maize, wheat, barley, 
rye, buckwheat, hemp, tobacco, etc., being 
grown. Fruits are produced in abundance. 
Sheep, goats, and swine are numerous. -The 
minerals include coal, which is worked in sev¬ 
eral places, manganese, antimony, iron, etc. 
Among the manufactures are iron goods, arms, 
leather, linens, and woolens. Bosnia had been 
subject to Turkey from the beginning of the 
fifteenth century till 1875, when an insurrec¬ 
tion of the inhabitants led indirectly to the 
Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 and the subse¬ 
quent dismemberment of the Turkish Empire. 

Bos porus (or Bosphorus), the strait, 19 
mi. long, joining the Black Sea with the 
Sea of Marmora, called also the Strait of 
Constantinople. It is defended by a series of 
strong forts; and by agreement of the Euro¬ 
pean powers no ship of war belonging to any 
nation shall pass the Bosporus without the 
permission of Turkey. Over this channel 
(about 3,000 ft. wide) Darius constructed a 
bridge of boats on his Scythian expedition. 
(See Constantinople.) The Cimmerian Bosporus 
was the name given by the ancients to the 
strait that leads from the Black Sea into the 
Sea of Azov. There was also anciently a king¬ 
dom of the name of Bosporus, so called from 
this strait, on both sides of which it was situ¬ 
ated. 

Boss, in architecture an ornament placed 
at the intersection of the ribs or groins in 
vaulted or flat roofs; it is frequently richly 
sculptured with armorial bearings or other de¬ 
vices. 

Bossuet (bos-u-a), Jacques Benigne (1627- 
1704), illustrious French preacher and theo¬ 
logian. At the age of fifteen he entered the 
College of Navarre, where he studied Greek 
and the Holy Scriptures, read the ancient 
classics, and investigated the Cartesian phi¬ 
losophy. In 1652 he was ordained priest, and 
made a canon of Metz. In 1670 he was ap¬ 
pointed preceptor to the Dauphin, and in 1681 
he was raised to the see of Meaux. In his 
latter years he opposed Quietism, and prose¬ 
cuted Madame Guyon. He was unrivalled as 
a pulpit orator. 

Bos'ton, a town of England, in Lincoln¬ 
shire, on the Witham, about 5 mi. from the 
sea. The name stands for Botolph’s town, St. 
Botolph having founded a monastery here 
about the year 650. The trade is increasing 
through the improvement of the accommoda¬ 
tion for shipping. The town contains some 
fine buildings, the parish church being a very 
large and handsome Gothic structure, with a 
tower nearly 300 ft. high. Ropes, sails, agri¬ 
cultural implements, etc., are made. Pop. 
14,593. 

Boston, the largest city in New England, 
and capital of Massachusetts, lies 234 mi. n. e. 
from New York, on Massachusetts Bay. It 
has a harbor, covering 75 sq. mi. protected by 
a great number of islands. The scenery is 
varied and picturesque. The streets are mostly 
narrow and irregular in the older parts of the 
town, but in the newer parts are many fine, 


Boswell 


Botany 


spacious streets. There are many small parks, 
and a series of connecting parks is in process 
of formation; at present the Common and the 
Public Garden in the heart of the city are the 
chief pleasure grounds. Among the principal 
buildings are the statehouse; the county court¬ 
house; the post-office; Feneuil Hall (from 
Peter Faneuil, who presented it to the city in 
1742), famous historically as the meeting-place 
of the Revolutionary patriots; the city hall, or 
old statehouse, now used as public offices; the 
splendid granite customhouse, of Grecian 
architecture; public halls, theaters, etc. Har¬ 
vard University, situated at Cambridge, which 
may be regarded as a Boston suburb, was 
founded in 1G38. The library has 260,000 vol¬ 
umes. The medical branch of this institu¬ 
tion is in Boston. The Boston Athenaeum has 
two large buildings—one containing a library, 
and the other a picture gallery, a hall for pub¬ 
lic lectures, and other rooms for scientific 
purposes. The library consists of about 100,- 
000 volumes. Boston University, founded 
principally by Isaac Rich, and incorporated in 
1869, consists of the college of liberal arts; col¬ 
lege of music; college of agriculture; school of 
theology; school of laws; school of medicine; 
and the school of all sciences. It is as open to 
women as to men; average number of students 
600. A prominent feature in Boston is the 
number of good libraries. Besides those al¬ 
ready mentioned, there is the Public Library, 
founded in 1852, which already contains 400,- 
000 volumes; the State Library, with 50,000 
volumes; and others. The new public library 
building has just been completed. Boston 
carries on an extensive home and foreign 
trade, and is also largely engaged in the fisher¬ 
ies. Many manufactures are carried on, one 
of the principal being that of boots and shoes. 
The first American newspaper was set up here 
in 1704. The book trade of the city is impor¬ 
tant, and some of the periodicals are exten¬ 
sively circulated. Boston was founded in 
1630 by English emigrants, and received its 
name from Boston in Lincolnshire, whence 
several of the settlers had come. Notwith¬ 
standing its increasing size and importance, 
the affairs of Boston for nearly two hundred 
years were administered by the townspeople, 
assembled in “town’s meeting.” In the War 
of Independence it played an important part. 
It was here that the opposition to the British 
measures of colonial taxation were strongest. 
The defiance reached its height when the 
Stamp Act was repealed, and the Tea Act de¬ 
nounced by three cargoes being thrown into 
the harbor. Here the Battle of Bunker Hill 
was fought, June 17, 1775. Pop. 1900, 560,892. 

Bos'well, James (1740-1795), the friend and 
biographer of Dr. Johnson, was the eldest son 
of Lord Auchinleck, one of the supreme judges 
of Scotland. He was educated at Edinburgh 
and Cambridge, became a member of the Scot¬ 
tish bar. In 1763 he became acquainted with 
Johnson. He afterward visited Voltaire at 
Ferney, Rousseau at Neuchatel, and Paoli in 
Corsica. In 1785 he settled at London, and 
was called to the English bar. In 1773 he ac¬ 


companied Johnson on a tour to the Scottish 
highlands and the Hebrides, and he published 
an account of the excursion after their return. 
His Life of Samuel Johnson , one of the best 
pieces of biography in the language, was pub¬ 
lished in 1791. His son Alexander, b. in 1775, 
created a baronet in 1821, killed in a duel in 
1822, excelled as a writer of Scotch humorous 
songs, and was also a literary antiquary of no 
inconsiderable erudition. 

Bos'worth, a small town in the county of 
Leicester, England, about 3 mi. from which 
is Bosworth Field, where was fought, in 1485, 
the battle between Richard III and the Earl 
of Richmond, afterward Henry VII. This 
battle, in which Richard lost his life, put a 
period to the Wars of the Roses. Pop. 1,149. 

Botan'ic Gardens, establishments in which 
plants from all climates are cultivated for the 
purpose of illustrating the science of botany, 
and also for introducing and diffusing useful 
or beautiful plants from all parts of the world. 
Until modern times their sole design was the 
cultivation of medicinal plants. In Britain 
the chief gardens are those of Kew, Edinburgh, 
and Dublin. On the European continent the 
chief are the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, 
founded 1634; and those of Berlin, Copen¬ 
hagen, Florence, etc. In America the chief 
are those of New York, Philadelphia, and 
Cambridge. 

Botany, from the Greek word Botane, mean¬ 
ing herb or plant. There are in nature three 
great kingdoms, the mineral, animal, and vege¬ 
table. Botany is the science or study of the 
vegetable kingdom. Animals and plants have 
in common that strange thing which we call 
life. The difference between plants and ani¬ 
mals consists chiefly in three things — 1, in 
power of motion; 2, in will power; 3, in their 
food. Plants feed upon earth, air, and water. 
Animals feed upon plants or upon other ani¬ 
mals. The great use of plants is as food for 
animals. To make its own life as complete as 
possible and to prepare seed which shall pro¬ 
duce other plants like itself are the two ob¬ 
jects of every plant. To attain these objects 
plants seek the sunshine and send their roots 
deep into the earth in search of moisture and 
fasten themselves firmly in order to resist the 
force of the wind. 

There is in every seed a small point called 
the embryo, which under the microscope is 
seen to be the future plant, carefully folded 
and packed among starch granules which are 
to be its first food and supply its needs until 
it is strong enough to gather its food from the 
earth around it. When a seed is put into the 
ground the plant is not newly formed but only 
developed by the moisture and warmth and 
nourished by the surrounding starch. Before 
the embryo is formed in the seed there is in 
every seed a small point which is known as 
the nucleus. Under a strong microscope this 
is found at first to be a tiny cell or sac contain¬ 
ing a granular liquid substance known as pro¬ 
toplasm. Protoplasm consists of albumen, 
granules of fatty matter and water. It is 
called “the physical basis of life.” Growth 


Botany Botany 


is the increase of a living thing in size and 
substance. Growth begins in the germ in 
one tiny cell usually not more than one four 
hundredth of an inch in diameter. This cell 
enlarges and divides by putting a little parti¬ 
tion across between its two walls; these in turn 
put in partitions in both directions; each di¬ 
vides again and again, forming a cluster or 
mass of cells essentially like the first and all 
proceeding from the first. Soon the embryo 
begins to shape itself. A tiny root end is 
formed and the other end is notched into two 
lobes and shaped into the seed-leaves of the 
future plant. Later when the seed is placed 
in the earth and the plant springs from the 
ground its growth continues in the same man¬ 
ner. Vegetable growth consists of two things— 
1, the expansion of each cell till it reaches its 
full size; 2, the multiplication of Cells in num¬ 
ber by division. These cells become countless 
millions in number. This is organic struc¬ 
ture, and because it is composed of cells the 
substance of plants is called cellular tissue. 
The cells of ordinary plants vary in size from 
go t° tooo of an inch in diameter. The usual 
size is from g£ n to 5 £ 0 of an inch so that there 
are from 27,000,000 to 125,000,000 in each cubic 
inch of substance. 

The vegetable kingdom has been classified 
in several different ways. The two chief be¬ 
ing the natural and the artificial system. Lin- 
naaus, a Swedish naturalist, made an artifi¬ 
cial classification of the vegetable kingdom 
about 1750. He classified plants with reference 
only to the number of their stamens and pis¬ 
tils. The natural system classifies all plants 
with reference to the whole structure accord¬ 
ing to their points of similarity. The natural 
system divides the vegetable kingdom into four 
great growths of plants although many natural¬ 
ists make only three divisions, grouping the 
ferns and mosses into one large group. 

The first great group known as the Thallo- 
phyte^, includes the plants lowest in or¬ 
ganization. They have no wood properly so 
called, and the stems and leaves are undistin- 
guishable. They are mere masses of cells. 
This class includes the Algae, and the Fungi. 
These are the seaweeds, the diatons, nostoc, 
bacteria, pond scums, molds, rust, mushrooms, 
toadstools, yeast, and ferments. 

The second group, known as the Archegoni- 
ates, includes the branching but not flowering 
plants. This division includes all the mosses 
and fern-like plants and cone-bearing trees and 
shrubs. It is this division that is sometimes 
divided in two, forming the group of mosses, 
and the fern group. 

The third group, the Angiosperms, includes 
the true flowering plants. This division in¬ 
cludes the palms, water plantain, orchids, 
sedges, and grasses, also the poplar, willow, 
oak, beech, etc., and the rose, the pea, and 
other flowering plants. The difference which 
distinguishes the last group from the others is 
that here we find the formation of seed. 

Seaweeds were probably the first forms of 
life upon the earth, because they are able 
to assimilate purely organic food substances, 


while the fungi seem to have appeared later 
and are dependent upon other plants to pro¬ 
vide them with carbon. Slime-fungi clearly 
resemble the rhizopods of the animal king¬ 
dom. On this border line between animals 
and plants the distinction is made chiefly in 
regard to their methods of taking food, and 
upon these simplest forms of life only an arth 
ficial boundary can be drawn. Mold begins 
life only as a single cell consisting of colorless 
protoplasm covered with a cell-wall. Yeast 
increases so rapidly that the daughter cells 
commence to form buds before they are sepa¬ 
rated from the mother cell. The simplest 
form of green plant known may be found in a 
drop of rain water which has stood for some 
little time. It will become green because 
there are small, round green bodies floating in 
it. Each of these is a distinct plant known as 
protococcus. This substance may also be 
seen on trees, and fences. When bacteria or 
microbes were first discovered by Ehrenburg 
he classed them with the infusoria of the ani¬ 
mal kingdom, and afterward for a long time 
their true nature was a matter of doubt. 
They are now generally regarded as belonging 
to the simplest form of vegetable life. The 
cells of bacteria are constructed like other 
plant cells. As far as animal life is concerned 
some of the species are harmless, or even per¬ 
haps beneficial, while others are the source of 
the most contagious diseases. Microbes are 
found everywhere in the air, in surface water, 
and in the upper layers of the soil. Leprosy, 
smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, yellow fever, 
and many other diseases owe their origin to 
bacteria. Ferns, usually considered flower¬ 
less, have spores instead of seed. Spores are 
single cells which are dehisced from the plant 
for purposes of reproduction. The third great 
class of plants is the flowering and seed pro¬ 
ducing plants with which we are familiar. 

Roots .—The first root is that sent down from 
the embryo. This may be seen in the morn¬ 
ing glory, buckeye, maple, beech, and many 
other plants. In some trees as the oak, it is 
the main root for many years. In many plants 
several roots start so near together from the 
base of the seedling stem that they form a 
bundle or cluster of roots instead of one main 
root. This is the case with Indian corn, the 
pumpkin, and pea. Besides fastening the plant 
to the soil, the use of roots is to absorb moist¬ 
ure from the earth. Frequent branching in¬ 
creases the surface of the root and its power 
of absorption. Many roots are storehouses of 
food for the future plant, as the carrot, beet, 
and parsnip root. Plants that live two or three 
years or more usually have such roots. The 
finest examples of air-roots occur in warm and 
damp climates, as the mangrove, the sugar 
cane, and the banyan tree of India. Some of 
our common plants send out small air-roots by 
which they fasten themselves to the wall. The 
trumpet creeper and the ivy are examples. Air 
plants fasten themselves by their roots to the 
bark of trees and live wholly upon what is fur¬ 
nished by the air. To this class belong the or¬ 
chids and the black moss of the South. Para- 


Botany 


Botany 


site plants use their roots not only to fasten 
themselves upon other plants for support, but 
also to penetrate their substance and feed upon 
their juices. The mistletoe is such a shrub. 
The root penetrates the bark of the tree upon 
which the seed has fallen and fastens itself 
as firmly as if it were a natural branch. The 
dodder, a parasitic plant, grows a few inches 
from the ground and winds itself around some 
plant upon which to live. It attaches itself 
by a small root, and having no further use for 
its own ground roots or supporting stem, they 
are allowed to die and the dodder lives upon 
its victim. It needs only flower for seed and 
roots to gather its support from its afflicted 
neighbor. 

Stems , Branches , and Leaves .—When the stems 
and branches rise above the ground the plant 
is said to have a true stem, but when there 
are only leaves or leaf-stalks or flower-stalks 
the plant is said to be stemless. The common 
violet is an example. Suckers are branches 
that grow from the stem under ground, as the 
rose, raspberry, and many trees. Stolons are 
trailing branches that take root when they 
strike the ground, as the currant and the 
gooseberry. Runners are long and slender, 
leafless, creeping branches, of which the straw¬ 
berry is an example. Tendrils are branches of 
a very slender kind intended for climbing. 
The grapevine, Yirginia-creeper, and cu¬ 
cumber are examples. Thorns (or spines) are 
stunted and hardened branches. Thorns 
sometimes branch as in the honey locust. 
Prickles, as those of the rose, are wholly differ¬ 
ent from thorns. Thorns are connected with 
the stem and are changed branches, while 
prickles are only attached to the bark. The 
particular use of leaves is to furnish the plant 
with a large surface exposed to the light 
and air. The Washington elm at Cambridge, 
Mass., is not a remarkably large tree, but it 
has been estimated that it produced 7,000,000 
leaves, having a surface of 200,000 sq. ft. or 
about five acres of foliage. Leaves consist of 
a woody framework, the green pulp, and the 
leaf-skin which covers the whole. The green 
of leaves (chlorophyll) is a compound made up 
of substances which vary in color from blue to 
yellow and orange. As these substances do not 
occur in the same proportions we have a great 
variety in the tints of leaves. These substances 
are also affected by the action of light and the 
supply of nourishment. Leaves are supplied 
with breathing mouths which open into the 
air passages of leaves. They are chiefly on the 
under side of the leaf. Leaves are said to be 
simple when the blade is all of one piece; 
compound when the leaf consists of two or 
more separate pieces borne upon one leaf-stalk. 

Flowers .—The leaves of the flower are usu¬ 
ally in two circles. The outer circle is called 
the calyx and the leaves are usually green. 
The inner circle, which is usually.highly col¬ 
ored, is the corolla. Each separate part of the 
corolla is called a petal, and each separate part 
of the calyx is called a sepal. The corolla 
and calyx serve to protect and nourish the 
parts within, but do not themselves make a 


perfect flower. The essential organs are the 
stamens or fertilizing organs of the flower and 
the pistils which are to be fertilized and pro¬ 
duce the fruit and seed. Some flowers by high 
cultivation are made to consist only of flower 
leaves, that is, of calyx and corolla, and have 
lost their essential organs and do not produce 
seed. The hydrangea and snowball are ex¬ 
amples. A stamen consists of a delicate 
stalk or filament and the anther. The anther 
is a case commonly of two lobes which con¬ 
tain a dust-like substance called pollen. The 
anther discharges this pollen when it becomes 
ripe, and the whole office of the stamen is to 
produce this pollen. A grain of pollen is made 
up of two coats. The outer coat is thick but 
weak and decorated with lines or bands or 
studded with points, while the inner coat is 
extremely delicate and its cavity is filled with 
a thick fluid often made turbid by an immense 
number of minute grains that float in it. A 
pistil consists of three parts—1, the top, called 
the stigma, which receives the pollen grains 
from the stamen; 2, the stalk, that supports 
the stigma, called the style; 3, the hollow case 
at its base, called the ovary, which contains 
the young seeds or ovules. In the colors and 
shapes of flowers beauty and use are com¬ 
bined. Insects are attracted by brilliant 
colors, while moths are attracted in the even¬ 
ing and at night by white flowers. The veins 
of flowers serve as honey guiders. They al¬ 
ways converge to the nectaries. Night-open¬ 
ing flowers are found not to possess veins as 
they would not be visible in the darkness. 
Intensity of color is due to the necessity of 
attracting insects which carry the pollen, and 
frequently the inside of the flower is more 
highly colored than the outside in order to 
tempt an insect to enter. Nodding flowers 
bend in order to prevent their honey from 
being dissolved away by the rain or the dew. 
Flowers with a large lower lip are so formed 
that insects may alight upon the lip and creep 
into the flower leisurely. Wind-fertilized flow¬ 
ers are usually borne upon shrubs and trees 
where their elevation above the ground allows 
the wind to carry the pollen more freely. The 
odor, like the bright color, is also to attract in¬ 
sects. The perfume of flowers proceeds from 
the honey or nectar. If honey and perfume 
were not associated insects would soon discern 
the cheat and cease to be attracted by the per¬ 
fume. The honey of flowers is secreted by 
special glands called nectaries. The position 
of these glands varies in different orders of 
flowers. In the crown imperial lily there are 
deep pits for the honey at the base of the 
corolla. The hellibore uses its small, folded 
petals as nectarines. In the orchids and lark¬ 
spur the honey is borne in the spur of the 
flower while in some orchids the sweetness 
seems to be in the tissues of the spur which 
must be gnawed in order to secure it. Flow¬ 
ers which are not conspicuous for form or 
color are generally most attractive for per¬ 
fume. There is a large class of flowers whose 
odor is disagreeable and it is found that these 
attract flies and not bees or butterflies. Raf- 


Botany 

liesia, the largest flower known, has a strong 
odor of decaying flesh and is usually sur¬ 
rounded by a swarm of flies. Only the seed- 
vessel and the seed which it contains are called 
fruit. Mulberries, figs, and pineapples are 
masses of fruit with a pulpy flower-stalk. 
The strawberry is the enlarged and pulpy re¬ 
ceptacle. There are three kinds of fruit: 
flesh fruit, stone fruit, and dry fruit. All ber¬ 
ries belong to the first class. To the stone 
fruit belong the cherry, plum, and peach. In 
the raspberry and blackberry each grain is one 
of the dry fruits. A grain is a fruit in which 
the covering of the fruit and the fruit itself 
are so closely united that they cannot be sep¬ 
arated. Wheat, Indian corn, and other grains 
belong to this class. A nut is a dry fruit with a 
hard, bony covering, as the cocoanut, hazelnut, 
chestnut, and acorn. Seeds have usually two 
coats and the various markings of seed de¬ 
pend upon the outer coat. In the trumpet 
creeper the outer coat is expanded as a wing 
so that the wind may carry it easily. The 
soft hairs of the milkweed and the silkweed 
are for the same purpose. All trees and most 
shrubs have a strong, tough texture which is 
called wood. Wood consists of threads of 
fiber, separated by ducts. In fine wood the 
small tubes are about 200 °f an inch in diame¬ 
ter, but in the tough bark of basswood they 
are only j^gg of an inch. Milk vessels, tur¬ 
pentine vessels, and oil vessels are canals formed 
among the cells and filled with the peculiar 
product of these plants. 

Plants Doing Work .—Plants change inorganic 
matter into organic matter. Carbonic acid 
gas is one of the component parts of the at¬ 
mosphere, but it is only ^g of the air and 
in this proportion it is not enough to injure 
animal life, to which it is a poison, but it is 
enough for plants of which it is the food. The 
atmosphere around us consists of oxygen and 
nitrogen. Nitrogen does not support animal 
life, it only dilutes the oxygen gas, making it 
the proper strength for animals to breathe. 
Plants take in carbon chiefly through the 
breathing mouths with which the lower sur¬ 
face of the leaves is covered. Decayed vege¬ 
table matter in the soil also furnishes carbon to 
living plants. 

Many plants store up quantities of starch for 
future use. Some plants as the turnip, carrot, 
and dahlia accumulate starch in the root. The 
ice-plant and century-plant store it up in the 
fleshy leaves, and the cactus in the whole 
thickened body. In Indian corn and horse 
chestnut it is placed in the seed. Sugar is a 
product of plants. Morphine, strychnine, and 
quinine are principally found in the cells or 
spaces in the bark. They seem to have no 
part in the growth of the plant but are the 
completest results of vegetation. Almost 2,000 
years ago Pliny observed certain motions in 
plants at evening and at morning, which indi¬ 
cated that during the night they had a period 
of rest or sleep. The position of the leaves is 
changed in such a way as to protect the upper 
surface of the leaf. The common wood-sorrel, 
the white clover, and cultivated nasturtium 


Botfly 

are among the best examples. Some plants 
feed upon insects. The little sun-dew is one 
of these plants. The leaves are covered with 
small bristle-like glands which secrete a sweet, 
sticky fluid. This attracts small insects and 
as soon as the slightest touch is felt upon the 
leaf these hairs bend toward the center and 
close in upon the object. As soon as an insect 
is caught the secretion from the glands is rap¬ 
idly increased, and as insects breathe by means 
of pores these pores are so filled by this secre¬ 
tion that the insect dies from suffocation. Af¬ 
ter the insect is caught a change is made in 
the secretion and it becomes acid and digests 
the little animal. The pitcher plant and the 
Venus fly-trap are other flesh-eating plants. 
The largest known flower is one discovered in 
the East Indies by Sir S. Raffles and named 
after him Ralflesia; it is a large, fleshy parasite 
drawing upon the roots of other plants. It 
has five petals measuring in length about 12 
in. from the base to the point. The bowl 
in the center of the plant would hold about 
twelve pints and the weight of the flower is 
about fifteen pounds. The bamboo is a spe¬ 
cies of grass which grows so large and so hard 
that it is used for building and for all sorts of 
furniture, for water pipes and for supporting 
beams. The smaller stalks are used for walk¬ 
ing sticks, flutes, etc. 

Botany Bay, a bay in New South Wales, so 
called by Captain Cook on account of the great 
number of new plants collected in its vicinity. 
The English penal settlement, founded in 1788, 
and once popularly known as Botany Bay, was 
formerly located at Port Jackson, some miles 
to the northward, near where Sydney now 
stands. 

Botau'rus, the bittern genus of birds. 

Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley (1738-1770), 
an English colonial governor. In 1761 he was 
colonel of militia, and became a peer in 1764. 
In July, 1768, he became governor of Virginia. 
In May, 1769, the Virginia assembly com¬ 
plained of parliamentary taxation, and of 
sending accused persons to England for trial; 
in reply Lord Botetourt dissolved the legisla¬ 
ture. The trouble between the governor and 
the people gradually subsided, but they would 
not assent to parliamentary taxation. Lord 
Botetourt asked to be relieved, and died a 
short time afterward. 

Botfly, Gadfly, and Warble-fly, names com¬ 
mon to many insects of the family (Estridae, 
the genus (Estrus of Linnaeus. The name bot 
is sometimes restricted to the parasitic and 



Ox Botfly. 


a. —larva, full grown, natural size; b.— pupa; 
c.—perfect insect (magnified.) 







Bothnia 


Bouches=du=Rhone 


destructive larvae, which appears to have been 
its original use, the other names being given to 
the perfect adults, and the name gadfly often 
to blood-sucking insects of the very different 
genus Tabanus (q. v.), to which some try to 
restrict it. The insects of this family are now 
supposed not to be those which were called 
CEstrus by the ancients, although, like them, 
extremely troublesome to cattle. They are 
Dipterous (two-winged) (q.v.) insects, nearly 
allied to the Muscides (house-fly, flesh-fly, 
blow-fly, etc.). 

The head is large, and as if blown out; the 
antennae are short and spring from deep pits; 
the proboscis and palps are degenerate; the 
eyes are small, and there are three eye-spots; 
the posterior part of the body is rounded; the 
hindmost legs are often very long. The larvae 
have toothed body-rings, and are parasitic in 
the nose, throat, stomach, or under the skin 
of mammals, and are unfortunately more fa¬ 
miliar than the bee-like adults. 

Both'nia, Gulf of, the northern part of the 
Baltic Sea, which separates Sweden from Fin¬ 
land. Length about 450 mi., breadth 90 to 130 
mi., depth from 20 to 50 fathoms. Its water 
is but slightly salt, and it freezes in the win¬ 
ter, so as to be passed by sledges and car¬ 
riages. 

Both'well, a village of Lanarkshire, Scot¬ 
land, on the Clyde, 8 mi. e. of Glasgow. 
Here is Bothwell Bridge, where a decisive bat¬ 
tle was fought in 1679, between the Scottish 
Covenanters and the royal forces commanded 
by the Duke of Monmouth, in which the 
former were totally routed. Near by are the 
fine ruins of Bothwell Castle, once a strong¬ 
hold of the Douglases. 

Both'well, James Hepburn, Earl of (1526- 
1576), known in Scottish history by his mar¬ 
riage to Queen Mary. It is believed that he 
was deeply concerned in the murder of Darn- 
ley, Mary’s husband, and that he was even 
supported by the queen. He was charged 
with the crime and tried, but, appearing along 
with 4,000 followers, was readily acquitted. 
He was now in high favor with the queen, and 
with or without her consent he seized her at 
Edinburgh, and carrying her a prisoner to 
Dunbar Castle prevailed upon her to marry 
him after he had divorced his own wife. A 
confederacy was formed against him, and in 
a short time Mary was a prisoner in Edin¬ 
burgh, and Bothwell had been forced to flee 
to Denmark, where he died. 

Bo=tree, the pipal, or sacred fig-tree of India 
and Ceylon venerated by the Buddhists and 
planted near their temples. One specimen at 
Anurajahpoora in Ceylon is said to have been 
planted before 200 b. c. It was greatly shat¬ 
tered by a storm in 1887. 

Botrychium (bo-trik'i-um), a genus of ferns, 
one species of which, the common moonwort, 
is a native of Britain, growing on elevated 
heaths and pastures where other ferns are sel¬ 
dom found. The largest species is a native 
of North America, New Zealand, the Hima¬ 
layas, etc. 

Botta, Paul Emile (1800-1870), French trav¬ 


eler and archaeologist. He discovered the 
ruins of ancient Nineveh in 1843 while acting 
as consular agent for the French government 
at Mosul. As the result of his investigations 
he published two important works—one on the 
cuneiform writing of the Assyrians and the 
other upon the monuments of Nineveh—the 
latter of which is a work of great splendor and 
marks an era in Assyriology. 

Bottger (or Bottiger) (bout'ger or beu'ti¬ 
ger), Johann Friedrich (1682-1719), German 
alchemist; the inventor of the celebrated Meis¬ 
sen porcelain. His search for the philosopher’s 
stone or secret of making gold led him into 
many difficulties. At last he found refuge at 
the court of Saxony, where the elector erected 
a laboratory for him, and forced him to turn 
his attention to the manufacture of porcelain, 
resulting in the invention associated with his 
name. 

Botticelli (bot-te-chel' le), Sandro (for Alles- 
sandro) (1447-1515), an Italian painter of the 
Florentine school. Working at first in the 
shop of the goldsmith Botticelli, from whom 
he takes his name, he showed such talent that 
he was removed to the studio of the distin¬ 
guished painter, Fra Lippo Lippi. From this 
master he took the fire and passion of his style, 
and added a fine fantasy and delicacy of his 
own. He painted flowers, especially roses, 
with incomparable skill. In his later years 
Botticelli became an ardent disciple of Savona¬ 
rola, and is said by Vasari to have neglected 
his painting for the study of mystical theol¬ 
ogy. 

Bottle, a vessel of moderate or small size, 
and with a neck, for holding liquor. By the 
ancients they were made of skins or leather; 
they are now chiefly made of glass or earthen¬ 
ware. The common black bottles of the cheap¬ 
est kind are formed of the most ordinary ma¬ 
terials, sand with lime, and sometimes clay and 
alkaline ashes of any kind, such as kelp, ba¬ 
rilla, or even wood ashes. This glass is strong, 
hard, and less subject to corrosion by acids 
than flint-glass. In bottle making the glass is 
blown instead of pressed into form. In smelt¬ 
ing, the glass is gathered upon pipes or tubes. 
When taken from the furnace the ball is rolled 
upon a slab of iron, the operator blowing 
through the pipe meanwhile. This forms a 
long, hollow, pear-shaped mass which is then 
swung into an open mold, the mold closed upon 
it, and the glass forced into every detail of the 
pattern by the lungs of the blower. The extra 
glass above the mold is broken off, the bottle 
removed, and the mouth shaped up by soften¬ 
ing in the oven and working with a special 
tool. It is then sent through the tempering 
oven. The molds are kept very cool by a blast 
of air from a large air tube overhead. It is 
important that the proper amount of glass be 
gathered for a bottle, otherwise the bottles are 
too thick or too thin. The lettering on bottles 
is done by a plate engraved reverse and placed 
in the mold. Bottle making is not considered 
high-class work and is largely done by cheap 
labor. 

Bouches=du=Rh6ne (bosh-dii-ron), “Mouths 


Boucicault 


Boulanger 


of the Rhone,” a dep. in the s. of France, in 
ancient Provence. Chief town, Marseilles. 
Area, 1,971 sq. mi., of which about one half is 
under cultivation. The Rhone is the principal 
river. The climate is generally very warm; 
but the dep. is liable to the mistral , a cold and 
violent n. e. wind from the Cevennes ranges. 
Much of the soil in unfruitful, but the fine 
climate makes the cultivation of figs, olives, 
nuts, almonds, etc., very successful. The 
manufactures are principally soap, brandy, 
olive oil, chemicals, vinegar, scent, leather, 
glass, etc. The fisheries are numerous and 
productive. Pop. 630.622. 

Boucicault (bo' si-ko), Dion (1822-1890), dra¬ 
matic author and actor. He was intended for 
an architect, but the success of a comedy, the 
well-known London Assurance , which he wrote 
when only nineteen years old, determined him 
for a career in connection with the stage. In 
1853 he went to America, where he was scarcely 
less popular than in England. On his return 
in 1860 he produced a new style of drama, of 
which the Colleen Baum and Arrah-na-Pogue are 
the best examples. As an actor he was clever, 
but not highly gifted. His dramatic pieces 
are said to number upward of 150. 

Boufflers (or Bouflers) (bo-fiar), Louis Fran¬ 
cois, Due de (1644-1711), Marshal of France, 
one of the most celebrated generals of his age. 
He learned the art of war under such renowned 
generals as Conde, Turenne, andCatinat. His 
defense of Namur against King William of 
England, and of Lille against Prince Eugene, 
are famous, and he conducted the retreat of 
the French at Malplaquet with such admirable 
skill as quite to cover the appearance of defeat. 

Boudinot, Elias (1740-1821), American pa¬ 
triot and philanthropist. During the troubles 
of the Revolution he united with the patriots, 
and in 1777 became commissary general of 
prisoners. He was chosen a delegate to Con¬ 
gress from New Jersey in 1777, and served in 
1778 and 1779, and again from 1781 until 1784. 
On Nov. 4, 1782, he became president of Con¬ 
gress, and as such signed the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain. Later he resumed the 
practise of law, and served in Congress from 
1789-1795. He was director of the mint in 
Philadelphia 1795-1805. He was a trustee of 
Princeton and in 1805 endowed it with a cab¬ 
inet of natural history. He was the first pres¬ 
ident of the American Bible Society. 

Bougainville (bo-gan-vel), Louis Antoine 
de, (1729-1811), a famous French navigator. 
At first a lawyer he afterward entered the 
army and fought bravely in Canada under the 
Marquis of Montcalm, and it was principally 
owing to his exertions, in 1758, that a body of 
5,000 French withstood successfully a British 
army of 16,000 men. After the battle of 
Sept. 13, 1759, in which Montcalm was killed 
and the fate of the colony decided, Bougain¬ 
ville returned to France and served with dis¬ 
tinction in the campaign of 1761 in Germany. 
After the peace he entered the navy, and be¬ 
came a distinguished naval officer. In 1763 he 
undertook the command of a colonizing expe¬ 
dition to the Falkland Islands, but as the 


Spaniards had a prior claim the project was 
abandoned. Bougainville then made a voyage 
round the world, which enriched geography 
with a number of new discoveries. In the 
American Revolutionary War he distinguished 
himself at sea, but withdrew from the service 
after the French Revolution and died in re¬ 
tirement. 

Bougainville Island, an island in the Pacific 
Ocean belonging to the Solomon group (area 
4,000 sq. mi.), and under German protection. 
It is separated from Choiseul Island by Bou¬ 
gainville /Strait . 

Bouguer (bo-ga), Pierre (1698-1758), a French 
mathematician and astronomer. He was as¬ 
sociated with Godin and La Condamine in an 
expedition to the South American equatorial 
regions to measure the length of a degree of 
the meridian. The main burden of the task 
fell upon Bouguer, who performed it with 
great ability, and published the results. He 
also invented the heliometer, and his re¬ 
searches about light laid the foundation of 
photometry. 

Bouillon (bo-you), originally a German duchy, 
now a district in Belgium, 9 mi. wide and 18 
long, on the borders of Luxemburg and Liege, 
a woody and mountainous tract, with some 
21,000 inhabitants. The small town of Bouil¬ 
lon was once the capital of the duchy, which 
belonged to the famous crusader Godfrey of 
Bouillon. 

Bouillon, Godfrey de, Duke of Lower Lor¬ 
raine (1061-1100), “a worthy representative of 
Charlemagne, from whom he was descended in 
the female line.” Bouillon gained distinction 
in the armies of the Emperor Heinrich IV, 
and was the great leader of the first Crusade. 
He took the title of Defender and Baron of the 
Holy Sepulcher. At Ascalon, with 20,000 men, 
he defeated the sultan of Egypt with 400,000. 
He then devoted himself to organize his govern¬ 
ment, and drew up, for his courts of justice, 
the Assizes of Jerusalem, a code of laws which 
was the fullest embodiment of feudal juris¬ 
prudence. He was buried on Mount Calvary. 
His many virtues are justly extolled in Tasso’s 
Jerusalem Delivered. 

Boulak', a town of Lower Egypt, a suburb 
and port of Cairo. It has cotton, sugar, and 
paper factories, and till recently had a famous 
museum of antiquities. Pop. 10,000. 

Boulanger, George Ernest Jean Marie 
(1837-1891), a French soldier. He served in 
Algeria, Italy, and Cochin China, fought under 
the republic during the Franco-Prussian War, 
and became brigadier general in 1880. He was 
minister of war 1886-87. In this capacity he 
was active in procuring the expulsion of the 
Orleans princes from the army and from 
France. He successfully contested several 
seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and 1889, 
was elected deputy for Paris by a very large 
vote. Two months later the government, 
claiming to have evidence of his intended trea¬ 
son, began a prosecution, and Boulanger fled 
to Brussels, and thence to the Isle of Jersey. 
He was convicted in his absence and remained 
an exile. He committed suicide in Brussels 


Boulder 


Bourbon 


on the grave of a lady to whom he had been 
deeply attached. 

Boulder (border), a rounded water-worn 
stone of some size; in geol. applied to ice-worn 
and partially smoothed blocks of large size lying 
on the surface of the soil, or embedded in clays 
and gravels, generally differing in composition 
from the rocks in their vicinity, a fact which 
proves that they must have been transported 
from a distance, probably by ice. When lying 
on the surface they are known as erratic blocks. 
The boulder-clay in which these blocks are 
found belongs to the post-tertiary or quater¬ 
nary period. It occurs in many localities, con¬ 
sists of a compact clay often with thin beds 
of gravel and sand interspersed, and is believed 
to have been deposited from icebergs and gla¬ 
ciers in the last glacial period. 

Boulder, Boulder co., Colo., on Boulder 
Creek, 29 mi. n.w. of Denver. Railroads: Un¬ 
ion Pacific, and Union Pacific, Denver, & 
Gulf. Industries: flouring mills, iron foundry, 
two cigar factories and other small industries. 
Surrounding country agricultural and mineral. 
Boulder is the seat of the University of Colo¬ 
rado. It was first settled in 1853 and became 
a city in 1873. Pop. 1900, 6,150. 

Boulogne (bo-lon-ye or bo-lon) (or Boulogne- 
sur-Mer), a fortified seaport of France, dep. 
Pas de Calais, at the mouth of the Lianne. In 
the castle, which dates from 1231, Louis Napo¬ 
leon was imprisoned in 1840. Boulogne has 
manufactures of soap, earthenware, linen and 
woolen cloths; wines, coal, corn, butter, fish, 
linen, and woolen stuffs, etc., are the articles of 
export. Steamboats run daily between this 
place and England, crossing over in two or three 
hours. Napoleon Bonaparte, after deepening 
and fortifying the harbor, encamped 180,000 
men here with the intention of invading Britain 
at a favorable moment; but upon the breaking 
out of hostilities with Austria, 1805, they were 
called to other places. Pop. 42,205. 

Boulogne=sur=Seine, a town of France, 
dep. Seine, s.w. of Paris, of which it is a sub¬ 
urb. It is from this place that the celebrated 
Bois de Boulogne gets its name. Pop. 30,084. 

Boulton (bol'ton), Matthew (1728-1809), a 
noted English mechanician. He engaged in 
business as a manufacturer of hardware, and 
invented and brought to great perfection in¬ 
laid steel buckles, buttons, watch-chains, etc. 
The introduction of the steam engine at Soho 
led to a connection between Boulton and 
James Watt, who became partners in trade in 
1769. 

Bounty, in political economy, is a reward or 
premium granted for the encouragement of a 
particular species of trade or production, the 
idea being that the development of such 
trade or production will be of national benefit. 
The same name is given to a premium offered 
by government to induce men to enlist in the 
public service, especially to the sum of money 
given in some states to recruits in the army 
and navy. During the Civil War in America 
the bounty was at one time as high as $900. 

Bourbon (bbr-bon), an ancient French family 
which has given three dynasties to Europe, the 


Bourbons of France, Spain, and Naples. The 
first of the line known in history is Adhemar, 
who, at the beginning of the tenth century, 
was lord of the Bourbonnais (now the dep. of 
Allier). The power and possessions of the 
family increased steadily through a long series 
of Archambaulds of Bourbon till in 1272 Bea¬ 
trix, daughter of Agnes of Bourbon and John 
of Burgundy, married Robert, sixth son of 
Louis IX of France, and thus connected the 
Bourbons with the royal line of the Capets. 
Their son Louis had the barony converted into 
a dukedom and became the first Due de Bour¬ 
bon. Two branches took their origin from the 
two sons of this Louis, duke of Bourbon, who 
died in 1341. The elder line was that of the 
dukes of Bourbon, which became extinct at 
the death of the Constable of Bourbon in 1527, 
in the assault of the city of Rome. The young¬ 
er was that of the counts of La Marche, after¬ 
ward counts and dukes of Vendome. From 
these descended Anthony of Bourbon, duke of 
Vendome, who by marriage acquired the king¬ 
dom of Navarre, and whose son Henry of Na¬ 
varre, became Henry IV of France. Anthony’s 
younger brother, Louis, prince of Conde, was 
the founder of the line of Conde. There were, 
therefore, two chief branches of the Bourbons 
—the royal, and that of Conde. The royal 
branch was divided by the two sons of Louis 

XIII, the elder of whom, Louis XIV, continued 
the chief branch, while Philip, the younger 
son, founded the house of Orleans as the first 
duke of that name. The kings of the elder 
French royal line of the house of Bourbon run 
in this way: Henry IV, Louis XIII, XIV, XV, 
XVI, XVII, XVIII, and Charles X. The last 
sovereigns of this line, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, 
and Charles X (Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI, 
never obtained the crown), were brothers, all of 
them being grandsons of Louis XV. Louis 
XVIII had no children, but Charles X, had two 
sons, viz., Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duke of 
Angouleme, who was dauphin till the revolu¬ 
tion of 1830, and died without issue in 1844, 
and Charles Ferdinand, duke of Berry, who 
d. Feb. 14, 1820, of a wound given him by a 
political fanatic. The duke of Berry had two 
children: 1, Louise Marie Ther&se, called Mad¬ 
emoiselle d’Artois; and 2, Henri Charles Fer¬ 
dinand Marie Dieudonne, b. in 1820, and at 
first called duke of Bordeaux, but afterwards 
Count de Chambord, who was looked upon by 
his party until his death (in 1883) as the legiti¬ 
mate heir to the crown of France. 

The branch of the Bourbons known as the 
House of Orleans was raised to the throne of 
France by the revolution of 1830, and deprived 
of it by that of 1848. It derives its origin 
from Duke Philip I of Orleans (d. 1701), second 
son of Louis XIII, and only brother of Louis 

XIV. A regular succession of princes leads us 
to the notorious Egalite Orleans, who in 1793 
died on the scaffold, and whose son Louis 
Philippe was king of France from 1830 to the 
revolution of 1848. His grandson, Louis Phi¬ 
lippe, Count de Paris, b. Aug. 24, 1838, is the 
present head of the family, and since the 
death of Count de Chambord, the last male 


Bourbonnais 


Bovidae 


representative of the elder Bourbons, unites in 
himself the claims of both branches to the 
throne of Prance. 

The Spanish-Bourbon dynasty originated when 
in 1700 Louis XIV placed his grandson Philip, 
duke of Anjou, on the Spanish throne, who 
became Philip V of Spain. From him de¬ 
scends the present infant occupant of the 
Spanish throne, Alphonso XII, b. in 1886. 

The royal line of Naples , or the Two Sicilies, 
took its rise when in 1785 Don Carlos, the 
younger son of Philip V of Spain, obtained 
the crown of Sicily and Naples (then attached 
to the Spanish monarchy), and reigned as 
Charles III. In 1759, however, he succeeded 
his brother Ferdinand VI on the Spanish 
throne, when he transferred the Two Sicilies 
to his third son Fernando (Ferdinand IV), on 
the express condition that this crown should 
not be again united with Spain. Ferdinand 
IV had to leave Naples in 1806; but after the 
fall of Napoleon he again became king of both 
Sicilies under the title of Ferdinand I, and the 
succession remained to his descendants until 
1860, when Naples was incorporated into the 
new kingdom of Italy. 

Bourbonnais (bor-bon-a), a former province 
of France, with the title first of a county, and 
afterward of a duchy, lying between Niver- 
nais, Berry, and Burgundy, and now forming 
the department of the Allier. 

Bourdaloue (bor-da-lo), Louis (1632-1704), 
one of the great church orators of France, 
entered the order of the Jesuits, becoming 
teacher of rhetoric, philosophy, and morals in 
the Jesuit college of his native place. The 
lofty and dignified eloquence with which he 
assailed the vices of contemporary society 
brought him fame even at a time when Paris 
was ablaze with the feasts of Versailles, the 
glory of Turenne’s victories, and the master¬ 
pieces of Corneille and Racine. His sermons 
are among the classics of France. 

Bourg (borg) (or Bourg-en-Bresse), a town of 
Eastern France, capital of the dep. of Ain,well 
built, with a handsome parish church, public 
library, museum, monuments to Bichat, Jou- 
bert, and Edgar Quinet, and near the town the 
beautiful Gothic church of Brou, built in the 
early sixteenth century; some manufactures 
and a considerable trade. Pop, 18,968. 

Bourgelat (borzh-la), Claude (1712-1779), 
creator of the art of veterinary surgery in 
France. He established the first veterinary 
school in his native town in 1762, and his 
works on the art furnished a complete course 
of veterinary instruction. 

Bourgeois (bur-jo'), a size of printing type 
larger than brevier and smaller than long- 
primer, used in books and newspapers. 

Bourgeoisie (borzh-wa-ze), a name applied to 
a certain class in France, in contradistinction 
to the nobility and clergy as well as to the 
working classes. It thus includes all those 
who do not belong to the nobility or clergy, 
and yet occupy an independent position, from 
financiers and heads of great mercantile estab¬ 
lishments at the one end to master tradesmen 
at the other. It corresponds pretty nearly 


with the English term “middle classes.” Ety¬ 
mologically the word refers to the old class of 
freemen or burgesses residing in towns. 

Bourges (borzh), an ancient city of France, 
capital of the dep. of Cher, situated at the 
confluence of the Auron and Ybvre, 124 mi. s. 
of Paris, formerly surrounded with ramparts, 
now laid out as promenades. It has crooked 
and gloomy streets, and houses built in the old 
style. The most noteworthy building is the 
cathedral (an archbishop’s) of the thirteenth 
century, and one of the finest examples of 
Gothic in France. Bourges is a military cen¬ 
ter and has an arsenal, cannon foundry, etc., 
manufactures of cloth, leather, etc. Pop. 45,- 
342. 

Bourmont (bor-mon), Louis Auguste Vic¬ 
tor de Ghaisne, Comte de (1773-1846), mar¬ 
shal of France. Entering the republican 
army he distinguished himself under Napo¬ 
leon, who made him a general of division. 
After the restoration he readily took service 
with the new dynasty, and in 1830 commanded 
the troops which conquered Algiers, a success 
which gained for him the marshal’s baton. 
After the revolution of 1830 he followed the 
banished Charles X into exile, but latterly re¬ 
tired to his estate in Anjou, where he died. 

Bourrienne (bo-re-an), Fauvelet de (1769- 
1834), a French diplomatist, was educated 
along with Bonaparte at the school of Brienne, 
where a close intimacy sprang up between 
them. Bourrienne went to Germany to study 
law and languages, but returning to Paris in 
1792, renewed his friendship with Napoleon, 
from whom he obtained various appointments, 
and latterly that of minister plenipotentiary 
at Hamburg. On the abdication of Napoleon 
he paid his court to Louis XVIII, and was 
nominated a minister of state The revolution 
of July, 1830, and the loss of his wealth, af¬ 
fected him so much that he lost his reason, 
and died in a lunatic asylum. His Memoirs of 
Napoleon are valuable. 

Boussa (bos' a) (or Bussang), a city of Africa, 
in the Soudan, on the Niger. It was here that 
Mungo Park met his death in 1805. Pop. est. 
12,000 to 18,000. 

Boutwell, George Sew all (1818- ), 

American statesman. In 1842 he was elected 
as a Democrat to the Massachusetts state legis¬ 
lature, where he sat until 1851. In 1851 and 
again in 1852, he was elected governor on the 
Free-soil ticket. He joined the Republican 
party in 1854. In 1862 he organized the internal 
revenue department, of which he was first com¬ 
missioner. In 1863 he became member of 
Congress and was re-elected in 1865 and 1867. 
He was chairman of the committee to report 
articles of impeachment against Andrew 
Johnson, and one of the seven managers of the 
trial. He became secretary of the treasury in 
Grant’s cabinet, which office he held until 
March, 1873, when he was chosen U. S. sena¬ 
tor. Mr. Boutwell afterward practised in 
Washington, D. C., aad in 1877 codified and 
edited the statutes at large. 

Bov'idae, the ox family of animals, includ¬ 
ing the common ox, the bison, buffalo, yak, 


Bow 


Bowdofn 


zebu, etc. They are hollow-horned, ruminant 
animals, generally of large size, with broad, 
hairless muzzles and stout limbs, and most of 
them have been domesticated. 

Bow, the name of one of the most ancient 
and universal weapons of offense. It is made 
of steel, wood, horn, or other elastic substance. 
The figure of the bow is nearly the same in 
all countries. The ancient Grecian bow was 
somewhat in the form of the letter 2. In 
drawing it, the hand was brought back to the 
right breast, and not to the ear. The Scythian 
bow was nearly semicircular. The long-bow 
was the favorite national weapon in England. 
The battles of Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), 
and Agincourt (1415) were won by this weapon. 
It was made of yew, ash, etc., of the height of 
the archer, or about 6 ft. long, the arrow be¬ 
ing usually half the length of the bow. The 
arbalist, or cross-bow, was a popular weapon 
with the Italians, and was introduced into 
England in the thirteenth century, but never 
was so popular as the long-bow.. In England 
the strictest regulations were made to en¬ 
courage and facilitate the use of the bow. 
Merchants were obliged to import a certain 
proportion of bow-staves with every cargo; 
town councils had to provide public shooting 
butts near the town. Of the power of the 
bow, and the distance to which it will carry, 
some remarkable anecdotes are related. Thus 
Stuart ( Athenian Antiquities i.) mentions a ran¬ 
dom shot of a Turk, which he found to be 584 
yards. In the journal of King Edward VI it is 
mentioned that 100 archers of the king’s guard 
shot at a 1-inch board, and that some of the 
arrows passed through this and into another 
board behind it, although the wood was ex¬ 
tremely solid and firm. 

Bower=bird, a name given to certain Aus¬ 
tralian birds of the starling family from a re¬ 
markable habit they have of building bowers 
to serve as places of resort. The bowers are 


constructed on the ground and usually under 
overhanging branches in the most retired parts 
of the forest. They are decorated with varie¬ 
gated feathers, shells, small pebbles, bones, 
etc. At each end there is an entrance left 
open. These bowers do not serve as nests at 


all, but seem to be places of amusement and 
resort, especially during the breeding season. 
The Satin Boicer-bird is so called from its 
beautiful glossy plumage, which is of a black 
color. Another common species is the Spotted 
Bower-bird, which is about 11 in. long, or rather 
smaller than the first mentioned, and less gay 
in color, but is the most lavish of all in deco¬ 
rating its bowers. 

Bowie, James (1790-1836), American fron¬ 
tiersman. He was notorious as a duelist, and, 
in 1827, was engaged in a melee at Natchez, 
in which six men were killed, and fifteen 
wounded. The knife with which he killed 
his opponent on this occasion was fashioned 
from a blacksmith’s file, and was the original 
bowie-knife. He was killed by Mexican sol¬ 
diery at the Alamo. 

Bowie=knife, a long kind of knife like a 
dagger, but with only one edge, named after 
Colonel James Bowie, and used in America by 
hunters and others. 

Bow Instruments are all the instruments 
strung with catgut from which the tones are 
produced by means of the bow. The most usual 
are the double-bass, the small bass, the tenor, 
and the violin proper. In reference to their 
construction the several parts are alike; the 
difference is in the size. 

Bow, in music is the name of that well- 
known implement by means of which the tone 
is produced from violins, and other instru¬ 
ments of that kind. It is made of a thin staff 
of elastic wood, tapering slightly till it reaches 
the lower end, to which the hairs (about 80 or 
100 horsehairs) are fastened, and with which 
the bow is strung. At the upper end is an 
ornamental piece of wood or ivory called the 
nut, and fastened with a scretv, which serves 
to regulate the tension of the hairs. 

Bow Bells, the peal of bells belonging to 
the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, 
London, and celebrated for centuries. One 
who is born “ within the sound of Bow Bells ” 
is considered a genuine cockney. 

Bow'ditch, Nathaniel, LL.D., F.R.S. (1773 
-1838), an eminent American mathematician 
and astronomer, and president of the Ameri¬ 
can Academy. His two principal works are 
The American Practical Navigator (1802), and an 
excellent translation of La Place’s Mecanique 
Celeste (1829-38). 

Bowdoin, James(1727-1790), American states¬ 
man. He was a grandson of a French Hugue¬ 
not who came to Portland, Me., in 1687, and 
went to Boston in 1690. James graduated at 
Harvard in 1745. He early manifested a sci¬ 
entific tendency of mind, and corresponded 
with Benjamin Franklin. He was a member 
of the general court of Massachusetts (1753- 
1756), and became councilor. The Bostonians 
thereafter elected him to the assembly. In 
1774 he was elected a member of the Conti¬ 
nental Congress; in 1775 he became president 
of the Massachusetts council, and in 1779 pre¬ 
sided over the State Constitutional convention. 
In 1785 he became governor of the state of 
Massachusetts. He was a member of the con¬ 
vention that framed the Federal constitution. 



The Spotted Bower-bird. 












Bowell 

He was one of the founders and became the 
president of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, and also a founder of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Humane Society. Bowdoin College , 
Brunswick, Me., was named after him. It is 
a flourishing institution, which has had among 
its students Longellow and Hawthorne. 

Bowell, Mackenzie (1823- ), Canadian 
statesman, b. in Suffolk, England ; came to 
Canada when a boy, and became editor of the 
Belleville, Ontario, Intelligencer. In 1867 he was 
returned to Parliament as a Conservative; 
minister of customs, 1878-91; minister of de¬ 
fence, 1891; of trade and commerce, 1892-94; 
president of the privy council, 1895-96. 

Bowling Green, Warren co., Ky., on Barren 
River, 114 mi. s. of Louisville. Railroads: 
Louisville & Nashville, and Bowling Green & 
Memphis. Industries: two flouring mills, two 
iron foundries, five saw mills, two distilleries, 
and three planing mills. Surrounding country 
agricultural, some natural gas in vicinity. 
The town was first settled in 1797 and became 
a city in 1S24. Pop. 1900, 8,226. 

Bowls (Bowling), an ancient British game, 
still extremely popular. It is played on a 
smooth, level piece of greensward, generally 
about 40 yards long, and surrounded by a 
trench or ditch about 6 in. in depth. A 
small, white ball called the jack is placed at 
one end of the green, and the object of the 
players, who range themselves in sides at the 
other, is so to roll their bowls that they may 
lie as near as possible to the jack. Each bowl 
is biased by being made slightly conical so as 
to take a curvilinear direction; and in making 
the proper allowance for this bias, and so regu¬ 
lating the cast of the ball, consist the skill and 
attraction of the game. The side which owns 
the greatest number of bowls next the jack, 
each bowl so placed constituting a point, 
carries off the victory. 

Bowsprit (bo-'), the large boom or sparwhich 
projects over the stem of a vessel, having the 
foremast and fore-topmast stays and staysails 
attached to it, while extending beyond it is 
the jib boom. 

Box=eIder, the ash-leaved maple, a small 
but beautiful tree of the U. S., from which 
sugar is sometimes made. 

Boxing, a manner of fighting with the fists. 
The art of boxing consists in showing skill in 
dealing blows with the fist against one’s op¬ 
ponent, especially on the upper part of the 
body, while at the same time one protects one’s 
self. In England professional boxers, who 
made a livelihood out of their skill in the art, 
were at one time common, especially during 
the reigns of the Georges, when persons of the 
highest rank were sometimes to be seen at pu¬ 
gilistic combats, and “ professors” of the art 
frequently had members of the nobility among 
their pupils. Byron relates in his diary that he 
received instruction in boxing from the cele¬ 
brated Jackson, who made a fortune as a pu¬ 
gilist. Boxing, has, however, now fallen in a 
great measure into disrepute, and prize fights 
are illegal in England, and both the principals 
and spectators may be proceeded against. At 


Boycotting 

the gladiatorial shows of the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans boxing was common, but in a more dan¬ 
gerous form, the fist being armed with leather 
appliances loaded with iron or lead. 

Boxing the Compass, in seaman’s phrase, 
the repetition of all the points of the compass 
in their proper order—an accomplishment re¬ 
quired to be attained by all sailors. 

Box=tortoise, a name given to one or two 
North American tortoises that can completely 
shut themselves into their shell. 

Box=tree, a shrubby evergreen tree, twelve 
or fifteen feet high, a native of England, South¬ 
ern Europe, and parts of Asia, with small 
oval and opposite leaves, and greenish, incon¬ 
spicuous flowers, male and female on the same 
tree. It was formerly so common in England 
as to have given its name to several places— 
Boxhill, in Surrey, for instance, and Boxley, in 
Kent. The wood is of a yellowish color, close 
grained, very hard and heavy, and admits of a 
beautiful polish. On these accounts it is much 



Branch of the Common Box. 


used by turners, wood carvers, engravers on 
wood (no wood surpassing it in this respect), 
and mathematical instrument makers. Flutes 
and other wind instruments are formed of it. 
The box of commerce comes mostly from the 
regions adjoining the Black Sea and Caspian, 
and is said to be diminishing in quantity. In 
gardens and shrubberies box trees may often 
be seen clipped into various formal shapes. 
There is also a dwarf variety reared as an edg¬ 
ing for garden walks and the like. 

Boyaca', in South America, one of the de¬ 
partments or provinces of Colombia. On the 
west side the country is traversed by a chain 
of the Andes, from which it slopes toward the 
east into immense plains or llanos, mostly un¬ 
cultivated, and watered by the tributaries of 
theOrinoco. Area33,351 sq. mi.; pop. 699,874. 

Boy'cotting, a name given to an organized 
system of social and commercial ostracism em¬ 
ployed in Ireland in connection with the Land 
League and the land agitation of 1880 and 1881 


Boy dell 

and subsequently. Landlords, tenants, or 
other persons who are subjected to boycotting 
find it difficult or impossible to get any one to 
work for them, to supply them with the neces¬ 
saries of life, or to associate with them in any 
way. It took its name from Captain James 
Boycott, a Mayo landlord, against whom it was 
first put in force. The practise has been legis¬ 
latively declared illegal in many states of the 
Union. 

Boy'del!, John (1719-1804), an English en¬ 
graver, but chiefly distinguished as an encour- 
ager of the fine arts. He engaged Reynolds, 
Opie, West, and other celebrated painters to 
illustrate Shakespeare’s works, and from their 
pictures was produced a magnificent volume 
of plates, the Shakespeare Gallery. 

Boyden, Seth (1788-1870), American inven¬ 
tor. He improved a machine for leather-split¬ 
ting. In 1813 he and his brother established a 
leather-splitting business in Newark, N. J., and 
in 1819 made improved patent leather, which he 
sold until 1831. From 1831 until 1835 he en¬ 
gaged in producing malleable iron castings, 
and became interested in steam engines. He 
produced a variety of strawberries unequaled 
in size and flavor, and patented a hat-body 
doming machine. 

Boyer (bwii-ya), Alexis (1757-1833), French 
surgeon. He had a brilliant career as a stu¬ 
dent, and was appointed first surgeon to Na¬ 
poleon, receiving at the same time the title of 
Baron of the Empire. 

Boyer (bwii-ya), Jean Pierre (1776-1850), 
president of the Republic of Hayti. It was 
largely by his efforts that in 1821 all parts of 
Hayti were brought under one republican gov¬ 
ernment, of which he was chosen president. 
His administration in its earlier years was 
wise and energetic; but latterly financial diffi¬ 
culties and other causes made the Haytians 
dissatisfied with his rule, and a revolt drove 
him into exile in 1843. 

r Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth (1848-1896), 
Norwegian-American author; came to the U. S. 
in 1869. He was professor of languages at 
Urbana University, Ohio, from 1874 to 1880, 
then professor of German at Cornell, and filled 
a similar post at Columbia College, New York. 
He published Ounnar and other novels, Idyls 
of Norway, and many translations from the 
Scandinavian tongues. 

Boyle, Robert (1626-1691), a celebrated nat¬ 
ural philosopher, was the seventh son of Rich¬ 
ard the first earl of Cork. He was one of the 
first members of the Royal Society. At Ox¬ 
ford, 1652, he occupied himself in making 
improvements on the air pump, by means of 
which he demonstrated the elasticity of air. 
Boyle was interred in Westminster Abbey. 

Boyle’s Law, otherwise called Mariotte's 
Laic, a law in physics to the effect that the vol¬ 
ume of a gas will vary inversely to the pres¬ 
sure to which it is subjected. 

Boyne, a river of Ireland, which rises in the 
Bog of Allen, and after a course of sixty miles 
falls into the Irish Sea four miles from Dro¬ 
gheda. On its banks was fought the battle be¬ 
tween the adherents of James II and William 


Brabourne 

III in 1690, in which the latter proved victori¬ 
ous, James being obliged to flee to the Conti¬ 
nent. The anniversary of this victory (July 
12) is still joyfully celebrated by Irish Protest¬ 
ants, and the playing of the “Orange” tune 
Boyne Water, is apt to excite the ire of Irish 
Catholics. 

Bozzaris (bot-sii'ris), Marco (1788-1823), a 
hero of the Greek war of independence against 
the Turks. After the fall of Suli he retired to 
the Ionian Islands, from whence he made a vain 
attempt to deliver his native country. In 1820, 
when the Turks were trying to reduce their 
overgrown vassal, Ali Pasha of Janina, to sub¬ 
mission, the latter sought aid from the exiled 
Suliotes, and Marco Bozzaris returned to Epi¬ 
rus. On the outbreak of the war of independ¬ 
ence he at once joined the Greek cause, and 
distinguished himself as much by his patriot¬ 
ism and disinterestedness as by his military 
skill and personal bravery. In the summer of 
1823, when he held the commander-in-chief of 
the Greek forces at Missolonghi, he made a 
daring night attack on the camp of the pasha 
of Scutari, near Karpenisi. The attack was 
successful; but the triumph of the Greeks was 
clouded by the fall of the heroic Bozzaris. 
His deeds are celebrated in the popular songs 
of Greece. 

Brabangonne (bra-ban-son), the national 
song of the Belgians, written during the revo¬ 
lution of 1830 by Jenneval, an actor at the 
theater of Brussels, and set to music by Cam- 
penhout. 

Brabant', the central district of the low¬ 
lands of Holland and Belgium, extending from 
the Waal to the sources of the Dyle, and from 
the Meuse and Limburg plains to the lower 
Scheldt. It is divided between the kingdoms of 
Holland and Belgium into three provinces: 1, 
Dutch, or North Brabant, area 1,977 sq. mi., 
pop. 480,996; 2, Belgian province of Antwerp, 
area 1,095 sq. mi., pop. 577,232; and 3, the Bel¬ 
gian province of South Brabant, area 1,276 sq. 
mi., pop. 985,274. In the north the inhabit¬ 
ants are Dutch; in the middle district, Flem¬ 
ings; in the south Walloons. Southward of 
Brussels the language is French; northward, 
Dutch and Flemish. In the fifth century Bra¬ 
bant came into possession of the Franks, and 
after being alternately included in and sepa¬ 
rated from Lorraine it emerges at length in 1190 
as a duchy under a duke of Brabant. It event¬ 
ually came by marriage into possession of the 
dukes of Burgundy, and passed with the last 
representative of that line, Mary of Burgundy, 
to the house of Austria, and finally to Philip 
II of Spain. In the famous revolt of the 
Netherlands, caused by the cruelties of King 
Philip and his agent, the Duke of Alva, North 
Brabant succeeded in asserting its independ¬ 
ence, and in 1648 it was incorporated with the 
United Provinces. South Brabant remained, 
however, in possession of the Spaniards, and at 
the peace of Utrecht in 1714 passed again, 
along with the other southern provinces of the 
Netherlands, to the imperial house of Austria. 

Brabourne, Edward Knatchbull-Huges- 
sen, Lord (1829-93), English statesman; sat in 


Braces 


Braddock 


the House of Commons as a Liberal, 1857-1880. 
During this time he held several secretary¬ 
ships and became a privy councillor. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone gave him a peerage in 1880, and in 1885 
he went over to the Conservatives. He is best 
known as the author of some delightful fairy 
stories. 

Braces, in ships, ropes passing through 
blocks at the ends of the yards, used for swing¬ 
ing the latter round so as to meet the wind in 
any desired direction. 

Brachycephalic (bra-ki-se-fal'ik), a term ap¬ 
plied in ethnology to heads whose diameter 
from side to side is not much less than from 
front to back, as in the Mongolian type; op¬ 
posed to dolichocephalic. 

Br a c k e n 
(Brake), a spe¬ 
cies of fern 
very common 
in America 
and Europe 
generally, and 
often cover¬ 
ing large 
areas on hill¬ 
sides and on 
u n t i 11 e d 
grounds. It 
has a black 
creeping rhi¬ 
zome, with 
branched pin¬ 
nate fronds 
growing to the 
height often 
of several 
feet, and it 
forms an ex- End Branch, Common Brake. 

cellent covert for game. The rhizome is bitter, 
but has been eaten in times of famine. The 
plant is astringent and anthelmintic; when 
burned it yields a good deal of alkali. The rhi¬ 
zome, a native of New Zealand, was formerly 
a staple article of food among the Maoris. 

Bracket, a short piece or combination of 
pieces, generally more or less triangular in 


Ornamental Brackets. 

outline, and projecting from a wall or other 
surface. They may be either of an ornamental 
order, as when designed to support a statue, a 
bust, or such like, or plain forms of carpentry, 
such as support shelves, etc. Brackets may 
24 


also be used in connection with machinery, 
being attached to walls, beams, etc., to support 
a line of shafting. 

Brac'teates (-ats), old coins of gold or silver, 
with irregular figures on them, stamped upon 
one surface only, so that the impression ap¬ 
pears raised on one side, while the other ap¬ 
pears hollow. Bracteated coins, coins of iron, 
copper, or brass, covered over with a thin 
plate of some richer metal, such as gold or 
silver. 

Bracton, Henry de, one of the earliest writ¬ 
ers on English law flourished in the thirteenth 
century. He studied law at Oxford, became 
a -judge, and afterward chief-justice of Eng¬ 
land. 

Braddock, Allegheny co., Pa., on the Mo> 
nongahela River, 10 mi. s.e. of Pittsburg. 
Railroads: B. & O.; Pennsylvania; P. & L. E. 
Here are the Edgar Thomson Steel Works and 
other manufacturing concerns. Population 
1900, 15,654. 

Braddock, Edward (1695-1755), British 
soldier. He entered the Coldstream Guards, 
1710, and was made lieutenant in 1716. After 
more than forty years of service he was made 
major general, March 29, 1754, and in Septem¬ 
ber, commander of all British troops in Amer¬ 
ica. He arrived at Hampton, Pa., Feb. 20, 
1755. and debarked at Alexandria, where he 
met the Virginia levies for the expedition 
against the French at Fort Duquesne (near 
Pittsburgh, Pa.). By April 24, he had 
reached Frederick, Md., when he was forced 
to wait for wagons to transport his stores. He 
was joined there by Washington, whom he in¬ 
vited to be his aide-de-camp; and Benjamin 
Franklin, then postmaster-general of the colo¬ 
nies. He scorned the advice of Franklin re¬ 
garding danger from the ambuscades of the 
Indians, saying: “These savages may, indeed, 
be a formidable enemy to raw American mili¬ 
tary, but upon the king’s regular and disci¬ 
plined troops, sir, it is impossible that they 
should make an impression.” He set out for 
Fort Cumberland, where all the forces were to 
assemble, and on June 7 they started by the 
path marked out by Washington two years 
earlier. Braddock’s army consisted of 1,000 
regulars, 80 sailors, 1,200 provincials, and a 
few friendly Indians, and on July 9 the ad¬ 
vance division under Colonel Gates (afterward 
General Gates) was attacked by a band of 
French and Indians. Frightened by the war- 
whoop which they heard for the first time, the 
British fell back in confusion, and Braddock 
tried to rally them against their invisible foes. 
Familiar with Indian warfare, the Virginians 
separated, and sought shelter behind rocks 
and trees, but Braddock, dispensing with the 
“military instruction of a Virginia colonel” 
named George Washington, kept his men 
drawn up in platoons, and they fired at ran¬ 
dom into the forest, killing many of the 
Americans, and falling themselves with great 
rapidity. Braddock’s personal bravery was 
conspicuous. Five horses were killed under 
him, and he was mortally wounded and borne 
from the field to die. The battle ended in a 












































Braddon 


Brady 


rout, and of 1,460 men, including 89 commis¬ 
sioned officers, who had entered the field, 827 
were killed or wounded. Of Braddock’s aides 
Washington alone escaped, and he covered the 
retreat. 

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. John Max¬ 
well) (1837- ), a well-known novelist, born in 
London, and daughter of a solicitor there. 
After publishing some poems and tales, in 1862 
she brought out Lady Audley's Secret , the first 
of a series of many clever sensational novels. 
She conducted the London magazine, Belgravia. 

Brad ford, an important manufacturing 
town in West Riding of Yorkshire, England. 
There is a large number of scientific, edu¬ 
cational, and charitable institutions, among 
which may be mentioned the technical col¬ 
lege, the free grammar school, endowed by 
Charles II, the fever hospital, built at a great 
cost, and the almshouses of the Tradesmen’s 
Benevolent Society. There are several public 
parks, and an extensive system of waterworks 
which afford a supply of about 10 million gal¬ 
lons a day. Bradford is the chief seat in Eng¬ 
land of the spinning and weaving of worsted 
yarn and woolens. Pop. 216,361. 

Bradford, McKean co., Pa., 63 mi. s.e. of 
Dunkirk, N. Y. Railroads: Erie; W. N. Y. 
& P. Bradford is the center of the Northwest¬ 
ern Pa. oilfields. Industries: oil well supplies, 
tank factories, a refinery, railroad machine 
shops, saw and planing mills, nitroglycerine 
works, torpedo and sucker works, and a tooth¬ 
pick factory. Pop.1900, 15,029. 

Brad'ford, William (1588-1657), a pilgrim 
father, the second governor of Plymouth Col¬ 
ony, b. at Austerfield, Yorkshire. He had a 
good patrimony, and is one of the few pil¬ 
grims who can be clearly shown to have had a 
gentle ancestry in England. B. went with the 
first colonists in the Mayflower , 1620, was the 
second governor of Plymouth Colony, New 
England. He wrote a history of the colony. 

Bradlaugh (brad'la), Charles (1833-1891), 
English secularist, atheist, and advocate of 
republicanism. He is well known by his writ¬ 
ings and lectures, and more especially by his 
efforts to gain admission to Parliament. Be¬ 
ing elected for Northampton in 1880 he claimed 
the right to make affirmation simply instead 
of taking the oath which members of Parlia¬ 
ment take before they can sit and vote, but 
being a professed atheist this right was denied 
him. Though he was repeatedly re-elected 
by the same constituency, the majority of the 
House of Commons continued to declare him 
disqualified for taking the oath or affirming; 
and it was only after the election of a new 
Parliament in 1885 that he was allowed to 
take his seat without opposition as a represent¬ 
ative of Northampton. He was editor of the 
National Reformer. 

Brad'ley, James (1692-1762), English astron¬ 
omer. He was appointed, in 1721, professor 
of astronomy at Oxford. Six years afterward 
he made known his discovery of the aberra¬ 
tion of light, and his researches for many 
years were chiefly directed toward finding out 
methods for determining precisely that aber¬ 


ration. In 1741 Bradley was made astron¬ 
omer-royal, and removed to Greenwich. 

Bradley, Joseph P. (1813-1892), American 
jurist; graduated at Rutgers College in 1836, 
and was admitted to the Ibar in 1839. He 
practised as a railroad and insurance lawyer, 
and on March 21, 1870, was called to the 
supreme bench of the U. S. In early days he 
was a Whig in politics, became a Republican 
about 1856, and contested the sixth congres¬ 
sional district of New Jersey unsuccessfully 
in 1862. Justice Bradley was a member of the 
Hayes-Tilden electoral commission, where his 
expression in giving the decision to Hayes 
procured for him the nickname of “Aliunde 
Joe.” 

Bradshaw, John (1586-1659), president of 
the High Court of Justice which tried and 
condemned Charles I. He studied law at 
Gray’s Inn and attained a fair practise. When 
the king’s trial was determined upon, Brad¬ 
shaw was appointed president of the court; 
and his stern and unbending deportment at 
the trial did not disappoint expectation. 
Afterward he opposed Cromwell and the Pro¬ 
tectorate, and was in consequence deprived of 
the chief-justiceship of Chester. On the death 
of Cromwell he became lord president of the 
council. At the restoration his body was 
exhumed and hung on a gibbet with those of 
Cromwell and Ireton. 

Bradstreet, Anne (1612-1672), the first 
American poet. She was a daughter of Gov. 
Thomas Dudley, and was married to Gov¬ 
ernor Bradstreet in 1628. Her complete 
works, prose and verse, have been published 
in Charlestown, Mass., 1868. In 1666 a fire 
destroyed her entire library. Her verses are 
founded on good English models, but lack 
originality, ease, and novelty. 

Bradstreet, Simon (1603-1697), early colonist. 
He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cam¬ 
bridge, and emigrated in 1630. He was chosen 
assistant judge of the court to be established 
in Massachusetts, and later was appointed sec¬ 
retary and agent of the colony, and commis¬ 
sioner of the United Colonies. He became one 
of the founders of Cambridge and of Andover, 
himself residing at Salem, Ipswich, and Bos¬ 
ton. In 1653 he opposed the proposed making 
of war on the Hollanders of New York'and 
the eastern tribe of Indians. In 1660 he went 
to England on the restoration of King Charles 
II, and acted as agent for the colony. From 
1630 until 1679 he served as assistant, and from 
1679 until 1686 he was governor of the colony. 
He was opposed to the severe measures of 
Governor Andros, after whose imprisonment 
he again became governor, and continued in 
office until 1692. When Sir William Phipps 
arrived with a new charter he became first 
councilor. 

Brady, Nicolas (1659-1726). He was rec¬ 
tor of the church of St. Catherine Cree, Lon¬ 
don, and latterly of Richmond, Surrey. He 
made a translation of the iEneid; but is only 
remembered now as the collaborates of Na¬ 
hum Tate in that version of the Psalms com¬ 
monly used in the Episcopal Church. 


Brahmanism 


Braga 

Braga, an ancient town in Northern Por¬ 
tugal, the seat of an archbishop who is pri¬ 
mate of Portugal. There still exist remains of 
a Roman temple, amphitheater, and aqueduct. 
Pop. 20,258. 

Braganza ^or Braganza), a town of Portu¬ 
gal, capital of the former province Trasos- 
montes, with a castle, the ancient seat of the 
dukes of Braganza from whom the present 
reigning family of Portugal are descended. 
Pop. 5,500. 

Braemar', a subdivision of the old district 
of Mar, in thes.w. of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
remarkable for the romantic grandeur of its 
scenery. It lies among the Grampian Moun¬ 
tains, and contains among other heights, Ben 
Macdhui (4,296 ft.), Cairntoul (4,245), Braeri- 
ach (4,225), Cairngorm (4,090), Ben-a-Buird 
(3,869), Ben Avon (3,826), and Lochnagar (3,786). 
B. is traversed by General Wade’s great mili¬ 
tary road from Blairgowrie to Fort George. 
Pop. 482. Balmoral, the highland residence of 
the queen of England, lies toward the e., and 
in the heart of the parish is the village of Cas- 
tleton, the great resort of tourists. 

Bragg, Braxton, soldier (1817-1876), b. in 
North Carolina. He graduated at the U. S. 
military academy in 1837, appointed second 
lieutenant of the third artillery, and served 
against the Seminolesin Florida. In 1846, he 
was brevetted captain for gallant conduct in 
defending Fort Brown, Texas, and was made 
captain. He served in the Mexican War and 
fought at Monterey and Buena Vista. In 1856 
he resigned from the army and engaged in 
planting in Louisiana. At the beginning of the 
Civil War he was appointed brigadier general 
in the Confederate army, and placed in com¬ 
mand at Pensacola, Fla. In 1862, he became 
major general in command of the second di¬ 
vision of the Confederate army. At the battle 
of Shiloh, April 6, 7, 1862, he commanded the 
entire Southern army. After the evacuation 
of Corinth he succeeded General Beauregard in 
command of the department. After the bat¬ 
tle of Perryville, October 8, he retreated to 
Tennessee. He was removed from his com¬ 
mand, and placed under arrest, but was re¬ 
stored to his division, and fought with Rose- 
crans at Stone River, at Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, 
1862, and Jan. 2, 1863, and was defeated. He 
encountered Rosecrans again at Chickamauga, 
Sept. 19, 20, 1863, and was victorious. General 
Grant defeated him at Chattanooga, Nov. 23- 
25, 1863, and in December, General Bragg was 
relieved from command at his own request. 
He was called to Richmond to act as military 
adviser to Jefferson Davis, with whom he was 
a favorite. In 1864 he led a small force from 
North Carolina to Georgia to operate against 
General Sherman, but was unsuccessful. After 
the war he passed his life in retirement, but at 
one time he was chief engineer for the state of 
Alabama, and he superintended the improve¬ 
ments in Mobile Bay. His brother Thomas 
(1810-1872) was governor of North Carolina in 
1854-58, U. S. senator in 1859, and attorney 
general of the Confederacy 1861-63. 

Bragg, Edward S. (1827), removed to Fond 


du Lac, Wis., in 1849, practised law there, and 
in 1854 became district attorney. He was 
commissioned captain May 5, 1861, fought in 
the Army of the Potomac, and came out of 
the war a brigadier general. Bragg’s “Iron 
Brigade” will be long remembered. General 
Bragg, who is as good a talker as he showed 
himself a fighter, was always a Democrat, and 
in 1877 served a term in the Wisconsin legis¬ 
lature. In 1876 he was sent to Congress, 
served by re-election until March, 1883, and 
was again elected in November, 1884. 

Braham (bra'am), John (1771-1856), a cele¬ 
brated tenor singer of Jewish extraction. He 
appeared with great success on the leading 
stages of France, Italy, and the U. S., as well 
as in his own country. He excelled mainly in 
national songs, such as The Bay of Biscay, 0 , 
and The Death of Nelson, and continued to at¬ 
tract large audiences even when eighty } T ears 
of age. 

Brahe (bra'a), Tycho (1546-1601), Danish as¬ 
tronomer. He studied law at Copenhagen and 
Leipsic, but from 1565 gave himself up to as¬ 
tronomy, and in 1580 built an observatory on 
the island of Hveen in the sound, providing it 
with the best implements then procurable. 
Here he excogitated the planetary system as¬ 
sociated with his name, the earth, by his 
theory, being regarded as the center of the 
heavenly bodies. He is chiefly remarkable for 
his services to practical astronomy, his obser¬ 
vations being superior in accuracy to those of 
his predecessors. 

Brah'ma, a Sanskrit word signifying (in its 
neuter form) the Universal Power or ground 
of all existence, and also (in its masculine 
form with long final syllable) a particular god, 
the first person in the Triad (Brama, Vishnu, 
and Siva) of the Hindus. The personal god 
Brahma is represented as a red or golden- 
colored figure with four heads and as many 
arms, and he is often accompanied by the 
swan or goose. He is the god of the Fates, 
master of life and death, yet he is himself 
created, and is merely the agent of Brahma, 
the Universal Power. His moral character is 
no better than that of the Grecian Zeus. 

Brah'manism, a religious and social system 
prevalent among the Hindus, and so-called be¬ 
cause developed and expounded by the sacer¬ 
dotal caste known as the Brahmans. It is 
founded on the ancient religious writings 
known as the Vedas and regarded as sacred 
revelations, of which the Brahmans as a body 
became custodians and interpreters, being also 
the officiating priests and the general directors 
of sacrifices and religious rites. As the priestly 
caste increased in numbers and power they 
went on elaborating the ceremonies, and added 
to the Vedas other writings tending to con¬ 
firm the excessive pretensions of this now 
predominant caste, and give them the sanc¬ 
tion of a revelation. In time the caste of 
Brahmans came to be accepted as a divine 
institution, and an elaborate system of rules 
defining and enforcing by the severest penal¬ 
ties its place, as well as that of the inferior 
castes, was promulgated. Other early castes 


Brahmanism 


Brain 


were the Kshattriyas or warriors, and the 
Yaisyas or cultivators, and it was not without 
a struggle that the former recognized the su¬ 
periority of the Brahmans. It was by the 
Brahmans that the Sanskrit literature was de¬ 
veloped; and they were not only the priests, 
theologians, and philosbphers, but also the 
poets, men of science, lawgivers, administra¬ 
tors, and statesmen of the Aryans of India. 

The sanctity and inviolability of a Brahman 
are maintained by severe penalties. The mur¬ 
der of one of the order, robbing him, etc., are 
inexpiable sins; even the killing of his cow can 
only be expiated by a painful penance. A 
Brahman should pass through four states: 
First, as Brahmachari, or novice, he begins the 
study of the sacred Vedas, and is initiated into 
the privileges and the duties of his caste. He 
has a right to alms, to exemption from taxes, and 
from capital and even corporal punishment. 
Flesh and eggs he is not allowed to eat. Leath¬ 
er, skins of animals, and most animals them¬ 
selves are impure, and not to be touched by 
him. When manhood comes he ought to marry, 
and as Grihastha enter the second state, which 
requires more numerous and minute observ¬ 
ances. When he has begotten a son and trained 
him up for the holy calling he ought to enter the 
third state, and as Vanaprastha, or inhabitant 
of the forest, retire from the world for solitary 
praying and meditation, with severe penances 
to purify the spirit; but this and the fourth or 
last state of a Sannyasi, requiring a cruel de¬ 
gree of asceticism, are now seldom reached, 
and the whole scheme is to be regarded as rep¬ 
resenting rather the Brahmanical ideal of life 
than the actual facts. 

The worship represented in the oldest Vedic 
literature is that of natural objects: the sky, 
personified in the god Indra; the dawn, in 
Ushas; the various attributes of the sun, in 
Vishnu, Surya, Agni, etc. These gods were 
invoked for assistance in the common affairs 
of life, and were propitiated by offerings which, 
at first few and simple, afterward became more 
complicated and included animal sacrifices. In 
the later Vedic hymns a philosophical concep¬ 
tion of religion and the problems of being and 
creation appears struggling into existence; and 
this tendencj' is systematically developed by 
the supplements and commentaries known as 
the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. In some 
of the Upanishads the deities of the old Vedic 
creed are treated as symbolical. Brahma, the 
supreme soul, is the only reality, the world is 
regarded as an emanation from him, and the 
highest good of the soul is to become united 
with the divine. The necessity for the purifi¬ 
cation of the soul in order to its reunion with 
the divine nature gave rise to the doctrine of 
metempsychosis or transmigration. 

This philosophical development of Brahman¬ 
ism gave rise to a distinct separation between 
the educated and the vulgar creeds. While 
from the fifth to the first century b.c. the 
higher thinkers among the Brahmans were 
developing a philosophy which recognized that 
there was but one god, the popular creed had 
concentrated its ideas of worship round three 


great deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, who 
now took the place of the confused old Vedic 
Pantheon. Brahma, the creator, though con¬ 
sidered the most exalted of the three, was too 
abstract an idea to become a popular god, and 
soon sank almost out of notice. Thus the 
Brahmans became divided between Vishnu, 
the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer and re¬ 
producer, and the worshipers of these two 
deities now form the two great religious sects 
of India. Siva, in his philosophical signifi¬ 
cance, is the deity mostly worshiped by the 
conventional Brahman, while inHiis aspect of 
the destroyer, or in one of his female mani¬ 
festations, he is the god of the low castes, and 
often worshiped with degrading rites. But 
the highly cultivated Brahman is still a pure 
theist, and the educated Hindu in general pro¬ 
fesses to regard the special deity he chooses 
for worship as merely a form under which the 
One First Cause may be approached. 

The system of caste originally, no doubt, 
represented distinctions of race. The early 
classification of the people was that of “twice- 
born” Aryans (priests, warriors, husbandmen) 
and once-born non-Aryans (serfs); but inter¬ 
marriages, giving rise to a mixed progeny, and 
the variety of employments in modern times, 
have profoundly modified this simple classi¬ 
fication. Innumerable minor distinctions have 
grown up, so that among the Brahmans alone 
there are several hundred castes who cannot 
intermarry or eat food cooked by each other. 

The Brahmans represent the highest culture 
of India, and as the result of centuries of edu¬ 
cation and self-restraint have evolved a type of 
man distinctly superior to the castes around 
them. They have still great influence, and 
occupy the highest places at the courts of 
princes. Many, however, are driven by need 
or other motives into trades and employments 
inconsistent with the original character of 
their caste. 

Brahmaputra, a great river of India. Rises 
in Thibet, flows through Assam and Bengal 
and falls into the Bay of Bengal. It is navi¬ 
gable for about 800 mi. from the sea, its total 
length being, perhaps, 1,800 mi. 

Brahmo=Somaj or the Theistic Church of 
India, was founded in 1830 by an enlightened 
Brahman, who sought to purify his religion 
from impurities and idolatries. This church, 
while accepting what religious truth the Ve¬ 
das may contain, rejects the idea of their 
special infallibility, and founds its faith on 
principles of reason. The members do not in 
principle recognize the distinction of caste, 
and have made great efforts to weaken this as 
well as other prejudices among their country¬ 
men. 

Brahms, Johannes, (1833-1897), a great Ger¬ 
man composer, introduced to the world by 
Schumann and a bitter opponent of Wagner 
and the Wagnerian school of music. 

. Braila, a town in Roumania, formerly a for¬ 
tress on the Danube. The export of grain 
and the sturgeon fisheries are among the prin¬ 
cipal industries in Brai'la. Pop. about 32,000. 

Brain, the center of the nervous system, and 


Brainerd 


Brant 


the seat of consciousness and volition in man 
and the higher animals. See Anatomy. 

Brainerd, Crow Wing co., Minn, on the 
Mississippi River, 115 mi. w.s.w. of Duluth. 
Railroad: Northern Pacific. Brainerd is a 
trade center and has railroad shops and a saw¬ 
mill. Pop. 1900, 7,524. 

Brake, a contrivance for retarding or arrest¬ 
ing motion by means of friction. In machinery 
it generally consists of a simple or compound 
lever, that may be pressed forcibly upon the 
periphery of a wheel, fixed upon a shaft or 
axis. A similar contrivance is attached to road 
and railway carriages, but continuous brakes 
applied to every pair of wheels in a railway 
train, and operated by air either by the com¬ 
pression or vacuum method, are now generally 
used on railways. By the first method, of 
which the Westinghouse brake is an example, 
the air is compressed by a pump on the loco¬ 
motive and conveyed by pipes and tubes to 
cylinders which are under each car, and the 
pistons of which act on the brake-levers. In 
the vacuum method, exemplified in the Lough- 
ridge brake, the air is exhausted from the de¬ 
vice beneath the car, and the pressure of the 
atmosphere operates the brake-levers. 

Bramah, Joseph (1749-1814), the inventor 
of the Bramah lock, the Bramah press, etc. 
He set up business in London as manufacturer 
of various small articles in metal-work, and 
distinguished himself by a long series of in¬ 
ventions, such as improvements in paper mak¬ 
ing, fire engines, printing machines, etc. He 
is especially known for an ingeniously con¬ 
structed lock and for the hydraulic press 
(which see). 

Bramante (bra-man' ta), Francesco Lazzari 
(1444-1514), a great Italian architect. He was 
patronized by the popes, and his first great 
work at Rome was the union of the straggling 
buildings of the Vatican with the Belvedere 
gardens, so as to form one fine whole. But 
his greatest work was the part he had in the 
building of the new church of St. Peter at 
Rome, of which he was the first architect. 

Bramble, the name commonly applied to 
the bush with trailing prickly stems which 



Branch of Common Bramble, a .— Flower; b .— Fruit. 


bears the well-known berries usually called in 
Scotland brambles, and in England black¬ 


berries. It is similar to the raspberry, and 
belongs to the same genus, natural order Ro- 
saceae. It is rarely cultivated, but as a wild 
plant it grows in great abundance. The flowers 
do not appear till late in the summer, and the 
fruit, which is deep purple or almost black in 
color, does not ripen till autumn. 

Bran, the husky part of wheat separated by 
the bolter from the flour. Its components are: 
water, 13; gluten, 19.5; fatty matter, 5; husk 
with starch, 55; and ashes, 7.5; but the results 
of different analyses vary considerably. It is 
employed in feeding cattle, and has also been 
found useful as a manure. 

Bran'denburg, a province of Prussia. The 
province produces much grain, as well as fruits, 
hemp, flax, tobacco, etc., and supports many 
sheep. The forests are very extensive. Ber¬ 
lin is locally in Brandenburg. Area 15,400 sq. 
mi.; pop. 4,120,577, including the city of Ber¬ 
lin. The Old Mark of Brandenburg was be¬ 
stowed by the emperor Charles IV on Frederick 
of Hohenzollern, and is the center round which 
the present extensive kingdom of Prussia has 
grown up. The town Brandenburg is on the 
Havel 35 mi. w.s.w. of Berlin, and has con¬ 
siderable manufactures, including silk, wool¬ 
ens, leather, etc. Pop. 33,129. 

Brandy, the liquor obtained by the distilla¬ 
tion of wine, or of the refuse of the winepress. 
It is colorless at first, but usually derives a 
brownish color from the casks in which it is 
kept, or from coloring matter added to it. 
The best brandy is made in France, particu¬ 
larly in the Cognac district in the department 
of Charente. Much of the so-called brandy 
sold in Britain and America is made there 
from more or less coarse whisky, flavored 
and colored to resemble the real article; and 
France itself also exports quantities of this 
stuff. Brandy is often used medicinally as 
a stimulant, stomachic, and restorative, or 
in mild diarrhoea. In America various dis¬ 
tilled liquors get the name of brandy, as cider 
brandy, peach brandy. 

Brandywine Creek, a small river which 
rises in the state of Pennsylvania, passes into 
the state of Delaware, and joins Christiana 
Creek near Wilmington. It gives its name to 
a battle fought near it Sept. 11, 1777, between 
the British and Americans, in which the lat¬ 
ter were defeated. 

Brank (or Branks), an instrument formerly 
in use in Scotland, and to some extent also in 
England, as a punishment for scolds. It con¬ 
sisted of an iron frame which went over the 
head of the offender, and had in front an iron 
plate which was inserted in the mouth, where 
it was fixed above the tongue, and kept it 
perfectly quiet. 

Brant, Joseph (1742-1807), Indian chief, b. 
in Ohio. At the age of thirteen he accom¬ 
panied his two elder brothers, who partici¬ 
pated in Sir William Johnson’s campaign 
against the French at Lake George. He was 
sent to the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock’s Indian 
school at Lebanon, Conn., became interpreter 
to a missionary in 1772, and was frequently 
employed by Sir William Johnson as an agent 


Brantford 


Brasses 


among various tribes. During the Revolution 
the Mohawks adhered to the British, and 
Brant went to England. In 1776 he returned 
to Canada, and received a commission in the 
British army, in which he attained the rank 
of colonel, but was always known as captain. 
He participated in the battle of Oriskany, 
Aug. 6, 1777, one of the bloodiest engage¬ 
ments of the war, and led the Indians in many 
raids on the borders of New York. He was 
not present at the massacre of Wyoming. 
Brant laid waste the Mohawk Yalley with 300 
Indians and Tories. After the war the Six 
Nations found that they had no mention in 
the treaty, and Brant asked for a tract of land 
on the north shore of Lake Erie, which was 
granted. Here he labored for the improve¬ 
ment of his people, and tried to form a confed¬ 
eracy of tribes in Western Canada, but failed. 
He visited England again in 1785, raised funds 
to build a church, and received compensation 
to repair the losses his nation had incurred in 
sustaining the English. He held that his 
people had a right to the territory n.w. of 
the Ohio. He was present at the defeat 
of Gen. Arthur St. Clair on the Miami River 
in 1791. Later he visited the U. S. His 
youngest son, John, became a chief, and took 
part in the War of 1812. 

Brant'ford, a flourishing town of Canada, 
prov. Ontario, on the Grand River (which is 
navigable) 24 mi. w.s.w. of Hamilton; it has 
railway machine shops, foundries, and an 
active trade. Pop. 12,753. 

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, of a 
bright yellow color, and hard, ductile, and mal¬ 
leable. The best brass consists of two parts by 
weight of copper to one of zinc; but any de¬ 
gree of variation may be obtained by altering 
the proportions; thus by increasing the quantity 
of zinc we may form tombac and 'pinchbeck , and 
with nearly a seventh more of zinc than cop¬ 
per the compound becomes brittle and of a 
silver-white color. By increasing the copper, 
on the other hand, the compound increases in 
strength and tenacity. Brass which is to be 
turned or filed is made workable by mixing 
about 2 per cent, of lead in the alloy, which 
has the effect of hardening the brass and pre¬ 
venting the tool being clogged. For engraving 
purposes a little tin is usually mixed with the 
brass. Brass is used for a great variety of 
purposes, both useful and ornamental. The 
working of brass requires considerable skill. 
First the brass is roughly cast in the foundry. 
It is brought thence to the finishing bench, 
where an alloy of copper and tin is cast in 
molding-sand. The brass molders work at 
troughs in which is kept the molding-sand 
which is so cohesive that it may be formed as 
desired. The flask in which the sand is packed 
around the pattern is made of two frames, one 
fitting over the other. One frame has little 
legs of wood called dowels, and the other has 
holes in which these dowels fit, so that when 
these frames are brought together one will re¬ 
main over the other. The frames are made of 
four pieces of wood fitted up with hinge-like 
corner-pieces so that the frame can be un¬ 


locked and taken away from the sand without 
disturbing it. The molder fills one of the 
frames with sand. In the center and on top 
of the sand he lays the pattern and presses it 
into the sand and then fits the other frame 
over it. He shakes some fine sand over the 
pattern and fills the upper frame with mold¬ 
ing-sand which he rams down hard. He then 
scrapes the surplus sand from the top frame 
with a stick and runs a pointed wire into the 
sand toward the pattern, thus providing es¬ 
capes for the gases which form when the molten 
metal is poured in. He then turns over both 
frames and carefully lifts the bottom frame 
exposing the pattern imbedded in the same. 
The pattern is withdrawn by driving a steel 
pin into the wood or by means of a screw pin 
made for the purpose. If the casting is to be 
hollow the cores are now put in place. A core 
is made of sand and paste and rammed into 
molds and afterward baked in a large oven. 
When the cores are laid in place in the hollow 
space left by the pattern the channels are 
scooped out, the frames placed together, and 
the woodwork taken off and the short board 
with a block of sand on it, is laid on the floor. 
False core work is required for some purposes. 
A false core is a part of the mold built up sepa¬ 
rate from the mold proper, and, as it is in small 
pieces it can be taken out without removing the 
pattern. Thus a bust can be buried in the sand, 
but its rounded irregular form, its deep cut 
and incurving impressions, make it impossible 
to withdraw it from the sand without bringing 
part of the mold with it. This is avoided by 
making a mold out of sand packed so tight and 
hammered so close into the different parts of 
the pattern that each part can be taken away, 
and when the pattern is removed can be prop¬ 
erly put together again to form the mold. The 
brass is melted in crucibles which are lifted 
out of the furnace, carried to the molds and 
emptied into the gate, thus filling the hollow 
in the sand. The castings which are to be 
polished are cleaned in water and acids and 
then buffed or burnished. Sometimes they 
are finished by being dipped into solutions of 
nitric acid and water. If a dead finish is de¬ 
sired the acid solution is much weaker than 
if a bright finish is wanted. In burnishing, 
the brass is brought to a high finish by being 
rubbed with polished steel tools, or it is held 
against buffing wheels which are made of 
cotton. A red polish mixture is put on the 
wheel and the high speed polishes the brass. 
This wheel however, can be used only on smooth 
and regular surfaces. The brilliancy and pol¬ 
ish of brass may be preserved by lacquer, 
which is put on and dried in an oven. Brass 
is spun, stamped, pressed, and drawn in the 
same manner as copper, gold, or silver. 

Brasses (Sepulchral or Monumental), large 
plates of brass inlaid in polished slabs of stone, 
and usually exhibiting the figure of the person 
intended to be commemorated, either in a 
carved outline on the plate or in the form of 
the plate itself. In place of the figure we 
sometimes find an ornamented cross. The 
earliest example of these monumental slabs 


Brazil 


Brassey 

now existing in England is that on the tomb 
of Sir John D’Abernon (d. 1277) at Stoke 
D’Abernon in Surrey. These brasses are of 
great value in giving an exact picture of the 
costume of the time to which they belong. 

Brassey, Thomas (1805-1870), an English 
railway contractor. His operations were on 
an immense scale, and extended to most of the 
European countries, as well as to America, 
India, and Australia, one of his greatest works 
being the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, 
with the great bridge over the St. Lawrence 
at Montreal. His son, Thomas, b. 1836, now 
Lord Brassey, was civil lord of the admiralty 
in 1880-84. His wife wrote Voyage of the Sun¬ 
beam and other works descriptive of yachting 
cruises and travels. She d. in 1888. 

Brattleboro, Windham co., Vt., is one of 
the richest towns in the state; site of the state 
insane asylum; has 2 banks, several churches 
and factories, 4 papers. Pop. 1900, 5,297. 

Brazil, a country of South America, and the 
third largest political division of the Western 
Continent, having a length of 2,660 mi., and a 
breadth of 2,705 mi. between extreme points. 
Its coast line extends from Cape Orange on 
the north to Rio Chuy on the south, a distance 
of nearly 4,000 mi. It borders on every state 
in South America except Chile, but the bound¬ 
ary lines with some of them are still in dispute. 
The area of Brazil is about 3,219,000 sq. mi., 
or nearly one half of the South American con¬ 
tinent. 

Physical Features .— Brazil is a triangular- 
shaped country, occupying the eastern angle 
of the continent. It lies almost wholly within 
the tropics, and is still in great part unexplored 
and unsettled. On the north and west are the 
great depressions of the Amazon and Paraguay 
rivers, which comprise large areas of flood- 
plains and swamps, heavily wooded, and al¬ 
most uninhabitable. The upper coast is bor¬ 
dered by low, alluvial bottom-lands and sandy 
plains, full of lakes, and in places very sterile; 
while the southern angle of the country is roll¬ 
ing campo land, bordered by a low sandy coast. 
Above its eastern angle a large area of coast- 
lands and neighboring plateau is subject to 
periodical devastating droughts. The interior 
of the country, however, is a high plateau, 
with a general elevation of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, 
irregularly ridged by mountains and deeply 
cut by large rivers. The mountainous ranges 
of the maritime system form the eastern mar¬ 
gin of this plateau, the easternmost of which 
is known as the Serra do Mar. This range 
plays an important part in the development of 
Brazil, for it is a costly barrier to communica¬ 
tion with the interior, and turns nearly all the 
great rivers inland to find outlets through the 
distant Amazon and La Plata. To the west of 
the maritime system the elevated table-lands 
of the Parand, and San Francisco make great 
bay-like indentations in the northern and 
southern margins of the mountainous area, 
nearly uniting about the headwaters of the 
latter. To the westward of these plains there 
is a second range, nearly parallel with the 
maritime system, constituting the mountains 


of Goyaz. To the westward of these come the 
great elevated plains of the Amazonian and 
Upper Paraguayan regions. The mountains 
are composed almost exclusively of uplifted 
strata of great geological age, gneiss and 
metamorphic schists, with granite and other 
eruptive rocks. The great elevated plains are 
composed of horizontal strata dating from the 
Silurian Age, so profoundly modified by the 
deep excavations of the valleys that this part 
of the country is generally, but erroneously, 
represented as mountainous. Brazil possesses 
three great river-systems—the Amazon, La 
Plata, and San Francisco. The Amazon and 
its tributaries drain fully a half of the country. 
To the east of the Madeira these tributaries 
are table-land rivers, broken by rapids and 
freely navigable for comparatively short dis¬ 
tances. West of the Madeira they are lowland 
rivers, sluggish, bordered by extensive flood- 
plains, and afford free navigation for long dis¬ 
tances. The La Plata system drains nearly 
one fifth of the country through its three 
branches—the Paraguay, Parand, and Uru¬ 
guay. The first of these is a lowland river, 
freely navigable for a long distance, while the 
other two are table-land rivers, full of obstruc¬ 
tions, and without free outlets for their upper- 
level navigation. The San Francisco is a 
table-land river, flowing northeast between 
the Goyaz and maritime mountains, and then, 
breaking through the latter, southeast to the 
Atlantic. Its tributaries are comparatively 
short, and nearly disappear along the lower 
river in the region of slight rainfall. It is not 
freely navigable because of the Paulo Affonso 
Falls. The other coast rivers are generally 
short, the longest being the Parahyba, and 
have but little utility for navigation. The 
climate of Brazil varies greatly—the lowlands 
of the Amazon and a great part of the coast 
being hot, humid, and unhealthy, while the 
tablelands and some districts of the coast 
swept by the tradewinds are temperate and 
healthy. 

The vegetation of Brazil is luxuriant and 
varied. The vast forests of the Amazon con¬ 
tain hundreds of species of trees, draped and 
festooned by climbing plants, lianas, orchids, 
etc. Rosewood, Brazilwood, and others supply 
valuable timber; tropical fruits are abundant, 
and other products are noted in the section on 
commerce. The number of species of animals 
is also very large, but the individuals in each 
are comparatively few. Beasts of prey are the 
jaguar, puma, tiger-cat, and ocelot; the other 
animals include the monkey, tapir, capybara, 
peccary, ant-eater, sloth, and boa-constrictor. 
Alligators, turtles, porpoises, and manatees 
swarm in the Amazon; and among birds, the 
parrots and humming-birds are especially nu¬ 
merous. 

Population.— The population of Brazil is about 
13,540,000. The proportion of non-producers 
is very large, the natural conditions of the 
country rendering labor but slightly necessary 
to meet the ordinary requirements of life. The 
institution of slavery has had much to do with 
this state of things, by degrading manual labor, 


Brazil 


Brazil 


and making idleness respectable. The African 
slave trade was prohibited in 1831, but did not 
actually cease until 1854. In 1871 a gradual 
emancipation law was adopted, which declared 
the children b. thereafter of slave mothers to 
be free, but obliged to serve the mother’s mas¬ 
ter until the age of twenty-one years. It also 
provided for a fund with which to liberate 
slaves by purchase. The number of slaves 
registered in 1873 under this law was 1,540,796. 
Through the operations of the fund 30,014 
slaves had been ransomed up to the beginning 
of 1887. The number of slaves voluntarily lib¬ 
erated and ransomed through private efforts 
was very large, and two provinces (Ceard and 
Amazonas) had been declared entirely free. 
In 1885 a second law was adopted, providing 
for a new registry, declaring all sexagenarians 
free, but with obligatory service until the age 
of sixty-five years, and fixing an official valu¬ 
ation on all slaves, to prevent further abuses of 
the emancipation fund. The official returns 
of the registry under this law (closed March 
31, 1887), gave 723,419; the number of sexa¬ 
genarians liberated was about 100,000, and the 
number enrolled for obligatory service under 
the law was 18,946. Finally, by the law of 
May 13, 1888, immediate and unconditional 
emancipation was decreed, although Brazil 
had been unable wholly to replace the system 
of slave labor. Immigrant labor was still 
limited, the poorer rural population was both 
untrained and opposed to habits of industry, 
and the labor of freed slaves had hitherto been 
utilized only to a limited extent. Recent 
events, however, have proved that kind treat¬ 
ment and good pay will keep a very large per¬ 
centage of the freedmen on the plantations. 

The Roman Catholic is the established re¬ 
ligion and is supported by the state; but all 
other sects are tolerated. There are, however, 
less than 30,000 non-Catholics in the country. 
Education is compulsory in several provinces, 
but is still in a very backward condition. The 
language is Portuguese, with different dialects. 

Political Divisions .—The government of Bra¬ 
zil, or the United States of Brazil, com¬ 
prises twenty states and a federal district. 
These states are Alagoas, Amaxonas, Bahia, 
Ceara, Esprito Santo, Goyaz, Maranhao, Matto 
Grosso, Minas Geraes, Para, Parahyba, Par¬ 
ana, Pernambuco, Piauby, Rio de Janeiro 
(city), Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, 
Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, Santa Catha- 
rina, and Sergipe. Each state has a local re¬ 
publican government with governor and legis¬ 
lature elected by /the people. The executive 
and legislative officers of the general govern¬ 
ment consist of a president and a vice-presi¬ 
dent chosen by electors, a chamber of depu¬ 
ties, elected by the people, and a senate elected 
by the legislatures of the states. Each state is 
entitled to three senators and one member of 
the chamber of deputies for each 70,000 
population. The army of Brazil consists in 
time of peace of 13,500 men, and the navy of 
43 vessels with about 6,000 officers and men. 

Commerce. —Agriculture, mining, and forest 
products are the principal industries of Brazil. 


Manufacturing is as yet little developed. The 
coast fisheries have been neglected, although 
Brazil is a large consumer of cod fish. Forest 
products are rubber, mate, nuts, cocoa, me¬ 
dicinal plants, cabinet and dye woods. Coffee 
is the greatest of the agricultural products, and 
v furnishes about two thirds of the total exports 
of the nation. Sugar ranks second in impor¬ 
tance as an export, and the production of cot¬ 
ton and tobacco has decreased, and that of 
tapioca has nearly disappeared. Rice, maize, 
and other products are grown to a limited ex¬ 
tent. Gold and diamonds are found in some 
of the states, but the annual production at 
present is not large. There are a few iron 
mines producing ore of superior quality, but 
the absence of coal is a serious obstacle to the 
development of this industry. The inhabit¬ 
ants of the southern states of the republic 
are much more industrious and energetic than 
those who live in the northern states. Several 
German colonies are located in the southern 
states. Brazil is now in steamship and tele¬ 
graphic communication with all the world. 
The first railway was opened in 1854, and there 
are now about 8,000 miles completed and in 
process of construction. The roads have been 
constructed for the most part directly or indi¬ 
rectly by government aid. There are about 
10,000 miles of telegraph lines in the country. 

History .—Brazil was first discovered in 1500, 
by Pinzon, who landed at Cape St. Augustine 
and then followed the coast north to the mouth 
of the Orinoco. In the same year a Portu¬ 
guese expedition to the East Indies, under 
Pedro Alvarez Cabral, discovered the Brazilian 
coast near Porto Seguro. Cabral took formal 
possession, and named his new discovery 
“ Terra da Yera Cruz.” Two Portuguese ex¬ 
peditions were sent out in 1501 and 1503, 
exploring the coast and planting a colony, and 
bringing back a rich cargo of brazilwood. 

In 1530 the Portuguese government resolved 
upon the definite settlement of Brazil, and the 
plan adopted was its division into hereditary 
captaincies, which should be granted to pri¬ 
vate individuals, with ample powers for the 
founding of colonies on their own account. 
Many of the earliest colonies failed through 
lack of means, and from inability to hold their 
ground against the natives. In 1567 a Hugue¬ 
not colony, established on the bay of Rio de 
Janeiro 12 years before, was overthrown by 
the Portuguese, who then founded the present 
capital of Brazil. Portugal and her colonies 
having become dependencies of Spain, a 
squadron sent out by the Dutch in 1623 to 
seize Brazil captured the colonial capital, Ba¬ 
hia. The Dutch lost the city in 1625, but in 
1630 they captured Pernambuco, which, with 
several neighboring places, they held for over 
20 years. In 1640 Portugal regained her inde¬ 
pendence, and in 1654 her former possessions, 
but without any definite settlement of her 
boundary disputes with Spain. To strengthen 
her claim to the territory on the eastern shore 
of the La Plata, the town of Colonia, opposite 
Buenos Ayres, was founded in 1679; this was 
the beginning of a bitter struggle for the 


Brazil 


Bread 


present republic of Uruguay, lasting nearly 
150 years, until the independence of that ter¬ 
ritory was formally recognized in 1827 by Dom 
Pedro I. The discovery of gold in Minas 
Geraes in 1093, and of diamonds in 1729, gave 
a new impetus to the growth of the country, 
one result of which was the removal of the 
colonial capital from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro. 
The cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and sugar 
cane had already attained great prominence 
and prosperity in the northern captaincies. 
The colonial system of Portugal, however, 
was one of selfish exclusion and greedy ex¬ 
tortion. The colony was rigidly closed to 
foreigners, industry was burdened by restric¬ 
tions and monopolies, the taxes were farmed 
out, the authorities were arbitrary and grasp¬ 
ing, the administration of justice was slow 
and corrupt, printing was forbidden, the people 
were grossly ignorant, turbulent, and immoral, 
and internal communication was slow and 
difficult. In 1808 the royal family of Portugal 
was expelled by the French and took refuge 
in Brazil, and the very first act of Dom Joao 
VI was to open Brazilian ports to foreign com¬ 
merce. He then removed various restrictions 
on domestic industries, founded a printing 
office and library, created new courts, and 
opened various schools and public institu¬ 
tions. All these acts greatly stimulated the 
growth of the country. In 1821 he returned 
to Portugal, leaving his eldest son in Brazil as 
prince regent. Personal ambition, and the 
advice of men opposed to government from 
Lisbon, led the young prince to declare for 
Brazilian independence, Sept. 7, 1822. He 
was proclaimed and crowned emperor—as Dom 
Pedro I—before the end of the year, the small 
Portuguese force in the country being quickly 
and easily expelled. The constitution was rat¬ 
ified and sworn to early in 1825, and some 
amendments were added in 1835. The new 
empire, however, did not start smoothly, nor 
was the reign of Dom Pedro I a fortunate one. 
Vexed with the opposition encountered, he in 
1831 voluntarily abdicated in favor of his eld¬ 
est son, and withdrew to Portugal. During 
the next nine years Brazil was governed by 
regencies, but in 1840 a popular agitation led 
to the declaration of the young prince’s ma¬ 
jority, at 15 years of age, and to his corona¬ 
tion the following year as Dom Pedro II. The 
reign of this sovereign was one of almost un¬ 
broken peace (save for one or two insignificant 
revolutionary outbreaks and disputes with 
neighboring states) until Nov. 15, 1889, when 
he was dethroned, he and his family exiled, 
and Brazil declared a republic, under the title 
of the United States of Brazil. 

Brazil, Clay co., Ind., 16 mi. e.n.e. of Terre 
Haute. Railroads: Vandalia; C. & E. I. In 
the Indiana block coal district. Has numer¬ 
ous collieries and extensive iron blastfurnaces. 
Also manufactures of boilers, chairs, terra 
cotta, etc. Pop. 1900, 7,786. 

Brazilwood, a kind of wood yielding a red 
dye obtained from several trees native of the 
West Indies and Central and South America. 
The wood is hard and heavy, and as it takes 


on a fine polish it is used by cabinet-makers 
for various purposes, but its principal use is 
in dyeing red. The dye is obtained by reduc¬ 
ing the wood to powder and boiling it in 
water, when the water receives the red color¬ 
ing principle, which is a crystallizable sub¬ 
stance called brazilin. The color is not perma¬ 
nent unless fixed by suitable mordants. 

Brazos (brii'zos), a large river of Texas, ris¬ 
ing in the w. part of the state and flowing into 
the Gulf of Mexico after a course of 900 mi., 40 
mi. w.s.w. Galveston. During the rainy sea¬ 
son, from February to May inclusive, it is nav¬ 
igable by steamboats for about 300 miles. 

Brazza (brat'sa), an island in the Adriatic, 
part of Dalmatia, 24 mi. long and from 5 to 7 
broad, mountainous and well wooded. It pro¬ 
duces good wines and oil, almonds, silk, etc. 
Pop. about 20,000. 

Bread is the flour or meal of grain kneaded 
with water into a tough and consistent paste 
and baked. There are numerous kinds of 
bread, according to materials and methods of 
preparation; but all may be divided into two 
classes: fermented, leavened, or raised, and unfer¬ 
mented, unleavened, not raised. The latter is the 
simplest, and no doubt was the original kind, 
and is still exemplified by biscuits, the oat 
cakes of Scotland, the corn bread of America, 
the dampers of the Australian colonies, and the 
still ruder bread of savage races. It was prob¬ 
ably by accident that the method of bringing 
the paste into a state of fermentation was 
found out, by which its toughness is almost en¬ 
tirely destroyed, and it becomes porous, pala¬ 
table, and digestible. All the cereals are used 
in making bread, each zone using those which 
are native to it. Thus maize, millet, and rice 
are used for the purpose in the hotter coun¬ 
tries, rye, barley, and oats in the colder, and 
wheat in the intermediate or more temperate 
regions. In the most advanced countries bread 
is made from wheat, which makes the lightest 
and most spongy bread. The fermentation 
necessary for ordinary loaf-bread is generally 
produced by means of leaven or yeast. Most 
bakers use the compressed yeast, which is dis¬ 
solved in scalding water and poured into the 
“mixer.” Enough flour is added to make a 
thin paste. This is left two or three hours to 
ferment and then the sponge is ready to be 
made into dough. Salt is put in the sponge, 
then milk, lard, and sugar, and finally enough 
flour to make a good stiff dough. The mixer 
is a semicylindrical trough about four feet 
long, in which is a shaft with iron arms run¬ 
ning spirally around it, and this becomes a 
kneading machine, when the dough is made 
up and the sponger shifts the belt to the tight 
pulley. The iron arms revolve in the trough, 
working the dough over and over. The dough 
is sliced from the arms of the machine as it 
drags through the mass, thus allowing it to 
work every particle of dough. From this 
trough the dough is put into deep wooden 
troughs, where it is kept covered up for two or 
three hours. During this time it is carefully 
watched, and now and then it is “beaten 
down” by two men, who pass their arms into 


Breadfruit 


Breakwater 


the dough. The dough is then taken from the 
trough and thrown on to a bench. One of the 
henchmen cuts off a batch of dough weighing 
about fifteen pounds, which is placed in a di¬ 
viding machine, which forces a number of 
cutting edges up through the dough, dividing 
it into twelve equal parts. These are torn 
apart and tossed on to a bench, where they are 
quickly kneaded and molded into round loaves. 
The balls of dough are placed in wooden boxes 
about 5 ft. long, 3 ft. wide, with sides 4 in. 
high. A dozen loaves are put in each box, so 
separated that when they swell up they will 
not touch each other. These boxes filled are 
piled up one on the other, and after remaining 
thus for some time the dough is taken out and 
worked again, after which the dough is nicely 
molded into loaves and placed in pans 9 in. 
long, 4£ in. high, and 4£ in. wide. In a short 
time they are placed in the oven. An or¬ 
dinary baker’s oven is about 16 ft. in diameter, 
and is circular in shape. The bottom of the 
oven is made of soapstone, and revolves over 
the fire. The pans containing the dough are 
placed in the oven by means of a large wooden 
paddle. The oven will hold about 350 loaves, 
and requires about a half hour for baking. As 
soon as the loaves are brought from the oven 
they are removed from the pans and taken to 
a cool, dry room, whence they go to the wagons 
for delivery. Vienna bread is made by a proc¬ 
ess which differs from the above in some re¬ 
spects. Instead of putting the dough into 
boxes it is rolled up into long, slim pieces, and 
each piece is wrapped up in canvas bagging 
and laid away until ready for the oven. Then 
the canvas is removed and the loaves are laid 
directly on the bottom of the oven, and not in 
pans. Before the loaves are placed in the oven 
each loaf is washed with a cornstarch prepara¬ 
tion. Three slices are made along the top of 
the loaf with a keen razor. When the loaves 
are laid on the soapstone the oven is charged 
with steam, and this, with the cornstarch prep¬ 
aration, gives Vienna bread that peculiar crisp 
crust. About 250 loaves of bread are made 
from a barrel of flour, and the average loaf is 
supposed to weigh about a pound. Aerated 
bread is so called because made with aerated 
water, that is, water strongly impregnated 
with carbonic acid under pressure, the dough 
being also worked up under pressure and caused 
to expand by the carbonic acid when the press¬ 
ure is removed. 

Brown or whole-flour bread is considered to 
be very wholesome. It is made from undressed 
wheat, and consequently contains the bran as 
well as the flour. 

Breadfruit, a large globular fruit of a pale- 
green color, about the size of a child’s head, 
marked on the surface with irregular six-sided 
depressions, and containing a white and some¬ 
what fibrous pulp, which when ripe becomes 
juicy and yellow. The tree that produces it 
belongs to the order Artocarpaceae (nearly al¬ 
lied to the Urticaceae or nettle tribe), and 
grows wild in Otaheite and other islands of the 
South Seas, whence it was introduced into the 
West Indies and S. A. It is about 40 ft. high 


with large and spreading branches, and has 
large, bright, green leaves deeply divided into 
seven or nine spear-shaped lobes. The fruit is 
generally eaten immediately after being gath¬ 
ered, but is also often prepared so as to keep 
for some time either by baking it whole in 
close underground pits or by heating it into 
paste and storing it underground, when a 



Breadfruit. 


slight fermentation takes place. The eatable 
part lies between the skin and the core, and is 
somewhat of the consistence of new bread. 
Mixed with cocoanut milk it makes an excel¬ 
lent pudding. The inner bark of the tree is 
made into a kind of cloth. The wood is used 
for the building of boats and for furniture. 
The jack much used in India and Ceylon is 
another member of this genus. 

Bread=nuts, the seeds of the Brosimum ali- 
castrum, a tree of the same order as the bread¬ 
fruit (which see). The bread-nut tree is a 
native of Jamaica. Its wood, which resembles 
mahogany, is useful to cabinetmakers, and its 
nuts make a pleasant food, in taste not unlike 
hazelnuts. 

Break'water, a work constructed in front 
of a harbor to serve as a protection against the 
violence of the waves. The name may also be 
given to any structure which is erected in the 
sea with the object of breaking the force of the 
waves without, and producing a calm within. 
Breakwaters are usually constructed by sink¬ 
ing loads of unwrought stone along the line 
where they are to be laid, and allowing them to 
find their angle of repose under the action of 
the waves. When the mass rises to the sur¬ 
face, or near it, it is surmounted with a pile 
of masonry, sloped outwards in such a manner 
as will best enable it to resist the action of the 
waves. The great breakwaters are those of 
Cherbourg in France, Plymouth in England, 
and Delaware Bay in the U. S. In less im¬ 
portant localities floating breakwaters are 
occasionally used. These are built of strong 
open woodwork, partly above and partly under 
water, divided into several sections, and se¬ 
cured by chains attached to fixed bodies. The 






Breath 


Breeding 


breakers lose nearly all their force in passing 
through the beams of such a structure. A 
breakwater of this kind may last for twenty- 
five years. 

Breath, the air which issues from the lungs 
during respiration through the nose and mouth. 
A smaller portion of oxygen and a larger por¬ 
tion of carbonic acid are contained in the air 
which is exhaled than in that which is inhaled. 
There are also aqueous particles in the breath, 
which are precipitated by the coldness of the 
external air in the form of visible vapor; like¬ 
wise other substances which owe their origin 
to secretions in the mouth, nose, windpipe, and 
lungs. These cause the changes in the breath 
which may be known by the smell. A bad 
breath is often caused by local affections in the 
nose, the mouth, or the windpipe; viz., by ul¬ 
cers in the nose, cancerous polypi, by discharges 
from the mouth, by sores on the lungs, or 
peculiar secretions in them. It is also caused 
by decayed teeth, by impurities in the mouth, 
and by some kinds of food. 

Breche=de=RoIand (brash-de-ro-lan), that is, 
“the breach of Roland, ’ ’ a mountain pass in the 
Pyrenees, between France and Spain, which, 
according to a well-known legend, was opened 
up by Roland, one of the paladins of Charle¬ 
magne, with one blow of his sword Durandal, 
in order to afford a passage to his army. It is 
an immense gap in the rocky, mountain barrier 
43 mi. to the n. of Huesca. 

Breckenridge, William C. P., American 
congressman and orator, b. 1837, at Baltimore, 
Md. He was graduated from Center College, 
Ky., in 1855, and two years later was graduated 
in law from the University of Louisville. He 
served as colonel of the Ninth Kentucky 
cavalry in the Confederate army. He was 
a member of the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty- 
first, Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses. 
A breach of promise suit was instituted 
against him and his political career was prac¬ 
tically ended. 

Breckenridge, John Cabell (1821-1875), 
American soldier and statesman. He was the 
grandson of John Breckenridge, U. S. senator, 
was educated at Center College, Ky., and prac¬ 
tised law in his native town. He served in the 
war with Mexico as major of a volunteer regi¬ 
ment. On his return he was elected to the 
Kentucky legislature, and elected to Congress 
in 1851 and 1853 as a Democrat. In 1856 he 
became vice-president of the U. S., with Bu¬ 
chanan as president, and in 1860 was nomi¬ 
nated for president by the extreme Southern 
Democrats, who withdrew from the national 
convention that was held in Charleston, S. C. 
He received the electoral vote of all the slave 
states, except Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
and Missouri. In 1861 he took his seat in the 
U. S. Senate as successor to John J. Crittenden, 
but was expelled Dec. 4, 1861, on account of 
his political opinions, and went south to en¬ 
ter the Confederate army, in which he was 
appointed a brigadier general. He was ap¬ 
pointed a major general in 1862, and com¬ 
manded the Confederate reserve at Shiloh. 
He commanded the right wing of Gen. Brax¬ 


ton Bragg’s reserve at Murfreesboro. He 
served at Chickamauga and Chattanooga; de¬ 
feated Gen. Franz Sigel at Newmarket, Va.; 
joined General Lee’s army, and served at Cold 
Harbor; served under Gen. Jubal Early in his 
advance on Washington, and shared in his de¬ 
feat by Sheridan near Winchester, Va., Sep¬ 
tember, 1864. From January till April, 1865, 
he was secretary of war in Jefferson Davis’s 
cabinet, and after the downfall of the Confed¬ 
eracy he went to Europe by way of Cuba. He 
returned to Kentucky in 1868, where he died. 

Breda (bra-dii/), a town in Holland, province 
of North Brabant. Pop. 22,987. Breda was 
once a strong fortress and of great military im¬ 
portance as a strategical position. From the 
sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century 
Breda has an interesting military history of 
sieges, assaults, and captures, with which the 
names of the most famous generals of their 
time, the Duke of Parma, Maurice of Orange, 
the Marquis of Spinola, Dumouriez, and Piche- 
gru, etc., are connected. It was the residence 
for a time of the exiled Charles II of England, 
and it was in the Declaration of Breda that he 
promised liberty of conscience, a general am¬ 
nesty, etc., on his restoration. 

Breech (Breech-Loading). The breech is 
the solid mass of metal behind the bore of a 
gun, and that by which the shock of the ex¬ 
plosion is principally sustained. In breech¬ 
loading arms the charge is introduced here, 
there being a mechanism by which the breech 
can be opened and closed. In small arms the 
advantages of breech-loading for rapidity of 
fire, facility of cleaning, etc., have recently 
recommended it to general use, and its efficacy 
for military purposes was effectively demon¬ 
strated by the Prussian campaign against 
Denmark and Austria in 1864 and 1866. Since 
that time every government has adopted the 
new system, both in small arms and heavy 
ordnance, while breech-loading sporting arms 
are also in general use. The chief difficulty 
in breech-loading is to close the breech so as 
to prevent the escape of the highly elastic gas 
to which the force of the explosion is due, but 
the appliances of modern science and mechan¬ 
ical art may be said to have effectually met 
this difficulty. 

Breeding, the art of improving races or 
breeds of domestic animals, or modifying 
them in certain directions, by continuous at¬ 
tention to their pairing, in connection with a 
similar attention to their feeding and general 
treatment. Animals (and plants no less) show 
great susceptibility of modification under sys¬ 
tematic cultivation; and there can be no doubt 
that by such cultivation the sum of desirable 
qualities in particular races has been greatly 
increased, and that in two ways. Individual 
specimens are produced possessing more good 
qualities than can be found in any one speci¬ 
men of the original stock; and from the same 
stock many varieties are taken characterized 
by different perfections, the germs of all of 
which may have been in the original stock but 
could not have been simultaneously developed 
in a single specimen. But when an effort is 


Brietenfeld 


Brescia 


made to develop rapidly, or to its extreme 
limit, any particular quality, it is always made 
at the expense of some other quality, or of 
other qualities generally, by which the intrin¬ 
sic value of the result is necessarily affected. 
High speed in horses, for example, is only at¬ 
tained at the expense of a sacrifice of strength 
and power of endurance. So the celebrated 
merino sheep are the result of a system of 
breeding which reduces the general size and 
vigor of the animal, and diminishes the value 
of the carcass. Much care and judgment, 
therefore, are needed in breeding, not only in 
order to produce a particular effect, but also 
to produce it with the least sacrifice of other 
qualities. 

Breeding, as a means of improving domestic 
animals, has been practised more or less sys¬ 
tematically wherever any attention has been 
paid to the care of live stock, and nowhere 
have more satisfactory results been obtained 
than in Britain. One of the earliest improvers 
in Britain was Robert Bakewell, of Disliley, in 
Leicestershire, who commenced his experi¬ 
ments about 1745, and was very successful, 
especially with sheep, the celebrated Dishley 
breed of Leicestershire sheep having since 
maintained a high reputation. . Quantity of 
meat, smallness of bone, lightness of offal; in 
cows, yield and quality of milk; in sheep, 
weight of fleece and fineness of wool, have 
all been studied with remarkable effects by 
modern breeders. 

Breitenfeld (bri'tn-felt), a village in Ger¬ 
many, in Saxony, 4 mi. n. of Leipsic, notable 
as the scene of two battles of the Thirty 
Years’ War, the first gained by Gustavus 
Adolphus over Tilly and Pappenheim in 1631; 
the second by the Swedish general Torstenson 
over the Imperialists commanded by Arch¬ 
duke Leopold and Piccolomini in 1642. It 
was also the scene of one of the great group of 
battles between the allies and Napoleon, Oct. 
16, 1813. 

Bremen (bra'men), a free city of Germany, 
an independent member of the empire, one of 
the three Hanse towns, on the Weser, about 
50 mi. from its mouth, in its own small terri¬ 
tory of 98 sq. mi., besides which it possesses 
the port of Bremerhaven at the mouth of the 
river. Here are the cathedral, founded about 
1050, the old Gothic council house, with the 
famous wine cellar below it, the townhall, the 
merchants’ house, and the old and the new ex¬ 
change. The manufacturing establishments 
consist of tobacco and cigar factories, sugar 
refineries, rice mills, iron foundries, machine 
works, rope and sail works, and ship-building 
yards. Its situation renders Bremen the em¬ 
porium for Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse, and 
other countries traversed by the Weser, and 
next to Hamburg it is the principal seat of the 
export and import and emigration trade of 
Germany. Pop. 141,894. The principal port 
is Bremerhaven. Pop. 17,040. 

Bremen was made a bishopric by Charle¬ 
magne about 788, was afterward made an 
archbishopric, and by the end of the four¬ 
teenth century had become virtually a free 


imperial city. The constitution is in most re¬ 
spects republican. The legislative authority 
is shared by a senate of eighteen citizens 
elected for life, and an assembly of 150 citizens 
elected for six years. The executive lies with 
the senate and senatorial committees. 

Bremer (bre'mer), Frederika (1802-1865), a 
Swedish novelist. She wrote an account of 
her travels; but her fame chiefly rests on her 
novels, which were translated into German 
and French, and into English by Mary Howitt. 
Among the chief of these are Neighbors , The 
President's Daughters , Nina, and Strife and 
Peace. 

Brenham, Washington co., Texas, near 
Brazos River, 71 mi. n. of Houston. Railroads: 
Houston & Texas Central, and Gulf Colorado 
& Santa Fe. Industries: electric light and oil 
plant, two iron foundries, furniture, cigar, 
cotton gin, and farm-implement factories. 
Surrounding country agricultural. The town 
was first settled in 1844 and became a city in 
1875. Pop. 1900, 5,968. 

Brenner, a mountain in the Tyrolese Alps 
between Innsbruck and Sterzing; height 6,777 
ft. The road from Germany to Italy, travers¬ 
ing this mountain, reaches an elevation of 
4,658 ft., and is one of the lowest roads prac¬ 
ticable for carriages over the main chain of 
the Alps. A railway through this route was 
opened in 1867. 

Brennus, the name or title of several princes 
of the ancient Gauls, of whom the most fa¬ 
mous was the leader of the Senones, who in¬ 
vaded the Roman territory about the year 390 
b. c. He conquered Etruria from Ravenna to 
Picenum, besieged Clusium, defeated the Ro¬ 
mans near the Allia, sacked Rome, and be¬ 
sieged the capital for six months, but ulti¬ 
mately retired on payment of a large amount 
of gold. Connected with this invasion are the 
well-known stories of the massacre of about 
eighty venerable senators who awaited the 
Gauls in their chairs of office in the Forum; 
of the salvation of the capital by the cackling 
of geese; and of the throwing of the sword of 
Brennus into the scales when the Romans 
complained that the weights used by the Gauls 
were false. According to Polybius the Gauls 
returned home in safety with their booty; but 
according to Livy, Brennus was disastrously 
defeated by Camillus, a distinguished Roman 
exile who arrived with succor in time to save 
the capital. 

Brent Goose, a wild goose, smaller than the 
common barnacle goose and of much darker 
plumage, remarkable for length of wing and 
extent of migratory power, being a winter bird 
of passage in France, Germany, Holland, Great 
Britain, the U. S., Canada, etc. It breeds in 
high northern latitudes; it feeds on drifting 
seaweeds and saline plants, and is considered 
the most delicate for the table of all the goose 
tribe. 

Brescia (bra'shi-a), a city of North Italy, 
capital of the province of the same name. Its 
public buildings, particularly its churches, are 
remarkable for the number and value of their 
frescoes and pictures. Among its chief edi- 


Breslau 


Brewing 


fices are the new cathedral, a handsome 
structure of white marble, begun in 1604, the 
Rotonda, or old cathedral, the townhall (La 
Loggia), and the Broletto, or courts. The city 
contains a museum of antiquities, picture- 
gallery , botanic garden, a fine public library, 
a theater, hospital, etc. An aqueduct supplies 
water to its numerous fountains. Near the 
town are large iron works, and its firearms are 
esteemed the best that are made in Italy. It 
has also silk, linen, and paper factories, tan 
yards, and oil-mills, and is an important mart 
for raw silk. Brescia was the seat of a school 
of painting of great merit, including Alessan¬ 
dro, Bonvinco, commonly called “II Moretto,” 
who flourished in the sixteenth century. The 
city was originally the chief town of the 
Cenomanni, and became the seat of a Roman 
colony under Augustus about b. c. 15. It was 
burned by the Goths in 412, was again de¬ 
stroyed by Attila, was taken by Charlemagne 
in 774, and was declared a free city by Otho I 
of Saxony in 936. In 1426 it put itself under 
the protection of Venice. In 1796 it was taken 
by the French, and was assigned to Austria by 
the Vienna treaty of 1815. In 1849 its streets 
were barricaded by insurgents, but were car¬ 
ried by the Austrians under General Haynau. 
It was ceded to Sardinia by the Treaty of Zu¬ 
rich, 1859. Pop. 58,641. The province has an 
area of 1,644 sq. mi.; pop. 484,565. 

Breslau (bresTou), the fifth city in the Ger¬ 
man Empire and the second in the Prussian 
dominions, being excelled in population only 
by Berlin and Hamburg, is the capital of the 
province of Silesia, and is situated on both 
sides of the Oder. The public squares and 
buildings are handsome, and the fortifications 
have been converted into fine promenades. 
The cathedral, built in the twelfth century, 
and the Rathhaus, or townhall, a Gothic struc¬ 
ture of about the fourteenth century, are among 
the most remarkable buildings. There is a 
flourishing university, with a museum, library 
of 400,GOO volumes, observatory, etc; Breslau 
has manufactures of machinery, railway car¬ 
riages, furniture and cabinet ware, cigars, 
spirits and liquors, cotton and woolen yarn, 
musical instruments, porcelain, glass, etc., 
and carries on an extensive trade. Breslau 
was the seat of a bishopric by the year 1000; an 
independent duchy from 1163 to 1335; then be¬ 
longed to Bohemia; and was ceded to Austria 
in 1527. In 1741 it was conquered by Fred¬ 
erick II of Prussia. Pop. 373,169. 

Brest, a seaport in the n.w. of France, dept, 
of Finisterre. It has one of the best harbors 
in France, and is the chief station of the 
French marine, having safe roads capable of 
containing 500 men-of-war in from 8 to 15 
fathoms at low water. The entrance is nar¬ 
row and rocky, and the coast on both sides is 
well fortified. The design to make it a naval 
arsenal originated with Richelieu, and was 
carried out by Duquesne and Vauban in the 
reign of Louis XIV, with the result that the 
town was made almost impregnable. Brest 
stands on the summit and sides of a project¬ 
ing ridge, many of the streets being exceed¬ 


ingly steep. Several of the docks have been 
cut in the solid rock, and a breakwater 
extends far into the roadstead. The manu¬ 
factures of Brest are inconsiderable, but it has 
an extensive trade in cereals, wine, brandy, 
sardines, mackerel, and colonial goods. It is 
connected with America by a cable termi¬ 
nating near Duxbury, Mass. The English and 
Dutch were repulsed at Brest in 1694. In 
1794 it was blockaded by Howe, who won a 
great victory off the coast over the French 
fleet. Pop. 75,846. 

Brest=Litowski, a fortified town of Russia, 
prov. of Grodno, on the Bug, an important 
railway center, and with a large trade. Pop. 
35,424. # 

Bretigny (bre-ten-yo), a village of France, 
dept. Eure-et-Loire. By the treaty of Bre¬ 
tigny (May 8, 1360), between Edward III of 
England and John II of France, the latter, 
who had been taken prisoner at Poitiers, re¬ 
covered his liberty on a ransom of 3,000,000 
crowns, while Edward renounced his claim to 
the crown of France, and relinquished Anjou 
and Maine, and the greater part of Normandy, 
in return for Aquitaine, Gascony, Poitou,Saint- 
onge, Perigord, Limousin, etc. 

Bretwal'da, a title applied to one of the 
Anglo-Saxon tribe-chiefs or kings, who it is 
supposed was from time to time chosen bj r 
the other chiefs, nobility, and ealdormen to 
be a sort of dictator in their wars with the 
Britons. 

Brevier (bre-ver'), a kind of printing type, 
in size between bourgeois and minion, now 
called 8 point, the same as the type of this 
book. 

Brewer, David Josiah, American jurist; b. 
1837; son of an American missionary. He 
graduated at Yale in 1856, studied law with 
his uncle, David Dudley Field, graduated at 
Albany law school in 1858, and practised in 
Leavenworth, Kan., where in 1862 he was 
elected a probate judge, and in 1864 judge of 
the first judicial district of Kansas. In 1870 
he became associate justice of the State Su¬ 
preme Court, was reelected in 1876 and again 
in 1882, and resigned in 1884, to become U. S. 
circuit judge for the eighth circuit. President 
Harrison nominated him associate justice of 
the U. S. Supreme Court in 1889 in succession 
to Stanley Matthews. 

Brewing, the process of extracting a sac¬ 
charine solution from malted grain and con¬ 
verting the solution into a fermented and 
sound alcoholic beverage called ale or beer. 
The preliminary process of malting (often a 
distinct business to that of brewing) consists 
in promoting the germination of the grain for 
the sake of the saccharine matter into which 
the starch of the seed is thus converted. The 
barley or other grain is steeped for about two 
days in a cistern and then piled in a heap, or 
couch, which is turned and re-turned until the 
radicle or root, and acrospire or rudimentary 
stem, have uniformly developed to some little 
extent in all the heap of grain. This treat¬ 
ment lasts from seven to ten days, by which 
time the grain has acquired a sweet taste; the 


Brewing 


Brick 


life of the grain being then destroyed by 
spreading the whole upon the floor of a kiln to 
be thoroughly dried. At this point begins the 
brewing process proper, which in breweries is 
generally as follows: The malt is crushed or 
roughly ground in a malt-mill, whence it is 
carried to the mashing-machine, and there 
thoroughly mixed with hot water. The mix¬ 
ture is now received by the mash-tun—a cyl¬ 
indrical vessel with a false perforated bottom 
held about an inch from the true one. In the 
mash-tun the useful elements are extracted 
from the malt in the form of the sweet liquor 
known as wort, and the tun, therefore, is fitted 
with an elaborate system of revolving rakes 
for thoroughly mixing the malt with hot 
water. The mixing completed, the mash-tun 
is covered up and allowed to stand for about 
three hours, when the taps in the true bottom 
are opened and the wort or malt-extract run 
off. The wort being drained into a copper the 
hops are now added, and the whole boiled for 
about two hours, the boiling, like the addi¬ 
tion of hops, tending to prevent acetous and 
putrefactive fermentation. When sufficiently 
boiled the contents of the copper are run into 
the hop-back—a long, rectangular vessel with 
a false bottom 8 or 9 in. from the true bottom. 
The hot wort leaving the spent hops in the 
hop-back runs through the perforations in the 
false bottom and thence into the cooler—a 
large flat vessel where the worts are cooled to 
about 100° F. From the cooler the liquor is 
admitted to the refrigerator—a shallow rectan¬ 
gular vessel, which reduces the temperature 
to almost that of the cold water, or about 58°. 
The worts are next led by pipes into the large 
wooden fermenting tuns, where yeast or barm 
is added as soon as the wort begins to run in 
from the refrigerator. During the operation 
of fermentation, by which a portion of the 
saccharine matter is converted into alcohol, 
the temperature rises considerably, and re¬ 
quires to be kept in check by means of a coil 
of copper piping with cold water running 
through it lowered into the beer. When the 
fermentation has gone far enough, and the liq¬ 
uor has been allowed to settle, the beer be¬ 
comes comparatively clear and bright, and 
may be run off and filled into the trade casks 
or into vats. 

The various beers manufactured from grain 
have sometimes been classified under the three 
heads of beer , ale, and porter; but at the pres¬ 
ent day this classification will not hold, as beer, 
though it occasionally may have a specific 
meaning, is offen used as the general name for 
all malt liquors. Both terms belong to the 
early or Anglo-Saxon period of the English lan¬ 
guage but in more modern times the term beer 
seems to have been applied more especially to 
malt liquor flavored with hops, wormwood, or 
other bitters. Ale was originally made from 
barley malt and yeast alone, and the use of 
hops was first introduced in Germany, which 
is still a great brewing country. One of the 
kinds of German beer now widely known and 
consumed is lager beer — that is, store beer, the 
name being given to it because it is usually 


kept for four to six months before being used. 
In brewing it the fermentation is made to go 
on rather slowly and at a low temperature. 
Much lager beer is now made in the U. S., the 
largest breweries in the world are located at 
Milwaukee, Wis., and at St. Louis, Mo. 

The manufacture of ale or beer is of very high 
antiquity. Herodotus ascribes the invention of 
brewing to Isis, and it was certainly practised 
in Egypt. Xenophon mentions it as being 
used in Armenia, and the Gauls were early- 
acquainted with it. Pliny mentions an intoxi¬ 
cating liquor made of corn and water as com¬ 
mon to all the nations of the west of Europe, 
and in England ale-booths were regulated by 
law as early as the eighth century. A rdde 
process of brewing is carried on by many un¬ 
civilized races; thus chica or maize beer is 
made by the South American Indians, millet 
beer by various African tribes, etc. 

Brew'ster, Sir David (1781-1868), one of the 
greatest physicists of this century; was at¬ 
tracted by the lectures of Robson and Playfair 
to science. In 1807 he became M.A. of Cam¬ 
bridge, LL.D. of Aberdeen, and member of 
the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1808 he 
became editor of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia 
and in 1819, in conjunction with Jameson, 
founded the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, of 
which he was sole editor from 1824-32. Brew¬ 
ster was one of the founders of the British 
Association, and its president in 1850. In 1832 
he was knighted and pensioned. From 1838 
to 1859 he was principal of the united colleges 
of St. Leonard’s and St. Salvador at St. An¬ 
drews and in the latter year was chosen prin¬ 
cipal of the University of Edinburgh. Among 
his inventions were the “polyzonal lens,” the 
kaleidoscope, and the improved stereoscope. 
His chief works are a Treatise on the Kaleido¬ 
scope, Letters on Natural Magic, etc. 

Brewster, William (1560-1644), the leader 
of the Mayfloicer Pilgrims, was born at Scrooby, 
and educated at Cambridge. He left the Es¬ 
tablished Church, and founded a separate 
society in his house. In 1608 he went to Hol¬ 
land, and opened a school at Leyden. He was 
made ruling elder, and conducted the Pilgrims 
in the Mayfloicer to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. 
B. was their only spiritual teacher for some 
years, but he did not administer the sacra¬ 
ments. He is venerated as the ruling spirit in 
the earliest New England colony. 

Bri'an, a famous chieftain of the early Irish 
annals, who succeeded to Munster in 978, de¬ 
feated the Danes of Limerick and Waterford, 
attacked Malachi, nominal king of the whole 
island, and became king in his stead (1002). He 
was slain at the close of the battle of Clontarf, 
near Dublin, in 1014, after gaining a signal vic¬ 
tory over the revolted Maelmora and his Danish 
allies. 

Brian^on (bre-an-son), a town and fortress 
of France, department of Hautes Alpes, on the 
right bank of the Durance. It occupies an 
eminence 4,284 ft. above sea level, and has been 
called the Gibraltar of the Alps. Pop. 6,850. 

Brick, a sort of artificial stone, made princi¬ 
pally of argillaceous earth formed in molds, 


Bricklaying 

dried in the sun, and baked by burning, or, as 
in many eastern countries, by exposure to the 
sun. Sun-dried bricks of great antiquity have 
been found in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, 
and in the mud walls of old Indian towns. 
Under the Romans the art of making and 
building with bricks was brought to great per¬ 
fection, and the impressions on Roman bricks, 
like those on the bricks of Babylonia, have 
been of considerable historic value. In fact the 
chief source of knowledge of the ancients lies in 
the inscriptions of this kind. The Roman brick 
was afterward superseded in England by the 
smaller Flemish make. Of the various clays 
used in brickmaking, the simplest, consisting 
chiefly of silicates of alumina, are almost in¬ 
fusible, and are known as fire-clays, the Stour¬ 
bridge clay being specially famous. Of such 
clays fire-bricks are made. Clays containing 
lime and no iron burn white, the colors of 
others being due to the presence in varying 
proportions of ferric oxide, which also adds to 
the hardness of bricks. The clay should be 
dug in autumn and exposed to the influence 
of frost and rain. It should be worked over 
repeatedly with the spade and tempered to a 
ductile, homogeneous paste, and should not be 
made into bricks until the ensuing spring. 
The making of bricks by hand in molds is a 
simple process. After being made and dried 
for about nine or ten days they are ready for 
the burning, for which purpose they are formed 
into kilns, having flues or cavities at the bottom 
for the insertion of the fuel, and interstices 
between them for the fire and hot air to pene¬ 
trate. Much care is necessary in regulating 
the fire, since too much heat vitrifies the 
bricks and too little leaves them soft and fria¬ 
ble. Bricks are now largely made by machines 
of various constructions. In one the clay is 
mixed and comminuted in a cylindrical pug- 
mill by means of rotatory knives or cutters 
working spirally and pressing the clay down 
to the bottom of the cylinder. From this it 
is conveyed by rollers and forced through an 
opening of the required size in a solid rect¬ 
angular stream, which is cut into bricks by 
wires working transversely. Machine-made 
bricks are heavier, being less porous than 
hand-made bricks, and are more liable to crack 
in drying; but they are smoother, and, when 
carefully dried, stronger than the hand-made. 

Bricklaying. —In many countries the only 
available material for house-building is brick. 
The solidity and durability of a brick building 
depends largely upon the manner in which the 
brick are laid. In laying the foundations of 
walls, the first courses should be thicker than 
the intended superstructure, and the projec¬ 
tions thus formed, usually of quarter brick on 
each side, are called “set-offs.” Mortar com¬ 
posed of lime and sand is the common cement 
lor brick-work. It should be equally and care¬ 
fully applied. The most important thing in 
bricklaying is to see that the wall is properly 
bonded. The bricks of every course should 
cover the joints of the course below it, or, to use 
the bricklayer’s phrase, the work must “break 
bond.” A layer or stratum of bricks is called 


Bridge 

a course. Bricks laid with their lengths in the 
direction of the course, and their sides to the 
wall face, are called stretchers; those laid trans¬ 
versely, with their ends forming the wall face, 
headers; a layer of headers, a heading course; of 
stretchers, a stretching course. 

The two kinds of bond almost exclusively 
used consist of alternate stretching and head¬ 
ing courses; and of a stretcher and header 
laid alternately in each course. The first bond 
is the strongest, but the second bond is the more 
ornamental; and they are used accordingly. 
There are two other kinds of bond occasionally 
used for thick walls. In both the center of 
the wall is filled up with bricks laid diago¬ 
nally, by what is called in the one case raking 
courses, and in the other herring-bone work. 
In order to strengthen the bond, bands of hoop- 
iron, tarred and sanded, are sometimes laid 
flat-wise between the courses. This “hoop- 
iron bond” has superseded the old practise of 
using bond-timbers. Walls of brick are fre¬ 
quently built hollow, and these dry quicker and 
perhaps more thoroughly than those built solid. 
In such walls there is a thin outer and inner 
face of brick with hollow spaces between. 
Different ways are adopted for bonding or 
tying these walls. Hollow bricks are also used 
for walls, partitions, floor arches, and other 
work. Neat pointing of the joints often gives 
a very pretty appearance to brick-work. 

Bricks of the ordinary rectangular shape are 
often used, for arches, leaving the gaping inter¬ 
stices at the upper ends to be filled with 
mortar or chips of brick. Such an arch can¬ 
not be strong. As the joints radiate to a 
center, the arch bricks should be made of or 
cut to the proper form, just as arch stones are 
cut to the right shape. In all kinds of brick¬ 
laying the walls should be built up level 
throughout, in order that the settlement may be 
equal. 

Bridge, a structure of stone, brick, wood, or 
iron, affording a passage over a stream, valley, 
or the like. The earliest bridges were no doubt 
trunks of trees. The arch seems to have been 
unknown among most of the nations of an¬ 
tiquity. Even the Greeks had not sufficient 
acquaintance with it to apply it to bridge 
building. The Romans were the first to em¬ 
ploy the principle of the arch in this direction, 
and after the construction of such a work as 
the great arched sewer at Rome, the Cloaca 
Maxima, a bridge over the Tiber would be of 
comparatively easy execution. One of the finest 
examples of the Roman bridge was the bridge 
built by Augustus over the Nera at Narni, the 
vestiges of which still remain. It consisted of 
four arches, the longest of 142 ft. span. The 
most celebrated bridges of ancient Rome were 
not generally, however, distinguished by the 
extraordinary size of their arches, nor by the 
lightness of their piers, but by their excellence 
and durability. The span of their arches sel¬ 
dom exceeded 70 or 80 ft., and they were mostly 
semicircular, or nearly so. The Romans built 
bridges wherever their conquests extended, 
and in Britain there are still a number of 
bridges dating from Roman times. One of the 


Bridge 


Bridge 


most ancient post-Roman bridges in England is 
the Gothic triangular bridge at Croyland, in 
Lincolnshire, said to have been built in 860, 
having three archways meeting in a common 
center at their apex, and three roadways. The 
longest old bridge in England was that over 
the Trent at Burton, in Staffordshire, built in 
the twelfth century, of squared free-stone, and 
recently pulled down. It consisted of thirty- 
six arches, and was 1,545 ft. long. Old London 
Bridge was commenced in 1176, and finished 
in 1209. It had houses on each side like a 
regular street till 1756-58. In 1831 it was alto¬ 
gether removed, the new bridge, which had 
been begun in 1824, having then been finished. 
The art of bridge building made no progress 
after the destruction of the Roman Empire till 
the eighteenth century, when the French archi¬ 
tects began to introduce improvements, and the 
constructions of Perronet (Nogent-sur- Seine; 
Neuilly; Louis XVI bridge at Paris) are master¬ 
pieces. Within the last half century or so the 
use of steam and iron, the immense develop¬ 
ment of all mechanical contrivances, and the 
great demand for railway bridges and viaducts 
have given a great stimulus to invention in 
this department. 

Stone bridges consist of an arch or series of 
arches, and in building them the properties of 
the arch, the nature of the materials, and many 
other matters have to be carefully considered. 
It has been found that in the construction of 
an arch the slipping of the stones upon one 
another is prevented by their mutual pressure 
and the friction of their surfaces; the use of 
cement is thus subordinate to the principle of 
construction in contributing to the strength 
and maintenance of the fabric. The masonry 
or rock which receives the lateral thrust of an 
arch is called the abutment, the perpendicular 
supports are the piers. The width of an arch 
is its span; the greatest span in any stone 
bridge is about 250 feet. A one-span bridge 
has, of course, no piers. In constructing a 
bridge across a deep stream it is desirable to 
have the smallest possible number of points of 
support. Piers in the waterway are not only 
expensive to form, but obstruct the navigation 
of the river, and by the very extent of resisting 
surface they expose the structure to shocks 
and the wearing action of the water. In build¬ 
ing an arch, a timber framework is used called 
the center or centering. The centering has to 
keep the stones or voussoirs in position till they 
are keyed in, that is, all fixed in their places 
by the insertion of the keystone. 

The first,iron bridges were erected from 
about 1777 to 1790. The same general principles 
apply to the construction of iron as of stone 
bridges, but the greater cohesion and adapta¬ 
bility of the material give more liberty to the 
architect, and much greater width of span is 
possible. At first iron bridges were erected 
in the form of arches, and the material em¬ 
ployed was cast iron; but the arch has now 
been generally superseded by the beam or 
girder, with its numerous modifications; and 
wrought-iron or steel is likewise found to be 
much better adapted for resisting a great 


tensile strain than cast-metal. Numerous 
modifications exist of the beam or girder, as 
the lattice girder, bowstring girder, etc.; but of 
these none is more interesting than the tubu¬ 
lar or hollow girder, first rendered famous from 
its employment by Robert Stephenson in the 
construction of the railway bridge across the 
Meneai Strait, and connecting Anglesey with 
the main land of North Wales. This is known 
as the Britannia tubular bridge. The tubes 
are of a rectangular form, and constructed of 
riveted plates of wrought-iron, with rows of 
rectangular tubes or cells for the floor and 
roof respectively. The bridge consists of two 
of these enormous tubes or hollow beams laid 
side by side, one for the up and the other for 
the down traffic of the railway, and extending 
each to about a quarter of a mile in length. 
Other tubular bridges of importance are the 
Conway Bridge, over the River Conway, an 
erection identical in principle with the Britan¬ 
nia Bridge, but on a smaller scale; the Broth- 
erton Bridge over the River Aire; the tubular 
railway bridge across the Damietta branch of 
the Nile, which has this peculiarity, that the 
roadway is carried above instead of through the 
tubes; and the Victoria Bridge over the St. 
Lawrence, Canada. A girder railway bridge 
across the Firth of Tay at Dundee was opened 
in 1887, being the second built at the same 
place, after the first had given away in a great 
storm. It is 2 mi. 73 yds. long, has 85 spans, 
is 77 ft. high and carries two lines of rails. 
The bridge over the Firth of Forth, at Queens- 
ferry, in course of construction, has two chief 
spans of 1,710 ft., two others of 680 ft., fif¬ 
teen of 168 ft., and seven small arches, and 
will give a clear headway for navigation pur¬ 
poses of 150 ft. above high-water of spring- 
tides. The great spans consist of a canti¬ 
lever at either end, 680 ft. long, and a central 
girder of 350 ft. Both the above bridges are 
built to carry the lines of the North British 
Railway. The Crumlin Railway viaduct, 
South Wales, having lattice-girders supported 
on open-work piers is more remarkable for 
height than length, being 200 ft. high. 

Suspension bridges, being entirely independ¬ 
ent of central supports, do not interfere with 
the river, and may be erected where it is im¬ 
practicable to build bridges of any other kind. 
The entire weight of a suspension bridge rests 
upon the piers at either end from which it is 
suspended, all the weight being below the 
points of support. Such bridges always swing 
a little, giving a vibratory movement which im¬ 
parts a peculiar sensation to the passenger. 
The modes of constructing these bridges are 
various. The roadway is suspended either 
from chains or from wire-ropes, the ends of 
which require to be anchored, that is, attached 
to the solid rock or masses of masonry or iron. 
One of the earlier of the great suspension 
bridges is that constructed by Telford over 
the Menai Strait, near the Britannia Tubular 
Bridge, finished in 1825; the opening between 
the points of suspension is 580 ft. On the 
European continent, the Fribourg Suspension 
bridge in Switzerland, span 870 ft., erected 


Bridge 

1834, is a celebrated work; as is that over 
the Danube connecting Buda with Pesth. 
In America the lower suspension bridge 
over the Niagara, 7 mi. below the falls, sup¬ 
ported by wire cables, is 822 ft. long; it has 
two floors or roadways connected together but 
15 ft. apart, the lower serving for ordinary 
traffic, the upper carrying three lines of rails, 
245 ft. above the river. Another bridge, close 
to the falls, has a span of 1,250 ft. The Cin¬ 
cinnati bridge over the Ohio has a span of 1,057 
ft. A suspension bridge of great magnitude, 
connecting the city of New York with Brook¬ 
lyn, was opened in 1883. The central or main 
span is 1,595£ ft. from tower to tower, and the 
land spans between the towers and the anchor¬ 
ages 930 ft. each; the approach on the New 
York side is 2,492 ft. long, and that on the 
Brooklyn side 1,901 ft., making the total length 
5,989 ft. The height of the platform at the 
center is 135 ft. above high-water, and at the 
ends 119 ft. The roadway is 85 ft. broad, and 
is divided into five sections, the two outside 
for vehicles, the two inner for tram-cars, and 
the middle one, 12 ft. above the rest, for foot 
passengers. 

Though the oldest bridges on record were 
built of wood, like the Sublician Bridge at 
Rome, or that thrown by Ctesar across the 
Rhine, it is only in certain places and for cer¬ 
tain purposes that wood is much used at pres¬ 
ent. Perhaps the most celebrated of all wooden 
bridges was that which spanned the Rhine at 
Schaffhausen in Switzerland. This was 364 
ft. in length and 18 ft. broad. It was designed 
and executed by Ulric Grubenman, a village 
carpenter, in 1758, and was destroyed by the 
French in 1799. In theU. S., where timber is 
still in common use, we have some fine ex¬ 
amples, the Trenton Bridge over the Delaware, 
erected in 1804; the bridge over the Susque¬ 
hanna, etc. Some of the most notable develop¬ 
ments in the art of bridge construction are to 
be found on this continent, where an enormous 
railway system traversing a country of great 
rivers and ravines, has given an exceptional 
stimulus to the art. The main characteristics 
of American bridges are simplicity and bold¬ 
ness of design, the reduction of the number of 
members to a minimum by the use of open 
trusses composed of simple systems rather than 
the plate, tubular, or closely latticed girders of 
European engineers, thus offering less resist¬ 
ance to wind pressure. 

The largest swing bridge in the world was 
completed in 1900 on the Chicago Drainage 
Canal. Over this bridge there are eight rail¬ 
road tracks. The bridge is of steel construc¬ 
tion, weighing 7,000,000 pounds, and capable 
of supporting a train-load of 8,800,000 pounds. 
The total cost is estimated at $700,000. This 
bridge has a total length of 400 ft. 5 in. and 
width 125 ft. The height of the center col¬ 
umns is 68 ft., and the headway under the 
trusses for trains 21 ft., headway under the 
bridge 18 ft., and depth of water in the chan¬ 
nel 24 ft. Electric power is used to turn the 
bridge. The turntable has a diameter of 80 
feet and is 10 ft. below the level of the 
25 


Bridle and Bit 

bridge. This bridge is used by the Northern 
Pacific, the Pan Handle, and Union Stock 
Yards Railroads. Work was begun on this 
bridge in 1896. 

Bridge'port, a seaport of Connecticut, 58 
mi. n.e. of New York, on an arm of Long 
Island Sound, with a large coasting trade, but 
chiefly supported by its manufactures, includ¬ 
ing the large sewing-machine factories of 
Wheeler, Wilson & Co., Elias Howe, etc. 
Pop. 1900, 70,996. 

Bridgeton, Cumberland co., N. J., on the 
Cohansey Creek. Railroads: Vineland, West 
Jersey, and Bridgeton & Port Norris. It is the 
location of the West Jersey Academy, South 
Jersey Institute, and Ivy Hall, a school for 
girls. Industries: rolling mill, glass works, 
nail factory, woolen mills, leather factories, 
machinery works and carriage factory. Pop. 
1900, 13,913. 

Bridgetown, the capital of the island of 
Barbadoes, in the West Indies, extending along 
the shore of Carlisle Bay, on the s.w. coast of 
the island for nearly 2 mi. Its appearance is 
very pleasing, the houses being embosomed in 
trees, while hills of moderate height rise be¬ 
hind, studded with villas. Bridgetown is the 
residence of the governor general of the Wind¬ 
ward Islands. Pop. 20,947. 

Bridge'water (or Bridgwater), a municipal 
borough and port in the county of Somer¬ 
set, England, on the Parret, which is navigable 
as far up as the town for small vessels. A 
considerable shipping trade is carried on, 
chiefly coastwise. Bricks are made here in 
great quantities, especially bath bricks. Up 
till 1870, when it was disfranchised for bribery, 
Bridgewater returned two members to Parlia¬ 
ment. Pop. 12,429. 

Bridgman, Laura Dewey (1829.-1889), a re¬ 
markable blind and deaf mute. At the age 
of two a severe illness deprived her of sight, 
hearing, and speech, and to some extent also 
of smell and taste. She was placed in the 
Perkins institution for the blind, Boston, at 
the age of eight, and Dr. Howe undertook her 
education. The first step was made by giv¬ 
ing her some familiar object, with its name 
in raised letters, and teaching her at the same 
time the qualities of that article and its rela¬ 
tion to other things. She made rapid prog¬ 
ress, and acquired a knowledge of geography, 
arithmetic, learned to do household work and 
also to sew, both by hand and on the machine. 
After receiving her education, Miss Bridgman 
taught in the Perkins institution. She was a 
member of the Baptist Church. She read 
whatever book she found in raised print, espe¬ 
cially the Bible. She made much of her own 
clothing. 

Bridle and Bit, that part of a horse’s har¬ 
ness which is attached to the head and mouth, 
by means of which he is governed and re¬ 
strained. The proper bitting of horses has 
been a matter of much study, and innumer¬ 
able kinds of bits have been introduced for 
the purpose. The ordinary single riding-bridle 
has a snaffle-bit. There are several forms of 
the snaffle-bit. The common riding form is a 


Briel 


Brighton 


round, smooth bit, jointed in the middle, at¬ 
tached at either side to straight bars or cheeks, 
which prevent the bit being pulled through 
the horse’s mouth, and with rings to which 
the reins and cheek-pieces of the headstall 
are fixed. The twisted snaffle has the mouth¬ 
piece twisted or fluted. The ring snaffle is 



Bridle and Bit. 


made without cheeks; and the rings for head- 
stall and reins are not fixed, but work loose in 
holes at the ends of the mouthpiece. The 
double bridle is generally used in the hunting 
field and often for ordinary purposes. Among 
the Arabs and in South America and some 
parts of Mexico and Texas, a heavy, old-fash¬ 
ioned, and terribly cruel curb-bit is used. On 
the other hand, the stockmen of Australia em¬ 
ploy the plain snaffle-bridle alone. It is inter¬ 
esting to know that in the representations of 
harnessed horses in the Assyrian sculptures 
the bridle generally shown is apparently al¬ 
most identical with the modern snaffle. The 
figure represents a chariot horse with bridle, 
and a bronze bit from Nimrud. 

Briel (brel) (or Brielle, bre-el'), sometimes 
called the Briel , a fortified seaport of Holland, 
near the mouth of the Maas, province of South 
Holland. The taking of Briel in 1572 was the 
first success of the revolted Netherlander in 
their struggle with Philip II of Spain. The 
famous Admiral Van Tromp was born here. 
Pop. 4,442. 

Brienne (bre-an), a small town of France, 
dep. Aube. In the military academy which 
formerly existed here Napoleon received his 
early military training. Brienne was also the 
scene of a bloody battle between Bliicher and 
Napoleon (Feb. 29, 1814). 

Brig, a sailing vessel with two masts rigged 
like the foremast and mizzen-mast of a full- 
rigged ship. See Brigantine. 

Brigantine, a sailing vessel with two masts, 
the foremast rigged like a brig’s, the main¬ 
mast rigged like a schooner’s. Called also 
hermaphrodite brig. 

Briggs, Charles Augustus, a Presbyterian 
theologian, b. in New York, Jan. 15, 1841. 
He studied at Union Theological Seminary, 
New York City, and at the University of Ber¬ 
lin, Germany. In 1874 he became professor 
of Hebrew and the cognate languages in Union 
Theological Seminary. He was made a mem¬ 
ber of the editorial staff of the Presbyterian 


Review in 1880. His works include Biblical 
Study , American Presbyterianism, Messianic 
Prophecy , etc. His advanced views in bibli¬ 
cal criticism, with certain doctrinal views, 
subjected him to a trial for heresy 1892-93, 
which resulted in his condemnation and sus¬ 
pension by the Presbyterian General Assembly. 

Briggs, Henry (1556-1631), a celebrated 
English mathematician. He was the first Sa- 
vilian professor of geometry at Oxford. In 
1616 he visited Napier, the inventor of loga¬ 
rithms, and afterward published his work on 
logarithms, which suggested an important im¬ 
provement upon Napier’s system. 

Bright, John (1811-1889), English orator and 
statesman. He first became known as a lead¬ 
ing spirit in the Anti-corn-law League. In 
1843 he was chosen M. P. for Durham, and 
distinguished himself as a strenuous advocate 
of free-trade and reform. In 1847 he sat for 
the first time for Manchester, but in 1857 his 
opposition to the war with China made him so 
unpopular in the constituency that he lost his 
seat by a large majority. He was, however, 
returned for Birmingham, and soon after made 
speeches against the policy of great military 
establishments and wars of annexation. Dur¬ 
ing the American Civil War he was one of the 
few English statesmen who were outspokenly 
in favor of the Union cause. In 1865 he took 
a leading part in the movement for the exten¬ 
sion of the franchise, and strongly advocated 
the necessity of reform in Ireland. In the 
Gladstone ministry formed in 1868, he was 
president of the board of trade and afterward 
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and he 
held the latter office again under Mr. Glad¬ 
stone in 1880-1882. In 1886 he joined the Lib¬ 
erals who opposed Mr. Gladstone’s schemes for 
Ireland, and contributed by his letters and in¬ 



fluence to the overthrow of the Gladstone 
party. He was a member of the Society of 
Friends. 

Brighton (brl'tun), a maritime town and 
watering-place in England, co. of Sussex, 50£ 
mi. from London. In front of the town is a 
massive sea wall, with a promenade and drive 
over 3 mi. in length, one of the finest in Europe. 









Bright’s Disease 


Bristol 


Brighton has no manufactures, and is resorted 
to only as a watering-place. It was about the 
middle of last century that Dr. Russell, an em¬ 
inent physician, drew attention to Brighton, 
which subsequently was patronized by George 
IY, then Prince of Wales. Pop. 142,121. 

Bright’s Disease, a name (derived from Dr. 
Richard Bright (1789-1856), an English physi¬ 
cian, who first described the disorder) given to 
various forms of kidney disease, especially to 
that which is characterized by a granular con¬ 
dition of the cortical part of the kidneys and 
inflammation of the malpighian bodies. The 
urine during life contains albumen, and is of 
less specific gravity than natural. The disease 
is accompanied with uneasiness or pain in the 
loins, pale or cachectic countenance, disordered 
digestion, frequent urination, and dropsy. The 
blood contains urea, and is deficient in albu¬ 
men and corpuscles. Progressive blood poison¬ 
ing induces other visceral diseases, and in the 
end gives rise to the cerebral disturbance 
which is the frequent cause of death. 

Br i 11 a t-Savarin (br6-ya-sa-va-ran) (1775- 
1826), a French author, who, although he 
wrote works on political economy, archaeology, 
and duelling, is now known only by his fa¬ 
mous book on gastronomy, the Physiologie du 
Gout , published in 1825. « 

Brim' stone, a name of sulphur. Sulphur, 
in order to purify it from foreign matters, is 
generally melted in a close vessel, allowed to 
settle, then poured into cylindrical molds, in 
which it becomes hard, and is known in com¬ 
merce as roll brimstone. 

Brindaban (brin-dii-ban'), a town of India, 
one of the holiest cities of the Hindus, with a 
large number of temples, shrines, and sacred 
sites. Pop. 21,467. 

Brindisi (bren'di-se, anc. Brundusium ), a sea¬ 
port and fortified town, province of Lecce, 
Southern Italy, on the Adriatic, 45 mi. e.n.e. 
of Taranto. In ancient times Brundusium 
was an important city, and with its excellent 
port became a considerable naval station of 
the Romans. Its importance as a seaport de¬ 
clined in the Middle Ages, and was subse¬ 
quently completely lost, and its harbor blocked, 
until in 1870 the Peninsular and Oriental Steam 
Navigation Company put on a weekly line of 
steamers between Brindisi and Alexandria for 
the conveyance of mails and passengers be¬ 
tween Europe and the East. From this cause 
Brindisi has suddenly risen into importance. 
Pop. 16,719. 

Brind ley, James (1716-1772), an English 
engineer and mechanic. When the Duke of 
Bridgewater was occupied in planning a com¬ 
munication between his estate at Worsley and 
the towns of Manchester and Liverpool by 
water, Brindley undertook the work, and by 
means of aqueducts over valleys, rivers, etc., 
he completed the Bridgewater Canal between 
1758 and 1761, so as to form a junction with 
the Mersey. The other great works of this 
kind undertaken by him were the Grand 
Trunk Canal uniting the Trent and Mersey, 
and a canal uniting that with the Severn. 

Brignoli, Pasquale (1824-1884), b. in Italy, 


d. in New York City. He came to the U. S. 
in 1855, and for nearly thirty years his magnifi¬ 
cent tenor voice was heard in opera and con¬ 
cert music in this country and in Europe. 

Brinvilliers (bran-vel-ya), Marie Margue¬ 
rite d’ Aubray, Marchioness of (1630- 
1676), a notorious French poisoner. She was 
married in 1651 to the Marquis of Brinvilliers. 
but after some seven or eight years of mar¬ 
ried life a young cavalry officer named Sainte- 
Croix inspired her with a violent passion, and 
being instructed by him in the art of prepar¬ 
ing poisons, she poisoned in succession her 
father, her two brothers, and her sisters, 
chiefly, it is thought, in order to procure the 
means for living extravagantly with her para¬ 
mour. The sudden death of Sainte-Croix led 
to the discovery of letters incriminating 
Madame de Brinvilliers. She fled to Liege, 
where she was captured, conveyed to Paris, 
and condemned to death. 

Bris'bane, the capital of Queensland, about 
25 miles by water from the mouth of the river 
Brisbane, which intersects the town. Brisbane 
was originally settled, in 1825, as a penal sta¬ 
tion by Sir Thomas Brisbane (whence the 
name of the town). In 1842 the district was 
opened to free settlers, and on the erection of 
Queensland into a separate colony in 1859, 
Brisbane become the capital. Since then it 
has made great progress, and now possesses 
many fine public buildings, such as the Houses 
of Legislature, erected at a cost of over $500- 
000, the townhall and the Albert Hall, the 
viceregal lodge, the post and telegraph offices, 
etc. There are also botanical gardens, several 
public parks, etc. The climate is tropical, the 
annual rainfall about 55 inches. The town is 
the terminus of the western and southern rail¬ 
way system, and the port is the principal one 
in the colony. Pop. 50,000. 

Bris'bane, General Sir Thomas Mac- 
Dougall (1773-1860), a Scotch soldier and as¬ 
tronomer. After serving in Flanders and the 
West Indies he commanded a brigade under 
the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular 
war, and took part in the battles of Yittoria, 
Orthes, and Toulouse. In 1821 he was ap¬ 
pointed governor of New South Wales. At 
the same time he devoted himself to astron¬ 
omy, and from his observatory at Paramatta 
catalogued 7,385 stars, until then scarcely 
known. On his return to Scotland he con¬ 
tinued his astronomical pursuits, until his 
death. 

Bristles, the stiff, coarse, glossy hairs of the 
hog and the wild boar, especially pf the hair 
growing on the back; extensively used by 
brushmakers, shoemakers,*§ad(fiers, etc., and 
chiefly imported from Russia and Germany. 
Russia supplies the finest qualities, which 
are worth about $250 or $300 per cwt. 

Bris tol, a cathedral city of England, situ¬ 
ated partly in Gloucestershire, partly in 
Somersetshire, but forming a county in it¬ 
self. The town is built partly on low grounds, 
partly on eminences, and has some fine sub¬ 
urban districts, such as Clifton, on the op¬ 
posite side of the Avon, and connected with 


Bristol 


British Columbia 


Bristol by a suspension bridge 703 ft. long and 
245 ft. above high-water mark. The most 
notable public buildings are the cathedral, 
founded in 1142; St. Mary Redclitf, said to 
have been founded in 1293. and perhaps the 
finest parish church in the kingdom. Bristol 
has glass works, potteries, soap works, tanner¬ 
ies, sugar refineries, and chemical works, ship¬ 
building and machinery yards. Coal is worked 
extensively within the limits of the borough. 
The export and import trade is large and 
varied. There is a harbor in the city itself, 
and the construction of new docks at Avon- 
mouth and Portishead has given a fresh 
impetus to the port. The Saxons called it 
Bncgstow, “bridge-place.” In 1373 it was 
constituted a county of itself by Edward III. 
It was made the seat of a bishopric by Henry 
VIII in 1542 (now united with Gloucester). 
In 1831 the reform agitation gave origin to 
riots that lasted for several days. The rioters 
destroyed a number of public and private 
buildings, and had to be dispersed by the 
military. Sebastian Cabot, Chatterton, and 
Southey were natives of Bristol. Pop. 221,- 
655. 

Bristol, Bristol co., R. I., 15 mi. s.e. of 
Providence, on Narragansett Bay. Railroad: 
Old Col. R. R. It is the seat of worsted mills, 
cotton mills, shipyards and a rubber goods 
factory whose product is valued at $2,000,000 
per annum. Pop. 1900, 6,901. 

Bristol, Hartford co., Conn. Railroad: 
N. Y. & N. E. Industries: clock, stocking 
and water wheel manufactories, also several 
foundries and machine shops. Copper is 
found near there. Pop. 1900, 6,268. 

Bristol, Bucks co., Pa., on Delaware River, 
17 mi. e. of Philadelphia. Railroad: Pennsyl- 
vania. Industries: iron foundry, carpet, 
worsted yarn, hosiery, cassimere, and other 
factories, and planing mill. Surrounding 
country agricultural. It was first settled in 
1681, laid out in 1695, incorporated a borough 
by letters patent from the crown in 1720. Pop. 
1900, 7,104. 

Bristol Channel, an arm of the Atlantic, 
extending between the southern shores of 
Wales and the southwestern peninsula of Eng¬ 
land, and forming the continuation of the es¬ 
tuary of the Severn. It is remarkable for its 
high tides. 

Britannia Tubular Bridge, an iron tubular 
bridge across Menai Strait, which separates 
Anglesea from Wales, about one mi. from the 
Menai Suspension Bridge. It has two prin¬ 
cipal spans of 460 ft. each over the water, and 
two smaller one£ of 230 ft. each over the land; 
constructed 19P5-50. 

Britan'nicus, son of the Roman Emperor 
Claudius, by Messalina, b. a. d. 42, poisoned 
a. d. 56. He was passed over by his father for 
the son of his new wife Agrippina. This son 
became the Emperor Nero, whose fears that he 
might be displaced by the natural successor of 
the late emperor caused him to murder Bri- 
tannicus. 

British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, a society first organized in 1831, 


mainly through the exertions of Sir David 
Brewster, whose object is to assist the progress 
of discovery and to disseminate the latest re¬ 
sults of scientific research, by bringing to¬ 
gether men eminent in all the several depart¬ 
ments of science. Its first meeting was held 
at York on Sept. 26, 1831, under the presi¬ 
dency of Lord Milton; and all the principal 
towns of the United Kingdom have on different 
occasions formed the place of rendezvous, a 
different locality being chosen every year. 
The seances extend generally over about a 
week. The society is divided into sections, 
which, after the president’s address, meet 
separately during the seances for the reading 
of papers and conference. Soirees, conversa¬ 
ziones, lectures, and other general meetings are 
usually held each evening during the meeting 
of the association. As the funds which the 
society collects at each meeting are more than 
sufficient to cover its expenses, it is enabled to 
make money grants for the pursuit of partic¬ 
ular scientific inquiries, which otherwise could 
not be conducted so efficiently, if at all. In 
1884 the association held its meeting in Mont¬ 
real, Canada, the only occasion on which it has 
met out of the United Kingdom. 

British Columbia, a British colony forming 
with Vancouver Island a province of the Do¬ 
minion of Canada. Area 341,305 sq. mi. (in¬ 
cluding Vancouver Island). Till 1858 it was 
part of the Hudson Bay Territory; in that 
year gold discoveries brought settlers, and it 
became a colony. Vancouver Island, 16,000 
sq. mi., became a colony at the same time, 
but was afterward joined to British Columbia; 
the conjoined colony entered the Dominion in 
1871. The coast line is much indented, and is 
flanked by numerous islands, the Queen Char¬ 
lotte Islands being the chief after Vancouver. 
The interior is mountainous, being traversed 
by the Cascade Mountains near the coast, and 
by the Rocky Mountains farther west. There 
are numerous lakes, generally long and nar¬ 
row, and lying in the deep ravines that form 
a feature of the surface and are traversed 
by numerous rivers. Of' these the Fraser, 
with its tributary the Thomson, belongs en¬ 
tirely to the colony, as does also the Skeena; 
while the upper courses of the Peace River 
and of the Columbia also belong to it. All ex¬ 
cept the Peace find their way to the Pacific. 
Its mountain ranges (highest summits; Mount 
Hooker, 15,700 feet, and Mount Brown, 16,000 
feet) afford magnificent timber (including the 
Douglas pine and many other trees); and be¬ 
tween the ranges are wide grassy prairies. 
Part of the interior is so dry in summer as to 
render irrigation necessary, and the arable 
land is comparatively limited, in area, but 
there is a vast extent of splendid pasture land. 
The climate is mild in the lower valleys, but 
severe in the higher levels; it is very healthy. 
The chief products of the colony are gold, 
coal, silver, iron, copper, galena, mercury, and 
other metals; timber, furs, and fish, the last, 
particularly salmon, being very abundant in 
the streams and on the coasts. Gold exists 
almost everywhere, but has been obtained 


British Museum 


Brock 


chiefly in the Cariboo district. The total yield 
since 1858 has been over $50,000,000. The coal 
is found chiefly in Vancouver Island, and is 
mined at Nanaimo, where large quantities are 
now raised. Mining, cattle-rearing, agricul¬ 
ture, fruit-growing, salmon-canning, and lum¬ 
bering are the chief industries. Victoria, on 
the s.e. coast of Vancouver Island, is the capi¬ 
tal and chief town of the colony. New West¬ 
minster, on the Fraser River, about 15 mi. 
from its mouth, is the most considerable place 
on the mainland; but the new town Van¬ 
couver, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific 
railway, at the mouth of the Fraser, will 
doubtless become a place of importance. Be¬ 
sides this railway there is one between Nan¬ 
aimo and Victoria. Steamers now run to 
China and Japan in connection with the Cana¬ 
dian Pacific Railway, also lines to Australia 
and India are open. Like the other prov¬ 
inces of the Dominion, British Columbia has 
a separate parliament and administration, 
with a lieutenant governor of its own. Schools 
are supported entirely by government. Pop. 
including about 25,000 Indians, in 1891, 92,767. 

British Museum, the great national museum 
in London, owes its foundation to Sir Hans 
Sloane, who, in 1753, bequeathed his various 
collections, including 50,000 books and MSS., 
to the nation, on the condition of $100,000—less 
by $150,000 than the original cost—being paid 
to his heirs. Montague House, which was 
bought for the purpose for $51,250, was ap¬ 
propriated for the museum, which was 
first opened on Jan. 15, 1759. The original 
edifice having become inadequate, a new build¬ 
ing in Great Russell Street was resolved upon 
in 1823, the architect being Sir R. Smirke, 
whose building was not completed till 1847. 
In 1857 a new library building was completed 
and opened at a cost of $750,000. It contains 
a circular reading-room 140 ft. in diameter, 
with a dome 106 ft. in height. This room con¬ 
tains accommodation for 300 readers comfort¬ 
ably seated at separate desks, which are pro¬ 
vided with all necessary conveniences. More 
recently, the accommodation having become 
again inadequate, it was resolved to separate 
the objects belonging to the natural history 
department from the rest, and to lodge them 
in a building by themselves. Accordingly a 
large natural history museum has been erected 
at South Kensington, and the specimens per¬ 
taining to natural history (including geology 
and mineralogy) have been transferred thither, 
but they still form part of the British Museum. 
Further additions to the Great Russell Street 
buildings were made in 1882. The British 
Museum is under the management of forty- 
eight trustees. It is open daily free of charge. 
Admission to the reading room as a regular 
reader is by ticket, procurable on application 
to the chief librarian, there being certain sim¬ 
ple conditions attached. The library, which 
is now one of the largest and most valuable in 
the world, has been enriched by numerous be¬ 
quests and gifts, among others the library col¬ 
lected by George III during his long reign. A 
copy of every book, pamphlet, newspaper, piece 


of music, etc., published anywhere in British 
territory, must be conveyed free of charge to 
the British Museum. The museum contains 
eight principal departments; namely, the de¬ 
partment of printed books, maps, charts, plans, 
etc., the department of manuscripts; the de¬ 
partment of natural history; the department 
of oriental antiquities; the department of Greek 
and Roman antiquities; the department of 
coins and medals; the department of British 
and mediaeval antiquities and ethnography; 
and the department of prints and drawings. 

Brit tany or (Bretagne), an ancient duchy 
and province of France, corresponding nearly 
to the modern departments of Finisterre, Cotes 
du Nord, Morbihan, Ille et Vilaine, Loire In- 
ferieure. It is supposed to have received its 
name from the Britons who were expelled from 
England and took refuge here in the fifth cen¬ 
tury. Along the coast and toward its sea¬ 
ward extremity, the country is remarkably 
rugged, but elsewhere there are many beauti¬ 
ful and fertile tracts. Fisheries employ many 
of the inhabitants. The people still retain 
their ancient language, which is closely allied 
to Welsh, and is exclusively used by the peas¬ 
antry in the western part of the province. 

Brix ham, a seaport and sea-bathing resort, 
England, Devonshire, on the south of Torbay. 
Brixham was the place where William III 
landed, Nov. 4, 1688. Pop. 7,664. 

Bri'za, a genus of grasses, commonly called 
quaking grass, maiden’s hair, or lady’s tresses. 
There are about thirty species, chiefly found 
in South America. Two are natives of Britain; 
these and other species are sometimes to be 
found in gardens as ornamental plants. 

Broach (or Baroach) (broch, ba-roch'), town 
in Guzerat (Gujerat), Hindustan, on the Ner- 
budda, one of the oldest seaports of Western 
India, with a considerable coasting trade. The 
town was taken by storm by the British in 
1772, and, with the district, ceded to them by 
treaty with Scindiah in 1803. Pop. 37,281. 

Broad Arrow, a government mark placed 
on British stores of every description (as well 
as on some other things), to distinguish them 
as public or crown property, and to obliterate 
or deface which is felony,. Persons in posses¬ 
sion of goods marked with the broad arrow for¬ 
feit the goods and are subject to a penalty. 
The origin of the mark is not clearly known. 

Broad'sword, a sword with a broad blade, 
designed chiefly for cutting, formerly used by 
some regiments of cavalry and Highland in¬ 
fantry in the British service. The claymore 
or broadsword was the national weapon of the 
Highlanders. 

Brocade', a stuff of silk, enriched with 
raised flowers, foliage, or other ornaments. 
The term is restricted to silks figured in the 
loom, distinguished from those which are em¬ 
broidered after being woven. Brocade is in 
silk what damask is in linen or wool. 

Brock, Sir Isaac (1769-1812), British soldier. 
He became lieutenant in 1790, served in the 
West Indies until 1793, was with the expedi¬ 
tion in Holland in 1799, and at the battle of 
Copenhagen in 1801. In 1802 he went to Can- 


Brocken 

ada, w*_jre he suppressed a troublesome con¬ 
spiracy. In 1810 he commanded the troops in 
Upper Canada, and became lieutenant gover¬ 
nor of that province. General Brock moved 
his command to Detroit in 1812, and on August 
1C captured General Hull with his entire army. 
Meanwhile a U. S. force of 6,000 men was 
gathered on the frontier of Niagara. These 
were attacked by General Brock, who fell at 
the head of his troops. 

Brock'en, the highest summit of the Harz 
Mountaias (3,742 ft.), in Prussian Saxony, cel¬ 
ebrated for the atmospheric conditions which 
produce the appearance of gigantic spectral 
figures - in the clouds, being shadows of the 
spectators projected by the morning or eve¬ 
ning sun. 

Brockton, Plymouth co., Mass., 20 mi. s. of 
Boston. Railroad: Old Colony. Manufac¬ 
tures: sewing machines, needles, shoe machin¬ 
ery, and tools. Seat of extensive boot and 
shoe factories. There are large granite depos¬ 
its in the vicinity. Pop. 1900, 40,063. 

Brockville, in united counties of Leeds and 
Greenville, Province of Ontario, on St. Law¬ 
rence River, 125 mi. w. of Montreal. Railroads: 
Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific, and the 
Brockville, Westport & Sault Ste. Marie. In¬ 
dustries: manufacture of stoves, hardware, 
boilers and agricultural implements, carriage 
works, glove and wringer factories, and boat 
building. Brockville was first settled in 1800. 
Pop. est. 1897, 9,900. 

Broglie (brol-ye), a family of Italian origin 
distinguished in the annals of French wars 
and diplomacy. 1. Francis Marie, Due de, 
marshal of France (1671-1745). 2. Victor 

Francois, Due de, eldest son of preceding, 
likewise marshal of France (1718-1804); served 
in Italy, Bohemia, Bavaria, and Flanders. Was 
minister of war for a short time in 1789, and 
took part in the invasion of Champagne, 1792. 
3. Claude Victor, Prince de (1757-1794), 
the third son of Victor Fran<?ois. He entered 
at first into the views of the revolutionary 
party, and was appointed field marshal in the 
army of the Rhine, but upon his refusal 
to acknowledge the decree of August 10, 
suspending the royal authority, was deprived 
of his command and afterward summoned 
before the revolutionary tribunal, and led to 
the guillotine. 4. Achille Leonce Victor 
Charles, Due de, peer of France, son of 
Claude Victor (1785-1870). In 1816 he married 
a daughter of Madame de Stael and was made 
a member of the chamber of peers. After the 
revolution of 1830 the Due de Broglie and 
Guizot were the chiefs of the party called Doc - 
trinnaires. He was minister of public instruc¬ 
tion for a short time in 1830, and minister of 
foreign affairs-from October, 1832, to April, 1834. 
In 1849 he was a conservative member of the 
Legislative Assembly, and after the coup d'etat 
he continued a bitter enemy of the impei^al re¬ 
gime. His latter years were devoted to philo¬ 
sophical and literary pursuits, and in 1856 he 
was elected a member of the French Academy. 
5. Albert, Due de, son of the preceding, states¬ 
man and author, b. 1821. His principal work, 


Bronchi 

The Church and the Roman Empire in the Fourth 
Century , has passed through many editions. 
He has been ambassador at London, minister 
of foreign affairs, and head of a short-lived 
royalist ministry in 1877. 

Broke, Philip Bowes Vere (1776-1841), a 
British admiral; distinguished himself, partic¬ 
ularly in 1813, as commander of the Shannon, 
in the memorable action which that vessel 
fought with the U. S. vessel Chesapeake , off the 
American coast, and in which the latter was 
Captured. 

Broken-wind, a disease in horses, often ac¬ 
companied with an enlargement of the lungs 
and heart, which disables them for bearing 
fatigue. In this disease the expiration of the 
air from the lungs occupies double the time 
that the inspiration of it does; it requires also 
two efforts rapidly succeeding each other, 
attended by a slight spasmodic action, in order 
fully to accomplish it. It is caused by rup¬ 
ture of the air-cells, and there is no known 
cure for it. 

Broker, an agent who is employed to con¬ 
clude bargains or transact business for others 
in consideration of a charge or compensation, 
which is usually in proportion to the extent or 
value of the transaction completeb by him, 
and is called brokerage. In large mercantile 
communities the business of each broker is 
usually limited to a particular class of trans¬ 
actions, and thus there are brokers with several 
distinctive names, as bill-brokers, who buy and 
sell bills of exchange for others; insurance brok¬ 
ers, who negotiate between underwriters and 
the owners of vessels and shippers of goods; 
ship brokers, who are the agents of owners of 
vessels in chartering them to merchants or 
procuring freights for them from one port to 
another; stock brokers, the agents of dealers in 
shares of joint-stock companies, government 
securities, and other monetary investments. 

Brom'berg, a town of Prussia, province of 
Posen. Among its industries are machinery, 
iron founding, tanning, paper, tobacco,chicory, 
pottery, distilling, and brewing. Pop. 34,064. 

Bro' mine, a non-metallic element discovered 
in 1826. In its general chemical properties it 
much resembles chlorine and iodine, and is 
generally associated with them. It exists, but 
in very minute quantities, in sea-water, in the 
ashes of marine plants, in animals, and in 
some salt springs. It is usually extracted from 
bittern by the agency of chlorine. At com¬ 
mon temperatures it is a very dark reddish 
liquid of a powerful and suffocating odor, and 
emitting red vapor. It has bleaching powers 
like chlorine, and is very poisonous. Its den¬ 
sity is about four and a half times that of 
water. It combines with hydrogen to form 
hydrobromic acid gas. With oxygen and hy¬ 
drogen it forms bromic acid. Bromide of po¬ 
tassium has sedative and other properties, and 
is used in medicine (scrofula, goiter, rheuma¬ 
tism, etc.); bromide of silver is used in photog¬ 
raphy. 

Bron'chi (-kT), the two branches into which 
the trachea or windpipe divides in the chest, 
one going to the right lung, the other to the 


Bronchitis 


Bronze 


left, and ramifying into innumerable smaller 
tubes—the bronchial tubes. 

Bronchitis (bron-kT tis), an inflammation of 
the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes, 
or the air-passages leading from the trachea to 
the lungs. It is of common occurrence, and 
may be either acute or chronic. Its symp¬ 
toms are those of a feverish cold, such as 
headache, lassitude, and an occasional cough, 
which are succeeded by a more frequent cough 
occurring in paroxysms, a spit of yellowish 
mucus, and a feeling of great oppression on 
the chest. Slight attacks of acute bronchitis 
are frequent and not very dangerous. They 
may be treated with mustard poultices or 
fomentations. Acute bronchitis is often a 
formidable malady, and requires prompt treat¬ 
ment. Its main symptoms are cough, short¬ 
ness of breath, and spit. It is particularly 
apt to attack a person in winter; and in the 
end may cause death through the lungs be¬ 
coming unable for their work, and through 
accompanying complications. 

Bron't6, a town of Sicily, 22 mi. n. n. w. of 
Catania, in a picturesque situation at the w. 
base of Mount .ZEtna. Nelson was created duke 
of Bronte by the Neapolitan government in 
1799. Pop. 14,567. 

Bron't6, Charlotte (afterward Mrs. Nich- 
olls) (1816-1855), English novelist. After an 
education received partly at home and partly 
at neighboring schools, Miss Bronte became 
a teacher, and then a governess in a family. 
In 1842 she went with her sister Emily to 
Brussels, with the view of acquiring a knowl¬ 
edge of the French and German languages, 
and she subsequently taught for a year in the 
school she had attended here. They resolved 
now to turn their attention to literary com¬ 
position; and in 1846 a volume of poems by the 
three sisters was published, under the names 
of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. It was issued 
at their own risk, and attracted little atten¬ 
tion, so they quitted poetry for prose fiction, 
and produced each a novel. Charlotte (Currer 
Bell) entitled her production The Professor, but 
it was everywhere refused by the publishing 
trade, and was not given to the world till after 
her death. Emily (Ellis Bell) with her tale of 
Wuthering Heights, and Anne (Acton Bell) with 
Agnes Grey, were more successful. Charlotte’s 
failure, however, did not discourage her, and 
she composed the novel of Jane Eyre, which 
was published in October, 1847. Its success 
was immediate and decided. Her second 
novel of Shirley appeared in 1849. Previous to 
this she had lost her two sisters, Emily dying 
on Dec. 19, 1848, and Anne on May 28, 1849. 
In the autumn of 1852 appeared Charlotte’s 
third novel, Villette. Shortly after, she mar¬ 
ried her father’s curate, the Rev. Arthur Bell 
Nicholls, but in nine months d. of consump¬ 
tion. Her originally rejected tale of The Pro¬ 
fessor was published after her death, in 1857, 
and the same year a biography of her appeared 
from the pen of Mrs. Gaskell. 

Bronze, an alloy formed wholly or chiefly 
of copper and tin, in variable proportions. It 
has been used from a very early period. Ar¬ 


chaeologists distinguish a bronze age in prehis¬ 
toric times in Western Europe (intermediate 
between those of stone and iron), character¬ 
ized by a general use of the alloy for cutting 
instruments and other objects. The “brass ” 
of the Bible was probably of the nature of 
bronze. The addition of tin to copper gives 
rise to a product more fusible than copper, 
and thus better suited for casting. The alloy 
is also harder and less malleable. The pro¬ 
portions in which copper and tin are com¬ 
bined to make bronze vary according to the 
object for which the alloy is designed. With 
about 7 parts copper to 1 part tin, bronze is 
very hard, brittle, and sonorous. Soft bronze, 
again, which bears drifting, rolling, and draw¬ 
ing is generally composed of 16 copper to 1 tin; 
while a flexible, tenacious alloy good for nails 
and bolts, is made of 20 copper to 1 tin. In 
preparing bronze for statues, bas-reliefs, etc., 
the qualities chiefly looked at are fusibility 
and hardness, also readiness to acquire a fine 
patina on exposure, though it appears this 
may be acquired by bronzes differing widely 
in composition. A common statue bronze is 
formed of copper 80, tin 20. Bell metal, for 
large bells, is generally made with about 3 
parts copper to 1 part tin; for house bells, 4 
copper to 1 tin. The bronze of bells (as of va¬ 
rious other objects) sometimes contains a lit¬ 
tle zinc, lead, etc., in addition to the primary 
ingredients. The Chinese tam tarns or gongs, 
are made of bronze forged by the hammer; 
they contain about 20 per cent, tin, the rest 
copper only. 

The Japanese bronzes are remarkable for the 
amount of work put upon them. A workman 
will often spend years on a single piece. 
They contain a large proportion of lead, the 
average composition being copper 80 parts, 
lead 10, tin 4, zinc 2, and the remaining four 
parts consisting of iron, nickel, arsenic, silver, 
and gold. Bronze can be covered with a 
black, red, brown, or green patina, as desired, 
by suitable oxidation or sulphurization. Some 
important researches on bronze for field-guns 
have lately been made by Colonel Uchatius of 
Vienna; and the steel bronze he produces is 
equal to steel in hardness, homogeneousness, 
resistance, and other qualities; while it is 
less affected by atmospheric agency, and less 
costly. These new bronze guns have been 
found to bear several hundred discharges suc¬ 
cessively without the slightest apparent de¬ 
formation or other injury. The alloy known 
as aluminium bronze is one endowed with great 
strength, malleability, and ductility. It is 
formed of 10 parts aluminium and 90 of copper. 
In the melting of ordinary bronze, reverbera¬ 
tory furnaces have long been used, as rapid 
fusion is desirable in order to prevent loss of 
tin, zinc, or lead by oxidation. Bell founders 
often use dome-topped furnaces, as their alloy 
does not require so intense a heat for fusion; 
but there is some waste of material with these. 
The copper is melted first, and covered with 
small charcoal or coke; and the tin is rapidly 
thrust down to the bottom of the melted mass. 

In casting a bronze statue the work, though 


Bronze Age 

generally supposed to be that of the artist, is 
in reality the work of a score or more of men. 
When the cast reaches the foundry it is care¬ 
fully unpacked and laid upon the sand tables. 
The moist molding sand is then pounded into 
every line and crevice in the plaster mold. 
This sand, which is all imported, is so adhe¬ 
sive that it readily receives and retains all im¬ 
pressions. When any one part, for example 
the eyes, have been filled with the sand, the 
edges are smoothed off with a sharp knife and 
sprinkled with starch. Another section is then 
pounded in and trimmed as before and starched. 
When the molding is complete, liquid plaster 
of Paris is poured around it and allowed to 
harden, after which the whole mass is bound 
with iron bands and allowed to stand two days 
to dry. Then the bands are taken off and the 
layer of sand with its outside coat of plaster is 
separated from the cast, from which it has re¬ 
ceived an exact impression. The inside of the 
sand mold is then painted with plumbago. 
The core is made by hammering more of the 
black sand into the half mold and allowed to 
dry. When it is taken out it is a sand image 
of the original cast. Then it is cut down about 
a quarter of an inch all around according to 
the desired thickness for the bronze. The core 
is then painted with plumbago. After the 
molds and core have been completed they are 
put into an oven where they become exceed¬ 
ingly hard. The core is then fitted into the 
two halves of the mold leaving a space be¬ 
tween them equal to the amount shaved off for 
the molten bronze. Air holes are made in the 
bottom of the mold to allow the gas to escape 
and a funnel is placed in the top. The whole 
mass is bound with wooden girders and iron 
bands. The molten bronze is brought to the 
mold in a crucible and poured into the mold. 
They must have enough bronze or the whole 
process is of no value, and the casting is ruined. 
When the molds are filled the bronze is al¬ 
lowed to cool, after which the outside plaster 
and the sand mold are removed, leaving the 
bronze figure. If the bronze were to be solid 
there would be no core. The bronze figure 
when it first appears is rough and has small 
seams where the pieces of the mold were put 
together. These are smoothed down with a 
file and the statue is burnished with wire 
brushes and emery paper. 

Bronze Age, a term in prehistoric archaeol¬ 
ogy, denoting the condition or stage of culture 
of a people using bronze as the material for 
cutting implements and weapons. As a stage 
of culture, it comes in between the use of 
stone and the use of iron for these purposes. 
It is not an absolute division of time, but a 
relative condition of culture, which in some 
areas may have been reached earlier, in others 
later, while in some it may have been pro¬ 
longed, and in others brief, or even, as in the 
Polynesian area, it may have been non-exist¬ 
ent in consequence of the people passing 
directly from the use of stone to that of iron. 
The implements and weapons of the Bronze 
Age include knives, saws, sickles, awls, 
gouges, hammers, anvils, axes, swords dag- 


Brooklyn 

gers, spears, arrows, shields. The composition 
of the bronze varied considerably, but may be 
stated in general as about 00 per cent, of cop¬ 
per to 10 per cent, of tin. 

Bronze=wing, a name for certain species 
of Australian pigeons, distinguished by the 
bronze color of their plumage. The common 
bronze-winged ground-dove abounds in all the 
Australian colonies, and is a plump bird, often 
weighing a pound, much esteemed for table. 

Brooch (broch), a kind of ornament worn on 
the dress, to which it is attached by a pin 
stuck through the fabric. They are usually 
of gold or silver, often worked in highly ar¬ 
tistic patterns and set with precious stones. 
Brooches are of great antiquity, and were for¬ 
merly worn by men as well as women, espe¬ 
cially among the Celtic races. Among the 
Highlanders of Scotland there are preserved 
in several families ancient brooches of rich 
workmanship and highly ornamented. Some 
of them seem to have been used as a sort of 
amulet or talisman. 

Brooke, Sir James (1803-1868), celebrated as 
the Rajah of Sarawak. In 1838, having gone 
to Borneo, he assisted the sultan of Brunei 
(the nominal ruler of the island) in suppress¬ 
ing a revolt. For his services he was made 
rajah and governor of Sarawak, a district on 
the n.w. coast of the island, and being estab¬ 
lished in the government he endeavored to in¬ 
duce the Dyak natives to abandon their irreg¬ 
ular and piratical mode of life and to turn 
themselves to agriculture and commerce; and 
his efforts to introduce civilization were 
crowned with wonderful success. He was 
made a K.C.B. in 1847, and was appointed 
governor of Labuan. His son now rules Sara¬ 
wak. 

Brookline, Norfolk co., Mass., on Charles 
River, 4 mi. w. of Boston. It was originally a 
part of Boston, but was set off and incorpo¬ 
rated as an independent township in 1705. 
Railroad: Boston & Albany. Industry: elec¬ 
tric company. Surrounding country agricul¬ 
tural. Pop. 1900, 19,935. 

Brooklyn, a city and seaport, New York 
state, on the w. end of Long Island, separated 
from the city of New York by East River, a 
strait about three quarters of a mile broad, 
crossed by steam ferries, and by a suspension 
bridge having a total length of 5,9S9 ft., and a 
clear height above high water of 135 1’t. Brook¬ 
lyn is one of the finest cities in theU. S., with 
broad, straight streets, many of them planted 
with rows of trees. It has a river front of 
nearly 9 mi., and covers an area of 16,000 
acres. It is popularly known as the “city of 
churches,’’ having about 300 of all denomina¬ 
tions. Among the public buildings are the 
city hall, of white marble, the jail, the county 
courthouse, the academy of music, etc. The 
literary and charitable institutions are very 
numerous. The Atlantic Dock is one of the 
largest in the U. S., covering 40 acres. The 
U. S. navy yard, on Wallabout Bay, occupies 
45 acres. Brooklyn is a favorite residence of 
the wealthy New Yorkers. It has a large trade. 
It was founded in 1625. It was incorpo- 


Brooks 


Broussais 


rated as a part of Greater New York in 1898. 
Pop. of Borough of Brooklyn, 1,116,582. 

Brooks, Phillips (1835-1893), American 
bishop. Graduated from Harvard, 1855, and 
studied theology in Alexandria. Va. Prom 
1859-1869 he resided in Philadelphia and there¬ 
after in Boston. Trinity church, Boston, is a 
memorial to his ministry. His Christmas 
carol, 0 Little Town of Bethlehem , is preserved. 
In 1885 he received the title D. D. from Ox¬ 
ford, England. He was consecrated bishop of 
Massachusetts 1891, and his last public ap¬ 
pearance was at Newton. Of commanding 
appearance, rapid of speech, and clear of utter¬ 
ance, he held audiences spellbound. In 1892 
he was elected bishop of Massachusetts Dio¬ 
cese. He d. Jan. 23, 1893. 

Brooks, Preston S. (1819-1857), American 
politician. He became a member of Congress 
in 1853, and attained an unenviable notoriety 
in May, 1856, by making a ferocious assault 
upon Charles Sumner in the U. S. Senate 
chamber. 

Broom, a peculiar name which includes sev¬ 
eral allied genera of plants distinguished by a 
leguminous fruit and papilionaceous flowers. 
The common broom of Europe is a bushy 
shrub with straight, angular branches of a 
dark-green color, deciduous leaves, and flow¬ 
ers of a deep golden yellow. Its twigs are 
often made into brooms, and are used for 
thatch for houses and cornstacks. They have 
also been used for tanning. The whole plant 
has a very bitter taste, and a decoction of it is 
diuretic, in. strong doses emetic. White broom , 
or Portugal broom , has beautiful white flowers. 
Spanish broom , or Spart , is an ornamental flow¬ 
ering shrub growing in Africa, Spain, Italy, 
and the s. of France, and often cultivated 
in English gardens. It has upright, round 
branches, that flower at the top, and spear- 
shaped leaves. Its fiber is made into various 
textile fabrics, and is also used in papermak¬ 
ing. Dyer's broom yields a yellow color used 
in dyeing. Butcher's broom is an evergreen 
shrub of the order Liliaceae, and therefore en¬ 
tirely different from the brooms proper. 

Broom-corn, Broom-grass, a plant of the 
order of grasses, with a jointed stem, rising to 
the height of 8 or 10 ft., extensively cultivated 
in the U. S., where the branched panicles are 
made into carpet-brooms and clothes-brushes. 
The seed is used for feeding poultry, cattle, 
etc. 

Broth, the liquor in which some kind of 
flesh is boiled and macerated, often with cer¬ 
tain vegetables, to give it a better relish. Beef- 
tea is a kind of broth. Scotch broth is a kind 
of soup in which pot barley is an ingredient. 

Brough, John (1811-1865), born at Marietta, 
O. When a boy he was apprenticed to a prin¬ 
ter and later studied at the Ohio Univer¬ 
sity. He became editor of political journals 
giving considerable attention to oratory, and 
held several public offices. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1846. In 1846 he became gover¬ 
nor of Ohio, receiving the vote of all parties 
who were in favor of prosecuting the war. 
His opponent was C. L. Vallandigham, who 


was running on an anti-war platform. Brough’s 
majority was over 100,000 and has ever since 
been referred to by politicians as the “Old John 
Brough majority.” 

Brougham (brom or bro'em), a close four- 
wheeled carriage, with a single inside seat for 
two persons, glazed in front and with a raised 
driver’s seat, named after and apparently in¬ 
vented bv Lord Brougham. 

Brougham (brom or bro'em), Henry, Baron 
Brougham and Yaux (1778-1868), an English 
statesman and jurist. Along with Jeffrey, 
Horner, and Sydney Smith he bore a chief 
part in starting the Edinburgh Review in 
1802. He entered Parliament, agitated for 
reforms, and his fearless and successful defense 
of Queen Caroline in 1820 and 1821 placed him 
on the pinnacle of popular favor. In the min¬ 
istry of Earl Grey he accepted the post of lord 
chancellor, and was raised to the peerage (Nov. 
22, 1830) with the title of Baron Brougham 
and Yaux. In this post he distinguished him¬ 
self as a law reformer, and aided greatly in 
the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. In 



Branch of Common Broom, a.—Flowering Branch. 

1834 the Whig ministry were dismissed, and 
this proved the end of his official life, though 
for years he continued an active member of 
the House of Lords. In legal procedure he 
was the means of introducing various reforms. 

Broussais (bro-sa), Francis Joseph Victor 
(1772-1838), French physician. He is regarded 
as the founder of what was called the physi¬ 
ological system of medicine. According to his 
theory irritability was the fundamental prop¬ 
erty of all living animal tissues, and every 


Brouwer 


Brown 


malady proceeded from an undue increase or 
diminution of that property. 

Brouwer (brou'ver) (or Brauwer), Adrian 
(1608-1640). He was a pupil of Franz Hals, 
and was patronized by Rubens; but was of very 
dissipated habits. His works are chiefly tav¬ 
ern scenes and other delineations of low life, 
and rank among the best of their kind. 

Brown, a color which may be regarded as a 
mixture of red and black, or of red, black, and 
yellow. There are various brown pigments, 
mostly of mineral origin, as bistre, umber, cap- 
pagh brown, etc. 

Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810), an 
eminent novelist. He was destined for the 
law, but the term intended for preparatory 
legal study was principally occupied with liter¬ 
ary pursuits. His novel Wieland, or the Trans¬ 
formation, was published in 1798: Ormond, or 
the Secret Witness, in 1799; and Arthur Mervyn 
in 1800. In the last-named work the ravages 
of the yellow fever, which the author had wit¬ 
nessed in New York and Philadelphia, are 
painted with terrific truth. He was originator 
of the Monthly Magazine and American Review. 
He also founded in 1805 the Literary Magazine 
and American Register, which he edited for five 
years. Among his other works are Clara Howard 
and Jane Talbot. 

Brown, George (1818-1880), a Canadian 
statesman. He was educated in Scotland, 
came to New York in 1838, and published 
there the British Chronicle. In 1843 he went to 
Canada, and the following year issued the first 
number of the Toronto Globe. He sat in the 
Dominion Parliament 1851-67. In 1873 he 
entered the Senate. He was shot by a dis¬ 
charged employe, and died from the effects of 
his wound two months later. 

Brown, Henry Kirke (1814-1886), Ameri¬ 
can sculptor. At an early age he made an 
excellent portrait of an old man. He studied 
painting with Chester Harding of Boston, and 
anatomy in Cincinnati, where he modeled his 
first bust. In 1840 he w r ent to Troy and Al¬ 
bany, executing many portrait busts of promi¬ 
nent persons. He was in Italy 1842-1846. He 
returned to New York and opened a studio, 
where the first bronze-casting was done in this 
city. In 1850 he removed to Brooklyn, and 
was engaged with the statue of De Witt Clin¬ 
ton for Greenwood cemetery for two years, the 
first bronze statute cast in America. In 1857 
he was invited by South Carolina to make the 
pediment for the statehouse in Columbia. 
It represented a colossal figure of South Caro¬ 
lina, with Justice and Liberty at either side, 
and industries represented by negro slaves at 
work in the cotton and rice plantations. This 
work was destroyed by Sherman’s soldiers in 
1865. Mr. Brown’s principal statues are: 
Abraham Lincoln in Prospect Park, Brooklyn 
(1866); Gen. Nathanael Greene for the state of 
Rhode Island, presented to the National Gal¬ 
lery in the capitol, Washington (1867); Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln, Union Square, New York; Eques¬ 
trian Statue of General Scott, Scott Circle, 
Washington (1872); Gen. George Clinton, pre¬ 
sented by the state of New York to the U. S. 


government (1873); Gen. Philip Kearney , in 
Newark, N. J.; Richard Stockton, for New 
Jersey (1874); an Equestrian Statue of Gen. 
Nathanael Greene, for the U. S. government 
(1875-76). 

Brown, John (1800-1859), an American abo¬ 
litionist, celebrated as the originator of the 
Harper’s Ferry insurrection, was b. in Tor- 
rington, Conn., May 9. Originally intended 
for the church, he was compelled to give up 
study on account of inflammation in the eyes. 
He then took up the business of a tanner, 
which he carried on for twenty years. Not 
being very successful in trade he started busi¬ 
ness as a wool dealer in Ohio in 1840. Failing 
in this he removed to Essex co., N. Y. in 1849, 
and began to reclaim a large tract of land 
which had been granted to him. After two 
years he returned to Ohio and resumed his 
business as a wool dealer. In 1855, with his 
four sons, he migrated to Kansas and at once 
took a prominent position as an anti-slavery 
man. He became renowned in the fierce bor¬ 
der warfare which was carried on for some 
years in Kansas and Missouri, and gained par¬ 
ticular celebrity by his victory at Osawat- 
omie. About this time he seems to have 
formed the idea of effecting slave liberation 
by arming the slaves and inciting them to rise 
in revolt against their oppressors. As the first 
step in this scheme, he designed to seize the 
arsenal of Harper’s Ferry, where an immense 
stock of arms was kept. On the night of Oct. 
10, 1859, he, with a handful of well-armed and 
resolute companions, overpowered the small 
guard and gained possession of the arsenal. 
During the next morning he made prisoners of 
some of the chief men of the town, but there 
was no rising of slaves as had been expected. 
The townsmen, too, recovered from their as¬ 
tonishment at the audacity of the act, and a 
bold attack was made on the arsenal. Fresh 
assailants poured in from the country round, 
and on the morning of the 18th the arsenal 
was recaptured, and Brown, severely wounded, 
was taken prisoner. On October 27, he was 
tried at Charlestown for treason and murder, 
and was found guilty. The sentence passed 
upon him, death by hanging, was carried into 
execution December 2. He was immortalized 
by the Union soldiers in the war song, John 
Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave. 

Brown, John (1735-1788), author of the Bru- 
nonian system in medicine. He maintained 
that the majority of diseases were proofs of 
weakness and not of excessive strength or 
excitement, and therefore contended that in¬ 
discriminate lowering of the system, as by 
bleeding, was erroneous, and that supporting 
treatment was required. His system gave rise 
to much opposition, but his opinions materi¬ 
ally influenced the practise of his professional 
successors. 

Brown, Joseph Emerson, b. 1821. He was 
elected to the Georgia state senate in 1849, be¬ 
came judge in 1855, and was governor 1857- 
1865. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gov¬ 
ernor Brown, who was an active secessionist, 
seized the U. S. forts and the arsenal at Au- 


Brown 

gusta, Ga. After the war he advised his state 
to accept the terms of reconstruction offered, 
and for a time he acted with the Republican 
party. He was defeated for U. S. senator in 
1868, and was appointed chief justice of the 
state supreme court in the same year. In 
1872 he again joined the Democratic party 
during the Greeley campaign; in 1880 was 
elected U. S. senator, and was re-elected in 
1884. Died 1894. 

Brown, Robert (1773-1858), a noted English 
botanist. In 1800 he was appointed naturalist 
to Flinders’s surveying expedition to Aus¬ 
tralia. He returned with nearly 4,000 species 
of plants, and was shortly after appointed li¬ 
brarian to the Linnsean Society. He was the 
first English writer on botany who adopted the 
natural system of classification, which has 
since entirely superseded that of Linnaeus. As 
a naturalist Brown occupied the very highest 
rank among men of science. A collection of 
his miscellaneous writings has been published 
by the Ray Society. 

Browne, Charles Farrar, see Artemus 
Ward. 

Browne (1815-1882), Hablot Knight, an 
English designer of humorous and satirical 
subjects, and an etcher of considerable skill, 
better known by the pseudonym of “Phiz,” 
born at Kennington, Surrey. In 1835 he suc¬ 
ceeded Seymour as the illustrator of Dickens’s 
Pickwick, and was afterward engaged to il¬ 
lustrate Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son, 
Martin Chuzzlewit, David Copperfield, and other 
works of that author. He also illus¬ 
trated the novels of Lever, Ainsworth, etc., 
besides sending many comic sketches to the 
illustrated serials of the times. 

Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-1682), an English 
physician and writer. In 1642 was published 
his Religio Medici (A Physician's Religion ), 
which excited the attention of the learned, 
not only in England but throughout Europe, 
gave rise to doubts of the author’s orthodoxy, 
and was translated into various languages. 
In 1646 appeared his Treatise on Vulgar Er¬ 
rors. In 1658 his Hydriotaphia (or Treatise 
on Urn-Burial) appeared conjointly with his 
Garden of Gyrus. He was a believer in al¬ 
chemy, astrology, and witchcraft. 

Browne, William (1591-1645), an English 
poet. In his twenty-third year he published 
his Britannia's Pastorals, which met with 
great approbation; and in the following year 
appeared his Shepherd's Pipe. In 1616 he 
published the second part of his Britannia's 
Pastorals, which met with equal success with 
the former. 

Brownie, in Scotland an imaginary spirit 
formerly believed to haunt houses, particu¬ 
larly farmhouses. Instead of doing any in¬ 
jury he was believed to be very useful to the 
family, particularly to the servants if they 
treated him well, for whom he was wont to do 
many pieces of drudgery while they slept. 
The brownie bears a close resemblance to the 
Robin Goodfellow of England, and the Kobold 
of Germany. 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1809-1861), 


Browning 

English poetess. Her father, Edward Moulton, 
took the name of Barrett, on succeeding to 
some property. She grew up at Hope End, 
near Ledbury, Herefordshire, where her father 
possessed a large estate. Her bodily frame was 
from the first extremely delicate, and she had 
been injured by a fall from her pony when a 
girl, but her mind was sound and vigorous, 
and disciplined by a course of severe and ex¬ 
alted study. She early began to commit her 
thoughts to writing, and in 1826 a volume, en¬ 
titled An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems, ap¬ 
peared of her authorship. A money catastrophe 
compelled her father to settle in London, and 
her continued delicacy received a severe shock 
by the accidental drowning of her brother, 
causing her to pass years in the confinement of 
a sickroom. Her health was at length partially 
restored, and in 1846 she was married to Mr. 
Robert Browning, soon after which they set¬ 
tled in Italy, and continued to reside for the 
most part in the city of Florence. Her Prome¬ 
theus Bound (from the Greek of iEschylus) and 
Miscellaneous Poems appeared in 1833; the Sera¬ 
phim and Other Poems in 1838. In 1856 a col¬ 
lected edition of Mrs. Browning’s works ap¬ 
peared, including several new poems, and 
among others Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Casa 
Guidi Windows, a poem on the struggles of the 
Italians for liberty in 1848-49, appeared in 1851. 
The longest and most finished of all her works, 
Aurora Leigh, a narrative and didactic poem in 
nine books, was published in 1857. Poems be¬ 
fore Congress, appeared in 1860, and two post¬ 
humous volumes, Last Poems, 1862, and The 
Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (prose 
essays and translations), 1863, were edited by 
her husband. 

Browning, Robert (1812-1889), an English 
poet. In 1846 he married Elizabeth Barrett, 
and resided chiefly in Italy, making occasional 
visits to England. His first poem, Pauline, 
was published in 1833; followed by Paracelsus 
in 1835; Stafford, a Tragedy (1837), produced at 
Covent Garden, Macready and Helen Faucit 
playing the chief parts. Sordello appeared in 
1840, followed by the series called Bells and Pome¬ 
granates, including the three plays Pippa Passes, 
King Victor and King Charles, and Colombe's 
Birthday; four tragedies: The Return of the 
Druses, A Blot on the Scutcheon, Luria, and The 
Soul's Tragedy; and a number of Dramatic Ly¬ 
rics, among them the well-known Pied Piper of 
Hamelin, and How they Brought the Good News 
from Ghent to Aix (1841-46). Between 1846 and 
1868 appeared Men and Women, Christmas Eve 
and Easter Day; Dramatis Personae, and some 
shorter poems. The Ring and the Book (1869), 
his longest poem, was followed by Balaustion's 
Adventure; and Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau 
(1871); Fifine at the Fair (1872); Red Cotton 
Nightcap Country (1873); Aristophanes's Apology; 
Inn Album (1875); Pacchiarotto (1876); La Sai- 
saiz (1878); Dramatic Idylls (1879-80); Jocoseria 
(1883); Ferishtah's Fancies (1884); and Parley- 
ings with Certain People of Importance in Their 
Day (1887). Browning received the degree of 
D.C.L. from Oxford in 1882. A Browning 
Society for the study of his works was formed 


Brownlow 


Bruce 


in 1881, under whose auspices several of his 
dramas have been performed. His poems are 
often difficult to understand from the quick 
transitions of thought, and they are not infre¬ 
quently rugged and harsh in expression, yet 
they are among the chief poetic utterances 
of the century. 

Brownlow, William G. (1805-1877), a South¬ 
ern Unionist, born in Virginia. He became a 
Methodist preacher, and afterward edited va¬ 
rious newspapers in Tennessee. He became 
governor of that state in 1864, served two terms, 
and was in 1869 elected to the U. S. Senate. 
“Parson Brownlow,” as he was called, edited 
the Knoxville Whig until it was suppressed by 
the Confederacy, and was always loyal to the 
Union cause. 

Brown=Sequard, Edouard (1818-1S94), an 
American physician. His father was an 
American sea captain, his mother a French¬ 
woman. He was a professor in the medical 
department of the Harvard University, 1864- 
68, and was connected with the Virginia 
Medical College. In 1869 he was appointed 
professor of pathology in the School of Medi¬ 
cine at Paris, in 1873 established a medical 
journal in New York, and in 1878 became pro¬ 
fessor of medicine in the College of France. 
He wrote many scientific papers, and in 1889 
made public the results.of some experiments 
which he had made on human subjects with 
subcutaneous injections of an infusion pre¬ 
pared from the testes of animals. The effect 
of this treatment was claimed to be power¬ 
fully tonic and stimulant, but it proved to be 
of no practical value. 

Brownson, Orestes Augustus (1803-1876), 
American clergyman. He joined the Presby¬ 
terian Church in 1822, but changed his views 
and became a Universalist in 1825. He con¬ 
ducted the Gospel Advocate , the organ of the 
latter church, and was afterward editor of the 
Philanthropist. In 1828, he tried to form in 
New York a workingman’s party. He was 
drawn to the Unitarians by Doctor Channing, 
and in 1832 became pastor of a congregation of 
this denomination. In 1838 he established the 
Boston Quarterly Review , of which he was the 
proprietor, and almost sole writer. This was 
afterward merged into the Democratic Review 
of New York. In 1844 he became a Roman 
Catholic, and afterward remained a layman in 
that faith. Subsequently he founded Broicn- 
son's Quarterly Review. This was the first Amer¬ 
ican periodical printed in England, where it 
had a circulation among Roman Catholics. 

Brown Paper, a coarse kind of wrapping 
paper made from unbleached materials. 

Brownsville, Cameron co., Tex., on the Rio 
Grande River, and Rio Grande Railroad. It is 
the center of a stock-raising district and has a 
trade with Mexico. Pop. 1900, 6,305. 

Brown University, Providence, R. I. was 
founded in 1764, the original name being 
Rhode Island College. It is one of the best 
equipped universities in the U. S. It has an 
annual income of nearly $200,000, about 900 
students, 78 professors and instructors, 16 
buildings, and a library of 80,000 volumes. 


It is co-educational, and Baptist in denomi¬ 
nation. 

Bruce, Blanche K., born a slave in Virginia, 
1841; came north during the Civil War, and 
studied at Oberlin College, Ohio. In 1875, he 
became U. S. senator from Mississippi, and on 
May 19, 1881, was appointed register of the 
treasury by President Garfield. D. 1898. 

Bruce, a family name distinguished in the 
history of Scotland. The family of Bruce was 
of Norman descent, its founder having obtained 
from William the Conqueror large grants of 
land in Northumberland. After being fre¬ 
quently involved in border warfare with the 
Scots, the house of Bruce received, about 1130, 
from David I a grant of the lands of Annandale, 
thus obtaining a footing in the south of Scot¬ 
land. 

Bruce, Edward, a brother of Robert I, who, 
after distinguishing himself in the war of in¬ 
dependence, crossed in 1315 to Ireland to aid 
the native septs against the English. After 
many successes he was crowned king of Ire¬ 
land at Carrickfergus, but fell in battle near 
Dundalk in 1318. 

Bruce, Robert (1274-1329), the greatest of 
the kings of Scotland. In 1296, as Earl of Car- 
rick, he swore fealty to Edward I, and in 1297 
fought on the English side against Wallace. 
He then joined the Scottish army, but in the 
same year returned to his allegiance to Edward 
until 1298, when he again joined the national 
party, and became in 1299 one of the four re¬ 
gents of the kingdom. In the three final cam¬ 
paigns, however, he resumed fidelity to Ed¬ 
ward, and resided for some time at his court; 
but, learning that the king meditated putting 
him to death on information given by the 
traitor Comyn, he fled in February, 1306, to 
Scotland, stabbed Comyn in a quarrel at Dun- 
fries, assembled his vassals at Lochmaben 
Castle, and claimed the crown, which he re¬ 
ceived at Scone, March 27. Being twice de¬ 
feated, he dismissed his troops, retired to 
Rathlin Island, and was supposed to be dead, 
when, in the spring of 1307, he landed on the 
Carrick coast, defeated the Earl of Pembroke 
at London Hill, and in two years had wrested 
nearly the whole country from the English. 
He then in successive years advanced into 
England, laying waste the country; and on 
June 24, 1314, defeated at Bannockburn the 
English forces advancing under Edward II to 
the relief of the garrison at Stirling. In 1316 
he went to Ireland to the aid of his brother 
Edward, and on his return in 1318, in retalia¬ 
tion for inroads made during his absence, he 
took Berwick and harried Northumberland and 
Yorkshire. Hostilities continued until the de¬ 
feat of Edward near Byland Abbey in 1323, 
and though in that year a truce was concluded 
for thirteen years it was speedily broken. Not 
until March 4, 1328, was the treaty concluded 
by which the independence of Scotland was 
fully recognized. Bruce did not long survive 
the completion of his work, dying at Cardross 
Castle on June 7,1329. He was twice married: 
first, to a daughter of the Earl of Mar, Isabella, 
by whom he had a daughter, Marjory, mother 


Brueys=d’ Aigalliers 

of Robert II; and then to a daughter of Ay- 
mer de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, Elizabeth, by 
whom he had a son, David, who succeeded 
him. 

Brueys=(T Aigalliers (bru-a-da-gal-ya), 
FRAN901S-PAUL (1753-1798), a French admiral, 
became captain in 1792, and vice admiral in 
1798. He successfully conveyed Bonaparte and 
his army to Egypt in 1798, but was killed in the 
subsequent naval battle in the Bay of Aboukir 
shortly before his ship, the Orient, blew up. 

Bruges (briizh). an old walled city of Bel¬ 
gium, capital of West Flanders, 57 mi. n.w. 
Brussels, on the railway to Ostend. It is an 
important canal center, and has over fifty 
bridges, all opening in the middle for the pas¬ 
sage of vessels. The principal canals are those 
to Sluis, Ghent, and Ostend, on all of which 
large vessels can come up to Bruges. In the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was one 
of the chief commercial places in Europe, and 
an important member of the Hanseatic League. 
Toward the end of the fifteenth century it be¬ 
gan to decline, but still carries on a consid¬ 
erable trade with the n. of Europe, and is by 
its canals an entrepot of Belgian commerce. 
Among its more noteworthy buildings are the 
Halles, a fine old building, with a tower 354 
ft. high, in which is a fine set of chimes; the 
Hotel de Ville, the Bourse, and the Palace of 
Justice; the church of Notre Dame, with its 
elevated spire and splendid tombs of Charles 
the Bold and Mary of Burgundy, etc. The 
town possesses interesting works of art by Jan 
Van Eyck, Memling, the Van Oosts, etc. Tex¬ 
tile goods, lace, etc., are manufactured. Pop. 
51,226. 

Brumaire (bru-mar), the second month in 
the calendar adopted by the first French Re¬ 
public, beginning on October 23, and ending 
November 21. 

Brummell, George Bryan ( Beau Brummell) 
(1778-1840), son of a clerk in the Treasury, b. 
in London in 1778. He was educated at Eton 
and at Oxford, and at the age of sixteen made 
the acquaintance of the Prince of Wales, after¬ 
ward George IV, who made him a cornet in 
his own regiment of the Tenth Hussars, and 
secured his rapid promotion. The death of 
his father in 1794 brought him a fortune of 
$150,000, which he expended in a course of 
sumptuous living, extending over twenty-one 
years, during which his dicta on matters of 
etiquette and dress were received in the beau 
monde as indisputable. His creditors at length 
became clamorous, and in 1816 he took refuge 
in Calais, [where he resided for many -years, 
partly supported by the remains of his own 
fortune, and partly by remittances from friends 
in England. Subsequently (1830) he was ap¬ 
pointed consul at Caen, but on the abolition 
of the post was reduced to absolute poverty, 
and died in a lunatic asylum at Caen. 

Brun'anburgh, the scene of a British battle 
in which Athelstan and the Anglo-Saxons de¬ 
feated a force of Scots, Danes, etc., in 937; 
locality very doubtful. 

Brune (brun), Guillaume Marie Anne 
(1763-1815), marshal of France, son of a lawyer 


Brunei 

at Brive-la-Gaillarde. In 1793 he joined the 
army, and afterward distinguished himself at 
Areola and Verona as general of brigade in the 
Italian army. In 1799 he compelled the British 
and Russians to evacuate the north of Holland. 
In 1800 he pacified La Vendee, and, replacing 
Massena as commander of the Italian army, 
led his troops over the Mincio, conquered the 
Austrians, passed the Adige, took possession 
of Vicenza and Roveredo, and hastened the 
conclusion of peace. In 1802-4 he was ambas¬ 
sador at Constantinople, and the latter year 
was made a marshal. Losing the favor of 
Napoleon, he remained without employment 
for some years, but on the return of Napoleon 
from Elba he received an important command 
in the south of France, which he was soon 
after compelled to surrender at the second res¬ 
toration. He then set out for Paris, but was 
attacked and brutally killed by the populace 
at Avignon. 

Brunehilda, a Visigothic princess, married 
to Siegebert I, king of Austrasia, in 568. To 
avenge her sister (assassinated at the instiga¬ 
tion of Fredegonde) she involved her husband 
in a war with his brother Chilperic, in the 
course of which Siegebert was murdered, a. d. 
575, and she herself taken prisoner. She in¬ 
duced Meroveus, one of Chilperic’s sons, to 
marry her, effected her escape, recovered her 
authority and maintained it till 613, when she 
was captured by Fredegonde’s son, Clothaire 
II of Soissons, who had her torn to pieces by 
wild horses as the murderess of ten kings and 
royal princes. 

Brunei (bro'nl) (Bruni), an independent 
Malayan sultanate on the northwest coast of 
Borneo, between Sarawak and British North 
Borneo, exporting sago, gutta-percha, rubber, 
etc.; pop. 125,000. Its capital, also called 
Brunei, is situated on the river of same name, 
about 14 mi. from its mouth, the houses being 
mostly raised above the water on posts. It has 
a considerable trade, its pop. being 30,000 to 
35,000. 

Brunei', Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859), 
English engineer, son of Mark Isambard 
Brunei. He was educated at the Henri IV 
College, Paris; and commenced practical en¬ 
gineering under his father, acting at twenty 
as resident engineer at the Thames Tunnel. 
Among his best-known works were the Great 
Western, Great Britain, and Great Eastern steam¬ 
ships; the entire works on the Great Western 
Railway, to which he was appointed engineer 
in 1833, the Hungerford Suspension Bridge, 
docks at Plymouth, Milford Haven, etc. 

Brunei', Mark Isambard (1769-1849), a dis¬ 
tinguished engineer. He was educated in 
Rouen, his mechanical genius early displaying 
itself. In 1786 he entered the French naval 
service, and in 1793 only escaped proscription 
by a hasty flight to America. He was after¬ 
ward employed as engineer and architect in 
the city of New York, erecting forts for its 
defense, and establishing an arsenal and foun¬ 
dry. In 1799 he proceeded to England and 
settled at Plymouth, rapidly winning reputa¬ 
tion by the invention of an important machine 


Brunelleschi 


Brusa 


r 

for making the block-pulleys for the rigging of 
ships. Among his other inventions were a 
machine for making seamless shoes, machines 
for making nails and wooden boxes, for ruling 
paper and twisting cotton into hanks, and a 
machine for producing locomotion by means 
of carbonic acid gas; but his greatest en¬ 
gineering triumph was the Thames Tunnel, 
commenced March, 1825, and opened in 1843. 

Brunelleschi (bro-nel-es'ke), Filippo (1377— 
1446), Italian architect. When at Rome with 
Donatello he conceived the idea of bringing 
architecture back to Graeco-Roman principles 
as opposed to the dominant Gothic. In this 
he was successful, his work opening the way 
for Alberti, Bramante, Vignola, and Palladio. 
His great achievement was the dome of the 
cathedral of Santa Maria at Florence, the pos¬ 
sibility of,which was denied by other archi¬ 
tects. It has remained unsurpassed, the dome 
of St. Peter’s, though it excels in height, being 
inferior to it in massiveness of effect. Other 
important works by him were the Pitti Palace 
at Florence, the churches of San Lorenzo and 
Spirito Santo, and the Capella dei Pazza. 

Bruni. See Brunei. 

Brunings (bro' ningz), Christian (1736-1805), 
a great hydraulic architect of Holland; ap¬ 
pointed general inspector of rivers by the 
States of Holland in 1769. 

Briinn (brun), an Austrian city, capital of 
Moravia, on the railway from Vienna to Prague, 
nearly encircled by the rivers Schwarzawa and 
Zwittawa. It contains a cathedral and other 
handsome churches; a landhaus, where the 
provincial assembly meets, and several palaces; 
and has extensive manufactures of woolens, 
which have procured for it the name of the 
Austrian Leeds. It is the center of Moravian 
commerce, a great part of which is carried on 
by fairs. Near it is the fortress of Spielberg, 
in which Trenck and Silvio Pellico were con¬ 
fined. Pop. 95,342. 

Bruno, The Great (925-965), Archbishop of 
Cologne and Duke of Lorraine, third son of 
Henry the Fowler, and brother of the Emperor 
Otho I. He was employed in various im¬ 
portant negotiations, and was a great patron 
of learning. Commentaries on the Pentateuch, 
and some biographies of saints, are ascribed 
to him. 

Bruns'wick, a duchy and sovereign state in 
the n.w. of Germany, area 1,425 sq. mi. It is 
divided into several detached portions, sur¬ 
rounded by the Prussian provinces of Hanover, 
Saxony, and Westphalia. A good portion of 
it is hilly or undulating, and it partly belongs 
to the Harz mountain system. Mining is car¬ 
ried on chiefly in the Harz, and the minerals 
include iron, lead, copper, brown coal, etc. 
About half the surface is arable, and the chief 
cultivated products are grain, flax, hops, to¬ 
bacco, potatoes, and fruit. Brewing, distill¬ 
ing, the manufacture of linens, woolens, and 
leather, the preparation of paper, soap, to¬ 
bacco, beet-sugar, with agriculture and min¬ 
ing, afford the principal employment of the 
people. As a state of the German Empire it 
sends two members to the Bundesrath and, 


three deputies to the Reichstag. In its inter¬ 
nal government it is a constitutional monarchy. 
On the death of the Duke of Brunswick 
without issue in 1884 the Duke of Cumberland 
claimed the succession. Bismarck, however, 
interfered, and the Brunswick diet decided 
to place the duchy under a regent, Prince 
Albrecht of Prussia being elected to the 
post. Pop. 403,773. Brunswick, the capital, 
is situated on the Oker, and on the railway 
from Hanover to Berlin. The older streets 
are narrow, tortuous, and antiquated. The 
principal buildings of note are the ducal palace, 
the cathedral of St. Blaise (1173), St. Catherine’s 
church (dating from 1172), and St. Magnus’s 
(1031), the Gewandhaus, and the fine old Gothic 
Council House. The educational institutions 
include the polytechnic school, a gymnasium, 
etc., and there are a city museum, a ducal mu¬ 
seum, and a public library. The principal 
manufactures are wool, linen, jute, machinery, 
sewing machines, etc. Pop. 101,047. 

Brunswick, Glynn co., Ga., on Oglethorpe 
Bay, 90 mi. s. of Savannah. Surrounding 
country agricultural. Railroads: Southern 
Railroad, and B. & W. part of the Plant Sys¬ 
tem. Industries: two barrel factories, two 
iron foundries, and oyster-canning factory. 
The town was laid out in 1837, and became a 
city in 1856. Pop. 1900, 9,081. 

Brunswick, Cumberland co., Me., on the 
Androscoggin River. Railroad: Maine Cen¬ 
tral. It is the seat of Bowdoin College. Prin¬ 
cipal industries: paper, cotton, and lumber 
manufactories. Pop. 1900, 2,321. 

Brunswick, Family of, a distinguished 
family founded by Albert Azo II, Marquis of 
Reggio and Modena, a descendant, by the 
female line, of Charlemagne. In 1047 he 
married Cunigunda, heiress of the Counts 
of Altorf, thus uniting the two houses of 
Este and Guelph. From his son, Guelph, 
who was created Duke of Bavaria in 1071, and 
married Judith of Flanders, a descendant of 
Alfred of England, descended Henry the Proud, 
who succeeded in 1125, and by marriage ac¬ 
quired Brunswick and Saxony. Otho, the great 
grandson of Henry by a younger branch of his 
family, was the first Avho bore the title of 
Duke of Brunswick (1235). By the two sons 
of Ernst of Zell, who became duke in 1532, the 
family was divided into the two branches of 
Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel (II) and Brunswick- 
Hanover, from the latter of which comes the 
present royal family of Britain. The former 
was the German family in possession of the 
duchy of Brunswick until the death of the 
last duke in 1884. George Louis, son of Ernst 
Augustus and Sophia, granddaughter of James 
I of England, succeeded his father as elector 
of Hanover in 1698, and was called to the 
throne of Great Britain in 1714 as George I. 

Brunswick Black, a varnish composed 
chiefly of lamp-black and turpentine, and 
applied to cast-iron goods. Asphalt and oil of 
turpentine are also ingredients in some kinds 
of it. 

Brusa (Broussa) (bro'sa) (or Bursa), a Turk¬ 
ish city in Asia Minor; s. of the Sea of Mar- 


Brush 


Brutus 


mora, about 20 mi. distant from its port, Mu- 
dania, with a pop. of 72,560 Turks, Greeks, 
Armenians, and Jews, engaged in commerce, 
and the manufacture of satins, silk stuffs, car¬ 
pets, gauze, etc. The town is situated in a 
fertile plain, which is enclosed by the ridges 
of Olympus, and abounds in hot springs. Brusa 
represents the ancient Prusa, long capital of 
Bithynia, and one of the most flourishing 
towns in the Greek empire of Constantinople. 
It was the residence of the Turkish sovereigns 
from 1329 until the transference of the seat of 
empire to Adrianople in 1365. 

Brush, a well-known implement used for va¬ 
rious purposes. There are two chief varieties, 
those with stiff hair or fibers, and those with 
flexible. The former are made of hog’s bris¬ 
tles, whalebone fibers, vegetable fibers of vari¬ 
ous kinds (brush-grass, palms, etc.), and some¬ 
times wire is made to serve the same purpose. 
The latter are made of hog’s bristles, or of the 
hair of the camel, badger, squirrel, sable, goat, 
etc., and are chiefly used for painting, the 
smallest kinds being called pencils. 

Brush, Charles Francis, b. 1849; an Ameri¬ 
can inventor in Ohio; graduated at the Univer¬ 
sity of Michigan in 1869. He became an 
analytical chemist, and turned his attention to 
electric lighting. He invented a dynamo and 
an electric lamp, which were successfully in¬ 
troduced in 1876, and he has more than fifty 
patents relating to these inventions. 

Brus'sels, the capital of Belgium, and of 
the province of Brabant. The city consists of 
a northwestern or lower portion and a south¬ 
eastern or upper portion. The older part is 
surrounded with fine boulevards on the site of 
its fortifications, and in many places presents 
a congeries of twisted streets. The upper town, 
which is partly inside the boulevards and 
partly outside, is the finest part of the city, 
and contains the king’s palace, the palace of 
the chambers, the palace of justice (a magnifi¬ 
cent new building of colossal proportions in 
the classical style, ranking among the finest in 
Europe), the palace of the fine arts, the public 
library and museum, etc.; and has also a fine 
park of 17 acres, around which most of the 
principal buildings are situated. The lower 
town retains much of its ancient appearance. 
The hotel de ville (1401-55) is an imposing 
Gothic structure, with a spire 364 ft. in height, 
the square in front of it being perhaps the most 
pictorial of all the public places of Brussels. 
The cathedral of Saint Gudule (dating in part 
from the. thirteenth century) is the finest of 
many fine churches, richly adorned with sculp¬ 
tures and paintings. The whole town is rich 
in monuments and works of art. The institu¬ 
tions comprise a university, an academy of 
science and the fine arts and polytechnic 
school; one of the finest observatories in Eu¬ 
rope; a conservatorium of music; a public li¬ 
brary, containing 400,000 volumes and 30,000 
MSS.; a picture gallery, with the finest speci¬ 
mens of Flemish art; and many learned so¬ 
cieties and educational organizations. The 
manufactures and trade are greatly promoted 
by canal communications with Charleroi,Mech¬ 


lin, Antwerp, and the ocean, and by the net¬ 
work of Belgian railways. The industries are 
varied and important. Lace was an ancient 
manufacture, and is still of great importance, 
the manufacture of cotton and woolen fabrics, 
paper, carriages, and many minor manufac¬ 
tures are carried on. There are breweries, dis¬ 
tilleries, sugar refineries, foundries, etc. The 
language spoken by the upper classes is French, 
and Flemish is that of the lower; but German, 
Dutch, and English are also a good deal spoken. 
During the Middle Ages Brussels did not at¬ 
tain great importance. It was walled by Bald¬ 
ric of Louvain in 1044; was more completely 
fortified in 1380; and was twice burned and 
once ravaged by the plague during the fifteenth 
century. It was bombarded and burned by 
the French in 1695; and was again taken by 
the French in 1794, and retained till 1814, 
when it became the chief town of the depart¬ 
ment of the Dyle. From 1815 to 1830 it was 
one of the capitals of the Kingdom of the 
Netherlands, and in 1830 was the chief center 
of the revolt which separated Belgium from 
Holland. Pop. 561,130. 

Brussels Sprouts, one of the cultivated va¬ 
rieties of cabbage having an elongated stem 4 
or 5 ft. high, with small clustering green heads 
like miniature cabbages. They are cultivated 
in great quantities near Brussels. 

Brutus (or Brute), the first king of Britain; 
a purely mythical personage, said to have 
been the son of Sylvius, and grandson of As- 
canius, the son of ^Eneas. He landed in 
Devonshire, destroyed the giants then inhab¬ 
iting Albion, and called the island from his 
own name. At his death the island was di¬ 
vided among his sons: Locrine, Cumber, and 
Albanact. 

Brutus, Decimus Junius, served under 
Julius Caesar in Gaul, and was afterward 
commander of his fleet, but, like his relative, 
Marcus Junius Brutus, joined in the assassina¬ 
tion of Caesar. He was afterward for a short 
time successful in opposing Antony, but 
was deserted by his soldiers in Gaul and be¬ 
trayed into the hands of his opponent, who 
put him to death in b. c. 43. 

Brutus, Lucius Junius, ancient Roman 
hero, son of Marcus Junius by the daughter 
of the elder Tarquin. He saved his life from 
the persecutions of Tarquin the Proud by feign¬ 
ing himself insane, whence his name Brutus 
(stupid). On the suicide of Lucretia, however, 
he threw off the mask, and headed the revolt 
against the Tarquins. Having secured their 
banishment, he proposed to abolish the rega<l 
dignity and introduce a free government, 
with the result that he was elected to the con¬ 
sulship, in which capacity he condemned his 
own sons to death for conspiring to restore the 
monarchy. He fell in battle b. c. 509. 

Brutus, Marcus Junius (b. c. 85-42), a dis¬ 
tinguished Roman; was at first an enemy of 
Pompey, but joined him on the outbreak of 
civil war until the battle of Pharsalia. He 
then surrendered to Caesar, who made him in 
the following year governor of Cisalpine Gaul, 
and afterward of Macedonia. He soon, how- 


Bryan 


Bucer 


ever, joined the conspiracy against Cassar, and 
by his influence insured its success. After 
the assassination he took refuge in the East, 
made himself master of Greece and Macedonia, 
and with a powerful army joined Cassius in 
the subjugation of the Lycians and Rhodians. 
In the meantime the triumvirs, Octavianus, 
Antony, and Lepidus, had been successful at 
Rome, and were prepared to encounter the 
army of the conspirators, which, crossing the 
Hellespont, assembled at Philippi in Mace¬ 
donia. Cassius appears to have been beaten 
at once by Antony: and Brutus, though tem¬ 
porarily successful against Octavianus, Avas 
totally defeated twenty days later. He es¬ 
caped Avith a few friends; but, seeing that his 
cause Avas hopelessly ruined, fell upon the 
sword held for him by his confidant Strato, 
and died. 

Bryan, William Jennings, Avas b. in Salem, 
Ill., March 19, 1860. He graduated from Illinois 
College, Jacksonville, Ill., in 1881, and imme¬ 
diately entered the Union College of Law at 
Chicago. In 1883 he began the practise of his 
profession in Jacksonville, Ill. A year later 
he married Mary Baird. In 1887 he removed 
to Lincoln, Neb., and has been actively con¬ 
nected with the Democratic party of that 
state ever since, being elected to the 52d and 
53d Congresses. In 1896 he was nominated 
by the Democratic National Convention for 
president of the United States, but at election 
was defeated by William McKinley, Republi¬ 
can. The main issue of the campaign Avas the 
money question, Bryan and his constituents 
advocating the free coinage of silver at the 
ratio of 16 to 1. The Republican platform 
rather favored the gold standard. Bryan has 
Avritten a book, ‘‘The First Battle,” which 
contains a history of the campaign together 
with a number of his oAvn speeches on the 
silver question. In 1900 he again became the 
candidate of the Democratic party, but was 
defeated. He started a weekly paper at Lincoln, 
Neb., called “ The Commoner, ” in Jan., 1901. 

Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878), a 
famous American poet and journalist, b. at 
Cummington, Mass. His father, Peter Bry¬ 
ant, physician, encouraged his literary tastes. 
He contributed his first poem to a country news- 
paper when but ten years old. He published 
in Boston (1807) The Embargo. A second edi¬ 
tion, including the Spanish Revolution, appeared 
in 1809. Bryant entered Williams College 
(1810), but left to study law at Worthington. 
He removed to BridgeAvater (1814) to continue 
his studies, and Avas admitted to the bar (1815) 
at Plymouth. At Great Barrington he became 
distinguished as an orator. Married Miss Fran¬ 
ces Fairchild (1821). Thanatopsis, published 
in the North American Review (1817), Avon him 
fame, as did his Essay on American Poetry. He 
gave up laAV and removed to New York, 1825. 
He became editor of the NeAv York Revieic, and 
in 1826 assistant editor of the Evening Post; 
later (1829) he became editor-in-chief. He en¬ 
tered warmly into the antislavery struggle, 
and helped to form the Republican party 
(1856). To the Post Bryant gave a dignified 


and high moral tone. A complete collection 
of Bryant’s poems was reprinted in London 
Avith a laudatory preface by Irving. His prose 
is marked by clearness, vigor, and purity of 
diction, while his poetry is both philosophical 
and religious. The Fountain, and Other Poems 
(1842), The White-footed Deer, and Other Poems 
(1844), and many original and collected AA r orks, 
show his power as a writer. A festival Avas 
given in his honor at the Century Club (1864), 
and in 1876 he Avas presented with a silver- 
vase, a token of the esteem of contempora¬ 
neous literary admirers. He died June 12, 
1878, from the effect of a fall. Bryant’s Li¬ 
brary of Poetry and Song, and his Rlustrated 
History of the United States, are Avell-known pub¬ 
lications. 

Bubas'tis, an ancient Egyptian tOAvn, so 
named from the goddess Bast, supposed to 
answer to the Greek Artemis, or Diana. The 
cat was sacred to her, and the Bubasteia or 
festivals of the goddess were the largest and 
most important of the Egyptian festivals. 

Buccaneers', a name derived from Carib 
boucan, a place for smoking meat, first given 
to European settlers in Hayti, or Hispaniola, 
whose business was to hunt Avild cattle and 
swine and smoke their flesh. In .an extended 
sense it Avas applied to English and French 
adventurers, mostly seafaring people, who, 
combining for mutual defense against the 
arrogant pretensions of the Spaniards to the 
dominion of the whole of America, frequented 
the West Indies in the seventeenth century, ac¬ 
quired predatory and lawless habits, and be¬ 
came ultimately, in many cases, little better 
than pirates. The earliest association of these 
adventurers began about 1625 but they after- 
Avard became much more formidable, and con¬ 
tinued to be a terror until the opening of the 
eighteenth century, inflicting heav T y losses 
upon the shipping trade of Spain, and even at¬ 
tacking large towns. Among their chief leaders 
Avere Montbars (II exterminador), Peter the 
Great of Dieppe, L. Olonnas, de Busco, Van 
Horn, and the Welshman Henry Morgan, who, 
in 1670, marched across the isthmus, plundered 
Panama, and after being knighted by Charles 
II, became deputy governor of Jamaica. The 
last great exploit of the buccaneers Avas the 
capture of Carthagena in 1697, after which 
they are lost sight of in the annals of vulgar 
pi racy. 

Buccinator (buk-si-na'ter), the trumpeter’s 
muscle, a flat, thin muscle forming the Avail of 
the cheek, assisting in mastication and regulat¬ 
ing the expulsion of the air in Avhistling or 
playing a Avind-instrument. 

Bucen'taur, a mythical monster, half man 
and half ox. The splendid galley in which 
the doge of Venice annually wedded the 
Adriatic bore this name. 

- Buceph'alus (“Ox-head”), the horse of Alex¬ 
ander the Great. On its death from a Avound 
Alexander built over its grave, near the Hyd- 
aspes. a city called Bucepala. 

Bucer (bu'tser), Martin (1491-1551), a six¬ 
teenth century reformer, A\diose real name Avas 
Kuhhorn (cow-horn), of Avhich Bucer is meant 


Buch 


Buckingham 


to be the Greek equivalent. In 1521 he left 
the Dominican order and became preacher 
at the court of the Elector Frederick, and 
afterward in Strasburg, where he was profes¬ 
sor in the university for twenty years. In 1548 
Edward VI invited him to Cambridge, where 
he held the office of professor of theology, 
and died in 1551. In 1557 Queen Mary caused 
his bones to be burned. Cardinal Contarini 
called him the most learned divine among the 
heretics. 

Buch (bu7i), Leopold von (1774-1853), a 
German geologist. He made extensive geolog¬ 
ical excursions on the continent of Europe, and 
also visited the Canary Islands, the Hebrides, 
and the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. He 
was the author of various important works; 
and compiled a magnificent geological map of 
Germany. 

Buchan (buk'an or bu'^an), William (1729- 
1895), a Scotch medical writer, studied at Ed¬ 
inburg, and commenced practise there, where 
also he published in 1769 his work entitled 
Domestic Medicine; or the Family Physician —the 
first work of the kind published in Britain. 
Before his death, nineteen large editions had 
been sold. It was translated into French, and 
became even more popular on the Continent 
and in America than at home. 

Buchanan, James (1791-1868), fifteenth presi¬ 
dent of the U. S., b. in Pennsylvania; son of 
an Irishman who had quitted Europe in 1783. 
James Buchanan was educated at Dickinson 
College, Carlisle; was admitted to the bar in 
1812; was elected to the legislature of Pennsyl¬ 
vania in 1814; in 1820 was elected to Congress, 
of which he continued a member till 1831. 
After having been sent to Russia to conclude 
a commercial treaty he was in 1834 elected to 
the Senate, and under the presidency of Polk 
(1845-49) was appointed secretary of state. 
During the presidency of General Taylor he 
retired from public life, but in 1853 General 
Pierce, who was then president, named him 
ambassador of the U. S. at London. He re¬ 
turned to America in 1856 as Democratic can¬ 
didate for the presidency, and was elected by 
a large majority over Fremont, the Republi¬ 
can candidate, and inaugurated in March, 
1857. By his pro-slavery views Buchanan suc¬ 
ceeded in delaying the storm which burst out 
on the election of his successor Lincoln. He 
lived in retirement after the close of his ad¬ 
ministration (1861), of which he published an 
account two years before his death. 

Buchanan, "Robert William, b. 1841, Eng¬ 
lish poet and author, was educated at the Uni¬ 
versity of Glasgow. He was for many years a 
writer for the Contemporary Review , has pub¬ 
lished several novels and some good poetry, 
and wrote the plays of Alone in London and 
Sophia. 

Buck=bean, Bog-bean, or Marsh-trefoil, 
a beautiful plant of the order of Gentianaceae, 
common in spongy, boggy soils, and found in 
Britain, throughout Europe, in Siberia, and 
in North America. It is from 6 to 12 in. 
in height, and flowers in Britain about the lat¬ 
ter end of June, the flower stalk terminating 
26 


in a thyrse of white flowers, while the inner 
surface of the corolla has a coating of dense 
fleshy hairs. The whole plant, the root espe- 



Buck-bean a-.—fruit; b. —flower, 
cially, has an intensely bitter taste, and for¬ 
merly ranked highly as a tonic. 

Buck, Alfred E., b. at Foxcroft, Me., 1832, 
graduated at Waterville College, now Colby 
University, 1859, after which he taught school 
for two years. When the war broke out he 
applied for enlistment but was refused. 
Later he raised a company at his own expense 
and was made captain. In 1863 he organized 
the Ninty-first Regiment of colored infantry 
and became its lieutenant-colonel. The follow¬ 
ing year he was made lieutenant colonel of the 
Fifty-first colored infantry, which position he 
held until he was mustered out in 1866. He 
then settled in Alabama where he held several 
political offices, being elected to Congress in 
1869. He then moved to Atlanta, Ga., and was 
a member of the Georgia delegation to the Re¬ 
publican National conventions of 1880, 1884, 
and 1888. In 1882 he was chairman of the Geor¬ 
gia State Central Committee and became U. S. 
marshal. He was appointed in 1897 minister 
to Japan by President McKinley. 

Buck, Dudley (1839-1897), American mu¬ 
sical composer, b. at Hartford, Conn. He 
studied in Leipsic, Dresden, and Paris, set¬ 
tled in Chicago for several years, then became 
organist of Boston Music Hall, and afterward 
of Trinity Church, Boston. He wrote a can¬ 
tata, which was performed under the direc¬ 
tion of Theodore Thomas at the inauguration 
of the Centennial exhibition of 1876, and was 
the author of some popular operettas and sev¬ 
eral compositions for the organ. 

Buckeye, an American name for certain 
species of horse-chestnuts. 

Buckingham (or Bucks), an inland county, 
England; area about 730 sq. mi. The breed¬ 
ing and fattening of cattle and pigs are largely 
carried on, also the breeding of horses, and 
much butter is made. The manufactures are 
unimportant, among them being straw-plait¬ 
ing, thread lace, and the making of wooden 
articles, such as beechen chairs, turnery, etc. 
Pop. 185,190. Buckingham, the co. town, is 
pleasantly situated on a peninsula formed by 
the Ouse. Malting and tanning are carried on, 
and some lace is made. Pop. 3,364. 

Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of 


Buckingham Palace 


Buckwheat 


(1592-1G28), favorite of James I and Charles I 
of England. At eighteen he was sent to France 
where he resided three years, and on his re¬ 
turn made so great an impression on James I 
that in two years he was made a knight, a 
gentleman of the bed-chamber, baron, vis¬ 
count, Marquis of Buckingham, lord high- 
admiral, etc., and at last dispenser of all the 
honors and offices of the three kingdoms. In 
1023 when the Earl of Bristol was negotiating 
a marriage for Prince Charles with the Infanta 
of Spain, Buckingham went with the prince 
incognito to Madrid to carry on the suit in 
person in the hope of securing the Palitinate 
as a dowry. The result, however, was the 
breaking off of the marriage, and the declara¬ 
tion of war with Spain. During his absence 
Buckingham was created duke. After the 
death of James in 1025 he was sent to France 
as proxy for Charles I to marry the Princess 
Henrietta Maria. In 1020 after the failure of 
the Cadiz expedition, he was impeached, but 
saved by the favor of the king. Despite the 
difficulty in obtaining supplies Buckingham 
took upon himself the conduct of a war with 
France, but his expedition in aid of the Ro- 
chellese proved an entire failure. In the mean¬ 
time the spirit of revolt was becoming more 
formidable; the Petition of Right was carried 
despite the duke’s exertions, and he was again 
protected from impeachment only by the 
king’s prorogation of Parliament. He then 
went to Portsmouth to lead another expedition 
to Rochelle, but was stabbed by John Felton, 
an ex-lieutenant who had been disappointed 
of promotion. 

Buckingham Palace, a royal palace in Lon¬ 
don, facing St. James’s Park, built in the reign 
of George IV, and forming one of the resi¬ 
dences of Queen Victoria. 

Buck'land, Francis Trevelyan (1826-1880), 
English naturalist. From 1848 to 1851 be was 
a student, and from 1852 to 1853 house surgeon 
at St. George’s Hospital. He became assistant 
surgeon in the Second Life Guards in 1854. 
On the establishment of the Field newspaper 
in 1856, he joined the staff, writing for it until 
1805. In 1866 he commenced a weekly jour¬ 
nal of his own, Land and Water , and in 1867 
was appointed an inspector of salmon fisheries. 
His best known books are his Curiosities of 
Natural History (4 vols. 1857-72), the Logbook 
of a Fisherman and Zoologist (1875), and the 
Natural History of Fishes (1881). 

Buckle, George Earle, b. 1S54, British 
journalist; won the Newdigate prize at Oxford, 
1875, and graduated in 1876, and M. A. in 1879. 
He was a fellow of All Souls’ College, 1877-85, 
and in 1884 became editor of the London Times. 

Buckle, Henry Thomas (1822-62), English 
historical writer. At the age of eighteen he 
devoted himself entirely to study. His chief 
work, a philosophic History of Civilization , of 
which only two volumes were completed, was 
characterized hy much novel and suggestive 
thought, and by the bold co-ordination of a 
vast store of materials drawn from the most 
varied sources. Three volumes of his miscel¬ 
laneous and posthumous works were edited by 


Helen Taylor in 1872. He d. while traveling, 
at Damascus. 

Buckner, Simon Bolivar, an American sol¬ 
dier, b. 1823, in Hart co., Ky. He was edu 
cated at West Point, and served with dis¬ 
tinction in the Mexican War. He joined the 
Confederacy in August, 1861, and surrendered 
Fort Donelson, Feb. 16, 1862. He afterward 
commanded a division at Chattanooga, and an 
army corps at Chickamauga. On May 26, 1865, 
he surrendered the last army corps of the Con¬ 
federates to General Canby, of the Federal 
army. In 1896 he was a candidate for the vice¬ 
presidency on the Democratic sound-money 
ticket with Senator Palmer of Illinois. 

Buck'thorn, the name of an extensive genus 
of trees and shrubs, order Rhamnacese. Sev¬ 
eral species belong to North America. The 
common buckthorn, a British and North 
American shrub, grows to 7 or 8 ft., has strong 



Alder Buckthorn. 


spines on its branches, elliptical and serrated 
leaves, male and female flowers on different 
plants, a greenish-yellow calyx, no corolla, and 
a round, black berry. It flowers in May. The 
berries are purgative, but harsh in action. The 
bark yields a yellow dye. the berries sap green. 
Dyer’s buckthorn yields French or yellow 
berries. 

Buck'wheat (or Brank), a plant of the order 
Polygoneee, with branched herbaceous stem, 
somewhat arrow-shaped leaves, and purplish- 
white flowers growing to the height of about 
30 in. and bearing a small triangular grain, 
of a brownish black without and white within. 
The shape of its seeds gives it its German 
name buchweizen, “beech-wheat” whence the 
English name. The plant was first brought 
to Europe from Asia by the Crusaders, and 
hence in France is often called Saracen corn, 





Bucyrus 


Buddhism 


It grows on tho 
poorest soils. 

It is cultivated 
in China and 
other eastern 
countries as a 
bread-corn. In 
Europe buck¬ 
wheat has been 
principally cul¬ 
tivated as food 
for oxen, swine 
and poultry; 
but in Germany 
it serves as an 
ingredient in 
pottage, p u d - 
dings, and other 
food, and i n 
America buck¬ 
wheat cakes 
are esteemed 

a great deli- a.—flower; b.~ seed; c.—root, 
cacy. 

Bucyrus, Crawford co., O., on Sandusky 
river, 03 mi. n. from Columbus. Railroads: 
P., Ft. W. & St. L. division of Pa. Ry., T. & 
O. C., C. S. & H. Industries: brick and tile 
factory, three flouring mills, three iron found¬ 
ries, one woolen mill, furniture factory, plow 
factory, and others. Surrounding country ag¬ 
ricultural. Bucyrus became a city in 1885. 
Colonel Crawford fought his last battle with 
the Indians in this county. Population 1900, 
6,560. 

Bud, the name of bodies of various form 
and structure, which develop upon vegetables, 
and contain the rudiments of future organs, 
as stems, branches, leaves, and organs of fruc¬ 
tification. Upon exogenous plants they are 
in their commencement cellular prolongations 
from the medullary rays, which force their 
way through the bark. In general, a single 
bud is developed each year in the axil of each 
leaf, and there is one terminating the branch 
called a terminal bud. The life of the plant 
during winter is stored up in the bud as in an 
embryo, and it is by its vital action that on 
the return of spring the flow of sap from the 
roots is stimulated to renewed activity. Buds 
are distinguished into leaf-buds and flower- 
buds. The latter are produced in the axil of 
leaves called floral leaves or bracts. The ter¬ 
minal bud of a branch is usually a flower-bud, 
and as cultivation is capable of producing 
flower-buds in place of leaf-buds, the one is 
probably a modification of the other. 

Budapest (-pesht'), the official name of the 
united towns of Pest and Buda (or Ofen), the 
one on the right, the other on the left, of 
the Danube, forming the capital of Hungary, 
the seat of the imperial diet of the Hungarian 
ministry and of the supreme court of justice. 
Buda, which is the smaller of the two, and 
lies on the west bank of the river, consists of 
the fortified Upper Town on a hill; the Lower 
Town (or Wasserstadt) at the foot of the hill, 
and several other districts. Among the chief 
buildings are the royal castle and several 


palaces, the arsenal, town hall, government 
offices, etc., and the finest Jewish synagogue 
in the empire. The mineral baths of Buda 
have long been famous, the Bruckbad and 
Kaiserbacl having both been used by the Ro¬ 
mans. Pest, or the portion of Budapest on the 
left or east bank of the river, is formed by the 
inner town of Old Pest on the Danube, about 
which has grown a semicircle of districts — 
Leopoldstadt, Theresienstadt, Elizabethstadt, 
etc. In commerce and industry Budapest 
ranks next to Vienna in the empire. Its chief 
manufactures are machinery, gold, silver, cop¬ 
per, and iron wares, chemicals, silk, leather, 
tobbaco, etc. A large trade is done in grain, 
wine, wool, cattle, etc. Budapest is strongly 
Magyar, and as a factor in the national life 
may almost be regarded as equivalent to the 
rest of Hungary. It was not until 1799 that 
the population of Pest began to outdistance 
that of Buda; but from that date its growth 
was very rapid and out of all proportion to 
the increase of Buda. In 1799 the joint popula¬ 
tion of the two towns was little more than 
50,000; in 1886 it was 411,917. 

Buddha (bud'ha; “the Wise” or “the En¬ 
lightened”), the sacred name of the founder 
of Buddhism, an Indian sage who appears to 
have lived in the fifth century b. c. His per¬ 
sonal name was Siddhartha, and his family 
name Gautama; and he is often called also 
Sakya-muni (from Sakya, the name of his 
tribe, and muni , a Sanskrit word meaning a 
sage). His father was king of Kapilavastu, a 
few days’ journey north of Benares. Sidd¬ 
hartha, filled with a deep compassion for the 
human race, left his father’s court, and lived 
for years in solitude till he had penetrated the 
mysteries of life, and become the Buddha. 
He then began to teach his new faith, in op¬ 
position to the prevailing Brahmanism, com¬ 
mencing at Benares. Among his earliest con¬ 
verts were the monarchs of Magadha and 
Kosala, in whose kingdoms he chiefly passed 
the latter portion of his life, respected, hon¬ 
ored, and protected. See Buddhism. 

Buddhism, the religious system founded by 
Buddha, one of the most prominent doctrines 
of which is that Nirvdna , or an absolute re¬ 
lease from existence, is the chief good. Ac¬ 
cording to it pain is inseparable from exist¬ 
ence, and consequently pain can cease only 
through Nirvana; and in order to attain Nir¬ 
vana our desires and passions must be sup¬ 
pressed, the most extreme self-renunciation 
practised, and we must, as far as possible, 
forget our own personality. In order to attain 
Nirvana eight conditions must be kept or 
practised. The first is in Buddhistic lan¬ 
guage right view; the second is right judgment; 
the third is right language; the fourth is right 
purpose; the fifth is right profession; the sixth 
is right application; the seventh is right memory; 
the eighth is right meditation. The five funda¬ 
mental precepts of the Buddhist moral code 
are: not to kill, not to steal, not to commit 
adultery, not to lie, and not to give way to 
drunkenness. To these there are added five 
others of less importance, and binding more 





Budding 


Buell 


particularly on the religious class, such as to 
abstain from repasts taken out of season, from 
theatrical representations, etc. There are six 
fundamental virtues to be practised by^ all men 
alike; viz., charity, purity, patience, courage, 
contemplation, and knowledge. These are the 
virtues that are said to “conduct a man to the 
other shore.” The devotee who strictly prac¬ 
tises them has not yet attained Nirvana, but 
is on the road to it. The Buddhist virtue of 
charity is universal in its application, extend¬ 
ing to all creatures, and demanding sometimes 
the greatest self-denial and sacrifice. There 
is a legend that the Buddha in one of his 
stages of existence (for he had passed through 
innumerable transmigrations before becoming 
“the enlightened”) gave himself up to be de¬ 
voured by a famishing lioness which was un¬ 
able to suckle her young ones. There are 
other virtues, less important, indeed, than the 
six cardinal ones, but still binding on believers. 
Thus not only is lying forbidden, but evil¬ 
speaking, coarseness of language, and even 
vain and frivolous talk, must be avoided. 
Buddhist metaphysics are comprised in three 
theories—the theory of transmigration (bor¬ 
rowed from Brahmanism), the theory of the 
mutual connection of causes, and the theory 
of Nirvana. The first requires no explana¬ 
tion. According to the second, life is the re¬ 
sult of twelve conditions, which are by turns 
causes and effects. Thus there would be no 
death were it not for birth; it is therefore the 
effect of which birth is the cause. Again, 
there would be no birth were there not a con¬ 
tinuation of existence. Existence has for its 
cause our attachment to things, which again 
has its origin in desire; and so on through sen¬ 
sation, contact, the organs of sensation and 
the heart, name and form, ideas, etc., up to 
ignorance. This ignorance, however, is not 
ordinary ignorance, but the fundamental error 
which causes us to attribute permanence and 
reality to things. This, then, is the primary 
origin of existence and all its attendant evils. 
Nirvana, or extinction, is eternal salvation from 
the evils of existence, and the end which every 
Buddhist is supposed to seek. Sakya-muni 
did not leave his doctrines in writing; he de¬ 
clared them orally, and they were carefully 
treasured up by his disciples, and written 
down after his death. The determination of 
the canon of the Buddhist scriptures as we 
now possess them was the work of three suc¬ 
cessive councils, and was finished two centu¬ 
ries at least before Christ. From Buddhism 
involving a protest against caste distinctions 
it was eagerly adopted by the Dasyus or non- 
Aryan inhabitants of Hindustan. It was pure, 
moral, and humane in its origin, but it came 
subsequently to be mixed up with idolatrous 
worship of its founder and other deities. Al¬ 
though now long banished from Hindustan by 
the persecutions of the Brahmans, Buddhism 
prevails in Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, Anam, 
Thibet, Mongolia, China. Java, and Japan, and 
its adherents are said to comprise about a 
third of the human race. 

Budding, the art of multiplying plants by 


causing the leaf-bud of one species or variety 
to grow upon the branch of another. The 
operation consists in shaving off a leaf-bud, 
with a portion of the wood beneath it, which 
portion is afterward removed by a sudden 
jerk of the operator’s finger and thumb, aided 
by the budding-knife. An incision in the bark 
of the stock is then made in the form of a T; 
the two side lips are pushed aside, the bud is 
thrust between the bark and the wood, the 
upper end of its bark is cut to a level with the 
cross arm of the T, and the whole is bound up 
with worsted or other soft fastening, the point 
of the bud being left exposed. In performing 
the operation, a knife with a thin flat handle 
and a blade with a peculiar edge is required. 
The bud must be fully formed; the bark of the 
stock must separate readily from the wood be¬ 
low it; and young branches should always be 
chosen, as having beneath the bark the largest 
quantity of cambium , or viscid matter, out of 



a.—the bud cut out; ib.—the stock; 
c.—the bud inserted. 

which tissue is formed. The maturer shoots 
of the year in which the operation is performed 
are the best. The autumn is the best time for 
budding, though it may also be practised in 
the spring. 

Bude Light, an exceedingly brilliant light, 
invented by Mr. Gurney of Bude, Cornwall, 
England, and produced by directing a current 
of oxygen into the interior of the flame of an 
argand-lamp or gas-burner. 

Buell, Don Carlos (1818- ), American sol¬ 
dier, b. at Marietta, O. He graduated at the U. 
S. military academy in 1841, became first lieu¬ 
tenant, third infantry, 1846, and won the bre¬ 
vet of captain at Monterey, and that of major 
at Contreras and Churubusco, where he was 
wounded. From 1849-61 he was at the head¬ 
quarters of various departments. On May 11, 
1861, he was made a lieutenant colonel and 
appointed‘brigadier general of volunteers May 
17, 1861. After organizing troops in Washing¬ 
ton he was assigned to a division in the army 
of the Potomac, which became noted for its 
discipline. He succeeded Gen. W. T. Sher¬ 
man in the department of the Cumberland. 
On March 21, 1862, he was made major general 
of volunteers. By the aid of his division, which 
arrived at Shiloh, April 6, the Confederates, 
under General Beauregard, were driven to Cor¬ 
inth. On June 12, 1862, he assumed command 
of the district of Ohio. On September 30, 
by order from Washington, General Buell gave 
up his command to Gen. G. H. Thomas, but 
he was restored on the same day. A court- 
martial was held and Buell was acquitted. 
Andrew Johnson, then military governor of 





Buenos Ayres Buff Leather 


Tennessee, protested against his ever holding 
duty in that state, and he was transferred to 
the department of the Gulf. He declined this 
command, and resigned. He was mustered 
out of the volunteer service May 23, 1864. He 
subsequently held the post of pension agent at 
Louisville, Ky. 

Buenos Ayres (bu-en'os l'ras), a city of 
South America, capital of the Argentine Re¬ 
public. It was founded in 1535 by Don Pedro 
de Mendoza, and is built with great regularity, 
the streets uniformly crossing each other at 
right angles. It contains the palace of the 
president, the house of representatives, a town- 
hall, a number of hospitals and asylums, a 
cathedral, several monasteries, nunneries, and 
Catholic and Protestant churches, and several 
theaters, a university, and a customhouse. 
The university, founded in 1821, is attended by 
about 800 students. There are also a medical 
school, normal and other schools, besides liter¬ 
ary and scientific societies. There is no har¬ 
bor, and large vessels can only come within 8 
or 0 miles of the town, but extensive harbor 
works have been begun. The nearest good 
harbor is at La Plata, a new town 30 miles 
lower down the estuary, and now (since 1884) 
the capital of the province. Buenos Ayres is 
one of the leading commercial centers of South 
America, its exports and imports together an¬ 
nually amounting to over $60,000,000. Chief 
exports are ox and horse hides, sheep and other 
skins, wool, tallow, horns, etc. There are 6 
railways running from the city, an t d 100 miles 
of tramway in the city and suburbs. About 
one-fourth of the inhabitants are whites; the 
rest are Indians, negroes, and mixed breeds. 
Pop. 581,276. The province of Buenos Ayres 
has an area of about 63,000 sq. mi., and pre¬ 
sents nearly throughout level or slightly undu¬ 
lating plains (pampas), which afford pasture to 
vast numbers of cattle and wild horses. These 
constitute the chief wealth of the inhabitants. 
Pop. 1,411,160. 

Buf'faio, an ungulate or hoofed ruminant 
mammal, family Bovidae, or oxen, the best- 
known spec.ies of which is the common or 
Indian buffalo, larger than the ox and with 



The Cape Buffalo. 


stouter limbs, originally from India, but now 
found in most of the warmer countries of the 
Eastern Continent. A full grown male is a 
bold and powerful animal, quite a match for 
the tiger. The buffalo is less docile than the 
common ox, and is fond of marshy places and 
rivers. It is, however, used in tillage, draught, 
and carriage in India, Italy, etc. The female 
gives much more milk than the cow, and from 
the milk the ghee , or clarified butter, of India is 
made. The hide is exceedingly tough, and a 
valuable leather is prepared from it, but the 
flesh is not very highly esteemed. Another 
Indian species is the arnee, the largest of the 
ox family. The Cape Buffalo is distinguished 
by the size of its horns, which are united at 
their bases, forming a great bony mass on the 
front of the head. It attains a greater size 
than an ordinary ox. The name is also applied 
to wild oxen in general, and particularly to 
the bison of North America. See Bison. 

Buf'faio, a city of New York, at the e. 
extremity of Lake Erie, the mouth of the 
Buffalo River, and the head of the Niagara 
River. It has a water front of 2£ mi. on the 
lake and of the same extent on the Niagara 
River, which is here crossed by an iron bridge. 
The position of Buffalo on the great water and 
railway channels of communication between 
the West and the East makes it the center of a 
vast trade in grain, live stock, and other com¬ 
modities. The harbor is capacious, and is pro¬ 
tected by extensive breakwaters. The Erie 
Canal, which connects with the Hudson, has 
its western terminus here. The whole site is a 
plain with a gentle descent toward the lake, 
well covered with houses, except where open 
spaces or squares have been left for ornament 
and ventilation. There is a splendid public 
park. The principal buildings are the city and 
county hall, the customhouse and postoffice, 
the arsenal, and many of the churches; other 
buildings and institutions of note are; a young 
men’s literary association with a library of 
above 40,000 volumes, an orphan asylum, a 
general hospital, and a fine cemetery covering 
about 76 acres. Manufactures are numerous 
and varied. The Pan-American Exposition 
was held here from May to November, 1901. 
Pop. 1900, 352,387. 

Buffalo=berry, a shrub of the oleaster fam¬ 
ily, a native of the U. S. and Canada, with 
lanceolate silvery leaves and close clusters of 
bright red acid berries about the size of cur¬ 
rants, which are made into preserves and used 
in various ways. 

Buffalo=grass, a strong-growing North 
American grass, so called from once forming a 
large part of the food of the buffalo, It is very 
nutritious. The blades of this grass are about 
six inches long. In the springtime it grew 
very luxuriantly, and when burned by the 
summer sun became crisp, curly, and light 
brown in color. It grew best in the buffalo 
wallows—round depressions about a foot deep 
which marked the sleeping place of the bison. 

Buff Leather, a sort of leather prepared from 
the skin of the buffalo and other kinds of oxen, 
dressed with oil, like chamois. It is used for 







Buffon 


Bukarest 


making bandoliers, belts, pouches, gloves, and 
other articles. 

Buffon (bu-fon), George Louis Leclerc, 
Count de (1707-1788), celebrated French nat¬ 
uralist, b. at Montbard, in Burgundy. In 
1739 he was appointed superintendent of the 
Royal Garden at Paris (now the Jardin des 
Plantes), and devoted himself to the great 
work on Natural History , which occupied the 
most of his life. 

Bug, otherwise known as the house-bug 
or bed-bug. The common bug is about 
inch long, wingless, of a roundish depressed 
body, dirty, rust color, and emits an offensive 
smell when touched. The female lays her 
eggs in summer in the crevices of bedsteads, 
furniture* and walls of rooms. Its larvae are 
small, white, and semi-transparent. They at¬ 
tain full size in eleven weeks. The mouth of 
the bug has a three-jointed proboscis, which 
forms sheath for a sucker. It is fond of hu¬ 
man blood, but eats various other substances. 
The name was formerly applied loosely to 
insects of various kinds, and in the U. S. it is 

t enerally used where beetle would be used in 
Ingland. 

Bugeaud (bu-zho), Thomas Robert, Duke 
d’lsly (1784-1849), a marshal of France. He 
entered the army in 1804 as a simple grenadier, 
but rose to be colonel before the fall of Na¬ 
poleon. After the revolution of 1830 he ob¬ 
tained a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. 
He was afterward sent to Algeria, where he 
gained many advantages over the Arabs. On 
the revolution of 1848 he adhered to Loui3 
Philippe to the last. Under the presidency of 
Louis Napoleon he was appointed commander- 
in-chief of the army of the Alps. 

Bugenhagen (bo'gen-hii-gen), Johann (1485- 
1558), German reformer, friend and helper of 
Luther in preparing his translation of the 
Bible. He effected the union of the Protest¬ 
ant free cities with the Saxons, and introduced 
into Brunswick, Hamburg, Liibeck, Pome¬ 
rania, Denmark, and many other places, the 
Lutheran service and church discipline. He 
translated the Bible into Low German, wrote 
an Exposition of the Book of Psalms and a His¬ 
tory of Pomerania . 

Buggy, a name given to several species of 
carriages or gigs; in England, a light one-horse 
two-wheeled vehicle without a hood; in the 
U. S., a light one-horse four-wheeled vehicle, 
with or without a hood or top; in India, a gig 
with a large hood to screen those who travel 
in it from the sun’s rays. 

BuhLwork (bol'-), a description of inlaid 
work, said to have been invented by Boule, a 
French cabinetmaker, in the reign of Louis 
XIV. It consisted at first of unburnished 
gold, brass, enamel, or mother-of-pearl worked 
into complicated and ornamental patterns, 
and inserted in a ground of dark-colored metal, 
wood, or tortoise shell; but at a later period 
the use of wood of a different color was intro¬ 
duced by Reisner, and to his process the mod¬ 
ern practise of buhl-work is chiefly confined. 

Buhrstone (bor'-) (Burrstone), a name given 
to certain siliceous or siliceo-calcareous stones, 


whose dressed surfaces present a burr or keen¬ 
cutting texture, whence they are much used 
for millstones. The most esteemed varieties 
are obtained from the upper fresh-water beds 
of the Paris basin, and from the Eocene strata 
of South America. 

Building Lease, a lease of land for a long 

term of years, usually 99 years, at a rent called 
a ground rent, the lessee covenanting to erect 
certain edifices thereon, and to maintain the 
same during the term. At the expiration of 
the lease the houses built become the absolute 
property of the landlord. 

Building Societies, joint-stock benefit socie¬ 
ties for the purpose of raising by periodical 
subscriptions a fund to assist members in ob¬ 
taining small portions of landed property and 
houses, which are mortgaged to the society 
till the amount of the shares drawn on shall 
be fully repaid with interest. These societies 
may be divided into two sections: the Pro¬ 
prietary and the Mutual Societies. The 
former class takes money on deposit, paying 
a somewhat higher rate of interest than can 
generally be had on money available at call, 
and gives loans for building purposes, or the 
like, repayable by installments. The profit of 
the company lies in the difference between the 
rate charged to borrowers and the rate paid to 
depositors. The mutual societies are of two 
chief kinds, either limited to a certain term 
of years and confined to a certain number of 
members, or permanent and not confined to 
any definite number of members, but ready to 
receive new members as long as the society 
exists and to issue at stated intervals new series 
of stock. A favorite form of terminating a so¬ 
ciety allots its capital among the members, 
according to the number of shares they hold, 
by ballot. The subscriptions are paid weekly 
or monthly, and on securing a loan the mem¬ 
ber repays this sum very much as he would 
pay his rent, over a term of years. When his 
payments and accrued profits amount to the 
face value of the stock, he surrenders his 
stock and the house or land becomes his own. 
Terminable societies are giving place to the 
permanent kind. These, by the constant ad¬ 
mission of new members, have a constant sup¬ 
ply of funds at their disposal, and are thus 
able to supply the demands of all the bor¬ 
rowers; while the security offered to invest¬ 
ors induces many people to enter the society 
merely with the view of having a convenient 
means of depositing their savings, and not 
with the intention of acquiring any real prop¬ 
erty for themselves. The states usually have 
strict laws governing such institutions, and 
examiners to see that they are enforced. 

Bukarest', the capital of Roumania, situ¬ 
ated on the Dimbovitza about 33 mi. n. of the 
Danube, in a fertile plain. It is in general 
poorly built, among the chief buildings being 
the Royal Palace, the National Theater, the 
university buildings, the National Bank, the 
Mint, and the Archiepiscopal church. There 
are handsome public gardens. Manufactures 
are varied but unimportant; the trade is con¬ 
siderable, the chief articles being grain, wool, 


Bukowina 


Bulkheads 


honey, wax, wine, hides. The mercantile por¬ 
tion of the community is mostly foreign, and 
the whole population presents a curious blend¬ 
ing of nationalities. Bukarest became the 
capital of Wallachia in 1665, in 1862 that of the 
united principalities of Wallachia and Molda¬ 
via. A treaty was concluded here in 1812 be¬ 
tween Turkey and Russia by which the for¬ 
mer ceded Bessarabia and part of Moldavia. 
Pop. about 220,000. 

Bukowina (bo koo-ve'na), an Austrian duchy 
forming the southeastern corner of Galicia. 
Area 4,035 sq. mi., pop. 571,671. It is traversed 
by ramifications of the Carpathians, and much 
of the surface is occupied with swamps and 
forests. Chief town, Czernowitz. 

Bualacan', a town, Philippines, island of 
Luzon, about 22 mi. n.w. of Manilla; chief in¬ 
dustries: sugar-boiling and the manufacture 
of silken mats. Pop. about 10,000. 

Bulb, a modified leaf-bud, formed on a plant 
upon or beneath the surface of the ground, 
emitting roots from its base, and producing a 
stem from its center. It is formed of imbri¬ 
cated scales or of concentrio coats or layers. 
It encloses the rudiments of the future plant 
and a store of food to nourish it. Examples of 
bulbs are the onion, lily, hyacinth, etc. 

Bulbul (bul'bul), the Persian name of the 
nightingale, or a species of nightingale, ren¬ 
dered familiar in English poetry by Moore, 



a.—Truncated bulb of onion; b— onion leaf dis¬ 
sected off; c.—bulb of lily. 


Byron, and others. The same name is also 
given in Southern and Southwestern Asia to 
sundry other birds. 

Bulga'ria, a principality tributary to Tur¬ 
key, constituted by the first article of the 
Treaty of Berlin, July 13, 1878, and placed un¬ 
der the suzerainty of the sultan. It is bounded 
n. by Roumania and the Dobrudsha, e. by the 
Black Sea, s. by the Balkan Mountains, which 
separate it from Eastern Roumelia, and w. by 
Servia. The principal towns are Widdin, Sofia, 
Plevna, Sistova, Tirnova, Rustchuk, Shumla, 
Varna, and Silistria. The country almost 
wholly belongs to the n. slope of the Balkans, 
and is intersected by streams flowing from that 
range to the Danube. It possesses much good 
agricultural land and a good climate; but cul¬ 


tivation is backward, though the rearing of 
cattle and horses is successfully carried on. 
Agricultural produce is exported, manufac¬ 
tured goods imported. Education is backward, 
but improving; four years’ school attendance 
is obligatory in principle. The prevalent relig¬ 
ion is that of the Greek Church. The revenue 
and expenditure are each about $5,945,000. 
Military service is obligatory; the war strength 
of the army is about 100,000. In accordance 
with the terms of the treaty of Berlin a consti¬ 
tution was drawn up for the new principality 
by an assembly of Bulgarian notables at Tir¬ 
nova, in 1879. By this constitution the legis¬ 
lative authority is vested in a single chamber, 
called the Sobranje, or National Assembly, the 
members of which are partly elected by uni¬ 
versal manhood suffrage, partly nominated by 
the prince. On April 29, 1879, Prince Alexan¬ 
der of Battenberg, cousin of the grand duke 
of Hesse, was elected prince by unanimous 
vote of the constituent assembly. In 1885 a 
national rising took place in Eastern Roumelia, 
the Turkish governor was expelled, and union 
with Bulgaria proclaimed. In consequence 
Servia demanded an addition to her own ter¬ 
ritory, and began a war against Bulgaria (No¬ 
vember, 1885), in which she was severely de¬ 
feated. By the treaty following, the prince 
of Bulgaria was appointed governor general of 
Eastern Roumelia for a term of five years, to be 
renominated at the end of that time by sanction 
of the great powers. These events greatly ir¬ 
ritated Russia, whose agents managed to se¬ 
duce certain regiments of Bulgarians; and in 
August, 1886, the prince was seized and carried 
off, while a proclamation was issued to the ef¬ 
fect that he had abdicated. When he was set 
free on Austrian territory he discovered that 
the people were still with him, and determined 
to return. Seeing, however, that his presence 
would cause an immediate interference on the 
part of Russia, he formally abdicated and left 
the country (Sept. 7, 1886). In 1887 Prince 
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg accepted an invita¬ 
tion to occupy the throne; but his position is 
insecure, as the great powers have not sanc¬ 
tioned the step taken by him. The area of 
Bulgaria proper is about 24,400 sq. mi.; pop. 
3,154,375. Eastern Roumelia has an area of 13,- 
500 sq. mi.; a pop. of over 975,000. 

Bulgarians, a race of Finnish origin, whose 
original seat was the banks of the Volga, and 
who subdued the old Mcesian population and 
established a kingdom in the present Bulgaria 
in the seventh century. They soon became 
blended with the conquered Slavs, whose lan¬ 
guage they adopted. In the fourteenth century 
the country was conquered by the Turks, and 
has until lately remained part of the Ottoman 
Empire. (See Bulgaria.) The Bulgarian lan¬ 
guage is divided into two dialects, the old and 
the new; the former is the richest and best 
of the Slavonic tongues, and although extinct 
as a living tongue is still used as the sacred 
language of the Greek Church. The Bulga¬ 
rians are now spread over many parts of the 
Balkan Peninsula. 

Bulkheads, partitions built between the 












Bull 


Bullfights 


several portions of the interior of a ship, 
either to separate it into rooms, or as a safe¬ 
guard in case of wreck. 

Bull, a letter, edict, or rescript of the pope, 
published or transmitted to the churches over 
which he is head, containing some decree, or¬ 
der, or decision, and in many cases having a 
leaden seal attached, impressed on one side 
with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, on 
the other with the name of the pope. The 
document is in Latin and on parchment. 

Bull, John, the English nation personified, 
hence any typical Englishman; first used in 
Arbuthnot’s satire, The History of John Bull, 
designed to ridicule the Duke of Marlborough, 
and in which the French are personified as 
Lewis Baboon, the Dutch as Nicholas Frog , etc. 

Bull, Ole Bornemann (1810-1880), famous 
violinist, b. at Bergen, in Norway. He secured 
great triumphs both throughout Europe and in 
America by his wonderful playing. He lost 
all his money in a scheme to found a colony of 
his countrymen in Pennsylvania, and had to 
take again to his violin to repair his broken 
fortunes. He afterward settled down at Cam¬ 
bridge, Mass., and had also a summer resi¬ 
dence in Norway, where he died. 

Bulldog, a variety of the common dog, 
remarkable for its short, broad muzzle, and 
the projection of its 
lower jaw, which 
causes the lower 
front teeth to pro¬ 
trude beyond the 
upper. The head is 
massive and broad; 
the lips are thick 
and pendulous; the 
ears pendent at the 
extremity; the neck 
robust and short; 
the body long and 
stout; and the legs 
short and thick. 

The bulldog is a 
slow-motioned fero¬ 
cious animal, better 
suited for savage combat than for any purpose 
requiring activity and intelligence. For this 



Bulldog. 


reason it is often employed as a watchdog. 
It was formerly used—as its name implies—- 
for the barbarous sport of bull-baiting. The 
bull terrier was originally from a cross between 
the bulldog and the terrier. It is smaller than 
the bulldog, lively, docile, and very coura¬ 
geous. 

Bullet (bul'et) a projectile intended to be 
discharged from firearms or other missile weap¬ 
ons; more especially, one for a rifle, musket, 
fowling piece, pistol, or similar firearm. Bul¬ 
lets used to be solid spherical masses, but of 
late many changes have been made on their 
shape and structure. Bullets used for rifles of 
recent construction are elongated and gener¬ 
ally rounded, conical, or ogival at the apex, 
somewhat like half an egg drawn out, often 
with a hollow at the base, into which a plug of 
wood or clay is inserted. When the rifle is 
fired the plug is driven forward, forcing the 
base of the bullet outward till the lead catches 
the grooves of the barrel. 

Bulletin (bul'e-tin), an authenticated official 
report concerning some public event, such as 
military operations, the health of a distin¬ 
guished personage, issued for the information 
of the public. The name is also given to some 
periodical publications recording the proceed¬ 
ings of learned societies. 

Bullet tree (or bully tree), a forest tree of 
Guiana and neighboring regions, yielding an 
excellent gum (the concreted milky juice) 
known as balata , having properties giving it in 
some respects an intermediate position between 
gutta-percha and india rubber, and making it 
for certain industrial purposes more useful 
than either. In the U. S. it is used as a chew¬ 
ing material. The timber of the tree also is 
valuable. 

Bullfights are among the favorite diver¬ 
sions of the Spaniards. They are usually held 
in an amphitheater having circular seats rising 
one above another, and are attended by vast 
crowds who eagerly pay for admission. The 
combatants, who make bullfighting their pro¬ 
fession, march into the arena in procession. 
They are of various kinds— the pica dores, com¬ 
batants on horseback, in the old Spanish 
knightly garb; the chulos , or banderilleros , com¬ 
batants on foot, in gay dresses, with colored 
cloaks or banners; and lastly, the metador (the 
killer). As soon as the signal is given the bull 
is let into the arena. The picadores, who have 
stationed themselves near him, commence the 
attack with their lances, and the bull is thus 
goaded to fury. Sometimes a horse is wounded 
or killed (only old worthless animals are thus 
employed), and the rider is obliged to run for 
his life. The chulos assist the horsemen by 
drawing the attention of the bull with their 
cloaks; and in case of danger they save them¬ 
selves by leaping over the wooden fence which 
surrounds the aren The banderilleros then 
come into play. Ti.ey try to fasten on the 
bull their banderillos —barbed darts ornamented 
with colored paper, and often having squibs or 
crackers attached. If they succeed, the squibs 
are discharged, and the bull races madly about 
the arena. The metador, or espada, now comes 









Bullfinch 


Buncombe 


in gravely with a naked sword, and a red flag 
to decoy the bull with, and aims a fatal blow 
at the animal. The slaughtered bull is dragged 
away, and another is let out from the stall. 
Several bulls are so disposed of in a single day. 

Bullfinch, an insessorial bird, of the finch 
family, with short, thick, rounded bill, beak 
and crown of the head black, body bluish-gray 
above and bright tile-red below. It occurs in 
Britain, in the middle and south of Europe, 
and in Asia, and when tamed may be taught 
to sing musical airs. 

Bullfrog, a species of frog found in most 
parts of the U. S. and Canada, but chiefly 
abundant in the Southern states. It is of a 
large size, 5 to 7 in. long. The color is 
olive green or reddish brown, with large brown 
or black spots, and with a yellow line along 
the back. The under surface is yellowish. It 
receives its name from the remarkable loud¬ 
ness of its voice, heard as a hollow bass in the 
frog concerts which take place in the evening 
and all night long in marshy places. Its voice 
can be distinctly heard at a distance of forty 
or fifty yards. It sits for hours during the day, 
basking in the sun, near the margin of a 
stream, into which it plunges with a great 
leap on the least appearance of danger. It 
does not confine itself to insects and worms like 
smaller frogs, but eats fish and other frogs, 
and is said to be partial to young ducks, and 
to swallow them entire. Its flesh is tender, 
white, and affords excellent eating, the hind 
legs, however, being the only part used. These 
parts make excellent bait for the larger cat¬ 
fish. 

Bullhead, the popular name of certain 
fishes. One of these, a British fish, is about 
4 in. long, -with head very large and broader 



Bullhead. 


than the body. It is often called also Miller's- 
tliumb. The armed bullhead is found in the 
Baltic and northern seas; the six-horned bull¬ 
head is a North American species. In America 
this name is given to a species called also Cat¬ 
fish and Horned pout. 

Bull ion is uncoined gold or silver, in bars, 
plate, or other masses, but the term is fre¬ 
quently employed to signify the precious met¬ 
als coined and uncoined. 

Bull Run, a stream iu the n.e. of Virginia, 
flowing into the Occoqi an river, 14 mi. from 
the Potomac; the scene of two great battles 
during the American Civil War in which the 
Federals were defeated. The first battle was 
fought July 21, 1801; and the second on Aug. 
30, 1863. 


Bulls and Bears, in stock exchange slang, 
manipulators of stocks; the former operating 
in order to effect a rise in price, the latter 
doing all they can to bring prices of stock down. 

Bull’s=eye: 1 , a round piece of thick glass, 
convex on one side, inserted into the decks, 
ports, scuttle-hatches, or skylight covers of a 
vessel for the purpose of admitting light. 2, 
A small lantern with a lens in one side of it to 
concentrate the light in any desired direction. 
3, In rifle shooting , the center of a target, of 
a different color from the rest of it and usu¬ 
ally round. 

Bull trout, a large species of fish of the sal¬ 
mon family, thicker and clumsier in form than 
the salmon, but so like it as sometimes to be 



mistaken for it by fishers. It attains a weight 
of 15 to 20 lbs., and lives chiefly in the sea, 
ascending rivers to spawn. Its scales are 
smaller than those of the salmon, and its color 
less bright. 

Bulow (bii'lo), Friedrich Wilhelm von, 
(1755-1816), Prussian general. He was act¬ 
ively engaged against the French at the ear¬ 
liest periods of the revolutionary war; and his 
services in 1813 and 1814, especially at Gros- 
beeren and Dennewitz, were rewarded with 
a Grand Knightship of the Iron Cross and 
the title Count Billow von Dennewitz. As 
commander of the fourth division of the allied 
army he contributed to the victorious close of 
the battle of Waterloo. 

Biilow (bii'lo), Hans Guido von (1830- ), 

pianist and composer, born at Dresden; was 
intended for a lawyer, but adopted music as a 
profession. He studied the piano under Liszt, 
and made his first public appearance in 1852. 
In 1855 he became leading professor in the 
Conservatory at Berlin; in 1858 was appointed 
court pianist; and in 1867 he became musical 
director to the king of Bavaria. His compo¬ 
sitions include overture and music to Julius 
Ceesar, The Minstrel's Curse , Nirwana; songs, 
choruses, and pianoforte pieces. He is con¬ 
sidered one of the first of pianists and orches- 

t 1 PAnrlnpfnvQ 

Buloz (bu-loz), Francis (1803-1877), born 
near Geneva, Switzerland; founder and editor 
of the Revue des Deux Mondes , the celebrated 
French fortnightly literary magazine. 

Bulrush (bul'-), the popular name for large, 
rush-like plants growing in marshes; not very 
definitely applied. 

Buncombe (bunkum), a county in North 
Carolina. Area 450 sq. mi; pop. 21,910. The 








Bundesrath 


Banyan 


term bunkum , meaning talking for talking's 
sake, bombastic speech-making, is said to 
have originated with a congressional member 
for this county, who declared that he was only 
talking for Buncombe, when attempts were 
made to cut his oratory short. 

Bundesrath (bun'des-riit), the German fed¬ 
eral council which represents the individual 
states of the empire, as the Reichstag repre¬ 
sents the German nation. It consists of sixty- 
two delegates, and its functions are mainly 
those of a confirming body, although it has 
the privilege of rejecting measures passed by 
the Reichstag. 

Bungalow, in India, a house or residence, 
generally of a single floor. Native bungalows 
are constructed of wood, bamboos, etc., but 
those erected by Europeans are generally built 
of sun-dried bricks, and thatched or tiled, and 
are of all styles and sizes, but invariably sur¬ 
rounded by a veranda. 

Bun'ion, an enlargement and inflammation 
of the joint of the great toe arising from irri¬ 
tation of the small membranous sac. 

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm Eberard 
(1811-99), eminent German chemist. He stud¬ 
ied at Gottingen University, and at Paris, Ber¬ 
lin, and Vienna; was appointed professor at the 
Polytechnic Institute of Cassel, 1836; at the 
University of Marburg in 1838, at Breslau in 
1851, and finally professor of experimental 
chemistry at Heidelberg in 1852. Among his 
many discoveries and inventions are the pro¬ 
duction of magnesium in quantities, magne¬ 
sium light, spectrum analysis, and the electric 
pile, and the burner which bears his name. 

Bunsen’s Battery, a form of galvanic bat¬ 
tery, the cells of which consist of cleft cylin¬ 
ders of zinc immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, 
and rectangular prisms of carbon in nitric acid, 
with an intervening porous cell of unglazed 
earthenware. 

Bunsen’s Burner, a form of gas burner espe¬ 
cially adapted 
for heating, 
consisting of a 
tube, in which, 
by means of 
holes in the 
side, the gas be¬ 
comes mixed 
with air before 
consumption, 
so that it gives a 
non-illumin a t - 
ing smokeless 
flame. 

_ , Bunt (some- 

Bunsen s Burner. times c a ,, e d 

Smut Ball, Pepper Brand , and Brand Bladders), 
a fungoid disease incidental to cultivated corn, 
consisting of a black powdery matter, having 
a disagreeable odor, occupying the interior of 
the grain of wheat. This powdery matter con¬ 
sists of minute balls filled with sporules, and 
is caused by the attack of a kind of mold. 

Bunt'ing, the popular name of a number of 
insessorial birds, family Emberizidse, chiefly 
included in the genus Emberiza; such as the 



English or common bunting; the rice-bunting; 
the Lapland, snow, black-headed, yellow, cirl, 
and ortolan buntings. The yellow-bunting or 
yellow-hammer is one of the most common 



British birds. The common or corn-bunting 
is also common in cultivated districts. The 
snow-bunting is one of the few birds which 
cheer the solitudes of the polar regions. 

Bunker Hill, Charlestown, Mass. One of the 
most important battles of the Revolution was 
fought here June 17, 1775. The British army, 
10,000 under Generals Gage, Howe, Clinton, 
and Burgoyne, occupied Boston. The Ameri¬ 
can army, 15,000 strong, enlisted for three 
months, was commanded by General Ward 
with headquarters at Cambridge. Learning 
that the British intended occupying Bunker 
Hill and the neighboring heights, the Ameri¬ 
cans stole a march on them and silently, dur¬ 
ing the night, fortified Breed’s Hill. The 
British discovering the redoubt at daybreak, 
opened fire from their ships of war and float¬ 
ing batteries in Charlestown harbor. They 
landed a force at Morton’s Point and advanced 
upon the position of the Americans, who 
withheld their fire until they could see the 
“whites of their enemies’ eyes.” The British 
were repulsed with great loss. A second at¬ 
tack, during which Charlestown was burned, 
was no more successful. The British rallied 
for a third attack, and the Americans, after 
resisting with stones and the butts of their 
rifles, having exhausted their ammunition 
and being destitute of bayonets, drew off with 
inconsiderable loss. General Warren was 
among the 115 killed. The Americans lost 305 
wounded, and 30 taken prisoners. The loss 
of the British was about 1,054. June 17, 1825, 
the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, the cor¬ 
ner stone of the Bunker Hill Monument was 
laid by Lafayette. This monument is a beau¬ 
tiful granite shaft 220 ft. in height. It was 
completed in 1843. 

Bun'yan, John (1628-1688), author of the 
Pilgrim's Progress, was the son of a tinker and 
was b. at the village of Elstow, near Bedford. 
He followed his father’s employment, but dur¬ 
ing the civil war he served as a soldier. Re- 









Buonarotti 


Burdette 


turning to Elstow, after much mental conflict 
his mind became impressed with a deep sense 
of the truth and importance of religion. He 
joined a society of Anabaptists at Bedford, and 
at length undertook the office of a public 
teacher among them. Acting in defiance of 
the severe laws against dissenters, Bunyan was 
detained in prison for 12 years (1060-72), but 
was at last liberated, and became pastor of the 
community with which he had previously been 
connected. During his imprisonment he wrote 
Profitable Meditations , The Holy City , etc., and 
also the curious piece of autobiography entitled 
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. In 
1075 he was sent to prison for six months under 
the Conventicle Act. To this confinement he 
owes his chief literary fame, for in the solitude 
of his cell he produced the first part of that 
admired religious allegory, the Pilgrim's Prog¬ 
ress. His Holy War , his other religious par¬ 
ables, and his devotional tracts, which are 
numerous, are also remarkable, and many of 
them valuable. On obtaining his liberty Bun¬ 
yan resumed his functions as a minister at 
Bedford, and became extremely popular. He 
died when on a visit to London. 

Buonarotti (bu-o-na-rot' te), see Michael An¬ 
gelo (1475-1563). " 

Burbage, Richard (1567-1019), famous actor 
and contemporary of Shakespeare. He was 
a member of the same company as Shakes¬ 
peare, Fletcher, Hemming, Condell, and oth¬ 
ers, and filled all of the greatest parts of the 
contemporary stage in turn. He was the orig¬ 
inal Hamlet, Lear, Othello, and Richard III, 
and played the leading parts in the plays of 
Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Web¬ 
ster, Marston, etc. 

Bur'bot (or burbolt), a fish of the cod fam¬ 
ily, shaped somewhat like an eel, but shorter, 



with a flat head. It has two small barbs on 
the nose and another on the chin. It is called 
also, eel-pout or coney-fisli , and is said to arrive 
at its greatest perfection in the Lake of Ge¬ 
neva. It is delicate food. The spotted bur¬ 
bot is found in the American northern lakes 
and rivers. 

Burckhardt (burk'hart), Johann Ludwig, 
(1784-1817), a noted traveler. He came to 
England in 1806, and undertook a journey of 
exploration to the interior of Africa for the 
African Association. He started in 1809, as¬ 
suming an Oriental name and costume; spent 
some time in Syria, thence visited Egypt and 
Nubia; spent several months at Mecca, and 
visited Medina; and after a short stay in 
Egypt died at Cairo while preparing for his 
African journey. 

Bur'dekin, a river of the n.e. of Queens¬ 
land, Australia, with a course of about 350 


mi. With its affluents it waters a large extent 
of country, but it is useless for navigation. 

Bur'dett, Sir Francis (1770-1844), English 
politician. In 1796 he entered Parliament as 
member for Boroughbridge. He afterw r ard 
sat for Middlesex and in 1807-37 for West¬ 
minster. In 1810 he was convicted of breach 
of privilege, and after a struggle between the 
police and the populace, in which some lives 
were lost, he was imprisoned in the Tow r er. 
In 1819 he was again imprisoned and fined 
$10,000 for a libel. In his later years he be¬ 
came a Tory, and represented North Wilts. 

Burdett=Coutts (kots), Angela Georgina, 
daughter of the above, b. 1814, has become 
deservedly popular for the liberal use she has 
made of the immense wealth she inherited 
from her grandfather (Thomas Coutts) in pub¬ 
lic and private charities. In 1871 she received 
a peerage from government, and in 1881 mar¬ 
ried a Mr. Ashmead Bartlett who assumed the 
name of Burdett-Coutts. 

Bur'dock, the popular name of a coarse- 
looking weed with globose flower-heads, the 
scales of the involucre each furnished with a 



Greater Burdock. 

ft.—Section of flower-head showing hooked bracts. 


hook. In Britain burdocks are regarded as 
troublesome weeds, but in some countries the 
roots, young shoots, and young leaves are used 
in soups, and the plant is cultivated with this 
view in Japan. It is common in the U. S. 

Bureau (buro'), a writing table; also the 
chamber of an officer of government and the 
body of subordinate officers who labor under 
the direction of’a chief. Bureau system , or 
bureaucracy , is a term often applied to those 
governments in which the business of admin¬ 
istration is carried on in departments, each 
under the control of a chief; or more broadly, 
the system of centralizing the administration 
of a country through regularly graded series 
of government officials. 

Burdette, Robert J., b. in Greensboro, 
Pa., 1844. He attended public school at Pe- 



Burgkmair 


Burgundy Wines 


oria, Ill., and in 1862 joined the Forty-seventh 
Illinois volunteers, and served through the war. 
He wrote for several papers after the war and 
finally became associate editor of the Burling¬ 
ton Hawkey e, of Iowa. He became known as a 
humorist through this paper. He began to 
lecture in 1877. He was licensed to preach by 
the Baptists, and frequently filled pulpits. 

Burgkmair (burk'mir), a family of German 
artists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
the best known of whom is Hans (1472-1559). 
Several of his paintings are to be seen at Augs¬ 
burg, Munich, Nurnberg, etc., but these have 
contributed far less to his fame than his wood- 
cuts, which are not inferior to those of his 
friend Albert Diirer. The most celebrated is 
the series of 135 cuts representing the Triumph 
of the Emperor Maximilian. 

Biirglen (biir'-glen), a village in the canton 
of Uri, Switzerland, celebrated as the birth¬ 
place of William Tell. 

Burgos (bur'-gos), a city of Northern Spain, 
once the capital of the kingdom of Old Cas¬ 
tile, and now the chief town of the province of 
Burgos. It stands on the declivity of a hill on 
the right bank of the Arlanzon, and has dark, 
narrow streets full of ancient architecture, 
but there are also fine promenades in the 
modern style. The cathedral, commenced in 
1221, is one of the finest examples of Gothic 
architecture in Spain. It contains the tombs 
of the famous Cid, and of Don Fernando, both 
natives of Burgos, and celebrated throughout 
Spain for their heroic achievements in the 
wars with the Moors. Before the removal of 
the court to Madrid, in the sixteenth century, 
Burgos was in a very flourishing condition, and 
contained thrice its present population. It 
has some manufactures in woolens and linens. 
Pop. 29,683. The province has an area of 
5,650. sq. mi., largely hilly or mountainous, 
but with good agricultural and pastoral land. 
Pop. 348,152. 

Burgoyne (bur-goin'), John (1722-1792), an 
English general officer and dramatist. After 
serving in various parts of the world, he was 
in 1777 appointed commander of an army 
against the American patriots and took Ti- 
conderoga,but had at last to surrender with his 
whole army at Saratoga. He was illy received 
on his return to England, and deprived of his 
command of the Seventy-sixth Light Dragoons 
and the governorship of Fort William, but 
Fox and Sheridan took his part and received 
his parliamentary support. Latterly he occu¬ 
pied himself mainly with the writing of com¬ 
edies, including The Maid of the Oaks , Bon Ton , 
and The Heiress , a play that still holds the stage. 

Burgoyne, Sir John Fox (1782-1871), son 
of the above, an eminent officer of engineers. 
He served in Malta, Sicily, Egypt, and with 
Sir John Moore and Wellington in the Penin¬ 
sula from 1809 to 1814, and was present at all 
the sieges, generally as first or second in com¬ 
mand of the engineers. In 1851 he was made 
a lieutenant general, and was chief of the en¬ 
gineering department of Sebastopol till re¬ 
called in 1855. In the following year he was 
created a baronet, and in 1868 a field marshal. 


Burgundy, a region of Western Europe, so 
named from the Burgundians, a Teutonic, or 
Germanic, people originally from the country 
between the Oder and the Vistula. They 
migrated first to the region of the Upper 
Rhine, and in the beginning of the fifth cen¬ 
tury passed into Gaul and obtained possession 
of the southeastern part of this country, where 
they founded a kingdom having its seat of 
government sometimes at Lyons, and some¬ 
times at Geneva. They were at last wholly 
subdued by the Franks. In 879 Boson, count 
of Autun, succeeded in establishing the royal 
dignity again in part of this kingdom. He 
styled himself King of Provence, and had his 
residence at Arles. His son Louis added the 
country beyond the Jura, and thus established 
Cis-Juran Burgundy. A second kingdom arose 
when Rudolph of Strettlingen formed Upper 
or Trans- Jur an Burgundy out of part of Swit¬ 
zerland and Savoy. Both these Burgundian 
kingdoms were united, and finally, on the ex¬ 
tinction of Rudolph’s line, were incorporated 
with Germany. But a third state, the histor¬ 
ical Duchy of Burgundy, consisting princi¬ 
pally of the French province of Bourgogne, or 
Burgundy, had been formed as a great feudal 
and almost independent province of France in 
the ninth century. This first ducal line died 
out with a Duke Philip, and the duchy, revert¬ 
ing to the crown, was, in 1363, granied by 
King John of France to hfs son Philip the 
Bold, who thus became the founder of a new 
line of dukes of Burgundy. A marriage with 
Margaret, daughter of Louis III, count of 
Flanders, brought him Flanders, Mechlin, 
Antwerp, and Franche-Comte. He was suc¬ 
ceeded by his son Duke John the Fearless, 
whose son and successor, Philip the Good, so 
greatly extended his dominions, that on his 
death in 1467 his son Charles, surnamed the 
Bold, though possessing only the title of duke, 
was in reality one of the richest and most 
powerful sovereigns of Europe. Charles left 
a daughter, Mary of Burgundy, the sole heiress 
of his states, who by her marriage to Maximil¬ 
ian of Austria transferred a large part of her 
dominions to that prince, while Louis XI of 
France acquired Burgundy proper as a male 
fief of France. Burgundy then formed a prov¬ 
ince, and is now represented by the four 
departments of Yonne, Cote-d’Or, Saone-et- 
Loire, and Ain. It is watered by a number of 
navigable rivers, and is one of the most pro¬ 
ductive provinces in France, especially of 
wines. 

Burgundy Pitch, a resin got from the Nor¬ 
way spruce and several other pines. It is used 
in medicine as a stimulating plaster. It takes 
its name from Burgundy in France, where it 
was first prepared. 

Burgundy Wines are produced in the former 
province of Burgundy, especially in the depart¬ 
ment of Cote-d’Or, and in richness of flavor 
and all the more delicate qualities of the juice 
of the grape they are inferior to none in the 
world. Among the red wines of Burgundy 
the finest are the Chamberlin, the Clos Vou- 
geot, Romanee-Conty, etc. 


Burial 


Burking 


Burial (be'ri-al), the mode of disposing of 
the dead, a practise which varies among dif¬ 
ferent people. Among savage races, and even 
among some cultured peoples of the East, ex¬ 
posure to wild animals or birds of prey is not 
uncommon. The careful embalmment of their 
dead by the ancient Egyptians may be regarded 
as a special form of burial. But by far the 
most common forms of disposing of the dead 
have been burning and interring. Among 
the Greeks and Romans both forms were 
practised, though among the latter burning 
became common only in the later times of the 
republic. In this form of burial the corpse, 
after being borne in procession through the 
streets, was placed upon a pyre built of wood, 
and profusely sprinkled with oils and perfumes. 
Fire was set to the wood, and after the process 
of cremation was complete the bones and ashes 
were carefully gathered together by the rela¬ 
tives and placed in an urn. With the intro¬ 
duction of the Christian religion, consecrated 
places were appropriated for the purpose of 
general burial, and the Roman custom of pro¬ 
viding the sepulcher with a stone and inscrip¬ 
tion was continued by the Christians. The 
practise of cremation now declined and finally 
disappeared, but has recently been revived. 

Bu'riats, a nomadic Tartar people allied to 
the Kalmucks, inhabiting the southern part of 
the government of Irkutsk and Transbaikalia. 
Their number is about 200,000. They live in 
huts called yurts, which in summer are covered 
with leather, in winter with felt. They sup¬ 
port themselves by their flocks, by hunting, 
and the mechanical arts, particularly the forg¬ 
ing of iron. 

Buridan (bu-re-dan), Jean, a French scho¬ 
lastic philosopher of the fourteenth century. 
He was a disciple of Occam at Paris, and has 
attained a kind of fame from an illustration he 
is said to have used in favor of his theory of 
determinism (that is, the doctrine that every 
act of volition is determined by some motive 
external to the will itself), and which still goes 
under the name of ‘‘Buridan’s ass.” He is 
said to have supposed the case of a hungry ass 
placed at an equal distance from two equally 
attractive bundles of hay, and to have as¬ 
serted that in the supposed case the ass must 
inevitably have perished from hunger, there 
being nothing to determine him to prefer the 
one bundle to the other. The nature of the 
illustration, however, makes it more likely 
that it was invented by Buridan’s opponents 
to ridicule his views than by himself. 

Bu'rin (or graver), an instrument of tem¬ 
pered steel, used for engraving on copper, 
steel, etc. It is of a prismatic form, having 
one end attached to a short wooden handle, 
and the other ground off obliquely, so as to 
produce a sharp, triangular point. In working 
the burin is held in the palm of the hand, and 
pushed forward so as to cut a portion of the 
metal. 

Burke, Edmund (1729-1797), a noted British 
writer, orator, and statesman. He applied 
himself more to literature than to law, and in 
1756 published his Essay on the Sublime and the 


Beautiful , Avhich attracted considerable atten 
tion, and procured him the friendship of some 
of the most notable men of the time. The 
political career for which he had been ardu¬ 
ously preparing himself all along at length 
opened up to him. The great question of the 
right of taxing the American colonies was 
then occupying Parliament, and the Rocking¬ 
ham ministry having taken, mainly through 
Burke’s advice, a middle and undecided course, 
was soon dissolved (1766). From 1770 to 1782 
Lord North was in power, and Burke held no 
office. In 1774-80 he was member for Bristol. 
In several magnificent speeches he criticised 
the ministerial measures with regard to the 
colonies, and advocated a policy of justice and 
conciliation. In 1782, when the Rockingham 
party returned to power, Burke obtained the 
lucrative post of paymaster general of the 
forces, and shortly after introduced his famous 
bill for economical reform, which passed after 
considerable modifications had been made on 
it. On the fall of the Duke of Portland’s 
coalition ministry, 1783, of which Burke had 
also been part, Pitt again succeeded to power, 
and it was during this administration that the 
impeachment of Hastings, in which Burke 
was the prime mover, took place. The lucid¬ 
ity, eloquence, and mastery of detail which 
Burke showed on this occasion have never been 
surpassed. The chief feature in the latter 
part of Burke’s life was his resolute struggle 
against the ideas and doctrines of the French 
Revolution. His attitude on this question sep¬ 
arated him from his old friend Fox, and the 
Liberals who followed Fox. His famous Re¬ 
flections on the Revolution in France, a pamphlet 
which appeared in 1790, had an unprecedented 
sale, and gave enormous impetus to the reac¬ 
tion which had commenced in England. From 
this time most of his writings are powerful 
pleadings on the same side. In 1794 he with¬ 
drew from Parliament. 

Burke, Robert O’Hara (1821-1861), an Aus¬ 
tralian explorer. After serving in the Austrian 
army he went to Australia, and after seven 
years’ service as inspector of police was ap¬ 
pointed commander of an expedition to cross 
the continent of Australia from south to north. 
He and his associate Willis reached the tidal 
waters of the Flinders River, but both perished 
of starvation on the return journey. 

Burking, a species of murder by suffocation, 
which derives its name from William Burke, 
a native of Ireland, who, in 1828-29, was de¬ 
tected, tried, and executed at Edinburgh, for 
the murder of numerous individuals. The 
vigilance with which the burying grounds 
throughout the country were watched ren¬ 
dered a supply of subjects for anatomical 
schools almost altogether impracticable, and 
the demand for dead bodies consequently 
became great. This led the above mentioned 
individual, in conjunction with another wretch 
named Hare, to decoy into their lodging house 
and murder by strangulation many obscure 
wayfarers, whose bodies they sold to a school 
of anatomy at prices averaging from $40 to 
$70. 


Burlesque 


Burma 


Burlesque (bur-lesk') signifies a low form 
of the comic, arising generally from a ludi¬ 
crous mixture of things high and low. High 
thoughts, for instance, are clothed in low ex¬ 
pressions, noble subjects described in a famil¬ 
iar manner, or vice versa. The true comic 
shows us an instructive, if laughable, side of 
things; the burlesque travesties and carica¬ 
tures them in order to excite laughter or 
ridicule. 

Burlingame, Anson (1820-1870), American 
statesman, b. in N. Y. He graduated in law 
at Harvard in 1846, became a state senator in 
Massachusetts in 1858, entered Congress in 
1854, and sat until March, 1861. He was chal¬ 
lenged in 1856 by Preston S. Brooks, whose 
brutal assault upon Charles Sumner he had 
denounced in fitting terms. The duel was 
never fought. He was then sent as U. S. 
minister to China, and when he was recalled, 
in 1867, the Chinese government engaged his 
services as their diplomatic representative in 
Europe and the U. S. He negotiated, in 1868, 
the treaty known by his name, by which China 
subscribed to the principles of international 
law. 

Burlington, Chittenden co., Vt., on Lake 
Champlain, about 250 mi. n. of New York. 
Railroads: Central Vermont; Rutland, and 
Lake Champlain Transportation Co. Indus¬ 
tries: cotton mills, woolen mill, two iron found¬ 
ries, two flouring mills, and a number of 
other factories. Surrounding country agri¬ 
cultural. The town was first settled about 
1780. Pop. 1900, 18,640. 

Burlington, Des Moines co., Ia., on Missis¬ 
sippi River, 206 mi. s. w. of Chicago. Railroads: 
C. B. & Q.; St. L. K. &N. W.;C. B. & K. C.;B. 
C. R. & N.; T. P. & W.; B. & N. W., and 
many other branches of the Burlington route. 
Industries: iron works, two flouring mills, two 
iron foundries, school furniture and desk 
factories, wheel factory, and three for the 
manufacture of agricultural implements. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural. Burlington 
contains a 90-acre public park; and the largest 
auditorium in the state, seating capacity 7,000. 
The city was first settled in 1833. Pop. 1900, 
23,201. 

Burlington, Burlington co., N. J., on Dela¬ 
ware River, 19 mi. e. of Philadelphia. Rail¬ 
road: Pennsylvania. Industries: pipe and 
foundry co.. flour mill, iron foundry, several 
shoe factories and a large carriage factory. 
Surrounding country agricultural. Burling¬ 
ton is the birthplace of James Fenimore 
Cooper. The town was first settled by Quak¬ 
ers in 1677, and became a city in 1784. Pop. 
1900, 7,392. 

Bur / ma, a country of Southern Asia, area 
about 290,000 sq. mi. It is traversed by great 
mountain ranges branching off from those of 
Northern India and running parallel to each 
other southward to the sea. Between these 
ranges and in the plains or valleys here situated, 
the four great rivers of Burma — the Irra¬ 
waddy, its tributary the Kyendwen, the Sit- 
tang, and the Sal wen—flow in a southerly 
direction to the sea, watering the rich alluvial 


tracts of Lower Burma, and having at their 
mouths all the great seaports of the country— 
Rangoon, Bassein, Moulmein, Akyab, etc. The 
Irawaddy is of great value as a highway of 
communication and traffic, being navigable 
beyond Bhamo, near the Chinese frontier, or 
over 800 mi. Though its resources are almost 
entirely undeveloped, the country, as a whole, 
is productive, especially in the lower portions. 
Here grow rice, sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, 
indigo, etc. Cotton is grown almost every¬ 
where; tea is cultivated in many of the more 
elevated parts. The forests produce timber of 
many sorts, including teak, which grows most 
luxuriantly, and is largely exported. Iron- 
wood is another valuable timber; and among 
forest products are also the bamboo, cutch, 
stick-lac, and rubber. Burma has great min¬ 
eral wealth—gold, silver, precious stones, iron, 
marble, lead, tin, coal, petroleum, etc.; but 
these resources have not yet been much de¬ 
veloped. The chief precious stone is the 
ruby, and the mines of this gem belong to the 
crown. Sapphire, amber, and jade are also 
obtained. Among wild animals are the ele¬ 
phant, rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, deer of vari¬ 
ous kinds, and the wild hog. Among domestic 
animals are the ox, buffalo, horse, and ele¬ 
phant. The rivers abound with fish. The 
most common fruits are the guava, custard- 
apple, tamarind, pine, orange, banana, jack, 
and mango. The yam and sweet potato are 
cultivated, and in some parts the common po¬ 
tato. The climate of course varies according 
to elevation and other circumstances, but as a 
whole is warm, though not unhealthy, except 
in low jungly districts. The rainfall among 
the mountains reaches as high as 190 in. per 
annum. 

The population may be stated at about 
8,000,000 or 9,000,000, made up of a great 
variety of races besides the Burmese proper, 
as Talaings, Shans, Karens, etc. The Bur¬ 
mese proper are of a brown color, with lank, 
black hair (seldom any on the face), and have 
active, vigorous, well-proportioned frames. 
They are a cheerful, lively people, fond of 
amusement, averse to continuous exertion, 
free from prejudice of caste or creed, temper¬ 
ate and hardy. The predominant religion is 
Buddhism. The Burmese are skillful weavers, 
smiths, sculptors, workers in gold and silver, 
joiners, etc. The ordinary buildings are of a 
very slight construction, chiefly of timber or 
bamboo raised on posts; but the religious 
edifices are in many cases imposing, though 
the material is but brick. Carving and gild¬ 
ing are features of their architecture. The 
Burmese language is monosyllabic, like Chi¬ 
nese, and is written with an alphabet the 
characters of which (derived from India) are 
more or less circular. 

Burma is now divided into Lower Burma 
and Upper Burma , the former till 1886 being 
called British Burma, while the latter till 
that date was an independent kingdom or 
empire. Lower Burma was acquired from 
Independent Burma in 1826 and 1853 as the 
result of two wars terminating in favor of 


* Burnaby 

Britain. It comprises the divisions of Aracan, 
Pegu, Irrawaddy, and Tenasserim. Area,87,473 
sq. mi.; pop. (1891) 2,946,933. Under British 
rule it has prospered greatly, the population 
and trade having increased immensely, there 
being regularly a large surplus revenue. Roads, 
canals, and railways have been constructed 
and other public works carried out, as also 
public buildings erected. The chief city and 
port is Rangoon, which is now connected by 
railway with Mandalay in Upper Burmah. 

Under its native kings the form of govern¬ 
ment in Upper Burma was an absolute mon¬ 
archy, the seat of government being latterly at 
Mandalay. The king was assisted in govern¬ 
ing by a council of state known as the Hloot- 
daw, to which belonged the functions of a 
house of legislature, a cabinet, and a supreme 
court. The king had power to punish at his 
pleasure any one, even the great officers of 
state. The revenue was derived from taxes 
levied in a very irregular and capricious man¬ 
ner, and official corruption was rampant. The 
criminal laws were barbarously severe. Capital 
punishment was commonly inflicted by decapi¬ 
tation, but crucifixion and disembowelling 
were also practised. After the loss of the 
maritime provinces the influence of Independ¬ 
ent Burma greatly declined, so did also its 
Asiatic and foreign trade. 

The Burmese Empire is of little note in an¬ 
cient or general history. Since the sixteenth 
century the Burmese proper have mostly been 
the predominant race, and ruled the Peguans, 
Karens, etc., throughout the country. The 
capital has at different times been at Ava, 
Pegu, Prome, or elsewhere. In the latter half of 
the eighteenth century the Burmese emperors 
began a series of wars of conquest with China, 
Siam, Assam, through which they greatly en¬ 
larged the empire. This brought them into 
contact with the British, and in 1824 war was 
declared against them on account of their 
encroachments on British territory and their 
seizure of British subjects. The war termi¬ 
nated in the cession of the provinces of Ara¬ 
can and Tenasserim to the British. Peace con¬ 
tinued for some years, but latterly various acts 
of hostility were committed by the Burmese, 
and in 1852 the maltreatment of British sub¬ 
jects occasioned a second war, at the end of 
which the British possessions were extended 
to include the whole of Pegu. The third and 
last war occurred in 1885 in consequence of 
the arrogance and arbitrary conduct of King 
Theebaw. The result was that Upper Burmah 
was annexed to the British empire by procla¬ 
mation of the Viceroy of India, Jan. 1,1886. 
The area thus annexed was about 200,000 sq. 
mi., of which half belonged to the kingdom 
proper, half to the semi-independent Shan 
states. The country is yet far from tranquil, 
bands of dactits, or robbers, causing much 
trouble. There are about 20,000 military sta¬ 
tioned in it. 

Burnaby, Frederick Gustavus (1842— 
1885), English soldier and traveler. He was 
educated at Harrow, and entered the Royal 
Horse Guards in his eighteenth year. In 1875 


Burnet 

he made his famous ride to Khiva — a journey 
that presented great difficulties. In 1876 he 
rode through Asiatic Turkey and Persia. Of 
both these journeys he published narratives. 
In 1885, while serving as lieutenant colonel of 
the Royal Horse Guards in the Egyptian cam¬ 
paign, he was slain at the battle of Abu-Klea. 

Burnand, Francis Cowley (1837- ), Eng¬ 

lish humorist; educated at Eton and Trinity 
College, Cambridge, and admitted to the bar in 
1862. In 1880 he became editor of the London 
Punch, to which he had contributed for sev¬ 
eral years. He wrote many burlesques, of 
which Ixion and Black-Eyed Susan were very 
successful. 

Burne=Jones, Edward (1833- ), an Eng¬ 

lish painter. He early adopted the profession 
of artist, and came under the influence of 
D. G. Rossetti. He has painted in water-color 
as well as oil, and his works are remarkable 
for richness of coloring as well as for their 
poetical, ideal, and mediaeval characteristics. 

Bur'net, the popular name of two genera 
of plants, natural order Rosaceae: 1, Common 
or lesser burnet, a perennial plant of North 



1—Common Burnet. 2—Great Burnet, a—A floret, 
h— Flower-head. 


America and Europe, which grows to the 
height of about 2 ft., with smooth, alter¬ 
nate, imparipinnate leaves, and flowers ar¬ 
ranged in rounded heads of a purplish color. 
2, Greater burnet, also a perennial plant with 
imparipinnate leaves; flowers red, arranged on 
oval spikes at the extremity of long peduncles. 
Both kinds make very wholesome food for cat¬ 
tle. There is also a Canadian species. 

Bur'net, Gilbert (1643-1715), a noted Brit¬ 
ish historian. Having studied at Aberdeen, he 
traveled into Holland in 1664. He was or¬ 
dained in 1665, was for some years minister of 
Saltoun parish, and became professor of divin- 







Burnett’s Disinfecting Liquid 

ity at Glasgow in 1GG9. He was long in great 
favor at court, but the court favor did not con¬ 
tinue, for Burnet, dreading the machinations 
of the Catholic party, joined the opposition, 
and wrote his History of the Reformation in 
England. Eventually he was invited to The 
Hague by the Prince and Princess of Orange, 
and had a great share in the councils relative 
to Britain. He accompanied the Prince of 
Orange to England as chaplain, and was re¬ 
warded for his services with the bishopric of 
Salisbury. As a prelate, Bishop Burnet distin¬ 
guished himself by fervor, assiduity, and char¬ 
ity. 

Burnett’s Disinfecting Liquid, an antiseptic 
liquid and deodorizer prepared from chloride 
of zinc. It is useful in deodorizing sewerage, 
bilge water in ships, etc., and is found of ser¬ 
vice in the dissecting room. 

Burnett, Frances Eliza Hodgson, an 
American novelist, b. 1849, in Manchester, Eng¬ 
land. She came to this country in 18G5. and 
in 1873 married Dr. S. M. Burnett. Her best 
known works are Surly Tim's Trouble (1872), 
That Lass o' Lowrie's (1876), Haworth's (1878), 
A Fair Barbarian (1881), Through One Adminis¬ 
tration (1882), and Little Lord Fauntleroy, the last 
named having been successfully dramatized. 

Burnham, Shelbourne W., b. 1840, an 
American astronomer. He was for many years 
shorthand reporter in the courts of Chicago, 
and devoted all his leisure to astronomical 
studies. Mr. Burnham was comtected with 
the Dearborn observatory, and made a special 
study of double stars, of which he recorded 
more than any other man. When the Lick ob¬ 
servatory in California was erected he was 
asked to take charge of it. He was a member 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, and wrote 
many papers of great value. He is now a pro¬ 
fessor of astronomy at the University of Chi¬ 
cago, and is continuing his researches at the 
new Yerkes observatory. 

Burning glass, a lens which, by bringing 
the sun’s rays rapidly to a focus, produces a 
heat strong enough to kindle combustible mat¬ 
ter. The lenses commonly used are convex on 
both sides, and having a small focal distance. 
That such a glass may produce its greatest ef¬ 
fect it is necessary that the rays of the sun 
should fall upon it in a perpendicular direction. 
The effect may be greatly augmented by the 
use of a second lens, of a smaller focal dis¬ 
tance, placed between the first and its focus. 
Some immense burning glasses have been 
made, producing surprising effects. Concave 
burning mirrors produce the same kind of re¬ 
sults, and have almost four times more power 
than burning glasses of equal extent and cur¬ 
vature. The concavity must present a surface 
of high reflecting power (polished silver or 
other metal, or silvered glass), and must be 
either spherical or parabolic. Plane mirrors 
may also be employed like concave ones, if 
several of them are combined in a proper 
manner. The ancients were acquainted with 
such mirrors, and Archimedes is said to have 
set the Roman fleet on fire at the siege of Syra¬ 
cuse (b. c. 212) by some such means. In 1747 


Burns 

Buffon by a combination of mirrors burned 
wood at the distance of 200 ft. and melted tin 
at the distance of 150, etc. 

Burnisher, a blunt, smooth tool, used for 
smoothing and polishing a rough surface by 
rubbing. Agates, tempered steel, and dogs’ 
teeth are used for burnishing. 

Burn'ley, a city of England, in Lancashire, 
about 22 mi. n. of Manchester. The staple 
manufacture is cotton goods, and there are 
large cotton mills and several extensive found¬ 
ries and machine shops, with collieries and 
other works, in the vicinity. Pop. 87,058. 

Burnoose (ber-nds') a large kind of mantle, 
in use among the Bedouin Arabs and the Ber¬ 
bers of Northern Africa, commonly made of 
white wool, but sometimes also of red, blue, 
green, or some other color, and having a hood 
which may be drawn over the head in case of 
rain. 

Burns, Robert (1759-1796), the great lyric 
poet of Scotland, was b. near Ayr, his father 
being a gardener, and latterly a small farmer. 
He was instructed in the ordinary branches of 
an English education by a teacher engaged by 
his father and a few neighbors; to these he 
afterward added French and a little mathe¬ 
matics. But most of his education was got 
from the general reading of books, to which 
he gave himself with passion. In this manner 
he learned what the best English poets might 
teach him, and cultivated the instincts for 
poetry which had been implanted in his nature. 
At an early age he had to assist in the labors 
of the farm; and when only fifteen years old 
he had almost to do the work of a man. In 
1781 he went to learn the business of flax- 
dresser at Irvine, but the premises were de¬ 
stroyed by fire, and he was thus led to give up 
the scheme. His father dying in 1784, he took 
a small farm (Mossgiel) in conjunction with 
his younger brother Gilbert. He now began 
to produce poetical pieces which attracted the 
notice of his neighbors and gained him con¬ 
siderable reputation. His first lines had been 
written some time previously, having been in¬ 
spired by love, a passion to which he was 
peculiarly susceptible. His love affair with 
Jean Armour of Mossgiel decided him to emi¬ 
grate to Jamaica, and engage himself as assist¬ 
ant overseer on a plantation there. To obtain 
the funds necessary for the voyage he was in¬ 
duced to publish, by subscription, a volume of 
his poetical effusions. It was printed at Kil¬ 
marnock in 1786, and Burns, having thus ob¬ 
tained the assistance he expected, was about 
to set sail from his native land, when he was 
drawn to Edinburgh by a letter from Doctor 
Blacklock to an Ayrshire friend of his and the 
poet, recommending that he should take ad¬ 
vantage of the general admiration his poems 
had excited, and publish a new edition of them. 
This advice was eagerly adopted, and the re¬ 
sult exceeded his most sanguine expectations. 
After remaining more than a year in the Scot¬ 
tish metropolis, admired, flattered, and ca¬ 
ressed by persons of eminence for their rank, 
fortune, or talents, he retired to the country 
with the sum of some $2,500, which he had 


Burns and Scalds 


Burnt-umber 


realized by the second publication of his poems. 
A part of this sum he advanced to his brother, 
and with the remainder took a considerable 
farm (Ellisland) near Dumfries, to which he 
subsequently added the office of exciseman. 
He now married, or rather formally completed 
his marriage with Jean Armour. But the 
farming at Ellisland was not a success, and in 
about three years Burns removed to Dumfries 
and relied on his employment as an exciseman 
alone. He continued to exercise his pen, 
particularly in the composition of a number 
of beautiful songs adapted to old Scottish 
tunes. But his residence in Dumfries, and 
the society of the idle and the dissipated who 
gathered around him there, attracted by the 
brilliant wit that gave its charm to their con¬ 
vivialities, had an evil effect on Burns, whom 
disappointment and misfortunes were now 
making somewhat reckless. In the winter of 
1795 his constitution, broken by cares, irregu¬ 
larities, and passions, fell into premature de¬ 
cline; and a rheumatic fever terminated his 
life and sufferings at the early age of thirty - 
seven. He left a wife and four children, for 
whose support his friends and admirers raised 
a subscription, and with the same object an 
edition of his works, in four volumes, 8vo., was 
published in 1800 by Doctor Currie of Liver¬ 
pool. His character, though marred by im¬ 
prudence, was never contaminated by duplicity 
or meanness. He was an honest, proud, warm¬ 
hearted man, combining sound understanding 
with high passions and a vigorous and excursive 
imagination. He was alive to every species of 
emotion; and he is one of the few poets who 
have at once excelled in humor, in tenderness, 
and in sublimity. 

Burns and Scalds are injuries produced by 
the application of excessive heat to the human 
body. They are generally dangerous in pro¬ 
portion to the extent of surface they cover, 
and a wide-spread scald may cause serious 
consequences on account of the nervous shock. 
Congestion of the brain, pneumonia, inflam¬ 
mation of the bowels, or lockjaw may result 
from an extensive burn. Hence the treatment 
requires to be both local and constitutional. 
If there is shivering or exhaustion hot brandy 
and water may be given with good effect, and 
if there is much pain, a sedative solution of 
opium. The local treatment consists in dredg¬ 
ing the burn with fine wheat flour, and then 
wrapping it up in cotton-wool. An applica¬ 
tion of equal quantities of olive oil and lime 
water, called carron-oil, is much recommended 
by some, the part being afterward covered by 
cotton-wool. The main thing is to keep the 
air from the injured part, and therefore, 
when a blister forms, although it may be 
pricked, the loose skin should not be re- 

Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824-1881), 
an American soldier. His ancestors were 
Scotch, and emigrated to South Carolina in 
1746. Ambrose, the fourth of nine sons, was 
born in a log cabin. At the age of seventeen he 
was indentured to a merchant tailor, and, after 
learning his trade, began business in Liberty, 
27 


Ind. He entered the U. S. military academy, 
was graduated in 1847, and went to Mexico as 
Second Lieutenant of Third Artillery. In 1852 
he resigned his commission. At the beginning 
of the Civil War he took command of a regi¬ 
ment from Rhode Island. He commanded a 
brigade at Bull Run, and when General Hun¬ 
ter was wounded assumed command. On Aug. 
6, 1861, he was made brigadier general of 
volunteers. On October 23 he was ordered to 
Annapolis, Md., to organize a “ coast division,” 
intended to operate along the lower Potomac 
and the Chesapeake Bay, but the plan was 
changed, and it was sent to Pamlico Sound 
by way of Hatteras Inlet, and on Feb. 5, 
1862, the fleet captured the Confederate gar¬ 
rison of 2,500 men on Roanoke Island. Burn¬ 
side relinquished the department of North 
Carolina, and was transferred to the Army of 
the Potomac. He was twice offered the chief 
command and declined. He was sent with 
command of the first and ninth corps to meet 
General Lee at Sharpsburg, and encountered 
the Confederate force at South Mountain. His 
force, the ninth corps, held, with great loss 
of life, the stone bridge at Antietam, which was 
the important post of that battle. General Mc¬ 
Clellan was relieved in November and Burn¬ 
side took the command. He was superseded 
by Major-General Hooker, and transferred to 
the department of the Ohio. In August, 1863, 
he crossed the Cumberland Mountains to 
Knoxville, where he lay fortified for a siege. 
General Sherman relieved him, and he devoted 
himself to reorganizing the ninth corps. He 
resumed command in April, 1864, at Annapo¬ 
lis, with nearly 20,000 men, and was again at¬ 
tached to the Army of the Potomac under 
General Grant. He led his force at the Wil¬ 
derness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, and suf¬ 
fered severe defeats. General Meade brought 
charges of disobedience against General Burn¬ 
side and ordered a court-martial, which found 
him “answerable for the want of success.” 
He resigned from the army on April 15, 1865, 
and became identified with railroad manage¬ 
ment. He was elected governor of Rhode 
Island in 1866, 1867, and 1868, but declined 
re-election. He went to Europe during the 
Franco-Prussian War, and was called upon to 
act as envoy between the two forces endeav¬ 
oring to negotiate peace. Returning to this 
country he was elected to the U. S. Senate 
from Rhode Island in 1875 and re-elected in 
1880. 

Burnt=offering, something offered and burnt 
on an altar as an atonement for sin; a sacrifice. 
The burnt-offerings of the Jews were either 
some clean animal, as an ox, a sheep, a pig¬ 
eon; or some species of vegetable substance, as 
bread, flour, ears of wheat or barley. 

Burnt-sienna, an ochreous earth known as 
sienna-earth submitted to the action of fire, 
by which it is converted into a fine orange- 
brown pigment, used both in oil and water- 
color painting. 

Burnt-umber, a pigment of reddish-brown 
color obtained by burning umber, a soft 
earthy mixture of the peroxides of iron and 


Burr 


Burton 


manganese, deriving its name from Umbria in 
Italy. 

Burr, Aaron (1756-1830), an American 
statesman, b. at Newark, New Jersey, gradu¬ 
ated at Princeton, where his father and grand¬ 
father (Jonathan Edwards) had been presi¬ 
dent of the college, and in 1775 joined the 
patriot army, in which he gained a high repu¬ 
tation, and in 1777 the rank of lieutenant colo¬ 
nel. Retiring in 1779, he was in 1782 called 
to the bar, where he soon became a leader. 
He was attorney general in 1788-90, U. S. sen¬ 
ator in 1791-96, and vice-president of the U. S. 
in 1800-4. His defeat in a contest for the gov¬ 
ernorship of New York led him to force a duel 
(July 11, 1804) on the most active of his op¬ 
ponents, Alexander Hamilton, who had been 
his personal rival for many years, and who 
now fell mortally wounded at the first fire. 
Burr tied to South Carolina, and though in¬ 
dicted for murder, returned after the excite¬ 
ment had subsided, and completed his term as 
vice-president. He now prepared to raise a 
force to conquer Texas, and establish there a 
republic, which might detach the Western 
states from the Union. This enterprise was 
proclaimed by the president, and Burr tried 
for treason (1807). Acquitted, but bankrupt 
in reputation, he spent some wretched years 
in Europe, and in 1812* returned to his law 
practise in New York. Here, shunned by so¬ 
ciety, the unhappy man, who had long sur¬ 
vived all the members of his own family, died 
on Staten Island, in a home for which he was 
indebted to the charity of an old friend. 
Burr was a man of the world, of polished man¬ 
ners and fascinating address. He early 
adopted pronouncedly infidel views. 

Burrard Inlet, an inlet of British Colum¬ 
bia, forming a fine harbor, and having Van¬ 
couver, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific 
railway, on its northern shore. 

Burrillville, Providence co., R. I., has nu¬ 
merous manufactories and a national bank. 
Pop. 6,317. 

Bur'ritt, Elihu (1810-1879), the “learned 
blacksmith,” was b. at New Britain, Conn. 
He was apprenticed to a blacksmith, but be-> 
gan to read English literature, and acquired 
proficiency in the ancient and most modern 
languages of Europe. He afterward came 
into public notice as a lecturer on behalf of 
temperance, the abolition of slavery and war, 
etc., and founded papers, missions, and organ¬ 
izations to further these ends. In 1848 the 
first International Peace Congress was held 
under his .guidance at Brussels. In 1865 he 
was consular agent at Birmingham. In 1868 
he returned to live on his farm in America. 
His best known writings are Sparks from the 
Anvil; Thoughts and Things at Home and 
Abroad; Chips from Many Blocks. 

Burroughs, John, b. 1837. An American 
author, wrote extensively on natural history. 
His charming essays on the beauties of nature 
were extremely popular in America and 
Europe. 

Burrowing=owl, an American owl, which 
dwells in holes in the ground either made by 


itself or by some other animal, as the prairie 
dog or marmot. It feeds on insects and seeks 
its food by da} r . 

Burrows, Julius C.ESAR, American states¬ 
man, b. in Erie co., Pa., 1837. He served 
in the Union army 1862-1864, and after the 
war became prosecuting attorney of Kalama¬ 
zoo co., Mich. In 1875-76 he served in Con¬ 
gress as a Republican, and again from 1879- 
1881. In 1884 he was again elected from the 
fourth Michigan district, and re-elected in 1886 
and 1888. He is now in the U. S. Senate from 
the state of Michigan. 

Bur'sary, an endowment in one of the 
Scotch universities, intended for the sup¬ 
port of the student during his ordinary course, 
and before he has taken a degree in the faculty 
in which he holds the bursary. This circum¬ 
stance, according to the usage prevailing in 
Scotland, distinguishes bursaries from schol¬ 
arships and fellowships, both of which are be¬ 
stowed after the student has taken a degree. 
Each of the four universities of Scotland has 
a greater or smaller number of bursaries. Of 
late years most bursaries are awarded after 
competitive examination, and only a few are 
now given by the patrons for special reasons. 

Burs'lem, a town of England, in Stafford¬ 
shire, in the center of “The Potteries.” 
Here is the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, 
comprising a free library, a museum, and a 
school of art, erected in honor of Josiah Wedg¬ 
wood, who was b. at Burslem in 1730. Burs- 
lem has extensive manufactures of china and 
earthenware, in which trade and coal-mining 
the inhabitants are chiefly employed. Pop. 
30 862 

Burton, Joiin Hill (1809-1881), historian of 
Scotland. He early contributed to the West¬ 
minster Review, as afterward to the Edinburgh 
and North British, to Blackwood's Magazine, and 
to the Scotsman. His first book was the Life 
and Correspondence of David Hume, followed by 
Lives of Lord Lovwt and Duncan Forbes of Cul- 
loden, and other works. His chief work was 
his History of Scotland from the Earliest Times 
to 1746, others equally well known were The 
Scot Abroad, and the Book-hunter. 

Bur'ton, Robert (1576-1640), a British au¬ 
thor. His vast out-of-the-way learning is 
curiously displayed in his book The Anatomy 
of Melancholy, which he published in 1621. 

Burton, Wm. E. (1804-1860), an American 
actor. He began his theatrical career in Eng¬ 
land, and in 1334 came to the U. S. and ap¬ 
peared in standard comedies in Philadelphia 
and New York. In 1848 he became manager 
of the theater in Chambers street. Burton’s 
Falstaff, his Amiuadab Sleek and his Toodles, 
dwell in the memory of veteran play-goers to 
this day. 

Burton, Richard Francis (1821-1890), a 
famous English traveler. He acquired a 
familiarity with nearly all the Oriental lan¬ 
guages, and disguised as a pilgrim (Hadji) 
visited Mecca and Medina in 1853. He served 
with credit in the Crimea, and from 1856 to 
1859 was engaged in Central African explora¬ 
tions. Subsequently he was English consul at 


Burton=on«Trent 


Bust 


Damascus and Trieste. He wrote over thirty 
volumes of travels, and in 1885-1888 published 
a literal translation of the Arabian Nights , of 
which only a limited number of copies were 
issued. 

Burton=on=Trent, a town of England, in 
Staffordshire, on the n. bank of the Trent, in a 
low, level situation. Malting and iron-founding 
are carried on to a considerable extent, but it 
is chiefly celebrated for its excellent ale, for 
which there are numerous breweries, employ¬ 
ing upward of 5,000 men and boys, the largest 
establishments being those of Messrs. Bass & 
Co. and Messrs. Allsopp. Pop. 46,047. 

Bury (be'ri), a town of England, in Lanca¬ 
shire, 8 mi. n.n.w. of Manchester, well situated 
on a rising ground between the Irwell and the 
Roche. The staple manufacture is that of cot¬ 
ton, and there are also large woolen factories, 
bleaching and printing works, dye works, 
foundries, etc. Sir Robert Peel was b. near 
Bury in 1788, and a bronze statue of him adorns 
the town. Pop. 57,206. 

Burying-beetle, the name of a genus of in¬ 
sects belonging to the order of beetles, and the 
tribe of the carrion beetles. They have a very 
keen scent, which guides them to the dead 
bodies of rats, mice, etc., which form their 



Burying-beetle. 


food. Several beetles will unite to cover such 
animals, burying them sometimes more than 6 
in. in the earth. They deposit their eggs on 
the carrion, and in less than a fortnight the 
larvae issue. The species are common every¬ 
where. 

Bury St. Edmond’s (or St. Edmondsbury), 
a town in Suffolk, England, 26 mi. from Ips¬ 
wich. Agricultural implements are manufac¬ 
tured, and there is a large trade in agricultural 
produce. It is an ancient place, and derived 
its name from St. Edmund, a king of the East 
Angles, slain by the heathen Danes and buried 
here. It contains the remains of an abbey, 
once the most wealthy and magnificent in 
Britain. Pop. 16,630. 

Busa'co, a mountain ridge in the province 
of Beira, Portugal. It was here that Welling¬ 
ton repulsed Massena (Sept. 27, 1810) and con¬ 
tinued his retreat to the lines of Torres 
Vedras. 

Bush=buck, a name given to several species 
of antelopes, especially to an antelope of South 
Africa, 4 ft. long, and 2\ ft high, with triangu¬ 
lar sub-spiral horns. The male is dark sepia 


brown, and the female reddish brown above; 
both are white below. The white-backed bush- 
buck is a white-backed antelope of Sierra 
Leone, with black, shining, pointed, and nearly 
straight horns, short, slender limbs, sleek, 
glossy, deep brown hair. 

Bushire (bii'sher) (properly Abu Shehr, the 
father of cities), the principal seaport of Per¬ 
sia, on the Persian Gulf, 118£ miles w.s.w. 
Shiraz. It carries on a considerable traffic 
with India and Britain, importing rice, indigo, 
sugar, cotton goods, etc., and exporting shawls, 
dates, tobacco, carpets, wool, drugs, etc. Pop. 
25,000. 

Bushmen (or Bosjesmen), a race of people 
who dwell in the western part of South Af¬ 
rica, in the immense plains bordering on the 
north side of the Cape of Good Hope. They 
are the most degraded of the races which in¬ 
habit this part of the country. They do not 
form societies, but unite only for defense or 
pillage. They have no huts, and do not culti¬ 
vate the land, but support themselves by hunt¬ 
ing. Their language is exceedingly poor, 
consisting only of a certain clicking with the 
tongue and harsh gurgling tones, for which we 
have no letters. 

Bush rangers, the name for desperadoes or 
escaped convicts in Australia who, taking to 
the bush, supported themselves by levying con¬ 
tributions on the property of all and sundry 
within their reach. Considerable gangs of 
these lawless characters have sometimes col¬ 
lected, a body of fifty holding part of New 
South Wales in terror about 1830. A gang of 
four fell victims to justice in 1880, after having 
robbed a bank and committed other outrages. 
At the present day, owing to better police ar¬ 
rangements, increased population, and the in¬ 
troduction of railroads and telegraphs, bush¬ 
rangers are practically extinct. 

Business Colleges, the name for the higher- 
class institutions specially intended to give a 
practical training in all subjects belonging to 
commerce. 

Busi'ris, a town of ancient Egypt, in the 
Delta, the chief place where the rites of Isis 
were celebrated. The name is also given as 
that of a mythical Egyptian king. 

Bus'kin, a kind of high shoe worn upon the 
stage by the ancient actors of tragedy, in order 
to give them a more heroic appearance; often 
used figuratively for tragedy, like “sock” for 
comedy. 

Bussu°palm, a tree found in the swamps of 
the Amazon, whose stem is only 10 to 15 ft. 
high, but whose leaves are often 30 ft. long by 
4 to 5 ft. in breadth. These are used by the 
Indians for thatch, the spathes are used as 
bags, or when cut longitudinally and stretched 
out they form a coarse but strong kind of 
cloth. 

Bust, in sculpture, the representation of 
that portion of the human figure which com¬ 
prises the head and the upper part of the 
body. During the literary period of Greece 
the portrait busts of the learned formed an 
important branch of art, and in this way we 
come to possess faithful likenesses of Socrates, 




Bustard 


Butt 


Plato, Demosthenes, etc., in which the artists 
show great power of expressing the character 
of those represented. The number of busts 
belonging to the time of the Roman Empire is 
very considerable, but those of the Roman 
poets and men of letters have not been pre¬ 
served in nearly so large numbers as those of 
the Greeks. The first bust that can be de¬ 
pended upon as giving a correct likeness is 
that of Scipio Africanus the elder. 

Bustard, a bird belonging to the order of 
runners, but approaching the waders. The 
great bustard is the largest European bird, the 
male often weighing 30 lbs., with a breadth 
of wing of 6 or 7 ft. The bustard is now rare 



Great Bustard. 


in Britain, but abounds in the south and east 
of Europe and the steppes of Tartary, feeding 
on green corn and other vegetables, and on 
earthworms. Its flesh is esteemed. All the 
species run fast, and take flight with difficulty. 

Bute (but), an island of Scotland. Pop. 11,- 
735; belonging principally to the Marquis of 
Bute. It is about 15 mi. long, and the average 
breadth is 3£ mi. In Ivames Hill it rises to the 
height of 875 ft.; it has several pretty lakes, 
the principal of which is Loch Fad, 2£ mi. 
long. The herring fishery is a source of con¬ 
siderable profit. The only town is Rothesay. 

Butler, Butler co., Pa., on Connoquenesug 
Creek. Railroads: P. R. R.; B. & O.; P. B. 
& L. E. Industries: plate glass works, two 
flouring mills, two iron foundries, woolen mill, 
and thirteen other factories. Surrounding 
country agricultural; coal, oil, and gas in vi¬ 
cinity. The town was first settled in 1803. 
Pop. 1900, 10,853. 

Butler, Benjamin F. (1818-1893), American 
lawyer, general, and politician. He practised 
law in Lowell, Mass., and became prominent in 
his profession. Previous to the Civil War he 
was twice a candidate for the governorship of 
Massachusetts. He was appointed brigadier 
general of the state militia at the outbreak of 
the Civil War, and marched to Annapolis, Md., 


with the eighth Massachusetts regiment, to 
command the district of Annapolis, including 
Baltimore. He was appointed major general 
of volunteers in May, 1861, and given com¬ 
mand of the department of Eastern Virginia. 
General Butler captured Fort Clark and Fort 
Hatteras in August, 1861. The following 
March he led an expedition to the Gulf of 
Mexico. Butler commanded at New Orleans 
after it was captured by Farragut, from May 
to December. He armed the free colored 
men. Jefferson Davis, 1862, issued a procla¬ 
mation declaring him to be an outlaw. In 
1863 he was placed in command of Virginia 
and North Carolina with the Army of the 
James. He formed a plan to capture Rich¬ 
mond by operations from the south side of the 
James, intending to co-operate with the Army 
of the Potomac from the north. He was 
checked by General Beauregard. Later he 
was sent to Fort Fisher, N. C. He was re¬ 
moved from command by General Grant, and 
returned to Massachusetts. In 1866 he was 
elected to Congress as a Republican, and served 
until 1879, with the exception of the year 
1875-76. He took an active interest in the im¬ 
peachment of President Johnson. In 1871 he 
was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for 
governor of Massachusetts. In 1878 and 1879 
he was again defeated for the same office on 
the ticket of the Greenback party. In 1882 he 
was elected by the Democrats. In 1884 he ran 
as the Greenback-Labor candidate for presi¬ 
dent, but did not get any votes in the electo- 
rial college. 

Butler, Elizabeth S., b. 1844, in Switzer¬ 
land. She achieved fame by her pictures, 
Missing, The Roll-Call, Balaklava , and Inker- 
mann, shown at the Royal Academy 1873. In 
1877 she married Major General Butler, of the 
British army. 

Butler, James (1610-1688), duke of Ormonde, 
an eminent statesman in the reigns of Charles 
I and II. 

Butler, Joseph (1692-1752), an English prel¬ 
ate and celebrated writer on ethics and the¬ 
ology. His great work is the Analogy of Re¬ 
ligion, Natural and Revealed , to the Constitution 
and Course of Nature, which acquired for him 
a great reputation. 

Butler, William Allen, b. in Albany, N. Y., 
1825; American author; son of B. F. Butler, 
who was attorney general in Jackson’s cabinet. 
Mr. Butler wrote, in 1857, a society satire in 
verse— Nothing to Wear —and has been a liberal 
contributor to the magazines. 

Butler, William Francis, b. 1838; British 
soldier; entered the British army in 1858, and 
served in the Red River and Ashantee ex¬ 
peditions. He also held high command in 
the Soudan, and is a major general and com¬ 
mander of the Bath. He is the author of The 
Great Lone Land and The Wild North Land, 
which were published in 1872 and 1873 respect¬ 
ively. 

Butt, Isaac (1813-1879), Irish statesman. 
He was professor of political economy in the 
University of Dublin, 1836-41, and sat in Par¬ 
liament as a Liberal-Conservative, 1852-65. 









Butte City 

He was a prominent member of the Irish bar, 
and defended Smith O’Brien in 1848. In 1871 
he was elected as a Home Ruler. He later lost 
his influence. 

Butte City, Silver Bow co., Mont., 65 mi. 
s. w. of Helena. Railroads: Montana Central; 
Union Pacific; Northern Pacific, and Montana 
Union. In the vicinity are rich gold, silver 
and copper mines and smelting works. Pop. 
1900, 30,470. 

Butter, a fatty substance extracted from the 
milk of mammalia. The amount of butter 
from the milk of well-fed cows is about four 
per cent. Butter is best made from the cream 
of the milk, but in large factories the whole 
of the milk is usually churned. Milk is very 
sensitive to environment and the flavor of the 1 
butter depends largely on the treatment of the 
milk. Butter is extracted by agitation which 
ruptures the minute fat globules and causes 
them to collect in masses. Butter for market 
is packed in tin or wooden tubs, or earthen 
jars, or is fashioned into rolls or pats. The 
rich yellow natural color of butter depends 
largely upon the richness of the pasture. But¬ 
ter is artificially colored by arnetto. Skill is 
required in salting butter. One half ounce of 
common salt to two pounds of butter is the 
rule, but one ounce to a pound of butter is 
sometimes used. Butter in chemistry is ap¬ 
plied to substances of a buttery consistency. 
Butter is a name applied to certain metallic 
substances which have an oily appearance, as 
butter of antimony. 

Butterbur, a composite plant, with large 
rhubarb-like leaves and purplish flowers, grow¬ 
ing by the side of streams; allied to coltsfoot. 

Buttercup, the popular name of two or three 
species of the Ranunculus. They are common 
plants with brilliant yellow flowers. 

Butterfly, the common name of all diurnal 
lepidopterous insects, corresponding to the 
original Linnaean genus Papilio. The family 
of the butterflies or diurnal Lepidoptera (so 
called to distinguish them from nocturnal or 
crepuscular Lepidoptera, such as moths) is a 
very extensive one and naturalists differ much 
as to the manner of subdividing it. One of the 
most remarkable and interesting circumstances 
connected with these beautiful insects is their 
series of transformations before reaching a 
perfect state. The female butterfly lays a 
great quantity of eggs, which produce larvae, 
commonly called caterpillars. After a short 
life these assume a new form, and become 
chrysalids or pupae. These chrysalids are at¬ 
tached to other bodies in various ways, and 
are of various forms; they often have brilliant 
golden or argentine spots. Within its covering 
the insect develops, to emerge as the active 
and brilliant butterfly. These insects in their 
perfect form suck the nectar of plants, but 
take little food, and are all believed to be 
short-lived; their work in the perfect state 
being almost confined to the propagation of 
the species. Butterflies vary greatly in size 
and coloring, but most of them are very 
beautiful. The largest are found in tropical 
countries, where some measure nearly a foot 


Butterine 

across the wings. They may generally be dis¬ 
tinguished from moths by having their wings 
erect when sitting, the moths having theirs 
horizontal. Some of them have great powers 
of flight. Among the most remarkable butter¬ 
flies are those that present an extraordinary 
likeness to other objects—leaves, green or 
withered, flowers, bark, etc., a feature that 
serves greatly to protect them from enemies. 

Butterfly=weed, the pleurisy root of Amer¬ 
ica, where it has a considerable reputation as 
an article of the materia medica. It is an ex¬ 
pectorant, a mild cathartic, and a diaphoretic, 
and is employed in incipient pulmonary affec¬ 
tions, rheumatism, and dysentery. 

But'terine (-en), an artificial butter, pre¬ 
pared from beef suet, milk, butter, and vege¬ 
table oil, and now largely made in Britain, the 
U. S., Holland, etc. By the use of coloring 
matters it can be made to resemble butter of 
any given brand; but although quite whole¬ 
some when well made, it has not the delicate 
flavor and aroma of the highest-class butters. 
To prevent fraudulent sales Congress has 
passed a law requiring under penalty that 
every package containing artificial butter 
shall be duly marked, and that retail dealers 
shall not sell except from the original package. 

The process of manufacturing butterine is 
very interesting. One of the principal in¬ 
gredients of butter is olein. This is obtained 
from the caul-fat. As soon as the fat comes 
in from the slaughter house it is dumped into 
a vat of water, where all the blood and dirt is x 
washed out. It is then poured into a row of 
iron kettles provided with steam jackets for 
heating purposes. The temperature is raised 
to 155° and the oil slowly tried out. When the 
fat has been sufficiently heated it is drained 
off into large cool kettles, where all the dirt and 
refuse settles to the bottom. The clear oil is 
then drawn out into tin-lined trucks and taken 
to a big room, where it is allowed to cool and 
granulate for a few days at a temperature of 
about 85°. It is then sent to the press room. 
Here is a small rectangular box open at the 
top and fastened to the table. A piece of stout 
white duck is spread over this and enough of 
the oil is dipped up to fill the box. The top of 
the duck is folded over the soft mass, and the 
whole is put into the presser. This machine 
consists of 60 pieces of sheet iron loosely fas¬ 
tened at the end to shafts. Between each 
pair of these plates 80 of the little duck pack¬ 
ages of tallow are placed, and when the whole 
machine is full, pressure is applied by means 
of a screw at the top. The oil is gradu¬ 
ally squeezed out through the duck and drops 
down into a trough. About 29 lbs. of this 
oleomargarine oil is obtained from 50 lbs. of 
fat. The product left in the duck is known 
as stearine, of pure white and almost tasteless 
substance, which is used in making certain 
brands of lard. The oil as it runs from the 
press is ready for use in making butterine 
and goes directly to the factory. Butterine is 
usually made in a three-story building and 
the process begins on the top floor. Here the 
oil is pumped into several large steam-jack- 


Buttermilk 


Buttons 


eted kettles and stirred by means of dashes, 
the temperature is raised to 185° to melt the 
oil thoroughly. It is then conveyed into large 
tin-lined vats, where it is stored and chilled. 
It is then passed through a bath of brine 
where it is washed and deodorized. It then 
has a distinctly buttery taste. It is packed 
in tin-lined trays and packed in a cool store 
room until it is needed for use. Pure leaf 
lard which has gone through the process of 
deodorizing in brine is also brought into the 
store room and is one of the principal con¬ 
stituents of butterine. The oil and the lard 
are then shoveled in equal quantities into a 
large chute which leads to the creamery be¬ 
low. The chute leads to a large vat or churn 
heated to 180°. Here the mixture is rapidly 
stirred with wooden paddles until the lumps 
all disappear. Then a quantity of genuine 
butter and buttermilk, usually about 20 per 
cent, of the whole, is put in together with a 
little butter-color and the stirring is continued. 
When the oleomargarine comes from the churn 
it looks very much like butter. It is dumped 
on a circular table, and the buttermilk is 
squeezed out by means of a butter worker 
operated by machinery, and the salt is worked 
in. The butterine is then taken to a storage 
room for a day. It is then reworked and is 
ready to be put up in packages. The boxes 
in which the butterine is packed are marked 
and stamped. It has been shown by chem¬ 
ical analysis that butterine is almost identical 
with butter, and that one is digested as easily 
as the other. . 

Buttermilk, the milk from which butter has 
been extracted, forming a nutritious and agree¬ 
able cooling beverage with an acidulous taste. 

Butternut, the fruit of the white walnut, 
an American tree, so called from the oil it con¬ 
tains. The tree bears a resemblance in its 
general appearance to the black walnut, but 
the wood is not so dark in color. 

Buttertree, a name of several trees yielding 
oily or fatty substances resembling butter. 

Butterwort, a plant growing in bogs or soft 

grounds in Europe, 
Canada, etc. The 
leaves are covered 
with.soft, pellucid, 
glandular hairs, 
which secrete a 
glutinous liquor 
that catches small 
insects. The edges 
of the leaf roll over 
on the insect and 
retain it, and the 
insect thus re¬ 
tained serves a s 
food for the plant. 
In the north o f 
Sweden the leaves 
are employed to 
curdle milk. 

Butterworth, 
Benjamin, b. 1837, 
American states¬ 
man; educated at 


Ohio University, admitted to the bar in 1861, 
and practised law in Cincinnati. In 1870 he 
became U. S. district attorney, and in 1873-74 
state senator. He was elected to Congress in 
1878 and 1880, became commissioner of patents 
in September, 1883, and in 1884, 1886, and 1888 
was re-elected to Congress from the first (Cin¬ 
cinnati) district of Ohio. Mr. Butterworth is 
a Republican, and introduced the compulsory 
army retirement act. He was appointed com¬ 
missioner of pensions by President McKinley 
in 1897. D. Jan. 16, 1898. 

Buttons are of almost all forms and mate¬ 
rials— wood, horn, bone, ivory, steel, copper, 
silver, brass, etc., which are either left naked 
o b 


a 

a .—Filigree silver button of Norway; b .—Filigree sil¬ 
ver button of Ireland; c.—Japanese button. 

or covered with silk or some other material. 
The material of buttons has varied much with 
times and fashions. In the last century gilt, 
brass, or copper buttons were almost uni¬ 
versal. Birmingham was the great seat of 
manufacture, as it yet is of metallic and other 
buttons. The introduction of cloth-covered 
buttons early in this century made a great 
revolution in the trade, and led to great varie¬ 
ties in the style of making up. The metal 
buttons now used are commonly made of brass 
or a mixture of tin and brass. They are usually 
made from sheets of metal by punching and 
stamping. Such buttons are generally used for 
trousers. A substance now very commonly 
used for buttons is vegetable ivory (seeds of the 
ivory-nut palm), which maybe colored accord¬ 
ing to taste. Mother-of-pearl buttons are an¬ 
other common kind. Of late years the making 
of porcelain buttons has developed into a re¬ 
markable industry. These buttons are both 
strong and cheap. Besides these kinds there 
are also glass buttons, made by softening the 
glass by heat and pressing it into a mold; but¬ 
tons of vulcanite, marble, and many other 
materials; but these are fancy articles in the 
trade. Buttons made of vegetable ivory are in 
very common use. The material is obtained 
from a palm tree that grows in South America. 
When young the seed of this palm contains a 
milky substance which becomes very hard and 
white, resembling ivory. The seeds are from 



























































































































Buttresses 


Byron 


an inch to three inches in size and almost 
round. First they are steamed to render their 
cutting easier, after which they are sawed into 
slices of proper thickness. The button is cut 
out with a peculiar saw, and each button is 
turned separately in a small lathe. The thread 
holes are then drilled and the buttons polished 
and finished. Buttons which have emblems 
and special designs are made by stamping ma¬ 
chines. The desired figure which the face of 
the button is to assume is cut in the upper die, 
the reverse being made in relief on the under¬ 
side. Materials used in making buttons in¬ 
clude gold, silver, glass, porcelain, horn, bone, 
india rubber, mother-of-pearl, and various 
woods. In preparing the sheet-iron for metal 
and metal-covered buttons the iron is first 
scaled by putting it in acid. It is then punched 
out with the dies. The neck is japanned after 
being cut, and before the canvas cloth for 
sewing on is placed in place. The hollow be¬ 
tween the top and the shell is then filled with 
brown paper called button-board. A cloth¬ 
faced button is made by gluing a piece of cloth 
cut the exact size into the top of a piece of 
rubber, or vegetable, or ivory body. This 
leaves a hard material to protect the edges of 
the button from wearing. The thread holes 
are drilled through a knob turned or molded on 
the back of the body. The edges of cloth-cov¬ 
ered buttons are protected by working a corded 
edge around the upper side. 

But'tresses, in architecture, especially 
Gothic, projections on the outside of the walls 
of an edifice, extending from the bottom to the 
top, or nearly, and intended to give additional 
support to the walls and prevent them from 
spreading under the weight of the roof. Fly¬ 
ing buttresses, of a somewhat arched form, often 
spring from the top of the ordinary buttresses, 
leaning inward so as to abut against and sup¬ 
port a higher portion of the building, such as 
the wall of a clear-story, thus receiving part of 
the pressure from the weight of the roof of the 
central pile. 

Butyr'ic Acid, an acid obtained from but¬ 
ter; it also occurs in perspiration, cod-liver oil, 
etc. Butyric acid is a colorless liquid, having 
a smell like that of rancid butter; its taste is 
acrid and biting, with a sweetish after-taste. 

Butyr'ic Ether, a substance obtained from 
butyric acid with the flavor of pineapples, 
used in flavoring confectionery, as an ingredi¬ 
ent in perfumes, etc. 

Buxton, a small town in the county of Derby, 
England, situated in a valley celebrated for its 
mineral waters. The surrounding scenery is 
fine, and there is a vast stalactite cavern called 
Poole’s Hole in the neighborhood. Pop. 7,424. 

Buzzard, the name of raptorial birds 
which form one of the subfamilies of the 
diurnal birds of prey; characteristics, a mod¬ 
erate-sized beak, hooked from the base, long 
wings, long tarsi, and short weak toes. The 
common buzzard is distributed over the whole 
of Europe as well as the north of Africa and 
America. Its food is very miscellaneous, and 
consists of moles, mice, frogs, tog-ds, worms, 
insects, etc. It is sluggish in its habits. Its 


length is from 
20 to 22 in. 

The rough¬ 
legged buz¬ 
zard, so called 
from having 
its legs feath¬ 
ered to the 
toes, is also a 
native of Brit¬ 
ain. Its habits 
resemble those 
of the com¬ 
mon buzzard. 

The red-tailed 
hawk of the 
U. S. is a 
buzzard. 11 
is also called 
hen hawk, 
from its raids 
on the poultry 
yard. The 
genus Pernis , 
to which the honey buzzard belongs, has the 
beak rather weaker than Buteo but does not 
differ much from that genus. The honey 
buzzard is so called because feeding specially 
on bees and wasps. 

By=law (bye-law), a law made by an incor¬ 
porated or other body for the regulation of its 
own affairs, or the affairs entrusted to its care. 
Town councils, railway companies, etc., en¬ 
act by-laws which are binding upon all com¬ 
ing within the sphere of the operations of such 
bodies. By-laws must of course be within the 
meaning of the charter of incorporation and 
in accordance with the law of the land. 

By'ron, George Gordon Noel, Lord By¬ 
ron (1788-1824), a great English poet. Till the 
age of seven he was entirely under the care of 
his mother, and to her injudicious indulgence 
the waywardness that marked his after career 
has been partly attributed. On reaching 
his seventh year he was sent to the grammar 
school at Aberdeen, and four years after, in 
1798, the death of his grand-uncle gave him 
the titles and estates of the family. Mother 
and son then removed to Newstead Abbey, the 
family seat, near Nottingham. Soon after By¬ 
ron was sent to Harrow, where he distinguished 
himself by his love of manly sports and his un¬ 
daunted spirit. While yet at school he fell 
deeply in love with Miss Chaworth, a distant 
cousin of his own. But the lady slighted the 
homage of the Harrow schoolboy, her junior 
by two years, and married another and more 
mature suitor. In The Dream Byron alludes 
finely to their parting interview. In 1805 he 
was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. 
Two years after, in 1807, appeared his first po¬ 
etic volume, Hours of Idleness, which, though 
indeed containing nothing of much merit, was 
castigated with severity by Brougham in the 
Edinburgh Review. This caustic critic roused 
the slumbering energy in Byron, and drew from 
him his first really notable effort, the cele¬ 
brated satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 
In 1809, in company with a friend, he visited 



Common Buzzard. 



Byron 

the southern provinces of Spain, and voyaged 
along the shores of the Mediterranean. The 
fruit of these travels was the fine poem of 
Chilcle Harold's Pilgrimage, the first two cantos 
of which were published on his return in 1812. 
The poem was an immense success, and Byron 
“awoke one morning and found himself fa¬ 
mous.’’ His acquaintance was now much 
courted, and his first entry on the stage of 
public life may be dated from this era. Dur¬ 
ing the next two years (1813-14) The Giaour, 
The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair, Lara, and The 
Siege of Corinth showed the brilliant work of 
which the new poet was capable. Byron mar¬ 
ried Anna Isabella, only daughter of Sir Ralph 
Milbankc; but the marriage turned out unfor¬ 
tunate, and in about a year Lady Byron hav¬ 
ing gone on a visit to her parents, refused to 
return, and a formal separation took place. 
This rupture produced a considerable sensa¬ 
tion, and the real cause of it has never been 
satisfactorily explained. It gave rise to much 
popular indignation against Byron, who left 
England, with an expressed resolution never 
to return. He visited France, the field of 
Waterloo and Brussels, the Rhine, Switzerland, 
and the north of Italy, and for some time took 
up his abode at Venice, and latterly at Rome, 
where he completed his third canto of Cliilde 
Harold. Not long after appeared The Prisoner 
of Chillon, The Dream, and Other Poems; and in 
1817 Manfred, a tragedy, and The Lament of 
Tasso. From Italy he made occasional excur¬ 
sions to the islands of Greece, and at length 
visited Athens, where he sketched many of the 
scenes of the fourth and last canto of Cliilde 
Harold. In 1819 was published the romantic 
tale of Mazeppa, and the same year was marked 
by the commencement of Don Juan. In 1820 
appeared Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, a 
tragedy; the drama of Sardanapalus; the Two 
Foscari, a tragedy; and Cain, a mystery. After 
leaving Venice Byron resided for some time at 
Ravenna, then at Pisa, and lastly at Genoa. 
At Ravenna he became intimate with the 
Countess Guiccioli, and when he removed to 
Pisa, in 1822, she followed him. There he 
continued to occupy himself with literature 
and poetry, sustained for a time by the com¬ 
panionship of Shelley, one of the few men 
whom he entirely respected and with whom he 
was quite confidential. Besides his contribu¬ 
tions to the Liberal, a periodical established at 
this time in conjunction with Leigh Hunt and 
Shelley, he completed the later cantos of Don 
Juan, with Werner, a tragedy, and The De¬ 
formed Transformed, a fragment. These are 
the last of Byron’s poetical efforts. In 1823, 
troubled perhaps by the consciousness that his 
life had too long been unworthy of him, he 
conceived the idea of throwing himself into 
the struggle for the independence of Greece. 
In January, 1824, he arrived at Missolonglii, 
was received with the greatest enthusiasm, 
and immediately took into his pay a body of 
500 Suliotes. The disorderly temper of these 
troops, and the difficulties of his situation, to¬ 
gether with the malarious air of Missolonglii, 
began to affect his health. On April 9, 1824, 


Byzantine Art 

while riding out in the rain, he caught a fever, 
which ten days later ended fatally. Thus, in 
his thirty-seventh year, d. prematurely a man 
whose natural force and genius were perhaps 
superior to those of any Englishman of his 
time, and, largely undisciplined as they were, 
and wasted by an irregular life, they acquired 
for him a name second, in the opinion of con¬ 
tinental Europe at least, to that of no other 
Englishman of his time. The body of Byron 
was brought to England and interred near 
Newstead Abbey. 

Byron, Henry James (1834-1884), English 
dramatist and actor. He wrote an immense 
number of pieces, including a great many 
farces, burlesques, and extravaganzas, besides 
comedies or domestic dramas, such as Cyril's 
Success; Dearer than Life; Bloio for Blow; 
Uncle Dick's Darling; The Prompter's, Box; 
Partners for Life; and Our Boys, which had 
an extraordinary success. 

Byzan'tine Art, a style which arose in 
Southeastern Europe after Constantine the 
Great had made Byzantium the capital of the 
Roman Empire (330 a. d.), and ornamented 
that city, which was called after him, with all 
the treasures of Grecian art. See Byzantine 
Empire. One of the chief influences in By¬ 
zantine art was Christianity, and to a certain 
extent Byzantine art may be recognized as 
the endeavor to give expression to the new 
elements which Christianity had brought into 
the life of men. The tendency toward Oriental 
luxuriance and splendor of ornament now quite 
supplanted the simplicity of ancient taste. 
Richness of material and decoration was the 
aim of the artist rather than purity of con¬ 
ception. Yet the classical ideals of art, and in 
particular the traditions of technical processes 
and methods carried to Byzantium by the art¬ 
ists of the Western Empire, held their ground 
long enough, and produced work pure and 
powerful enough, to kindle the new artistic 
life which began in Italy with Cimabue and 
Giotto. 

With regard to sculpture the statues no 
longer displayed the freedom and dignity of 
ancient art. The true proportion of parts, the 
correctness of the outlines, and in general the 
severe beauty of the naked figure, or of simple 
drapery in Greek art, were neglected for ex¬ 
travagant costume and ornamentation and 
petty details. Yet in the best period of By¬ 
zantine art, from the sixth to the eleventh 
century, there is considerable spiritual dignity 
in the general conception of the figures. But 
sculpture was of second-rate importance at 
Byzantium, the taste of those times inclining 
more to mosaic work with the costliness and 
brilliant colors of its stones. The first germ 
of a Christian style of art was developed in the 
Byzantine pictures. The artists, who appear 
to have seldom employed the living model, 
and had nothing real and material before 
them, but were obliged to find, in their own 
imaginations, conceptions of the external ap¬ 
pearance of sacred persons, such as the mother 
of Christ or the apostles, could give but feeble 
renderings of their ideas. As they cared but 




8 . Cloister on Mount Athos. 


i Ornamented Initial Lett'ers of a Manuscript in Paris. 


6. Ground Plan of Theotokos 
Church at Constantinople. 


7 - Theodorus Church at Athens (nth Century). 


3. Christ, Mosaic, Church of St. 
Sophia, at Constantinople. 















































































Byzantine Empire 


Byzantme Empire 


little for a faithful imitation of nature, but 
were satisfied with repeating what was once 
acknowledged as successful, it is not strange 
that certain forms, approved by the taste of 
the time, should be made, by convention, and 
without regard to truth and beauty, general 
models of the human figure, and be transmit¬ 
ted as such to succeeding times. In this way 
the artists in the later periods did not even 
aim at accuracy of representation, but were 
contented with stiff general outlines, lavishing 
their labor on ornamental parts. 

Byzantine architecture may be said to have 

assumed its dis¬ 
tinctive features 
in the church of 
St. Sophia, built 
by Justinian in 
thesixthcentury, 
and still existing 
as the chief 
mosque in Con¬ 
stantinople. It is 
more especially 
the style asso¬ 
ciated with the 
Greek Church 
as distinguished 
from the Roman. 
The leading 
forms of the By¬ 
zantine style are 
the round arch, 
Byzantine Capital. the circle, and in 

particular the 
dome. The last is the most conspicuous and 
characteristic object in Byzantine buildings, 
and the free and full employment of it was 
arrived at when by the use of pendentives the 
architects were enabled to place it on a square 
apartment instead of a circular dr polygonal. 
In this style of building incrustation, the in¬ 
crustation of brick with more precious mate¬ 
rials, was largely in use. It depended much 
on color and surface ornament for its effect, 
and with this intent mosaics wrought on 
grounds of gold or of positive color are pro¬ 
fusely introduced, while colored marbles and 
stones of various kinds are greatly made use 
of. The capitals are of peculiar and original 
design, the most characteristic being square 
and tapering downward, and they are very 
varied in their decorations. Byzantine archi¬ 
tecture may be divided into an older and a 
newer style. The most distinctive feature of 
the latter is that the dome is raised on a per¬ 
pendicular circular or polygonal piece of 
masonry (technically the drum) containing 
windows for lighting the interior, while in the 
older style the light was admitted by openings 
in the dome itself. The Cathedral of Athens 
is an example of the new Byzantine style. 
The Byzantine style had a great influence on 
the architecture of Western Europe, especially 
in Italy, where St. Mark’s in Venice is a mag¬ 
nificent example, as also in Sicily. It had also 
material influence in Southern France and 
Western Germany. 

Byzantine Empire, also called the Eastern 




Empire, but properly so designated only after 
the re-establishment of the Western, or Holy 
Roman Empire, in the year 800. Other names 
by which it is known are Greek Empire, and 
Lower Empire. The existence of the Byzan¬ 
tine Empire as a separate dynasty lasted nearly 
1,000 years, from the death of Theodosius the 
Great, 395 a. d., to the fall of Constantinople, 
1453. The origin of the empire dates back to 
330 a. d., when Constantine the Great removed 
the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome 
to the then unimportant town of Byzantium, on 
the Bosporus. This act was due partly to the fact 
that Constantine’s conversion to Christianity 
had made the atmosphere of pagan Rome less 
congenial than that of the East, where the new 
religion had made great progress; partly to the 
fact that the center of population, wealth, and 
culture had moved eastward, owing to the 
Roman conquests on the one hand and the bar¬ 
barian inroads on the other. The colony grew 
rapidly, and in honor of its founder the name 
of the imperial city was changed to Constan¬ 
tinople. For sixty-five years this city remained 
the capital of the Roman Empire, although 
from 364 to 378 the brothers Valentinian and 
Valens were joint rulers, the former having his 
court at Milan, the latter at Constantinople. 
Theodosius the Great (379-395) before his death, 
divided his dominions between his two sons, 
Honorius and Arcadius, and the latter became 
the first of the Byzantine emperors. The divid¬ 
ing line on the west ran southward from Pesth, 
and followed the Danube eastward to its 
mouth. The empire also included Asia Minor, 
the province of Oriens, or Syria, on the eastern 
shore of the Mediterranean, and Egypt, besides 
numerous islands, and for a time the southern 
part of Italy and a portion of Sicily. Its terri¬ 
tory was gradually diminished by Asiatic in¬ 
vasion and conquest, until just before its final 
fall it embraced scarcely more than the capital 
city and its suburbs. Until the fall of Rome 
(476) the Byzantine emperors were busied in 
suppressing the uprisings of their Gothic allies 
and defending their dominions from invading 
hordes of Goths, Huns, and Vandals. Fre¬ 
quently they purchased safety by diverting the 
attention of the barbarians to the provinces of 
the Western Empire. 

During the reign of Theodosius II (408-450) 
the regency was secured (415) by his sister, the 
Princess Pulcheria, and retained even after 
he reached his majority. Under the title of 
Augusta she gave the empire an able adminis¬ 
tration, carrying on a successful war against 
the Persians, and recovering for Valentinian 
III the Western Empire, in return for which 
service the Byzantine territory received ces¬ 
sions to the westward. The ravages of Attila 
and the Huns in Thrace and Macedonia were 
averted only by the payment of annual trib¬ 
ute. On the death of Theodosius (450) Pul¬ 
cheria was called to the throne, the first 
woman to enjoy this dignity. She wedded 
Marcian, whose successful reign continued 
four years after the death of his remarkable 
wife (450-457). . Leo I, a hitherto almost un¬ 
known Thracian, succeeded, the coronation 




















Byzantine Empire 

being for the first time performed by the 
Christian clergy. He assisted in the defense 
of Rome against the Vandals, and became 
very popular in the West. His successor, 
Zeno the Isaurian (474-491), was driven from 
his capital by Basilicus, but regained the 
throne. His empire was threatened by The- 
odoric and the Goths, but the peril was averted 
by large presents, and the invaders were in¬ 
duced to march westward to Italy. During 
Zeno’s reign occurred the disastrous fire at 
Constantinople, by which the library, with 
more than 100,000 manuscripts of classical 
literature, was destroyed. Anastasius (491- 
518) built the famous “long walls” across the 
peninsula, to protect Constantinople from the 
inroads of the Bulgarians. 

Justin I (518-27) was succeeded by his 
nephew, the famous Justinian I (527-65), un¬ 
der whom the Byzantine Empire enjoyed the 
most glorious period of its existence, known in 
history as the “Era of Justinian.” His con¬ 
quests were due to his renowned General Beli- 
sarius, one of the great commanders of the 
world's history, whose services were most 
shamefully rewarded by his ungrateful em¬ 
peror. The empire of the Vandals, in North¬ 
ern Africa, was completely destroyed (533), 
and an immense province restored to the 
Christians. The Persians were defeated at 
the Euphrates. Sardinia, Corsica, and the 
Balearic Isles were added. Under Narses, a 
general only less famous than Belisarius, Italy 
was wrested from the Ostrogoths (555) and 
again became a part of the empire, being gov¬ 
erned by a Greek exarch, whose residence was 
Ravenna. Justinian’s reign is marked by the 
construction of fortifications, public works, 
and splendid buildings, among them the great 
church of St. Sophia. A most important inci¬ 
dent of his reign was the introduction of silk 
manufacture from Asia, ever since a most 
valuable industry of Southern Europe. The 
chief monument for posterity of Justinian’s 
reign is the Corpus Juris Chilis , the “Body of 
the Roman Law,” famous in-all time as the 
Code of Justinian. It includes all the law 
knowledge of ancient Rome. His unfor¬ 
tunate successor, Justinus II (565-578) was 
harassed on one frontier by the Persians, on 
the other by the terrible Avars. Most of Italy 
was lost to the Lombards. In this reign an 
alliance was made with the Turks beyond the 
Caspian against the Persians. The reign of 
Heraclius (610-641) presents a series of over¬ 
whelming reverses retrieved by glorious vic¬ 
tories. The Persians, under Chosroes II, took 
Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor, and the in¬ 
vading hordes advanced to a point within 
sight of Constantinople. Shrewdly gaining 
time by a humiliating treaty, Heraclius col¬ 
lected his forces and inflicted a defeat upon 
the Persians at Issus. The war with the 
Persians continued four or five years, until 
finally ended by the terrible battle of Nine¬ 
veh, 627. 

The Moslem hordes of Arabs under Moham¬ 
med and his successors appeared next. Be¬ 
tween 635 and 641 Syria, Judea, and all the Af- 


Byzantine Empire 

rican possessions were lost. What remained, 
however, was more closely united than before, 
and from this time the empire became dis¬ 
tinctly Greek in character. The dynasty of 
Heraclius ended with Justinian II, assassi¬ 
nated 711. The seventh and eighth centuries 
witnessed a peculiar internal religious contro¬ 
versy, which greatly weakened the defense of 
the Byzantines against their foreign foes. This 
was the war of the Iconoclasts, most violent 
under Leo III, the Isaurian (718-741), himself 
an ardent Iconoclast. The “Image Breakers,” 
as they were called, violently opposed the 
presence of images in the churches, and the 
result was the separation of the Greek Church 
in the latter half of the ninth century from 
the mother church, henceforth known as the 
Roman Catholic Church. The formal separa¬ 
tion, however, did not occur until the excom¬ 
munication of the Greek Church, 1054. Leo’s 
position on this question ended the Byzantine 
rule in Italy (728). Leo’s successor, Constan¬ 
tine V (741-55), was also a zealous Iconoclast, 
and closed many monasteries and convents. 
Image-worship was restored for a brief period 
by the Empress Irene, who had obtained the 
throne by blinding her own son, Constantine 
VI, for whom she was guardian (797). She 
was ambitious to marry Charlemagne and thus 
reunite the Eastern and Western Empires, 
but her plan was not supported. During the 
reign of Leo V (813-20) the Bulgarians over¬ 
ran Thrace and laid siege to Constantinople, 
but were finally repulsed. The Saracens cap¬ 
tured Crete and Sicily (824-27). Under Mi¬ 
chael III (842-67), who reigned first under the 
guardianship of his mother, Theodora, the im¬ 
ages were finally restored in the Greek Church 
(842). But other differences had arisen which 
led to the separation noted above. The Rus¬ 
sians now first appear as enemies of the Em¬ 
pire. The Macedonian dynasty (867-1057) 
was founded by Basil I, during whose reign 
the Saracens conquered Sicily and ravaged the 
Peloponnesus. His son, Leo II, the Philoso¬ 
pher (886-911), called in the Turks to aid 
against the Saracens, and thus the former 
paved the way for future conquests. In the 
middle of the tenth century, during the reign 
of Constantine VII (911-59) Russian and Hun¬ 
garian princes were baptized at Constanti¬ 
nople, married Christian wives, and carried the 
gospel to their peoples. Under Basil II (976- 
1025) the Bulgarian kingdom was overthrown, 
and that country became a Greek province 
(1018), remaining so until 1186. About the 
middle of the eleventh century the Seljuk 
Turks became threatening, and in Italy the 
Byzantine possessions were nearly all seized by 
the Normans. Isaac, the first of the Comneni, 
reigned 1057-59. Under his successors the in¬ 
roads of the Seljuks became more frequent, 
and by 1078 they had conquered nearly all of 
Asia Minor. 

The steady advance of the Mohammedan 
power alarmed all Christian Europe, and dur¬ 
ing the reign of Alexis Comnenus (1081-1118), 
began the wonderful movement of allied Chris¬ 
tendom known as the Crusades. As the hosts 


Byzantine Empire 

marched toward Asia Minor via Constantinople 
the movement could not but have an important 
influence on the fortunes of the Byzantine Em¬ 
pire. Alexis wanted help against the Turks, 
but the vast numbers that came alarmed him, 
and their depredations within his territory 
led to serious conflicts, and finally under later 
emperors to open hostility. With the second 
Crusade Alexis made a treaty, he agreeing to 
furnish troops, they to hold any conquests as 
fiefs of the empire, but neither party kept 
faith. During this period the Normans, under 
Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond, at¬ 
tacked the western frontier, but finally made 
peace. Manuel Comnenus (1143-80) was vic¬ 
torious over the sultan of Iconium and Ray¬ 
mond of Toulouse, the Christian prince of 
Antioch. The son of Isaac II (1185-95), who 
had been dethroned by Alexis III (1195-1203), 
asked aid of the Crusaders, who captured Con¬ 
stantinople (1203) and restored Isaac. He and 
his son were put to death the next year, and in 
April, 1204, the city was again taken by the 
Crusaders, who established the Latin Empire 
of Roumania (1204-61), with Count Baldwin of 
Flanders as first emperor. The empire was cut 
up into various kingdoms, duchies, and fiefs, 
divided among the French and Venetians. 
Boniface of Montferrat received the kingdom 
of Thessalonica, including Macedonia and part 
of Greece, Venice, the lands along the Adriatic 
and the iEgean, also Crete and Euboea. Athens 
and Bceotia were made a duchy. In Asia 
Minor the Greek Empire survived, and the 
capital was located at Nicaea, with Theodore 
Lascaris as emperor. With the aid of the Bul¬ 
garians the Greeks defeated Baldwin (1206). 
The latter’s successor, Henry, was successful 
against the allies, and made peace with the 
Byzantines. Jean de Brienne (1228-37), titular 
king of Jerusalem, ruled as regent for Baldwin 
II, and saved Constantinople from an attack of 
the allied Bulgarians and Greeks. Finally in 
1261 the emperor of Nicrna, Michael Pal£eo- 
logus, with the aid of the Genoese navy (Genoa 
being the hated rival of Venice), captured Con¬ 
stantinople. The Latin Empire now vanished, 
but many of the principalities remained. 

Michael (1261-82), founded the dynasty of 
the Paloeologi, which lasted until 1453. He 
made fruitless efforts to reunite the Greek and 
the Latin churches. His son, Andronicus II 
(1282-1328), hired Catalan troops to aid in re¬ 
pelling the Turks, but in the following reign 
they took Nicma and Nicomedia (1339). In 
1361 the Sultan Amurath took Adrianople, and 
afterward conquered Macedonia and part of 


Byzantium 

Albania, whereupon the emperor John (1341— 
91) acknowledged himself his vassal and agreed 
to pay tribute. Bajazet, the successor of Am¬ 
urath, took Philadelphia in Asia Minor and 
later besieged Constantinople. In 1400 he was 
again before the city, when the invasion of the 
Turkish Empire by the Tatar hordes under 
Tamerlane called him back to Asia. During 
this time and the internal quarrels among the 
Turks after the death of Bajazet, the emperor 
Manuel (1391-1425) regained some of the lost 
ground, but in 1422 Amurath II appeared be¬ 
fore Constantinople; Turkish quarrels, how¬ 
ever, once more saved the city. In this siege 
cannon were for the first time used in Eastern 
wars. Manuel’s successor, John VI (1425f-48), 
tried to effect a reconciliation of the churches, 
hoping for a crusade in his behalf. At the 
Council of Florence a reunion was actually 
proclaimed, but it was never effected and was 
without political results. By 1444 Amurath 
had taken all but the city and suburbs of Con¬ 
stantinople, and these he generously allowed 
the emperor to enjoy during the remainder of 
his life. On John’s death, his brother Con¬ 
stantine XIII (1448-53) appealed to the West 
for aid, but with insignificant result. The 
Turks attacked Constantinople April 6, 1453, 
with an army of 400,000 men under Sultan 
Mohammed II. The brave garrison of 8,000 
held out until May 29, Avhen the city was 
finally taken; Constantine, the last of the By¬ 
zantine emperors, falling in the thick of the 
fight. The surviving inhabitants were sold 
into slavery, Christianity was exterminated, 
and on the dome of St. Sophia’s the cross was 
replaced by the Moslem crescent. The various 
principalities and islands were conquered by 
1461, and the last vestige of the Byzantine 
Empire had disappeared. But it had not ex¬ 
isted in vain; for all through the Dark Ages, 
when the Roman civilizationof Western Europe 
had succumbed to the barbarians, the precious 
legacy of the ancients was guarded and pre¬ 
served for the modern world. And further¬ 
more, the Byzantine Empire stood as a bul¬ 
wark against the barbaric hordes of Asia until 
the growing nations gathered strength to with¬ 
stand their onsets. When we realize that with¬ 
out it, all that was best in the world’s past would 
have been lost, all that is best in modern civil¬ 
ization retarded for hundreds of years, then 
only is the true significance of the Byzantine 
Empire understood. W. A. Hervey. 

Byzantium, the original name of the city of 
Constantinople. See Constantinople, 


c 


Caaing Whale 

C, the third letter in the English alphabet 
and the second of the consonants. In English 
it serves to represent two perfectly distinct 
sounds, namely, the guttural sound pertaining 
to k and the hard or thin sound of s , the for¬ 
mer being that which historically belongs to it; 
while it also forms with h the digraph ch. The 
former sound it has before the vowels a , o, and 
v, the latter before e, i, and y. The digraph ch 
has three different sounds, as in church , chaise , 
and chord. To these the Scotch adds a fourth, 
heard in the word loch. 

C, in music, 1, after the clef, the mark of 
common time, in which each measure is a 
semibreve or four minims, corresponding to 
| or and when a bar is perpendicularly 
drawn through it cilia breve time or a quicker 
movement is indicated. 2, The name of the 
first or keynote of the modern normal scale an¬ 
swering to the do of the Italians and the ut of 
the French. 

Caaing Whale (ka'ing) (Scotch name, mean¬ 
ing “driving whale,’’whale that may be driven), 
the round-headed porpoise, a cetaceous animal 
of the dolphin family, characterized by a 
rounded muzzle and a convex head, attaining 
a size of 16 to 24 ft. It frequents the shores of 



Caaing Whale. 


Orkney, Shetland, the Faroe Islands, and Ice¬ 
land, appearing in herds of from 200 to 1,000, 
and numbers are often caught. They live on 
cod, ling, and other large fish, and also on mol¬ 
luscs, especially the cuttle fishes. 

Caballero (l«i-ba-lyer' 6), Fern an (1797-1877), 
pseudonym of Cecilia Bohl von Faber, the 
chief modern Spanish novelist. Her first novel, 
La Gciviota, appeared in 1849, and was followed 
by Elia, Clemencia , La Familia cle Alvareda, 
etc., as well as by many shorter stories. The 
chief charm of her writings lies in her descrip¬ 
tions of life and nature'in Andalusia. 

Cabatuan', a town on the island of Panay, 
one of the Philippines. It was founded in 
1732, and has considerable trade. Pop. 23,000. 


Cabinet 

Cabaze'ra, a town in the island of Luzon, 
Philippines. It is the capital of the province 
of Cayagan and has some trade in tobacco. 
Pop. 30,016. 

Cabbage, the popular name of various spe¬ 
cies of cruciferous plantsof the genus Brassica, 
and especially applied to the plain-leaved, 
hearting, garden varieties cultivated for food. 
The wild cabbage is a native of the coasts of 
Britain, but is much more common on other 
European shores. The kinds most cultivated 
are the common cabbage, the savoy, the broc¬ 
coli, and the cauliflower. The common cab¬ 
bage forms its leaves into heads or bolls, the 
inner leaves being blanched. Its varieties are 
the white, the red or purple, the tree or cow 
cabbage for cattle (branching and growing 
when in flower to the height of 10 ft.), and the 
very delicate Portugal cabbage. The garden 
sorts form valuable culinary vegetables, and 
are used at table in various ways. In Germany 
pickled cabbage forms a sort of national dish, 
known as sauerkraut. The cow cabbage, 
which grows in New Jersey, attains gigantic 
proportions for a vegetable, and the stalks, 
which frequently grow to heights of 12 ft. and 
16 ft., are used as rails for fences, and as raft¬ 
ers for the thatched roofs of farm buildings: 
while shorter ones are made into umbrella 
handles and walking sticks, which are much 
in request as curiosities among tourists. This 
sort of cabbage was introduced by Mr. Ful- 
lard, and was asserted by that gentleman’s 
cowherd to be so prolific that five plants of 
it per day are, with proper management, suffi¬ 
cient for 10 oxen or 100 sheep. The largest 
cabbage farm in the world is to be found at 
Chicago, U. S., in a district known as the cab¬ 
bage prairie; its area is 190 acres, upon which 
are raised 1,114,000 cabbages annually. 

Cabbage Palm, a name given to various spe¬ 
cies of palm trees from the circumstance that 
the terminal bud, which is of great size, is 
edible and resembles cabbage, *as the Areca 
oleracga , a native of the West India, the simple 
unbranched stem of which grows to a height of 
150 or even 200 ft. The unopened bud of 
young leaves is much prized as a vegetable, 
but the removal of it completely destroys the 
tree, as it is unable to produce lateral buds. 

Cabbage Rose, a species of rose of many 
varieties, supposed to have been cultivated 
from ancient times, and eminently fitted for 
the manufacture of rose water and attar from 
its fragrance. It has a larger, rounded, and 
compact flower. Called also Provence Rose. 

Cab'inet, the collective body of ministers 
who direct the government of a country. In 
the U. S. the cabinet consists of the secretary 
of state, the secretary of the treasury, the sec¬ 
retary of war, the secretary of the navy, the 
secretary of the interior, the attorney general, 



















Cable 


Cable 


the postmaster general, and the secretary of 
agriculture. These are the heads of their 
respective departments, and in their collective 
capacity act as advisory board to the presi¬ 
dent. They are appointed to office by the 
president, but their appointments must be con¬ 
firmed by the senate, and they generally hold 
office until their successors are appointed and 
confirmed. Contrary to the English system, 
the U. S. cabinet ministers must not have seats 
in Congress; there is no premier, and the presi¬ 
dent, not the ministers, is responsible for the 
acts of the government. The salary of mem¬ 
bers of cabinet is $8,000 a year. 

The word cabinet is used for analogous in¬ 
stitutions in other countries. In England, 
though the executive government is vested 
nominally in the crown, it resides practically 
in a committee of ministers called the cabinet. 
Every cabinet includes the first lord of the 
treasury, who is usually (not always) the prime 
minister or chief of the ministry, and therefore 
of the cabinet; the lord chancellor, the lord 
president of the council, the chancellor of the 
exchequer, the first lord of the admiralty, and 
the five secretaries of state. Although the cab¬ 
inet is regarded as an essential part of the in¬ 
stitutions of Great Britain, it has never been 
recognized by act of Parliament. It began to 
take its present form in the reign of William III. 

Cable, a large strong rope or chain, such as 
is used to retain a vessel at anchor. It is made 
usually of hemp or iron, but may be made of 
other materials. A hemp cable is composed of 
three strands, each strand of three ropes, and 
each rope of three twists. A ship’s cable is 
usually 120 fathoms or 720 ft. in length; hence 
the expression a cable's length. Chain cables 
have now almost superseded rope cables. Al¬ 
though deficient in elasticity, heavier, and 
more difficult of management, yet their im¬ 
munity from chafing and rottrng, their greater 
compactness for stowage, and the fact that from 
their greater weight the strain is exerted on the 
cable rather than on the ship, more than coun¬ 
terbalance these drawbacks. Compared with 
the strength of hempen cable, 1 in. diameter 
chain cable is equivalent to 10i in. circumfer¬ 
ence hemp, 1£ in. to 13£ in., 1£ in. to 10 in., If 
in. to 18 in., and 2 in. to 24 in. 

Cable, The Atlantic, for submarine com¬ 
munication of messages between America and 
England. While the biography of Cyrus W. 
Field graphically portrays the trials, failures, 
and ultimate triumph of submarine telegra¬ 
phy, some practical details and particulars are 
necessary in regard to this greatest of modern 
achievements. 

Professor Morse of New York was the first to 
experiment with a cable from Castle Garden to 
Governor’s Island, in 1842. Then, in 1854, 
Cyrus W. Field took up the project and organ¬ 
ized a company, capitalized at $1,750,000. The 
first attempt to lay the cable, Aug. 7, 1857, re¬ 
sulted in a failure and the loss of 280 mi. of 
cable. In 1858, on a second attempt, 144 mi. 
of cable were lost, and on August 6 in that 
year the first completed cable flashed from 
Valentia to Newfoundland the inspiring mes¬ 


sage, “Europe and America are united by 
telegraph; glory to God in the highest; on 
earth, peace and goodwill toward men.” The 
triumph was brief. One hundred twenty-nine 
messages were sent from England and 271 from 
America when the cable refused to work. For 
six years ridicule alternated with failure. 
Then the giant steamer, the Great Eastern , was 
employed, and, after some failures, in 1866 
succeeded in laying a new cable, and recover¬ 
ing and placing in operation a cable which 
had broken the previous year. To-day eleven 
transatlantic cables are in operation. The 
commercial cables of the world number 310, 
with an aggregate mileage of 139.754. The 
governmental cables of the various powers 
number 994, with a mileage of 18,132. The 
cables are insulated by gutta-percha wrap¬ 
pings and reinforced by surrounding wires. In 
the Mediterranean they are constantly suffer¬ 
ing from the attacks of the ship worm (which 
see), and on the Atlantic plateau are subject 
to some disturbance from fouling by the anch¬ 
ors of the fishing fleets. 

A submarine telegraph cable is composed 
of one or more copper wires embedded in a 
compound of gutta-percha and resinous sub¬ 
stances, encircled by layers of gutta-percha or 
india-rubber, hemp or jute padding, and coils 
of iron wire. In the process of manufacture 
the cable is tested at every step by expert elec¬ 
tricians. In the very center of the cable are 
seven fine copper wires. This strand of wires 
is first drawn over an adhesive black mixture 
and then through a machine which coats it 
with gutta-percha which acts as insulating 
material. Four coats of gutta-percha are put 
on the copper center, and the core is then coiled 
in an iron tank, covered with water and tested 
to find whether it is electrically sound. It is 
then wrapped with tarred jute. Another ma¬ 
chine covers the jute with steel or iron wires, 
twisting them around the jute to envelop the 
core. Over this a canvas which has been 
soaked in asphaltum is wrapped, and again 
the cable is put to a test. It is coiled in tanks 
and covered with water, where it remains while 
very delicate electrical tests are made. It is 
then ready to be put on board the ship which 
is to lay it in the ocean. In the hold of the 
ship are large steel tanks around which the 
cable is coiled. The cable is hauled into 
the ship over the drum of- a large hoisting 
machine. It glides over steel rollers in the 
bottom of a trough which lies on the deck, 
and dives down in the hold of the vessel. The 
cable is then ready to be laid in the ocean. 
Over the bow of the ship hangs a deeply 
grooved iron pulley called the bow-sheave. 
Back of the bow-sheave is a dynamometer 
which indicates the strain upon the cable. In 
the stern of the vessel is the paying-out gear. 
The submarine cable after first being passed 
several times around the drum of the paying- 
out gear is attached to a hemp cable. The 
picking-up gear draws in the hemp cable over 
the bow, and thus pulls the cable ashore. As 
the cable slips over the stern, sailors fasten air 
balloons to it at intervals of 50 to 60 ft. These 


Cable 


Cactus 


balloons serve to keep the cable from being 
dragged to the bottom or chafed by rocks. 
When the end of the cable has been made fast 
on shore, the cable steamer heads for the ocean, 
leaving a wake of submarine cable as it moves 
along. 

Cable, George Washington, a popular 
American author, was b. in New Orleans in 
1844. He volunteered into the Confederate 
service. He saw some hard service, and in 
one action was severely wounded. After the 
war he was laid up with malarial fever caught 
at survey work on the Atchafalaya River. 
During his two years’ illness he began to write 
for the New Orleans papers, and his success 
ere long was such as to encourage him to de¬ 
vote himself to the literary craft. His sketches 
of Creole life revealed to the world an interest¬ 
ing phase of American social life hitherto un¬ 
known. His keen observation and dextrous 
literary use of the Creole dialect at once found 
him a public on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Among his books are Old Creole Days (1879), 
The Grandissimes (1880), Madame Delphine 
(1881), Dr. Sevier (1883), The Creoles of Louisiana 
(1884), The Silent South (1885), Bonaventure 
(1888), Strange True Stories of Louisiana (1889), 
and The Negro Question (1890). Cable has 
lectured with success on his chosen subject, 
and has had the happiness to see important 
reforms in contract convict labor in the South¬ 
ern states brought about mainly through his 
own pen. 

Cabot, Sebastian (1474-1557), a noted 
navigator. He was the son of John Cabot, a 
Venetian pilot, who resided at Bristol, and 
was highly esteemed for his skill in naviga¬ 
tion. In 1497, in company with his father and 
two brothers, he discovered the mainland of 
North America, having visited Nova Scotia 
and Newfoundland. In 1517 he made an at¬ 
tempt to discover the northwest passage, visit¬ 
ing Hudson’s Bay. In 1526, when in the 
Spanish service, he visited Brazil and the 
river Plata. In 1548 he again settled in Eng¬ 
land, and received a pension from Edward VI. 
He was the first who noticed the* variations of 
the compass; and he published a large map of 
the world. 

Cabral', Pedro Alvarez (1460-1526), the 
discoverer (or second discoverer) of Brazil, a 
Portuguese. In 1500 he received command of a 
fleet bound for the East Indies, and sailed from 
Lisbon, but having taken a course too far to 
the west he was carried by the South Ameri¬ 
can current to the coast of Brazil, of which he 
took possession in name of Portugal. Con¬ 
tinuing his voyage, he visited Mozambique, 
and at last reached India, where he made 
important commercial treaties with native 
princes, and then returned to Europe. 

Cabul (Cabool, Kabul) (ka-bul'), capital of 
Afghanistan, 165 mi. from Peshawur, 600 from 
Herat, and 290 from Candahar. It stands on 
the Cabul River, at an elevation of 6,400 ft. 
above sea level. The citadel, Bala-Hissar, 
contains the palace £nd other public buildings, 
the fort, etc. Cabul carries on a considerable 
trade with Hindustan through the Khyber 


Pass. It was taken by the British in 1839 and 
in 1842, and on the occasion of a subsequent 
war with the British in 1879 Cabul was twice 
taken by their troops. Pop. 75,000. The 
Cabul River rises in Afghanistan at the height 
of about 8,400 ft., flows eastward, passes 
through the Khyber Pass into India, and falls 
into the Indus at Attock. Length 300 mi. 

Caca o (orCo'coa), the chocolate tree and 
also the powder and beverage made with it 
obtained from the fruit of this tree. The tree 
is 16 to 18 ft. high, a native of tropical 
America, and much cultivate^ in the tropics 
of both hemispheres, especially in the West 
India Islands, Central and South America. 
Its fruit is contained in pointed, oval, ribbed 
pods 6 to 10 in. long, each enclosing 50 to 100 
seeds in a white, sweetish pulp. These are 
very nutritive, containing 50 per cent, of fat, 
are of an agreeable flavor, and used, both in 
their fresh state and when dried, as an article 



Cocoa. 

a.—branch with leaves; b .— fruit (partly in section). 


of diet. Cocoa and chocolate are made from 
them, the former being a powder obtained by 
grinding the seeds, and often mixed with 
other substances when prepared for sale, the 
latter being this powder mixed with sugar and 
various flavoring matters and formed into 
solid cakes. The seeds when roasted and di¬ 
vested of their husks and crushed are known 
as cocoa nibs. The seeds yield also an oil called 
butter of cacao, used in pomatum and for 
making candles, soap, etc. The term cocoa is 
a corruption of cacao , but is more commonly 
used in commerce; C 0 <wi-nuts, however, are 
obtained from an entirely different tree. 

Cachar', an East Indian district in Assam; 
area 3,750 sq mi.; pop. 313,858, entirely en¬ 
gaged either in rice cultivation or on the tea 
plantations. 

Cacique (ka-sek), in some parts of America 
the title of the native chiefs at the time of the 
conquest by the Spaniards. 

Cactus, a Linnaean genus of plants, now 
used as a name for any of the Cactaceae, a nat- 


Cadomosto 


Cadiz 


ural order of dicotyledons, otherwise called the 
Indian fig order. The species are succulent 
shrubs, with minute scale-like leaves (except 
in the genus Pereskia, tree cactus, with large 
leaves), and with clusters and spines on the 
stems. They have fleshy stems, with sweetish 
watery or milky juice, and they assume many 
peculiar forms. The juice in some species af¬ 
fords a refreshing beverage where water is not 



Cacti. 

a.— Cereus giganteus; b— Opuntia coccinellifera; 
c.—Mammillaria pectinata; d.~ Phyllo- 
cactus anguliger. 

to be got. All the plants of this order, except 
a single species, are natives of America. They 
are generally found in very dry localities. Sev¬ 
eral have been introduced into the Old World, 
and in many places they have become natu¬ 
ralized. The fruits of some species are edi¬ 
ble, as the prickly pear, and the Indian fig, 
cultivated throughout the Mediterranean re¬ 
gion. The flowers are usually large and beau¬ 
tifully colored, and many members of the or¬ 
der are cultivated in hot-houses. 

Cadomosto, Alois da (1432-1464), an early 
navigator. He explored the west coast of Af¬ 
rica as far south as the Gambia. His Book of 
the First Voyage over the Ocean to the -Land of 
Negroes in Lower Ethiopia was published in 1507. 

Cadas'tral Survey, a detailed survey of the 
lands of a country, their extent, divisions, and 
subdivisions, nature of culture, etc., in most 
countries executed by the government as the 
basis of an assessment for fiscal purposes. 

Caddis Fly, an insect, called also the May fly, 
the larva or grub of which (caddis or case 
worm) forms for itself a case of small stones, 


grass roots, shells, etc., lives under water till 
ready to emerge from the pupa state, and is use i 
as bait by anglers. This grub is very rapa¬ 
cious, and devours large quantities of fish- 
spawn. 

Cade, John (better known as Jack Cade), a 
popular agitator in England of the fifteenth 
century, was the leader of an insurrection 
which broke out in 1450. Yeomen and trades¬ 
men formed the bulk of the insurgents. The 
rebellion was political , not social, like that 
headed by Wat Tyler. C. defeated a detach¬ 
ment of troops sent against him, and even 
ruled London for two days, causing one of the 
king’s favorites, Lord Say, to be beheaded. A 
promise of pardon caused his followers to dis¬ 
perse. C. then tied, but was followed and 
killed. 

Cadence, the concluding notes of a musical 
composition or of any well-defined section of 
it. A cadence is perfect, full, ox authentic when 
the last chord is the tonic preceded by the 
dominant; it is imperfect when the chord of 
the tonic precedes that of the dominant; it is 
plagal when the closing tonic chord is pre¬ 
ceded by that of the subdominant; and it is 
interrupted, false, or deceptive when the bass 
rises a second, instead of falling a fifth. Ca¬ 
dence, or cadenza, is the name also given to a 
running passage which a performer may intro¬ 
duce at the close of a movement. 

Cader Idris, a mountain mass about 10 mi. 
long in Merionethshire, Wales. The highest 
peak is 2,914 ft. above the level of the sea. 

Cadet (Fr., through some low Lat. diminu¬ 
tive form, from Lat. caput, “head ”) is a term 
applied in a general sense to the younger son 
of a noble house as distinguished from the 
elder; and in France, any officer junior to an¬ 
other is a cadet in respect to him. The term 
is generally applied to a youth studying for 
the army at one of the military colleges or for 
the navy. In the U. S., pupils at the West 
Point Military Academy and at the Naval 
Academy at Annapolis are termed cadets. 

Of British military cadets, those destined 
for the Royal Artillery or Royal Engineers 
study at the Royal Military Academy, Wool¬ 
wich, and those for other branches of the 
service at the Royal Military College, Sand¬ 
hurst. 

Cadiz (ka-deth'), a seaport of Spain. It is 
well built, well paved, and very clean, and is 
strongly fortified. The chief buildings are the 
great hospital, the customhouse, the old and 
new cathedrals, the theaters, the bull ring, ca¬ 
pable of accommodating 12,000 spectators, and 
the lighthouse of St. Sebastian. The bay of 
Cadiz is a large basin enclosed by the mainland 
on one side, and the projecting tongue of land 
on the other, with good anchorage, and pro¬ 
tected by the neighboring hills. It has four 
forts, two of which form the defense of the 
grand arsenal, La Carraca (4 mi. from Cadiz), 
at which are large basins and docks. Cadiz 
has long been the principal Spanish naval sta¬ 
tion. Its trade is large, its exports being es¬ 
pecially wine and fruit. Cadiz was founded 
by the Phoenicians about b. c. 1100, and was 
















Cadmium 


Caesar 


one of the chief seats of their commerce in the 
west of Europe. Pop. 62,531. The province 
of Cadiz is the most southerly in Spain; area 
2,809 sq. mi.; pop. 429,872. 

Cad mium, a scarce metal which resembles 
tin in color and luster, but is a little harder. 
It is very ductile and malleable, and fuses a 
little below a red heat. In its chemical charac¬ 
ter it resembles zinc. It occurs in the form of 
carbonate, as an ingredient in various kinds 
of calamine, or carbonate of zinc. It is also 
found in the form of a sulphide, as the rare 
mineral greenockite. It forms at least two ox¬ 
ides, one chloride, and one sulphide. 

Cadmus, in Greek legend, the son of Age- 
nor, and grandson of Poseidon (Neptune). He 
was said to have come from Phoenicia to 
Greece about 1550 b. c., and to have built the 
city of Cadmea, or Thebes, in Boeotia. Herodo¬ 
tus and other writers ascribe the introduction 
of the Phoenician alphabet into Greece to Cad¬ 
mus. The solar mythists identify him with 
the sun-god. 

Cadore (ka-do'ra.), a small town of Italy, the 
native place of Titian, the famous artist, who 
was b. here in 1477. 

Cadu'ceus, Mercury’s rod: a winged rod 
entwisted by two serpents, borne by Mercury 
as an ensign of quality and office. In modern 
times it is used as a symbol of commerce, 
Mercury being the god of commerce. The 
rod represents power; the serpents, wisdom; 
and the two wings, diligence and activity. 

Caedmon (kad'mon), the first Anglo-Saxon of 
note who wrote in his own language, flour¬ 
ished about the end of the seventh century. 
He was originally a tenant, or perhaps only a 
cowherd, on the abbey lands at Whitby, but 
afterward was received into the monastery. 
His chief work (if it can all be attributed to 
him) consists of paraphrases of portions of the 
Scriptures, in Anglo-Saxon verse, the first 
part of which bears striking resemblances to 
Milton’s narrative in Paradise Lost. 

Caen (kan), a town of France, in Normandy, 
chief place in dep. Calvados. It is the center 
of a rich agricultural district, and carries on 
extensive manufactures. One of the finest 
churches is that of St. Pierre, built in 1308.. 
Two other remarkable churches are St. Eti¬ 
enne or church of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, 
built by William the Conqueror who was buried 
in it, and La Ste. Trinite or church of the Ab- 
baye-aux-Dames, founded by the Conqueror’s 
wife. Other buildings are the castle and the 
hotel de ville. There is a public library of 60,- 
000 volumes, and a botanic garden. Lace is 
largely made here. Valuable building stone 
is quarried. Pop. 45,201. 

Caen Stone, a cream-colored building stone 
of excellent quality, got near Caen in Nor¬ 
mandy. Winchester and Canterbury cathe¬ 
drals, Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster, and 
many other English churches are built of it. 

Caesalpinieae, a subdivision of the natural 
order of plants Leguminosae, containing sev¬ 
eral genera. The typical genus is Cassalpinia, 
to which belong, the Brazil wood, Japan wood, 
Nicaragua wood, etc. The Caesalpinieae ip- 
28 


elude also among their number, senna, the 
carob, tamarind, aloes wood, logwood, etc. 

Caesar, a title, originally a surname of the 
Julian family at Rome, which, after being dig¬ 
nified in the person of the dictator Caius Julius 
Caesar, was adopted by the successive Roman 
emperors, and latterly came to be applied to 
the heir-presumptive to the throne. The title 
was perpetuated in the kaiser of the Holy Ro¬ 
man Empire, and in the czar of the Russian 
emperors. 

Caesar, Caius Julius (b.c. 100-44), a famous 
Roman general, statesman, and historian, son 
of a Roman praetor of the same name. He 
married Cossutia, a rich lady of good family, 
from whom he was divorced to marry Cor¬ 
nelia, daughter of Cinna. Refusing to di¬ 
vorce her at the command of Sulla, he was 
proscribed and compelled to flee from Rome. 
After the death of Sulla, he returned and 
again took part in public affairs. He es¬ 
poused the cause of the people, and won for 
himself the highest civil and military honors. 
The rise of Caesar was contemporaneous with 
that of Cicero (67-63). CaBsar’s patrician birth, 
his relationship to Marius and Cinna, com¬ 
bined with his personal talents, won for him 
the leadership of the popular party. His at¬ 
tempt to procure the Roman franchise for the 
Latins beyond the Po, secured him the sym¬ 
pathies of the Italians. He was elected Curule 

iEdile (66), and in¬ 
creased his popular¬ 
ity by lavish public 
expendi tures and 
splendid public 
games. In 63 he 
tried to gain a com¬ 
mand abroad, hoping 
thus to make his own 
position secure be¬ 
fore the return of 
Pompey. The real 
object of the agra¬ 
rian law proposed by Rullus (63) was the crea¬ 
tion of a commission that would make Caesar 
and Crassus nearly, if not quite, equal in 
power to Pompey himself. Cicero’s influence 
defeated this measure. 

Catiline’s outbreak (63) brought discredit on 
all members of the popular party, Caesar not 
excepted. The wave of popular indignation 
which checked Caesar’s career, brought to the 
front Cicero, whose influence with the “true 
Roman people ” was paramount. The people, 
fearing the influence of Caesar, elected Cicero 
to the consulship (63) over the heads of the 
Caesarian nominees. To gain the assistance of 
his colossal wealth, Caesar made a coalition 
with Crassus, who, being inferior in intellect, 
became a tool to work his superior’s will in 
the accomplishment of his ambition to be¬ 
come master of the Roman world. On Pom- 
pey’s return to Rome, Caesar’s versatility, 
aided by the opposition of Pompey’s enemies, 
and the latter’s wish to have his arrangements 
in Asia ratified, and land granted to his troops, 
won him for an ally. Pompey joined Crassus 
in supporting Caesar for the consulship. Just 



Caesar 

prior to taking up the duties of his office, 
Caesar formed with Pompey and Crassus the 
so-called “First Triumvirate.” Thus was de¬ 
stroyed Cicero’s hope of enlisting Pompey as 
champion of constitutional government. As 
consul, Caesar won the favor of the populace 
by the agrarian law providing for the distribu¬ 
tion of land among the poor. He relieved the 
knights of one third their tax pledges, and 
gave Pompey his request. 

He himself secured military command in the 
West, where he hoped to make himself a posi¬ 
tion similar to the one held by Pompey in the 
East. Having received from the people Cisal¬ 
pine Gaul with the command of three legions 
of soldiers, to which the senate added Tran¬ 
salpine Gaul and another legion, he was fairly 
launched upon the military career destined to 
make him master of the Roman world. For 
nine years he was in Gaul. The final subju¬ 
gation of Gaul was accomplished in nine cam¬ 
paigns (58-50). Caesar, in his first campaign 
(58), defeated the Helvetii, sending the surviv¬ 
ors home to cultivate their land, while he over¬ 
threw Ariovistus, a German prince. His sec¬ 
ond campaign (57) was against the Belgae in 
which he defeated four allied tribes united for 
the defense of Gaul. After wintering at Luca 
and spending large sums in hospitality, he 
took the warpath against the Venetii, defeat¬ 
ing them totally (56) in his third campaign. 
His fourth campaign was against two German 
tribes invading Gaul, whom he defeated and 
followed across the Rhine. The same year 
(55) he invaded Britain, and won from the sen¬ 
ate a second thanksgiving lasting 20 days. His 
second invasion of Britain (54) resulted in the 
subjugation of the Britons. The subjugation 
was nominal only, as he left no troops to hold 
the land. Consequently the Britons retained 
their independence 100 years longer. 

His sixth campaign (53) was against revolt¬ 
ing Gallic tribes, who were soon reduced to 
obedience. Caesar’s most brilliant victory (52) 
was over Yercingetorix, who led a revolt of 
nearly all the Gallic nations. In the eighth 
and ninth campaigns (51-50) he accomplished 
the final subjugation of all Gaul. After the 
return of Cicero from exile, he became alarmed 
for the fate of his agrarian law because of the 
hostility of the senate. A stronger alliance 
of the three “citizen rulers” was formed at 
Luca (56) when Caesar was wintering there. 
Pompey and Crassus became joint consuls (55), 
and the control of the Roman world was 
divided among them. During 54 anarchy was 
rampant at Rome and Pompey remained at 
home. After Crassus was slain (53) Pompey 
was forced into a hostile attitude toward 
Caesar. In 52 Pompey being sole consul, and 
having had his military command prolonged 
and fresh troops added to his army joined the 
senatorial party against Caesar. 

Caesar wished to stand for the consulship (48) 
without giving up his command. This did 
not suit his enemies. The discussion contin¬ 
ued through 51 and 50. Caesar’s last compro¬ 
mise was rejected Jan. 1, 49. Being ordered 
to disband his army he answered by promptly 


Csesarean Operation 

crossing the Rubicon. Pompey with the sen¬ 
ate and nobles fled to Greece. In three months 
Caesar was master of all Italy. He enjoyed his 
victory but a short time before he hastened to 
Spain to overthrow Pompey’s legates there. 
On his return from this expedition he was ap¬ 
pointed dictator, holding the office but eleven 
days. In January (48) he followed Pompey 
into Greece, and defeated him on the plains of 
Pharsalia, Aug. 9, 48. When the news of 
this victory reached Rome, Caesar was ap¬ 
pointed dictator for one year, consul for five, . 
and tribune for life. 

Before Caesar again returned to Rome he 
brought to a successful issue (47) the Alexan¬ 
drine War undertaken to satisfy the claims of 
Cleopatra against her brother Ptolemy. Re¬ 
turning through Pontus Caesar defeated Phar- 
naces and informed the senate of his victory 
in the laconic dispatch, “ veni , vidi, mci ” (I 
came, saw, conquered). He defeated Scipio 
at Thespius (46). Cato killed himself at Utica 
rather than to fall into the hands of this uni¬ 
versal conqueror. Now undisputed master of 
the Roman world, Caesar showed his greatness 
by his magnanimity. The dictatorship was 
bestowed upon him for ten years by a grateful 
people, and his victories were celebrated by 
magnificent triumphs. He caused the calen¬ 
dar, which had failed into confusion, to be cor¬ 
rected (46). 

After his return from defeating the two sons 
of Pompey in Spain (45), fresh honors were 
conferred upon him. He was made Imperator 
for life, and his portrait was stamped upon the 
coins of the realm. He proposed many public 
improvements, such as a digest of the Roman 
laws, the founding of public libraries, draining 
the Pontine marshes, enlarging the harbor at 
Ostia, digging a canal across the isthmus of 
Corinth, etc. After the crown had been of¬ 
fered Caesar at Lupercalia, the aristocracy, all 
of whom had received favors at his hands, con¬ 
spired against his life. The twenty-three 
wounds from which he died, March 15, 44, tell 
the story of envious swords in the hands of 
treacherous friends. Thus died a great general, 
statesman, and orator. The only extant liter¬ 
ary monument of this great man’s genius is 
the incomparable account given in his Com¬ 
mentaries of the Gallic and Civil Wars. 

Csesare'a, the ancient name of many cities, 
such as: 1, Caesarea Philippi in Palestine, north 
of the Sea of Galilee, rebuilt by Philip, te- 
trarch of Galilee, son of Herod the Great. 2, 
Caesarea, on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
about 55 mi. n.w. from Jerusalem, enlarged 
and beautified by Herod the preat, and named 
in honor of Caesar Augustus; the place where 
St. Paul was imprisoned two years (Acts 23-25). 

3, The capital of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. 

Caesarean Operation, a surgical operation, 
which consists in delivering a child by means 
of an incision made through the walls of the 
abdomen and womb; necessary when the 
obstacles to delivery are so great as to leave no 
other alternative. It is said to be so named 
because Julius Csesar was brought into the 
world in this way. 


Ciesarion 


Cairnes 


Cassa rion, son of Julius Coesar and Cleo¬ 
patra, put to death by order of Augustus. 

Caesium, a rare metal, first discovered by 
Bunsen and Kircholf by spectrum analysis in 
1860. It is soft, and of a silver-white color. 
It is always found in connection with rubidium. 
It belongs to the same group of elements with 
lithium, sodium, potassium, and rubidium, 
viz., the group of the alkali metals. 

Caff'eine(or the'i'ne), the active principle of 
tea and coffee, a slightly bitter, highly azo- 
tized substance, crystallizing in slender, silk¬ 
like needles, found in coffee beans, tea leaves, 
Paraguay tea, guarana, etc. Coffee contains 
from 0.8 to 3.6, and tea from 2 to 4 per cent. 
Doses of 2 to 10 grains induce violent nervous 
and vascular excitement. 

Caffre Corn, a variety of millet. The seed 
was first brought from the Caffraria country in 
Africa. It is grown extensively and success¬ 
fully in the Western states subject to drought. 

Cagliari (kal'ya-re), the capital of the island 
of Sardinia. It is the residence of the viceroy 
and of an archbishop, and the seat of a uni¬ 
versity. It has some manufactures, and is the 
chief emporium of all the Sardinian trade. 
Pop. 39,312. 

Cagliostro (kal-yos'tro), Count Alessandro 
(real name Giuseppe (Joseph) Balsamo) (1743- 
1795), a celebrated charlatan. He entered the 
order of the Brothers of Mercy, where he ac¬ 
quired a knowledge of the elements of chem¬ 
istry and physic. He committed so many 
crimes in Palermo that he was obliged to ab¬ 
scond. He subsequently formed a connec¬ 
tion with Lorenza Feliciani, whose beauty, 
ability, and want of principle made her a 
valuable accomplice in his frauds. With her 
he traveled through many countries, pretend¬ 
ing to supernatural powers, and wringing con¬ 
siderable sums from those who became his 
dupes. In Paris he was implicated in the 
affair of the diamond necklace, which caused 
so great a scandal in the reign of Louis XVI, 
and was imprisoned in the Bastile, but escaped. 
In 1789 he revisited Rome, but being discov¬ 
ered, and committed to the Castle of St. 
Angelo, he was condemned by the pope to im¬ 
prisonment for life as a freemason, archher¬ 
etic, and a foe to religion. He died in prison. 

Cag'ots (kii'goz'), properly applied to an 
extinct race of deformed dwarfs among the 
peasants of the Pyrenees. They were shunned 
and set apart by their fellow Christians. The 
priest handed them the wafer at the end of a 
stick. Only the most repulsive labor was as¬ 
signed to them by the town authorities, but 
they were allowed to be carpenters and rope- 
makers. The Spanish Cagots of Navarre are 
said to be tall, strong, well-built in person, and 
of regular features. 

Cahors (ka-or), a town in Southern France. 
Under the Romans it was adorned with a 
temple, theatre, baths, an immense aqueduct, 
and forum, remains of which are still to be 
seen. Among the principal .edifices are the 
cathedral, and an episcopal palace, now con¬ 
verted into the prefecture. It was the birth¬ 
place of Gambetta. Pop. 15,369. 


Cai'aphas, a Jew, was the high priest at the 
time when the crucifixion took place. He was 
deposed a. d. 35, and Jonathan, the son of 
Annas, appointed in his stead. 

Caicos (Cayos, or the Keys) (ki'koz, kl'oz) 
(Spanish Cayo, a rock or islet), one of the 
island groups comprehended under the general 
name of the Bahamas, consisting of six islands 
besides some uninhabited rocks. The largest, 
called the Great Key, is about 30 mi. long. 
The inhabitants are few in number, and mostly 
engaged in fishing and the preparation of salt. 
In 1873 the Turks Islands and the Caicos were 
united into a commissionership under the 
governor of Jamaica. Area 169 sq. mi.; Pop. 
4,774. 

Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve; the 
first murderer, who slew his brother Abel. For 
the Biblical history of Cain and his descendants 
see Gen. 4-7. 

Cainozo'ic, a geological term applied to the 
latest of the three divisions into which strata 
have*been arranged, with reference to the age 
of the fossils they include. The Cairtozoic sys¬ 
tem embraces the tertiary and post-tertiary 
systems, exhibiting recent forms of life, in con¬ 
tradistinction to the Mesozoic , exhibiting inter¬ 
mediate, and the Palceozoic , ancient and ex¬ 
tinct forms. It corresponds nearly with what 
has been called the Age of Mammals. 

Caique (ka-ok), a small skiff or rowing boat; 
especially a light skiff used in the Bosporus, 
where it almost monopolizes the boat traffic. 
It may have from one to ten or twelve rowers. 
The name is also given to a Levantine vessel of 
a larger size. 

Ca=ira (sa-e-ra), “ It [the Revolution] shall go 
on,” the burden or refrain of a French revolu¬ 
tionary song of 1790. The air was a favorite 
one with Marie Antoinette. 

Cairn (karn), a heap of stones; especially one 
of those large heaps of stones common in Great 
Britain, particularly in Scotland and Wales, 
and generally of a conical form. They are of 
various sizes, and were probably constructed 
for different objects. Some are evidently sep¬ 
ulchral, containing urns, stone chests, bones, 
etc. Some were erected to commemorate some 
great event, others appear to have been in¬ 
tended for religious rites, while the modern 
cairn is generally set up as a landmark espe¬ 
cially in Arctic regions for the guidance of sub¬ 
sequent explorers. 

Cairnes, John Elliot (1823-1875), econo¬ 
mist, was b. in county Louth, Ireland. His 
father was a brewer, and as the son showed 
no aptitude for such learning as his teachers 
offered him, he was placed in the brewery. 
After a time, however, young Cairnes began to 
entertain a liking for intellectual pursuits, and, 
much against his father’s will, went to Trinity 
College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1848. 
In 1856 he was appointed Whatley professor of 
political economy at Dublin, the first fruits of 
this office being his Character and Logical 
Method of Political Economy (1857). In 1859 he 
was elected to the chair of political economy 
and jurisprudence in Queen’s College, Galway. 
He published in 1862 his book on the Slave 


Cairo 


Calabar Bean 


Power, which made a profound impression. In 
1866 he was called to the chair of Political 
Economy in University College, London. He 
published his Essays on Political Economy, 
Theoretical and Applied in 1873, and in 1874 
Some Leading Principles of Political Economy 

Kahira, the Victorious), 
the capital of Modern Egypt. The city is 
partly surrounded by a fortified wall, and is 
intersected by 7 or 8 great streets, from which 
run a labyrinth of narrow, crooked streets and 
lanes. There are several large squares or 
places, the principal being the Ezbeldyeh. To 
the s.e. of the town is the citadel, on the last 
spur of the Mokattam Hills, overlooking the 
city. It contains the fine mosque of Mo¬ 
hammed Ali, a well 270 ft. deep called Joseph’s 
Well, cut in the rock, the palace of the vice¬ 
roy, etc. There are upward of 400 mosques. 
The finest is that of Sultan Hassan. There 
are also some 40 Christian churches, Jewish 
synagogues, etc. The tombs in the burying 
grounds outside the city also deserve mention, 
especially those known as the tombs of the 
Caliphs. The trade of Cairo is large, and the 
bazaars and markets are numerous. Of these 
the Khan el Kahalili, in the n.e. of the town, 
consists of a series of covered streets and 
courts, in which all kinds of Eastern merchan¬ 
dise are displayed in open stalls. Cairo has 
railway communication with Alexandria, Suez, 
and Siout. It was founded by the Fatimate 
Caliphs in a.d. 969, and its fortress was built 
by Saladin in 1176. It was taken from the 
Mamluke princes by the Turkish Sultan Selim 
in 1517. It was taken by the French in 1798, 
and in 1801 by the British, who restored it to 
the porte. After the battle of Tel-el-Kebir in 
1882, it again came into the possession of the 
British, and has become the center of English 
influence in Egypt. The terrible massacre of 
the Mamlukes took place in Cairo March 1, 
1811. The tombs of the Mamluke rulers of 
Egypt, about 1 mi. from the city, are singularly 
beautiful, being built of white marble, richly 
carved and colored, and supporting gilded 
domes. Pop. 372,241. 

Cairo (ka'ro), Alexander co., Ill., at Junc¬ 
tion of Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 150 mi. s.e. 
of St. Louis. Railroads: C. C. C. & St. L.; 
Mobile & Ohio; Illinois Central; St. L. I. M. 
& S.; and St. Louis Southwestern. Industries: 
mill and lumber, sewing machine works, mill¬ 
ing, two iron foundries, and a dozen large 
wood-working factories. Surrounding country 
agricultural. The town was first settled in 
1854 and became a city in 1857. Pop. 1900. 
12,566. 

Cais'son. In civil engineering (a) a vessel 
in the form of a boat used as a floodgate in 
docks. (6) An apparatus on which vessels 
may be raised and floated; especially a kind of 
floating dock, which may be sunk and floated 
under a vessel’s keel, used for docking vessels 
while at their moorings, without removing 
stores or masts, (c) A watertight box or cas¬ 
ing used in.founding and building structures 
in water too deep for the coffer dam, such as 


Neicly Expounded. 
Cairo (ld'ro) (Arab, 


piers of bridges, quays, etc. {d) The term is 
used also to describe an artillery ammunition 
wagon. 

Caithness, a county of Scotland. The coast 
is rocky, and remarkable for bays and prom¬ 
ontories, including among the latter, Dunnet 
Head, Duncansby Head, and Noss Head. Fish¬ 
ing, together with the rearing of sheep and 
cattle, forms the principal employment of the 
inhabitants. Flagstones (Caithness flags) for 
pavement are extensively quarried. The 
towns are Wick, the county town, and Thurso. 
Pop. 37,137. 

Caj'eput Oil, the volatile oil obtained from 
the leaves of the cajeput tree, a native of the 
Indian Archipelago and some parts of Aus¬ 
tralia, or from others of the same genus. It is 
used in medicine as a carminative, stimulant, 
sudorific, and antispasmodic; also externally 
in chronic rheumatism, and has been used as 
a cure for cholera. 

Calaba Oil, an excellent illuminating oil ob¬ 
tained from calaba nuts, the seeds of a tree that 
flourishes in Brazil and the West Indies. 

Calabar' , a maritime district of West Africa 
on the Bight of Biafra, intersected by two riv¬ 
ers, called respectively Old and New Calabar, 
under British protection. A large portion of 
the population is employed in the palm-oil 
trade. The district is now part of the Niger 
Coast Protectorate. 

Calabar Bean, the seed of a leguminous Af¬ 
rican plant, nearly allied to the kidney bean. 
It is a powerful narcotic poison, operating also 



Calabar Bean, a.—flowering branch; 5.—seed ppd; 
c.— seeds. 

as a purgative and emetic, and in virtue of these 
last qualities is the famous “ordeal bean ” of 
Africa, administered to persons suspected of 
witchcraft. If it causes purging it indicates 
crime; if vomiting, innocence. It induces 
fainting fits and asphyxia, and weakens or 
paralyzes the action of the heart. It is em¬ 
ployed in medicine, chiefly (externally) as an 
agent for producing contraction of the pupil 
of the eye in certain cases; sometimes also 





Calabash 


Calamy 


(internally) in neuralgia, tetanus, and rheu¬ 
matism. 

Cal'abash, a vessel made of a dried gourd 
shell or of a calabash shell, used in some parts 
of America and Africa. They are so close- 
grained and hard that when they contain any 
liquid they may be put several times on the 
tire as kettles. 

Calabash Tree, the popular name of certain 
American trees or shrubs given to them be¬ 
cause of their large gourd-like fruits, the hard 
shells of which are made into numerous do¬ 
mestic utensils, as basins, cups, spoons, bottles, 
etc. The name is also given to the baobab of 
Africa. 

Cala'bria, a name applied to the s.w. penin¬ 
sula in which Italy terminates. Area 5,819 sq. 
mi.: pop. 1,327,618. It is divided into three 
provinces—Cosenza, Reggio, and Catanzaro. 
The central region is occupied by the great 
Apennine ridge, to which whole colonies with 
their cattle migrate in the summer. Wheat, 
rice, saffron, anise, licorice, madder, flax, 
hemp, olives, almonds, and cotton are raised 
in abundance. The sugar cane also comes to 
perfection here. Sheep, horned cattle, and 
horses are numerous. Silkworms are exten¬ 
sively raised. The minerals include alabaster, 
marble, gypsum, alum, chalk, rock salt, lapis 
lazuli, etc. The fisheries are valuable. 

Calais (ka-la), a fortified seaport town of 
France, dep. Pas-de-Calais, on the strait of, 
and 25 mi. s. e. of Dover, and distant 184 mi. 
by rail from Paris. The Old Town or Calais 
proper has a citadel, and was till recently sur¬ 
rounded by fortifications; but the modern 
suburb of St. Pierre les Calais having been 
amalgamated with Calais proper, both are now 
surrounded with forts and other works, to 
which morasses lend additional strength. Ca¬ 
lais has considerable exports of grain, wine, 
and spirits, eggs, fruit, and vegetables; but the 
town derives its principal importance from its 
being the chief landing place for English trav¬ 
elers to the Continent. It has important man¬ 
ufactures of cotton and silk bobbinet lace. 
In 1347 Calais was taken by Edward III of 
England, after a siege of eleven months. In 
1558 it was retaken by the duke of Guise, be¬ 
ing the last relic of the French dominions of 
the Plantagenets, which at one time compre¬ 
hended the half of France. Pop. 56,870. 

Calais, a town of Maine, on the river St. 
Croix, a center of the'lumber trade. Pop. 
1900, 7,655. 

Calaman'der Wood, a beautiful species of 
wood, the product of a tree, native of Ceylon. 
It resembles rosewood, but is so hard that it 
is worked with great difficulty. It takes, a 
very high polish and is wrought into chairs 
and tables, and yields veneers of almost un¬ 
equaled beauty. 

Cal 'amary, the general name for the squid 
or cuttlefishes. The body is oblong, soft, 
tteshy, tapering, and flanked behind by two 
triangular fins, and contains a pen-shaped 
gladius or internal horny, flexible shell. They 
have the power of discharging, when alarmed 
or pursued, a black fluid from an ink bag. 


The species are found in all seas, and furnish 
food to dolphins, whales, etc. Some species 
can dash out of the water and propel them¬ 
selves through the air for 80 or 100 yards. 



Cuttlefish. 


Calamianes (-a'nez), a cluster of islands in 
the Indian Sea, among the Philippines, form¬ 
ing a Spanish province. 

Cal'amint, a plant, some species of which 
are known respectively by the names of moun¬ 
tain balm, catmint, basil balm, and wild basil. 
The first, also termed common calamint, has 
aromatic leaves, employed to make herb tea. 

Cal'amus, a genus of palms, the stems of 
the different species of which are the rattan 
canes of commerce. The genus holds a mid¬ 
dle station between the grasses and palms. 



A, Acorns Calamus, showing rhizome; B, flower head: 
c.—separate floret; d .—floral diagram, showing es¬ 
sentially liliaceous type; e —vertical section of 
ovary; /.—single ovule. 

with the habit of the former and the inflores¬ 
cence of the latter. The species are princi¬ 
pally found in the hotter parts of the East 
Indies. 

Cal'amy, Edmund (1600-1666), a Presby¬ 
terian divine of England. He engaged 
warmly in the religious disputes of the day, 































Calatrava 

and was one of the writers of the famous 
treatise against Episcopacy, entitled Smectym- 
nuus, a title furnished from the initial let¬ 
ters of the authors’ names. A relative of his, 
Edmund Calamy (1671-1732), has a place in 
literature as the biographer of Nonconformity. 
He published an abridgment of Baxter's History 
of His Life and Times, with a continuation; the 
Life of Increase Mather , etc. 

Calatra'va, anciently a famous fortress of 
Spain, on the Guadiana, not far from Ciudad- 
Real. It gave its name to a Spanish order of 
chivalry founded by Sancho III in connection 
with the defense of the place against the 
Moors, 1158. For a long period the war with 
the Moors was carried on mainly by the knights 
of Calatrava, who acquired great riches. In 
1808 their possessions were confiscated, and 
the order became a simple order of merit. 

Calca'reous, a term applied to substances 
partaking of the nature of lime, or containing 
quantities of lime. Thus we speak of calca¬ 
reous waters, calcareous rocks, calcareous 
soils.— Calcareous spar, crystallized carbonate 
of lime. It is found crystallized in more than 
700 different forms, all having for their primi¬ 
tive form an obtose rhomboid.— Calcareous tufa, 
an alluvial deposit of carbonate of lime, formed 
generally by springs, which, issuing through 
limestone strata, hold in solution a portion of 
calcareous earth; this they deposit on coming 
in contact with air and light. Calc-sinter is a 
variety of it. 

Calceolaria (a slipper, from the shape of the 
inflated corolla resembling a shoe or slipper), 
slipperwort, a genus of ornamental herbaceous 
or shrubby plants. All the species are South 
American; extensively cultivated in gardens. 
Most of them have yellow flowers, some have 
puce-colored ones, and some occur with the 
two colors intermixed, while some are white. 
The greater number in cultivation are hybrids 
and not true species. 

Calcination, the operation of roasting a sub¬ 
stance or subjecting it to heat, generally with 
the purpose of driving off some volatile ingre¬ 
dient, and so rendering the substance suitable 
for further operations. The term was for¬ 
merly also applied to the operation of convert¬ 
ing a metal into an oxide or metallic calx; now 
called oxidation. 

Cal'cite, a term applied to various minerals 
all of which are modifications of the rhombohe- 
dral form of carbonate of calcium. It includes 
limestone, all the white and most of the colored 
marbles, chalk, Iceland spar, etc. 

Cal'cium, the metallic base of lime; in the 
metallic state, one of the rarest of substances; 
combined, one of the most abundant and most 
widely distributed. As phosphate, it forms the 
main part of the mineral matter of the bones 
of animals; as carbonate, chalk, limestone, or 
marble, it forms mountain ranges; as sulphate 
or gypsum, large deposits in various geological 
formations; it is a constituent of many min¬ 
erals, as fluor spar, Iceland spar, etc., and is 
foffnd in all soils, in the ash of plants, dissolved 
in sea water, and in springs, both common and 
mineral. It was first obtained in the metallic 


Calculus 

state by Sir H. Davy in 1808. When quite 
pure, it is a pale-yellow metal, with a high lus¬ 
ter. It is about one and a half times as heavy 
as water, ductile, malleable, and very oxidiz- 
able. Its salts are for the most part insoluble 
or sparingly soluble in water, but dissolve in 
dilute acids. 

Calc=sinter, a carbonate of lime, the sub¬ 
stance which forms the stalactites and stalag¬ 
mites that beautify many caves. 

Calculating Machines, machines or contriv¬ 
ances by which the results of arithmetical 
operations may be obtained mechanically. Va¬ 
rious machines of this kind have been pro¬ 
duced. The more complicated ones invented 
for more difficult operations by Babbage were 
never completed. Machines called comptome¬ 
ters and adders are in general use in America, 
and perform arithmetical operations with ex¬ 
actitude. The well-known “cash register” is 
a similar machine. 

Cal'cuius, the Infinitesimal, or Transcen¬ 
dental Analysis, a branch of mathematical sci¬ 
ence. The lower or common analysis contains 
the rules necessary to calculate quantities of 
any definite magnitude whatever. But quan¬ 
tities are sometimes considered as varying in 
magnitude, or as having arrived at a given 
state of magnitude by successive variations. 
This gives rise to the higher analysis, which is 
of the greatest use in the physico-mathemat- 
ical sciences. Two objects are here proposed: 
First, to descend from quantities to their ele¬ 
ments. The method of effecting this is called 
the differential calculus. Second, to ascend from 
the elements of quantities to the quantities 
themselves. This method is called the inte¬ 
gral calculus. Both of these methods are in¬ 
cluded under the general name infinitesimal or 
transcendental analysis. Those quantities which 
retain the same value are called constant; those 
whose values are varying are called variable. 
When variable quantities are so connected that 
the value of one of them is determined by the 
value ascribed to the others, that variable 
quantity is said to be a function of the others. 
A quantity is infinitely great or infinitely small, 
with regard to another, when it is not possible 
to assign any quantity sufficiently large or suf¬ 
ficiently small to express the ratio of the two. 
When we consider a variable quantity as in¬ 
creasing by infinitely small degrees, if we wish 
to know the value of those increments, the 
most natural mode is to determine the value 
of this quantity for any given period, as a 
second of time, and the value of the same for 
the period immediately following. This differ¬ 
ence is called the differential of the quantity. 
The integral calculus, as has been already stated, 
is the reverse of the differential calculus. There 
is no variable quantity expressed algebraically, 
of which we cannot find the differential; but 
there are differential quantities which we can¬ 
not integrate: some because they could not 
have resulted from differentiation; others be¬ 
cause means have not yet been discovered of 
integrating them. Newton was the first dis¬ 
coverer of the principles of the infinitesimal 
calculus, having pointed them out in a treatise 


Calculus 


Caldecott 


written before 16G9, but not published till 
many years after. Leibnitz, meanwhile, made 
the same discovery, and published it before 
Newton, with a much better notation, which 
is now universally adopted. 

Calculus, in pathology, a general term for 
the various inorganic concretions which are 
sometimes formed in the body. Such are bili¬ 
ary calculi or gall-stones, formed in the gall 
bladder; urinary calculi , formed by a morbid 





Alternating Calculus. 

a.—uric acid nucleus; b .~oxalate of lime; c.—phos¬ 
phates of lime, and of magnesia and ammonia. 

deposition from the urine in the kidney or 
bladder; and various others known as salivary, 
arthritic , pancreatic, lachrymal , etc. Urinary 
and biliary calculi are the most common. The 
former, when the particles are comparatively 
small in size, are known as gravel , when larger 
as stone. Either cause painful and dangerous 
symptoms. Stone in the bladder is often oper¬ 
ated on by means of lithotomy or lithotrity. 

Calcutta, capital of British India and of 
Bengal; situated on the Hooghly (Hugli), a 
branch of the Ganges. The river opposite the 
city varies in breadth from about two furlongs 
to three quarters of a mile. The city extends 
along the bank for about 4| mi., and with a 
breadth of about 1| mi., the entire site of Cal¬ 
cutta proper being about 8 sq. mi. Adjacent 
to the city itself, however, are extensive sub¬ 
urbs, which include the large town of Howrah, 
on the opposite side of the Hooghly, connected 
with Calcutta by a pontoon bridge. The houses 
of the south or British quarter of Calcutta are 
of brick, elegantly built, and many of them 
like palaces, in striking contrast with the 
northern quarter, occupied by the natives, 
which has narrow, crooked, and ill-built 
streets. The city is encompassed by a spacious 
way called the Circular Road. On the west 
side is an extensive quay about 2 mi. long, 
called the Strand. Outside the city, between 
the river and the fashionable quarter, lies Fort 
William, a magnificent octagonal work, which 
cost altogether $10,000,000, mounts over 600 
guns, contains 80,000 stand of arms, and will 
hold 15,000 men. The plain between Fort 
William and the city fqrms a favorite prome¬ 
nade. At the north side, called the Espla¬ 
nade, stands the government house, or palace of 
the governor general, built by the Marquis 


Wellesley, at an expense of $5,000,000. Other 
edifices worthy of notice are the townhall, su¬ 
preme court, government treasury, writers’ 
buildings, Metcalfe Hall, mint, theater, med¬ 
ical college, general post office, general hospital, 
the new cathedral, the old cathedral. A 
tolerably good supply of filtered water from the 
Hooghly is furnished to the inhabitants, and a 
complete system of drainage has been con¬ 
structed. Calcutta has an extensive system of 
internal navigation through the numerous 
arms and tributaries of the Ganges, and it 
almost monopolizes the external commerce of 
Bengal. There is a railway from Calcutta to 
Delhi, with branches to Ranigunge, Agra, 
etc., and through Allahabad to Bombay. An¬ 
other line extends to Dacca. There is tele¬ 
graphic communication with all parts of India, 
and with Europe. The principal exports are 
opium, cotton, rice, wheat, jute, gunny bags, 
tea, indigo, seeds, raw silk, etc. Of the im¬ 
ports the most important in respect of value 
are cotton goods. Salt is a considerable im¬ 
port. The maritime trade is of the annual 
value of fully $350,000,000 ; the inland trade is 
as large or larger. In 1686 a factory of the East 
India Company was established here, and in 
1700 three adjoining villages were presented to 
the company by the emperor of Delhi. The 
settlement was then fortified, and called Fort 
William, in honor of the then king of England, 
but subsequently it received its present name, 
which had been that of one of the villages. C. 
was made the capital of a presidency in 1707, 
but it first figures in history in connection with 
the events of 1756. In that year it was at¬ 
tacked suddenly by Surajah Dowlah, and after 
a stout siege was shamefully deserted by the 
officers on duty. In two days more disturb¬ 
ances within the town itself led to its surren¬ 
der. Then followed the fearful tragedy of the 
Black Hole, whbn 146 English captives were 
forced into a room only 20 ft. square, to pass 
one of the hottest nights of an Indian summer. 
On the following morning it was found that 
there barely survived twenty-three of the num¬ 
ber. Eight months later Clive and Admiral 
Watson rescued C., which soon afterward en¬ 
tered on its modern career of prosperity. At 
the end of the seventeenth century Calcutta 
was only a cluster of three mud villages. It 
now contains, with its suburbs, a population of 
861,764. 

Calda'ra, Polidoro (1495-1543) (called also 
Caravaggio ), an Italian painter. In his youth 
he carried bricks for the masons in the Vati¬ 
can, and envying the artists at work there 
devoted himself to painting under the guidance 
of Maturino. He was afterward employed by 
Raphael on the friezes of the Vatican. The 
oil painting of CJirist on the way to Calvary is 
his most noteworthy picture. 

Calde'cott, Randolph (1846-1886), a noted 
artist. He entered a bank, but gave up bank¬ 
ing for art. His first success was the publica¬ 
tion, in 1875, of his illustrations of a volume 
of selections from Washington Irving’s Sketch¬ 
book, under the title of Old Christmas. It was 
followed by his illustrations of Bracebridge 





Calderon de la Bacra 


Calendar 


Hall, of Mrs. Carr’s North Italian Folk , Black¬ 
burn’s Breton Folk, of JEsop's Fables icith Mod¬ 
ern Instances. His most popular work, however, 
was the series of colored, children’s books 
commenced by him in 1878, and including 
John Qilpin, the Elegy on the Death of a Mad 
Dog, and the Great Panjandrum. He died at 
St. Augustine, Florida. 

Calderon'de la Bacra, Don Pedro (1600- 
1681), the great Spanish dramatist, educated in 
the Jesuits’ College, Madrid, and at Salamanca. 
Before his fourteenth year he had written his 
third play. Calderon has left 95 autos sacra- 
mentales, 200 loas (preludes), and 100 saynetes 
(farces). He wrote his last play in the eight¬ 
ieth year of his age. 

Caledonia (Caledonians), the names by which 
the northern portion of Scotland and its in¬ 
habitants first became known to the Romans, 
when in the year 80 Agricola occupied the 
country up to the line of the Firths of Clyde 
and Forth. He defeated the Caledonians in 
83, and again at Mons Grampius in 84, a battle 
of which a detailed description is given by 
Tacitus. In the early part of the third century 
they maintained a brave resistance to Severus, 
but the name then lost its historic importance. 
Caledonia is now used as a poetical name of 
Scotland. 

Caledonian Canal, a water way passing 
through Gle.nmore or the Great Glen of Scot¬ 
land, and allowing vessels of 500 or 600 tons 
to sail from the Moray Firth to Loch Eil and 
the sea on the west. The route passes through 
Lochs Ness, Oich, and Lochy, the whole dis¬ 
tance from sea to sea being about 60 mi., of 
which only 22 consist of canal proper. The 
scenery is of the finest in Scotland, this route 
being extremely popular with tourists. 

Cal'endar (L. calendarium, from calendce, the 
first day of the month), a record or marking 
out of time as systematically, divided into 
years, months, weeks, and days. The peri¬ 
odical occurrence of certain natural phenom¬ 
ena gave rise to the first division of time, the 
division into weeks being the only purely arbi¬ 
trary partition. The year of the ancient 
Egyptians was based on the changes of the 
seasons alone, without reference to the lunar 
month, and contained 365 days divided into 
twelve months of thirty days each with five 
supplementary days at the end of the year. 
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months 
of which they reckoned twelve in the year, 
intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to 
maintain the correspondence of the particu¬ 
lar months with the regular recurrence of the 
seasons. The Greeks in the earliest period 
also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, 
but after one or two changes adopted the plan 
of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of 
the fact that in a period of nineteen years, 
the new moons return upon the same days 
of the year as before. This period of nine¬ 
teen years was found, however, to be about 
six hours too long, and subsequent calculators 
still failed to make the beginning of the sea¬ 
sons return on the same fixed day of the year. 
Each month was divided into three decades. 


The Romans at first divided the year into ten 
months, but they early adopted the Greek 
method of lunar and intercalary months, mak¬ 
ing the lunar year consist of 354, and after¬ 
ward of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days 
and a fraction to be supplied by the inter¬ 
calary division. This arrangement continued 
till the time of Caesar. The first day of the 
month was called the calends. In March, May, 
July, and October the 15th, in other months 
the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day 
before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was 
called the nones , being therefore either the 7th 
or the 5th. of the month. From the inaccu¬ 
racy of the Roman method of reckoning the 
calendar came to represent the vernal equi¬ 
nox nearly two months after the event, and at 
the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astrono¬ 
mer Sosigenes, with the assistance of Marcus 
Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. 
The chief improvement consisted in restoring 
the equinox to its proper place by inserting 
two months between November and December, 
so that the year 707 (b. c. 46), called the year 
of confusion, contained fourteen months. In 
the number of days the Greek computation 
was adopted, which made it 365J. To dis¬ 
pose of the quarter of a day it was determined 
to intercalate a day every fourth year between 
the 23d and 24th of February. This calendar 
continued in use among the Romans until the 
fall of the empire, and throughout Christen¬ 
dom till 1582. 

By this time, owing to the cumulative error 
of eleven minutes, the vernal equinox really 
took place ten days earlier than its date in the 
calendar, and accordingly Pope Gregory XIII 
issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar 
in all Catholic countries, and introducing in 
its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or 
reformed calendar. In this way began the new 
style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten 
days were to be dropped; every hundredth 
year, which by the old style was to have been 
a leap year, was now to be a common year, the 
fourth excepted; and the length of the solar 
year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, for¬ 
ty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the differ¬ 
ence between which and subsequent observa¬ 
tions is immaterial. The new calendar was 
adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; 
in Catholic Switzerland, Germany, and the 
Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in 
Hungary in 1587; in Protestant Germany, Hol¬ 
land, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 
1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden 1753. 
In the English calendar of 1752, also, January 
1 was now adopted as the beginning of the legal 
year, and it was customary for some time to 
give two dates for the period intervening be¬ 
tween January 1 and March 25, that of the old 
and that of the new year, as January 175$. 
Russia alone retains the old style, which now 
differs twelve days from the new. 

In France, during the Revolution, a new cal¬ 
endar was introduced by a decree of the Na¬ 
tional Convention, Nov. 24, 1793. The time 
from which the new reckoning was to com¬ 
mence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, 


Calender 


Calico Printing 


which fell upon the 22d of September, when 
the first decree of the new republic had been 
promulgated. The year was made to consist 
of twelve months of three decades each, and, 
to complete the full number, five fete days, or 
sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to 
the end of the year. The seasons and months 
were as follows: Autumn, September 22 to 
December 22,— Vendemiaire, vintage month; 
Brumaire , foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. 
Winter, December 22 to March 22 ,—Nivose, 
snowy month; Plumose , rainy month; Ventose, 
windy month. Spring, March 22 to June 22,— 
Germinal, bud month; Floreal, flower month; 
Prairial, meadow month. Summer, June 22 
to September 22,— Messidor, harvest month; 
Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. 
The common Christian or Gregorian calendar 
was re-established in France on January 1, 
1806, by Napoleon. For the Mohammedan cal¬ 
endar, see Hegira. 

Cal'ender, a machine consisting of two or 
more cylinders (calenders) revolving so nearly 
in contact with each other that cloth or paper 
passed between them is smoothed and glazed 
by their pressure, or some other kind of finish 
is imparted to the surface. 

Cal'ends. S ee Calendar. The Greek calends, 
a time that never occurred; an ancient Roman 
phrase which originated in the fact that the 
Greeks had nothing corresponding to the Ro¬ 
man calends. 

Cal'gary, a rising town on the Canadian 
Pacific Railway, near the eastern base of the 
Rocky Mountains, in the district of Alberta, 
the center of an important cattle and horse- 
ranching district. Pop. 1,600. 

Calhoun (kal-hon'), John Caldwell, an 
American statesman (1782-1850). He was ad¬ 
mitted to the bar of South Carolina in 1807, and 
in 1811 was sent to Congress, where he distin¬ 
guished himself by his eloquent advocacy of 
the war with England. In 1817 he was made 
secretary of war under President Monroe; in 
1824 he was elected vice-president of the U. S.; 
in 1832, a senator; in 1844, secretary of state, and 
in 1845, again a senator. He continued till 
his death an advocate of extreme state rights, 
and of the policy of slave-holding states. In 
1832 he carried the famous South Carolina 
“nullification resolution,” and was the father 
of the doctrines which caused the South to se¬ 
cede in 1861. 

Cali (ka'le), a town of South America, Co¬ 
lombia, state of Cauca, with a good trade. 
Pop. 12,743. 

Cal'ico (from Calicut in India), a general 
term for any plain white cotton cloth; in 
America usually applied to printed cottons. 

Calico Printing is the art of applying colors 
to cloth after it has come from the hand of the 
weaver in such a manner as to form patterns 
and figures. This art, originally brought from 
India, is sometimes practised on linen, woolen, 
and silk, but most frequently upon that species 
of cotton cloth called calicd! The process was 
first introduced into Britain in 1738, and was 
originally accomplished by means of hand- 
blocks made of wood, on which patterns or 


parts of patterns for each different color were 
cut. These blocks were of various dimensions, 
according to the nature of the work, and where 
several colors were employed in one pattern, a 
block for each color was necessary. As an im¬ 
provement in the method of printing from 
wooden blocks especially where delicacy of 
outline is required, engraved copper plates 
were introduced about 1760; but the greatest 
improvement was effected by the introduction 
of cylinder printing about 1785, which has al¬ 
most superseded the other methods, except for 
particular styles. The machinery now gener¬ 
ally used consists of various modifications of 
the cylinder printing machine, in which a num¬ 
ber of separate engraved cylinders are mounted, 
corresponding to the number of colors to be 
printed. Formerly the cloth had to pass once 
through the machine for every color; but now, 
by an arrangement of machinery equally in¬ 
genious and effective, any number of cylinders 
are fitted on one machine, which act on the 
cloth one after the other, and by this means 
the pattern is finished with a corresponding 
number of colors in the same time that was 
formerly employed to give one. A great vari¬ 
ety of methods are employed in calico print¬ 
ing, but they all fall under the general heads 
of dye colors, and steam colors. Under the first 
head are included all the styles in which the 
pattern is printed on the cloth by a mordant— 
a substance which may have little or no color 
itself, but has an affinity for the fiber on the 
one hand, and for the coloring matter on the 
other—the dye or coloring matter being subse¬ 
quently fixed by dyeing on such parts of the 
cloth as have been impregnated with the mor¬ 
dant, and thus bringing out the pattern. In 
steam color printing, the coloring material is 
applied to the cloth direct from the printing 
cylinder, and subsequently fixed by steaming. 
In steam colors there is no limit to the number 
and variety of shades which may be produced, 
each color box on the cylinder printing ma¬ 
chine containing the whole ingredients essential 
to the production and fixation of a separate and 
distinct shade of color. This process is super¬ 
seding most of the other styles, the brilliant 
coal tar colors so extensively used being almost 
entirely fixed by steaming. The bodies used 
for fixing are tin mordants, tannic acid, etc., 
which are mixed with the dye colors and 
printed together. The effects of calico print¬ 
ing are varied by numerous other operations, 
such as the discharge style, in which the cloth 
is first dyed all over, then printed in a certain 
pattern with discharge chemicals, which 
either produce a pattern of some other color, 
or one purely white, as in the Turkey-red ban¬ 
danna handkerchiefs. Thermo style, in some 
respects, is the reverse of the discharge style ; 
the process being to print a pattern in certain 
chemicals, which will enable those parts to 
resist the action of the dye subsequently ap¬ 
plied to all other parts of the cloth. After the 
prints have undergone the printing process 
they are submitted to a series of finishing 
operations, the object of which is to give to the 
fabrics a pleasing appearance to the eye. 


Calicut 


California 


Cal'icut, a seaport of India, presidency of 
Madras, on the Malabar coast, which was 
ceded to the British in 1792. It was the first 
port in India visited by Europeans, the Portu¬ 
guese adventurer, Pedro da Covilham having 
landed here about 1486, and Vasco da Gama in 
1498. It has considerable trade, and manu¬ 
factures cotton cloth, to which it has given 
the name calico. Pop. 66,078. 

California has a coast line of 900 mi. on the 
Pacific Ocean, extends from the latitude of 
Boston to that of Charleston. On the n. is 
Oregon, on the e. are Nevada and Arizona Ter¬ 
ritory, and on the s. is Lower California. The 
lower two thirds of the state has a southeast¬ 
erly trend, the easterly boundary being as 
nearly as possible parallel with the coast line. 
The extreme length is 775 mi., the maximum 
width 235 mi., and the minimum width 148 mi. 
The total area is 158,360 sq. mi., and the land 
area 155,980 sq. mi., making the state second 
only to Texas in size. The central portion is 
embraced between the parallels 35° and 40°, 
and has on its e. side the Sierra Nevada, and 
on its w. the Coast Ranges. Between these 
two mountain chains lies the Great Central 
Valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, 
renowned for its beauty and fertility. It is 
this valley, which is about 450 mi. in length by 
about 40 in breadth, to which the state now 
owes its principal wealth, and which has 
made it famous for its wheat, its wool, its 
fruits (including subtropical fruits in the s.), 
and the produce of its vineyards. N. of the 
parallel of 40°, where the Coast Ranges and 
the Sierra unite, the country is extremely 
rough and thinly inhabited. That portion of 
the state which lies to the s. and e. of the 
southern junction of the Coast Ranges and the 
Sierra is also thinly inhabited, with the ex¬ 
ception of a narrow strip along the coast. The 
principal river is the Sacrament.o, which flows 
s. for upward of 300 mi., receiving numerous 
affluents from the Sierra Nevada, and falls 
into the bay of Suisun. The San Joaquin 
rises in the Sierra Nevada, flows n. for about 
250 mi., and joins the Sacramento about 15 
mi. above Suisun Bay. It receives the waters 
of lake Tule or Tulares, and has numerous 
tributaries. The Bay of San Francisco, form¬ 
ing the most capacious harbor on the Pacific 
coast, is about 60 mi. in length, 14 broad, and 
with a coast line of 275 mi. It is connected 
with the ocean by a strait two mi. wide, and 
from five to seven long, called the Golden Gate. 

The peaks of the Sierra Nevada;—Mount 
Shasta, Lassen’s Butte, Spanish Peak, Pyra¬ 
mid Peak, Mounts Dana, Lyell, Brewer, Tyn¬ 
dall, Whitney, and others — reach from 10,000 
to nearly 15,000 ft. above the sea (Mount Whit¬ 
ney is 14,886). The volcanic character of the 
state is manifested by the mountain forma¬ 
tions; and earthquakes are frequent. Cali¬ 
fornia is celebrated for its many wonderful 
natural objects and remarkable scenery. Note¬ 
worthy are the Yosemite Valley and the “big 
tree groves,” containing groups of giant red¬ 
wood trees — Sequoia gigantea — some of which 
reach the height of nearly 400 ft. 


In the Colorado desert are depressions sev¬ 
eral hundred feet below the level of the sea. 
Saline marshes and alkaline tracts are features 
of the desert. Hot and cold mineral springs 
abound in the state, and cover a wide range 
of medicinal virtues: these are confined to no 
particular district, but are most numerous in 
the counties of Lake, Napa, and Sonoma. 
The Geysers, in Sonoma county, yield great 
volumes of steam and boiling mineral waters 
of various kinds, and as a natural wonder are 
second only to the Geysers of the Yellowstone. 
Several lakes of great beauty exist in the 
Sierra, the largest being Lake Tahoe, twenty 
miles long and 6,200 ft. above the level of the 
sea. (It has been proposed to tap this enor¬ 
mous reservoir to secure water for irrigation 
and for domestic consumption.) Another large 
and beautiful lake, called Clear Lake, lies in 
the coast range n. of San Francisco. 

Climate .—Within the borders of California 
may be found great varieties of climate. Be¬ 
low and near the line of the Sierras the pe¬ 
culiarities of climate are small rainfall, rain¬ 
less summers, and almost constant winds off 
the Pacific, and the absence of extremes of 
temperature. The wind of summer comes 
generally from the north and northwest. This 
wind has a steady effect west on the coast 
ranges, and is deflected in the valleys of the 
Sacramento and the San Joaquin southward 
and its temperature is much raised, so that 
in the interior valleys the summer is warm. 
In the Sacramento valley the average sum¬ 
mer temperature is 80° and in the San Joaquin 
valley 83.8°. At San Francisco it is 58°; 
at Los Angeles, 73.2°; at San Diego on the ex¬ 
treme southern coast, 69.7°. There are no 
rains in the summer but the winds carry much 
moisture and the late nocturnal temperature 
of summer contains this moisture in the form 
of heavy dews. The prevailing winds of win¬ 
ter come from the south and southwest and 
these make the winter warm. On the coast 
the difference between summer and winter 
temperature is very small. For instance at 
San Francisco, the difference is less than 
eight degrees. Winter winds bring the rains 
which fall from November to April. The rain¬ 
fall in the northern part of the state is much 
greater than that of the southern. 

Vegetation .—In the coast range valleys there 
is almost always a sufficient rainfall to ripen 
the crops, but in the interior basin and in the 
south it is uncertain and generally inadequate. 
Irrigation is used to a large extent to water the 
land and the arid lands have been made serv¬ 
iceable. The fruit-growing industries have 
developed so rapidly that other industries have 
passed into the background. As soon as the 
gold fever subsided the agricultural possibili¬ 
ties of the state came into view. At first the 
agricultural pursuits were confined to live 
stock which found pasture in the plains in 
winter and in the mountains in summer. On 
the coast the early settlers planted grapes and 
grew small cereals; then the cultivation of 
grain was begun and flouring mills established. 
Wheat is the principal grain and the acreage 


California 


California 


has constantly increased in the last twenty 
years. The great bulk of the grain is raised 
in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 
1 he vine and fruit yield is large, and, owing 
to the freedom from rain, the fruit can be 
dried in the open air. Trees and vines come 
into bearing at an early age. Certain wines 
can be produced which are unique to Cal¬ 
ifornia. The principal fruits and nuts are 
grapes, oranges, lemons, olives, figs, prunes, 
peaches, pears, apricots, nectarines, cherries, 
apples, plums, and English walnuts, and such 
small fruit as blackberries, strawberries, rasp- 1 
berries, currants, and gooseberries. The grow¬ 
ing of vegetables is a large industry; vegetables 
raised are beans, potatoes, onions, and hops. 
Wide varieties of soil and climatic conditions 
give rise to a diversified range of vegetation. 
In the valleys may be found occasional groves 
of white oak and live oak, and on the plains in 
the early spring are many wild flowers. The 
coast ranges are generally covered with vari¬ 
ous members of the pine family. The sugar 
pine in the north is usually of great size, and 
with the redwood is of great commercial im¬ 
portance. There are various species of cedars 
and cypresses. The most striking species of 
trees are Sequoia Gigantea (the big tree of 
California), and the Sequoia Semperoireus 
(redwood); some of the larger ones have a 
height of 350 ft. and a diameter of 20 to 40 ft. 
California laurel is a useful tree largely em¬ 
ployed in the interior finish of houses. There 
are many varieties of lilies, including the tiger 
lily. Other varieties of flowers are wild rose, 
yellow pansy, sage, larkspur, bluebell, tulip, 
dandelion, etc. Mustard is very common on 
the plains and often grows to a height of 7 ft. 

Railroads and other transportation facilities. 
The railroads entering the southern part of the 
state are Southern Pacific and A. T. & S. F.; 
in the central part is the Central Pacific Rail¬ 
way. The Southern Pacific Company controls 
and operates 6,000 miles of railroad, three main 
arms of which are: 1, from San Francisco to 
New Orleans; 2, from San Francisco to Ogden, 
where connection is made with the Union Pa¬ 
cific; 3, from San Francisco to Portland, Ore. 
It also controls numerous branches, especially 
in California, running from main lines to fer¬ 
tile sections. There are also many roads within 
the state. Other transportation facilities con¬ 
sist of a large fleet of sailing vessels and several 
lines of steamers which sail at regular inter¬ 
vals. The Occidental Steamship Co., sending 
steamers to Japan and China; the Oceanic 
Steamship Co., to the Hawaiian Islands, New 
Zealand, and Australia; and the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Co. The coast lines include the 
Pacific Coast Steamship Co., sending vessels 
to Alaska and intermediate points of the north, 
and to Mexico; the U. P. Ry. division, and the 
Oregon Development Co. • 

Minerals .— Since 1848 when gold was first 
discovered in California, mining has been the 
most important industry in the state. Both 
gold and silver have been mined in great quan¬ 
tities. Until 1878 gold mining was carried on 
in a reckless manner and prospectors wan¬ 


dered from one end of the state to the other; 
but in the year mentioned matters took a more 
rational turn and mining was put upon sound 
business principles. Silver has been mined 
with varied success, and much capital has 
been spent in trying to develop the silver lodes 
which have from time to time been discovered. 
The best paying silver mines are those in the 
Inyo range. Quicksilver has been extensively 
mined in California, and also copper ores ap¬ 
pear in many localities. Zinc and lead occur 
in a great number of the quartz veins of the 
gold-bearing valleys. Iron ores are also found 
in some localities. The only coal mines of any 
consequence in California are found in Monte 
Diablo, a few miles from the entrance of San 
Joaquin River into Suisun Bay. Borax and 
sulphur have been mined in several localities. 
Marble is quarried in places on the Sierra Ne¬ 
vada for architectural purposes. There is also 
some granite. 

Manufactures .—The forests afford a great 
amount of lumber and the manufacture and 
shipment of lumber constitutes an important 
industrial feature. Other manufactures are 
the distillation of brandy, sugar refining, dry¬ 
ing and preserving of fruits, shipbuilding and 
the packing of meats. 

Education .—California has an extensive and 
thorough system of public instruction which 
extends into the remotest districts. The sys¬ 
tem consists of a state board of education, 
superintendent of public instruction, county 
board of education, county superintendent, 
city board, and district trustees. There is a 
state university at Berkeley, state normal 
schools at San Jose, Los Angeles and Chico. 
Besides the public schools there are many pri¬ 
vate institutions of a high order. The Leland 
Stanford, Jr., University has an annual income 
of $250,000, about 1,100 students, 85 instructors 
and 30,000 books. The estate on which the 
university is situated covers 7,500 acres. The 
Lick Observatory, which is an adjunct of the 
state university, is constructed and equipped 
on Mt. Hamilton. 

History .—Spaniards came to California as 
early as 1534 and it is believed that Cortez sur¬ 
veyed the Gulf of California in 1536. Sir Francis 
Drake visited the coast in 1578. The early 
missions were under Franciscan control. Cali¬ 
fornia, became independent of Spain in 1822, 
and until after the war of 1847 the region was 
chiefly important for its export of hides and 
skins. California was part of the territory 
ceded to the U. S. by Mexico after the Mexican 
War. Gold was discovered in 1848 and there 
was an enormous rush of gold seekers. Cali¬ 
fornia was admitted to the Union in 1850. At 
first it was peopled by lawless spirits and 
crimes of violence were frequent and apt to go 
unpunished. Recourse was had to the inevi¬ 
table “lynch” law and in 1851 the citizens of 
the chief towns established a vigilance com¬ 
mittee. Graduall 3 T a better regulated order of 
things was established and the development of 
the country has since been steady and rapid. 
The principal cities are San Francisco, Los 
Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, Alameda, Berke- 


California 


Callao 


ay, Bakersfield, Fresno City, Napa City, Ne¬ 
vada City, Sacramento, capital of the state, 
Stockton, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Palo Alto, 
Monterey, Santa Rosa, and Marysville. Pop. in 
1900 was 1,485,053. 

Governors. —1849, Peter H. Burnett; 1851, 
John McDougal; 1852, John Bigler; 1856, J. 
Neely Johnson; 1858, John B. Weller; 1860, 
Milton S. Latham; 1860, John G. Downey; 1862, 
Leland Stanford; 1863, Frederick F. Low; 1867, 
Henry H. Haight; 1871, Newton Booth; 1875, 
Romualdo Pacheco: 1875. William Irwin; 1880, 
George C. Perkins; 1883, George Stoneman; 
1887, Washington Bartlett; 1887, R. W. Water¬ 
man: 1891. H. H. Markham; 1895, J. H. Budd; 
1899, H. T. Gage. 

California, Gulf of, a galf on the w. coast 
:ff North America, in Mexico, lying between 
the peninsula of Lower California and the 
mainland. It is about 700 mi. long, and 
through most of its length, is less than 100 mi. 
wide. It has long had a pearl fishery. 

California, Lower, a territory of Mexico, 
comprising a peninsula jutting into the Pacific 
Ocean, and separated from the mainland 
throughout its entire length by the Gulf of 
California. Area 58,328 sq. mi. It is largely 
mountainous and arid, but is said to possess 
valuable agricultural and mineral resources. 
The chief towns are Loretto, and La Paz, the 
capital. Pop. 42,245. 

Caligula, Caius Caesar Augustus Germani- 
cus (a. d. 12-41), Roman emperor, son of Ger- 
manicus and Agrippina. He received from 
the soldiers the surname of Caligula, on ac¬ 
count of his wearing the caligee, a kind of boots 
in use among them. He succeeded Tiberius, 
a. d. 37, and made himself very popular by 
his mildness and ostentatious generosity; but 
at the end of eight months he was seized with 
a disorder caused by his irregular mode of 
living, which appears to have permanently 
deranged his intellect. After his recovery, he 
suddenly showed himself the most cruel and 
unnatural of tyrants — a monster of debauch¬ 
ery and prodigality, a perpetrator of the great¬ 
est crimes and follies. The most exquisite 
tortures inflicted on the innocent served him 
for enjoyments. In the madness of his arro¬ 
gance he even considered himself a god, and 
caused sacrifices to be offered to himself. One 
of his greatest follies was the building of a 
bridge between Baim and Puteoli (Puzzuoli), 
in order that he might be able to boast of 
marching over the sea on dry land. He pro¬ 
jected expeditions to Gaul, Germany, and Brit¬ 
ain, and on reaching the sea, bade his soldiers 
gather shells for spoils, and led them back to 
Rome. At last a band of conspirators put 
an end to his career in the 29th year of his age. 

Caliper Compasses, compasses made either 
with arched legs to measure the diameters of 
cylinders or globular bodies, or with straight 
legs and retracted points to measure the in¬ 
terior diameter or bore of anything. 

Cal'iph (Calif, or Khalif— vicegerent ), is the 
name assumed by the successors of Mohammed 
in the government of the faithful and in the 
high-priesthood. Caliphate is therefore the 


name given to the empire of these princes 
which the Arabs founded in Asia, and e; v 
larged, within a few centuries, to a dominion 
exceeding even the Roman Empire in extent 
The appellation of caliph has long ago been 
swallowed up in shah , sultan, emir, and other 
titles peculiar to the East. 

Calisa'ya Bark, a variety of Peruvian or 
cinchona bark. 

Calisthenics (Gr. * kalli-, beautiful, and 
sthenos , strength), the art or practise of exer¬ 
cising the body for the purpose of giving 
strength to the muscles and grace to the car¬ 
riage. The term is usually applied to the phys¬ 
ical exercises of females, as gymnastics is to 
those of males. 

Calix'tus, the name of three popes. Calix- 
tus I was a Roman bishop from 217 to 224, 
when he suffered martyrdom. Calixtus II was 
elected in 1119, in the monastery of Clugny, 
successor of the expelled pope, Gelasius II, who 
had been driven from Italy by the Emperor 
Henry V, and had died in this monastery. He 
excommunicated the Emperor Henry V on 
account of a dispute respecting the right of in¬ 
vestiture; as also the anti-pope Gregory VIII, 
whom he drove from Rome. He availed him¬ 
self of the troubles of the emperor to force 
him, in 1122, to agree to the Concordat of 
Worms. He d. in 1124. Calixtus III, chosen 
in 1168 in Rome, as anti-pope to Paschal III, 
and confirmed by the Emperor Frederick I, in 
1178, was obliged to submit to Pope Alexander 
III. As he was not counted among the legal 
popes, a subsequent pope, Alfonso Borgia, made 
pope in 1455, was called Calixtus III. He d. in 
1458. 

Calixtus, Georg (1586-1656), an able and en¬ 
lightened German theologian of the Lutheran 
Church in the seventeenth century. He wrote 
against the celibacy of the clergy, and pro¬ 
posed a reunion of Catholics and Protestants 
upon the basis of the Apostles’ creed. 

Calla, a genus of plants, nat. order Oron- 
tiaceee. The known species are few and of 
widely different habitats,occurring in the north 
of America and Europe. It has a creeping 
root stock extremely acrid in taste, but which, 
when deprived 
of its causticity 
by maceration 
and boiling, is 
made by the 
Lapps into 
bread. The 
beautiful Ethi¬ 
opian lily was 
formerly in¬ 
cluded in this 
genus and i s 
still sometimes 
called Calla 
ethiopica. 

Cal 1 a o (kal- 
yii'o), a seaport 
town of Peru, 
the port of 
Lima, from 

which it is 6 mi. Oalla. 





Callimachus 


Calvin 


distant, and with which it is connected by a 
railway; pop. 36,805. The roadstead is one of 
the best in the Pacific, and there is a dock, 
with an area of nearly 52 acres, constructed at 
a cost of $8,500,000, besides a floating iron 
dock. Callao is the emporium of the whole of 
the trade of Peru, importing manufactured 
goods, and exporting guano, copper ore, cubic 
niter, wool, bark, etc. In 1746 the old town 
was destroyed by an earthquake, with much 
loss of. life and damage to shipping. 

Callimachus. 1 , A Greek poet and gram¬ 
marian, b. at Cyrene, in Libya, of a noble 
family: flourished about 250 b. c. He taught 
at Alexandria, and was appointed by Ptolemy 
Philadelphus librarian of the Alexandrine Mu¬ 
seum. He wrote an epic poem called Galatea , 
several prose works, and tragedies, elegies, 
comedies, etc., but only some seventy-two epi¬ 
grams and six hymns remain. 2, A Greek ar¬ 
chitect and artist, flourished about 400 b. c., the 
reputed originator of the Corinthian column. 

Calli'nus, of Ephesus, the earliest Greek 
elegiac poet, flourished about 730 b. c. Only 
a few fragments of his elegies are extant. 

Calliope (kal-I'o-pe) one of the Muses. 
She presided over eloquence and heroic po¬ 
etry, and is said to have been the mother of 
Orpheus by Apollo. 

Callis'thenes (-ez) (b. c. 360-328) a Greek 
philosopher and historian, a native of Olyn- 
thus, was appointed to attend Alexander in 
his expedition against Persia. He was put to 
death on a pretended charge of treason. He 
wrote a history of the Actions of Alexander 
and other historical works. 

Calms, Regions of, tracts in the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans, on the confines of the 
trade winds, where calms of long duration 
prevail. 

Cal'omel, mercurous chloride; a prepara¬ 
tion of mercury much used in medicine, and 
also found native as horn quicksilver. It is 
prepared by grinding in a mortar sulphate of 
mercury with as much mercury as it already 
contains, and heating the compound which is 
formed with common salt in a retort until the 
mercury sublimes. The calomel is thus pro¬ 
duced as a white powder. It is used in a 
variety of ailments, as a purgative, a vermi¬ 
fuge, etc. 

Calorim'eter, an apparatus for measuring 
absolute quantities of heat or the specific or 
latent heat of bodies, as an instrument for 
measuring the heat given out by a body in 
cooling from the quantity of ice it melts or 
from the rise of temperature it produces in 
water around it. 

Cal'otype, the name given to the process, 
invented by Talbot about 1840, of producing 
photographs by the action of light upon paper 
impregnated with nitrate of silver. 

Calpur'nia, the fourth wife of Julius Ctesar, 
married to him 50 b. c. She was a daughter 
of L. Calpernius Piso, who was consul in 58 b. c. 

Caltagirone (-je-ro'na), a town of Sicily, 34 
mi. s. w. of Catania; the see of a bishop. It is 
noted for the manufacture of terra cotta fig¬ 
ures and pottery. Pop. 28,119, 


Caltanisset'ta, a town, Sicily, capital of 
the province of same name, on the right bank 
of the Salso, 62 mi. s. e. of Palermo. In the 
vicinity are springs of petroleum and of hy¬ 
drogen gas, a mud volcano, and important sul¬ 
phur mines. Pop. 31,762. The province has 
an area of 1,445 sq. mi., with a population of 
265, 930. 

Caltha, the genus of plants to which the 
marsh marigold belongs. 

Cal'trop, a military instrument with four 
iron points disposed in such a manner that 
three of them being on the ground the other 
points upward; formerly scattered 
on the ground to impede the prog¬ 
ress of an enemy’s cavalry. Also 
the common name of the star 
thistle, found in waste places in 
the south of England. The heads 
Caltrop, are covered with long yellow 
spines. 

Calum'ba (or Colombo), a plant, indigenous 
to the forests of Mozambique. The large roots 
are much used as a bitter tonic in cases of in¬ 
digestion. American or false calumba is the 
bitter root of a gentianaceous herb found in 
North America. 

Calumet, a kind of pipe used by the Ameri¬ 
can Indians for smoking tobacco. Its bowl is 
usually of soft red soapstone, and the tube a 
long reed, ornamented with feathers. The 
Calumet was used as a symbol or instrument 
of peace and war. To accept the calumet is 
to agree to the terms of peace, and to refuse it 
is to reject them. The calumet of peace is 
used to seal or ratify contracts and alliances, 
to receive strangers kindly, and to travel with 
safety. The calumet of war, differently made, 
is used to proclaim war. 

Calvados (kal-va-dos), a French dep., part of 
the old province of Normandy. Area 2,145 sq. 
mi. It is named from a dangerous ridge of 
rocks which extends along the coast for 10 or 
12 mi. The dep. is undulating ajjd picturesque, 
and possesses rich pastures. Pop. 428,945. 
Chief town, Caen. 

Cal'vary, applied to the place outside Jeru¬ 
salem where Christ was crucified, usually 
identified with a small eminence on the north 
side of the city. The term is also applied in 
Catholic countries to a kind of chapel, some¬ 
times erected on a hill near a city and some¬ 
times on the exterior of a church, as a place 
of devotion, in memory of the place where our 
Saviour suffered; as also to a rocky mound or 
hill on which three crosses are erected, an ad¬ 
junct to religious houses. 

Calv6, Emma, celebrated operatic vocalist, b. 
in France in 1866. She made her debut in 
Faust , in 1882, at Brussels. A few years later 
she made a tour of Italy. She scored a grand 
success at Covent Garden in 1893 where she 
appeared at the command of the queen. She 
made American tours in 1894, 1896, and 1897. 

Cal'vert, George, the first Baron Baltimore. 
See Loi'd Baltimore. 

Calvin, JonN (1509-1564), reformer and 
Protestant theological writer, b. at Noyon, 
in Picardy. He went to Paris and entered 



Calvinism 


Cambodia 


regular study. He soon became dissatisfied 
with the teaching of the Roman Catholic 
Church; in consequence he gave up his cure, 
and took to the study of the law in Orleans. 
In 1532 he returned to Paris a decided convert 
to the reformed faith, and was soon compelled 
to fly, when, after various wanderings, he 
found a protector in Margaret of Navarre. 
In 1534 he returned to Paris, but retired to 
Basel in the autumn of the same year. At 
Basel he completed and published his great 
work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. 
In 1538 he was expelled from Geneva, but in 
1541 his friends succeeded in effecting his re¬ 
call, when he laid before the council the draft 
of his ordinances respecting church discipline, 
which were immediately accepted and pub¬ 
lished. Michael Servetus, passing through 
Geneva in 1553, was arrested, and through Cal¬ 
vin’s instrumentality, was burned alive because 
he had attacked the mystery of the Trinity in a 
book which was neither written nor printed at 
Geneva. He was consulted upon points of law 
as well as of theology. Besides this, he found 
time to maintain a correspondence through all 
Europe. Up to 1561 the Lutherans and the 
Calvinists were as one, but in that year the 
latter expressly rejected the tenth article of 
the Confession of Augsburg, besides some 
others, and hence arose the name of Calvinists. 

Calvinism, the theological tenets or doc¬ 
trines of John Calvin, including a belief in 
predestination, election, total depravity, orig¬ 
inal sin, effectual calling, and the final perse¬ 
verance of the saints. 

Calx (L., lime or chalk), a term formerly 
applied to the residuum of a metal or mineral 
which has been subjected to violent heat, 
burning, or calcination. 

Calycan'thus, a genus of hardy American 
shrubs, of which one species, Florida allspice, 
has yellow flowers, and is sweet-scented. 

Cal'ydon, an ancient city of Northern 
Greece, in JEtolia, celebrated in Greek mythol¬ 
ogy on account of the ravages of a terrible 
boar. All the princes of the age assembled at 
the famous Hunt of the Calydonian Boar, 
which was finally despatched by Meleager. 

Calyp'so, in Greek mythology, a nymph 
who inhabited the island Ogygia, on the shores 
of which Ulysses was shipwrecked. She 
promised him immortality if he would con¬ 
sent to marry her, but after a seven years’ stay 
she was ordered by Hermes to permit his 
departure. 

Calyp'tra, the hood of the theca or capsule 
of mosses. The same name is given to any 
hood-like body connected with the organs of 
fructification in flowering plants. 

Caly ptrae' idae, a family of gasteropodous mol¬ 
luscs, known as bonnet or chambered limpets. 
The typical genus Calyptrcea includes the cup- 
and-saucer limpet. 

Ca'Iyx, in botany, the name given to the 
exterior covering of a flower, that is, the floral 
envelope consisting of a circle or whorl of 
leaves external to the corolla, which it incloses 
and supports. The parts or leaves which be¬ 
long to it are called sepals; they may be united 


by their margins, or distinct, and are usually 
of a green color and of less delicate texture 
than the corolla. In many flowers, however, 
(especially monocotyledons), there is little or no 
difference in character between calyx and 
corolla, in which case the whole gets the 
name of perianth. When the calyx leaves are 
distinct the calyx is called polysepalous; when 
united, gamosepalous or monosepalous. 

Cam, in machinery, a simple contrivance 
for converting a uniform rotary motion into 
a varied rectilinear motion, usually a project¬ 
ing part of a wheel or other revolving piece 
so placed as to give an alternating or varying 
motion to another piece that comes in contact 
with it and is free to move only in a certain 
direction. 

Camaieu (karma'0), monochrome painting 
or painting with a single color, varied only by 
gradations of the single color, by light and 
shade, etc. Drawings in Indian ink, sepia, 
etc., are classed as works en camaieu. 

Cambac6r&s (kiin-ba-sa-ra), Jean Jaques 
RIsgis de, Duke of Parma (1753-1824), a famous 
French statesman. He was trained a lawyer, 
and was appointed to various judicial offices. 
He declared Louis guilty, but disputed the 
right of the Convention to judge him, and voted 
for his provisory arrest, and in case of a hostile 
invasion, death. When Bonaparte was first 
consul, Cambacer&s was chosen second. After 
the establishment of the empire, Cambacerfcs 
was chosen arch-chancellor, grand officer of 
the Legion of Honor, and ultimately duke of 
Parma. He was banished on the second res¬ 
toration of Louis XVIII, but was subsequently 
permitted to return. 

Cam'bay, a feudatory state in India, Bom¬ 
bay presidency. Area 350sq. mi.; pop. 89,722. 
Also chief town of above state, situated at the 
head of the Gulf of Cambay, formerly a flour¬ 
ishing port, but now decayed. Pop. 31,390. 
The^gulf separates the peninsula of Kathiawar 
from the northern coast of Bombay, having a 
length of about 80 mi., and an average breadth 
of 25 mi. 

Cambo'dia (or Cambo'ja), a country in the 
Indo-Chinese peninsula. The greater part of 
it is low and flat with numerous streams, the 
chief being the Mekong. The soil is very fer¬ 
tile, producing large quantities of rice, and the 
vegetation generally is marked by tropical lux¬ 
uriance. Cattle are exceedingly numerous; 
among wild animals are the elephant and tiger. 
Gold and precious stones are found. In early 
times Cambodia was a powerful state exacting 
tribute even from Siam, but it gradually fell 
into decay, and in the last and early in the 
present century lost a large part of its domin¬ 
ions to Siam. Magnificent ruins, bridges, etc., 
attest the former prosperity of the country. 
Since 1863 it has been a protectorate of France, 
and since 1884 practically a French colony, 
though nominally ruled by a king of its own. 
The chief town is Pnom-Penh on an arm of the 
Mekong; the port is Kampot, on the Gulf of 
Siam. Area 38,560 sq. mi; pop. 1,700,000, partly 
Cambodians proper, partly Siamese, Annam- 
ese, etc. 


Cambrai 

Cambrai (kam-bra), a fortified French city, on 
the Scheldt,in the dep. DuNord, 104 mi. n.e. of 
Paris; long celebrated for its manufactures of 
fine linens and lawns, whence similar fabrics 
are called cambrics. It is the seat of an arch¬ 
bishop, and has a cathedral, an archiepiscopal 
palace, townhouse, etc. Pop. 24,122. The 
League of Cambrai, a league formed in 1508 be¬ 
tween Louis XII of France, the German Em¬ 
peror Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Spain, 
for the purpose of humbling the republic of 
Venice, and which was joined in 1509 by Pope 
Julius II. 

Cambrian Rocks, in geology, an extensive 
series of gritstones, sandstones, conglomerates, 
slates, and shales, lying under the Lower 
Silurian beds, and above the Archaean, and 
divided into the Upper and Lower Cambrian. 
Many fossils occur in the series, including 
sponges, starfishes, trilobites, brachiopods, 
lamellibranchs, pteorpods, gasteropods, cephal- 
opods, etc. They may be regarded as the 
bottom rocks of the Silurian system, and are 
well developed in North Wales (hence the 
name), but can be recognized in many other 
regions. 

Cam'brie, originally the name of a fine kind 
of linen which was manufactured principally 
at Cambrai, in French Flanders, whence the 
name. It is now applied to a cotton fabric, 
which is very extensively manufactured in 
imitation of the true fabric, and which is in 
reality a kind of muslin. 

Cam'bridge (kam'brij), an inland county of 
England. Area 859 sq. mi. Pop. 196,269. The 
soil is diversified and generally fertile; a large 
part belongs to the fen country. By drainage 
much of the fen land (including the Bedford 
Level) has been converted into arable land and 
pastures, and about nine tenths of the county is 
under cultivation. The county town is Cam¬ 
bridge; other towns are Ely, Wisbech, New¬ 
market, and March. Cambridge, the county 
town, is situated on the river Cam, 50 mi. n. 
of London. It is an ancient place, and was a 
Roman station (Granta). It occupies a perfect 
level encompassed by the colleges, and their 
beautiful grounds and gardens, on both sides 
of the Cam. Several of the streets are narrow 
and winding, but some are spacious and airy, 
and much improvement has taken place of 
late years. The town is supported mainly by 
the presence of the university; but has some 
manufactures. Pop. 44,330. 

Cambridge, George William, Duke of, 
b. in Hanover, March 26, 1819. He is the 
grandson of Adolphus Frederick, first duke of 
Cambridge, is grandson of George III, and 
first cousin of Queen Victoria. From 1856 to 
1896 he was commander-in-chief of the British 
forces, and in 1861 was made a field marshal. 

Cambridge, University of, one of the two 
great English universities, as old at least as 
the thirteenth century, situated in the above 
town. The following list contains the names 
of the colleges or distinct corporate bodies 
comprised in the university, with the time 
when each was founded: St. Peter’s College, 
or Peter House (1257); Clare College, formerly 


Cambyses 

Clare Hall (1326); Pembroke College (1347): 
Gonville and Caius College (1348); Trinity Hall 
(1350); Corpus Christi College (1352); King’s 
College (1441); Queen’s College (1448); St. 
Catherine’s College, or Catherine Hall (1473); 
Jesus College (1496): Christ’s College (1505); 
St. John’s College (1511); Magdalene College 
(1519); Trinity College (1546); Emmanuel Col¬ 
lege (1584); Sidney Sussex College (1598); 
Downing College (1800); Cavendish College 
(1873); Selwin College (1882); Ayerst Hall (or 
Hostel) 1884. 

Each of these colleges is a separate corpora¬ 
tion which is governed by laws and usages of 
its own, although subject to the paramount 
laws of the university. The university is 
composed of a chancellor, vice chancellor, the 
masters or heads of colleges, fellows of col¬ 
leges, and students, and is incorporated as a 
society for the study of all the liberal arts and 
sciences. The senate, which is composed of 
all who have taken the degree of Doctor or 
Master, is the great legislative assembly of 
the university. The chief executive power is 
vested in the chancellor, the high-steward, 
and the vice chancellor, who is the head of 
some college. Two proctors superintend the 
discipline of all pupils. Women who have 
fulfilled the conditions of residence and stand¬ 
ing may be admitted to the examinations. 
Those who pass are placed in the published 
lists, and receive certificates; but no degrees 
conferred upon them. Two colleges (Girton and 
Newnham) have been established for women; 
but they are no part of the university, though 
many of the university lectures are open to stu¬ 
dents of these colleges. The annual income of 
the university was recently about $150,000, aris- • 
ing from various sources, including the prod¬ 
uce of fees at matriculation, for degrees, etc. 
The number of undergraduate students is about 
3,000. There are over forty professors in the 
various departments. A botanic garden, an 
anatomical school, an observatory, and a valu¬ 
able library, containing more than 300,000 
printed volumes, besides many manuscripts, 
are attached to the university. The new mu¬ 
seums and laboratories for the study of sci 
ence are among the most complete in the 
country. The university sends two members 
to the House of Commons. The right of elec¬ 
tion is vested in the members of the senate. 

Cambridge, Middlesex co., Mass., on Charles 
River, 3 mi. from Boston, with which it is 
connected by street railway. Railroad, Fitch¬ 
burg. Industries: musical instruments, glass¬ 
ware, furniture, soap and candles, printing 
and publishing, etc. Cambridge is the seat of 
Harvard University, one of the foremost edu¬ 
cational institutions in the country, founded 
in 1638. Pop. 1900, 91,886. 

Cambyses, 1, a Persian of noble blood, to 
whom King Astyages gave his daughter Man- 
dane in marriage. Astyages was dethroned by 
Cyrus, the offspring of this union. 2, The 
son of Cyrus the Great, and grandson of the 
preceding, became, after the death of his 
father, king of the Persians and Medes, b.c. 
529. In the fifth year of his reign he invaded 


Camden 


Camel’s Thorn 


Egypt, conquering the whole kingdom within 
six months. But his expeditions against the 
Ammonites and Ethiopians having failed, his 
violent and vindictive nature broke out in 
cruel treatment of his subjects, his brother 
Smerdis and his own wife being among his 
victims. He died in 521 b.c. 

Camden, William (1551-1623), a noted Brit¬ 
ish antiquary and historian. Appointed second 
master of Westminster School, he devoted all 
his leisure to the study of British antiquities, 
and began to collect matter for his great work, 
the Britannia , which gives a topographical 
and historical account of the British Isles 
from the earliest ages. He d. at Chiselhurst, 
in Kent, in the house which was afterward * 
that of Napoleon III. 

Camden, Camden co., N. J., on Delaware 
River opposite Philadelphia. It is a prominent 
railroad center, being the terminus for five 
roads. Manufacturing and commercial in¬ 
terests are very extensive. Among the princi¬ 
pal industries are large iron foundries, steel 
pen works, woolen and cotton mills, nickel re¬ 
finery, fertilizers, chemicals, dyes, paints, oil¬ 
cloths, shawls, machinery, etc. It also has 
several large shipyards, and is a port of entry. 
Pop. 1900, 75,935/ 

Camel, a genus of ruminant quadrupeds, 
characterized by the absence of horns; the 
possession of incisive, canine, and molar teeth; 
a fissure in the upper lip; a long and arched 
neck; one or two humps or protuberances on 
the back; a broad, elastic foot, ending in two 
small hoofs, which does not sink readily in the 
sand of the desert. The native country of the 



Camel. 


camel is said to extend from Morocco to China, 
within a zone of 900 or 1,000 mi. in breadth. 
The common camel, having two humps, is 
only found in the northern part of this region, 
and exclusively from the ancient Bactria, now 
Turkestan, to China. The dromedary, or 
single hump camel, or Arabian camel, is found 
throughout the entire length of this zone, on 
its southern side, as far as Africa and India. 
The Bactrian species is the larger, more ro¬ 
bust, and more fitted for carrying heavy bur¬ 
dens. The dromedary has been called the 



Part of the inside of Stomach- 
paunch of Camel, showing 
the water cells. 


race horse of its species. To people residing 
in the vicinity of the great deserts, the camel 
is an invaluable mode of conveyance. It will 
travel three days under a load, and five days 
under a rider, without drinking. The stronger 
varieties carry from 700 to 1,000 lbs. burden. 
The camel’s power of enduring thirst is partly 
due to the peculiar 
structure of its 
stomach, to which 
are attached little 
pouches or water 
cells, capable of 
straining off and 
storing up water 
for future use, 
when journeying 
across the desert. 

It can live on little 
food, and of the 
coarsest kind, 
leaves of trees, 
nettles, shrubs, 
twigs, etc. In this it is helped by the fact 
that its humps are mere accumulations of fat 
(the backbone of the animal being quite 
straight), and form a store upon which the 
system can draw when the outside supply is 
defective. Hence the camel driver who is 
about to start on a journey takes care to see 
that the humps of his animal present a full 
and healthy appearance. Camels which carry 
heavj r burdens will do about 25 mi. a day, 
those which are used for speed alone, from 60 
to 90 mi. a day. The camel is rather passive 
than docile, showing less intelligent co-opera¬ 
tion with its master than the horse or ele¬ 
phant; .but it is very vindictive when injured. 
It lives from 40 to 50 years. Its flesh is es¬ 
teemed by the Arab, and its milk is his 
common food. The hair of the camel serves 
in the East for making cloth for tents, carpets, 
and wearing apparel. It is imported into 
European countries for the manufacture of 
fine pencils for painting, and for other pur¬ 
poses. The South American members of the 
family constitute the genus to which the llama 
and alpaca belong; they have no humps. 

Camellia (ka-mel'ya), a genus of plants, of 
the tea order, with showy flowers and elegant 
dark green, shining, laurel like leaves, nearly 
allied to the plants which yield tea, and named 
from George Joseph Kamel, a Moravian Jesuit. 
The C. japanica, in Japan and China, is a lofty 
tree of beautiful proportions. It is the origin 
of many double varieties of our gardens. Be¬ 
sides this species, the G. scisanqua, with small, 
white, scentless flowers, and the C. reticulatta 
(uet-veined), with its large, peony-like flowers, 
are cultivated in America. 

Camel'opard, a name given to the giraffe, 
originally from the notion that it was a kind 
of hybrid between a camel and leopard. It 
constitutes the only species of its genus and 
fam i 1 y. See Giraffe. 

Camel’s Thorn, a name of several plants. 
They are half shrubby plants growing in the 
deserts of Egypt and the East, and derive 
their name from the fact that they afford a 




















Cameo 

food relished by camels. Some of the species 
yield a manna-like exudation from the leaves 
and branches. 

Cameo, a general name for all gems cut in 
relief, in contradistinction to those hollowed 
out, or intaglios. More particularly, a cameo 
is a gem composed of several different colored 
layers having a subject in relief cut upon one 
or more of the upper layers, an under layer of 
a different color forming the ground. For 
this purpose the ancients used the onyx, sar¬ 
donyx, agate, etc. The shells of various mol¬ 
luscs are now much used for making cameos; 
and they are also imitated on glass. 



Camellia Japonica. 


Cam'era Lucida (L., “clear chamber”), an 
optical instrument employed to facilitate the 
sketching of objects from nature by producing 
a reflected picture of them upon paper. Woll¬ 
aston’s apparatus is one of the commonest. 
The essential part is a totally reflecting prism 
with four angles, one of which is 90°, the op¬ 
posite one 135°, and the other two each 67° 30'. 
One of the two faces which contain the right 
angle is turned toward the object to be 
sketched. Rays falling in a straight line on 
this face are totally reflected from the face to 
the next face whence they are again totally 
reflected to the fourth face, from which they 
emerge in a straight line. An eye placed so 
as to receive the emergent rays, will see an im¬ 
age of the object, and by placing the sketching 
paper below in this place, the image may be 
traced with a pencil. As the paper, for con¬ 
venience of drawing, must be at a distance of 
about a foot, a concave lens, with a focal length 
of something less than a foot, is placed close 
in front of the prism in drawing distant ob¬ 
jects. By raising or lowering the prism in its 
stand, the image of the object to be sketched 
may be made to coincide with the plane of the 
paper. The prism is mounted in such a way 
that it can be rotated either about a horizontal 
or a vertical axis; and its top is usually covered 
with a movable plate of blackened metal, hav- 
29 


Cameron 

ing a semicircular notch at one edge, for the 
observer to look through. This form of camera 
has undergone various modifications. It is 
very convenient on account of its portability. 

Cam'era Obscu'ra, (L., “ dark chamber ”) 
an optical instrument employed for exhibiting 
the images of objects in their forms and colors, 
so that they may be traced and a picture 
drawn, or may be represented by photography. 
A simple camera obscura is presented by a 
darkened chamber into which no light is per¬ 
mitted to enter excepting by a small hole in 
the window-shutter. A picture of the objects 
opposite the hole will then be seen on the wall, 
or on a white screen placed opposite the open¬ 
ing. The rays of light passing through acon- 
vex lens, being reflected from the mirror, 
(which is at a slope of 45°) to the glass plate, 
where they form an image that may be traced. 
Another arrangement is a kind of tent sur¬ 
rounded by opaque curtains, and having at its 
top a revolving lantern, containing a lens with 
its axis horizontal, and a mirror placed behind 
it at a slope of 45°. to reflect the transmitted 
light downward on the paper. It is still bet¬ 
ter to combine lens and mirror in one by using 
a glass of peculiar shape, in which rays from 
external objects are first refracted at a convex 
surface, then totally reflected at the back of 
the lens, which is plane, and finally emerge 
through the bottom of the lens, which is con¬ 
cave, but with a larger radius of curvature 
than the first surface. The camera obscura 
employed by photographers is commonly a box, 
one half of which slides into the other, with a 
tube in front containing an object glass at its 
extremity. At the back of the box is a slide 
of round glass, on which the image of the ob¬ 
ject or objects to be depicted is thrown, in set¬ 
ting the instrument. The focusing is per¬ 
formed in the first place by sliding the one 
half of the box into the other, and by means of 
a pinion attached to the tube in front which 
moves the lens. When the image has thus 
been rendered as sharp as possible, the ground- 
glass slide is removed, and a sensitized plate 
substituted, which not only receives, but re¬ 
tains the image. 

Cameron, Angus, American statesman, b. 
1826; removed to La Crosse, Wis., in 1857, and 
served several terms in the state legislature. 
From 1875 to 1885 he was U. S. senator from 
Wisconsin. Died 1897. 

Cameron, James Donald, b. 1833. Ameri¬ 
can statesman, son of Simon Cameron; be¬ 
came connected with railroads and iron manu¬ 
facturing. From 1876 to 1877, he was secre¬ 
tary of war under President Grant, and was 
then chosen U. S. senator. He was re-elected 
in 1874 and 1875. 

Cameron, Richard, a Scottish Covenanter, 
b. at Falkland in Fife. Becoming an enthu¬ 
siastic votary of the pure Presbyterian system, 
on June 20, 1680, at the head of a small band 
of followers, he entered Sanquhar, and form¬ 
ally renounced allegiance to the king (Charles 
II) on account of his misgovernment. The 
little band kept in arms for a month in the 
mountainous country between Nithsdale and 


Cameron 


Campanile 


Ayrshire, but were at length surprised by a 
much superior force at Aird’s Moss, and after 
a stubborn fight overcome. -Cameron was 
among the slain. See Cameronians. 

Cameron, Simon (1799-1889), American 
statesman, b. in Lancaster co., Pa. He ed¬ 
ited a newspaper in Harrisburg in 1822. He 
was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1845, and 
supported the Mexican War. In 1856 was 
again elected senator. He was a formidable 
candidate in the Chicago Convention of 1860, 
but was defeated by Lincoln, who on becom¬ 
ing president appointed Cameron secretary of 
war. He resigned- in 1862, and was sent as 
minister to Russia. In 1866 he again became 
U. S. senator, and held that office until 1877, 
when he was succeeded by his son. 

Cameron, Verney Lovett, African trav¬ 
eler, b. 1844. He entered the British navy 
in 1857, and in 1872 was chosen to conduct an 
expedition for the relief of Dr. Livingstone. He 
was only in time to meet the remains of Living¬ 
stone at Unyanyembe, but continued his jour¬ 
ney west to Benguela, and was thus the first to 
cross Central Africa. In 1878 he made a jour¬ 
ney through Asia Minor and Persia. He pub¬ 
lished accounts of both journeys in his Across 
Africa and Our Future Highway to India. 

Cameroon, 1 , a district on the w. coast of 
Africa, on the Bight of Biafra, belonging to 
Germany, and one of the suitable districts for 
colonization in this region. 2, a river in the 
Cameroons territory. There are several large 
and thriving towns (including King Bell’s 
town) on the river, through which an extensive 
trade is carried on in ivory and palm oil. 3, a 
mountain range in the territory, the highest 
peak of which has been estimated at over 
13,000 ft. 

Camil'lus, Marcus Furius, a Roman patri¬ 
cian, famous as the deliverer of the city of 
Rome from the Gauls. In b.c. 396 he was 
made dictator during the Yeientine War, and 
captured the town of Yeii by mining, after it 
had defied the Roman power for ten years. 
In b.c. 394 Camillus besieged the Falerii, and 
by an act of generosity induced them to sur¬ 
render. Camillus was appointed dictator a 
second time, and was successful in repelling 
the invaders. After having been four times 
appointed dictator, a new invasion of the 
Gauls called Camillus, now eighty years old, 
again to the front, and for the fifth and last 
time, being appointed dictator, he defeated 
and dispersed the barbarians. He d. in b.c. 
365. 

Cam'oens, Luis de (1524-1579), the most 
celebrated poet of the Portuguese. He became 
a soldier, and served in the fleet which the 
Portuguese sent against Morocco. He landed 
at Goa, India, but, being unfavorably im¬ 
pressed with-the life led by the ruling Portu¬ 
guese there, wrote a satire which caused his 
banishment to Macao (1556). Here he wrote 
the earlier cantos of his great poem, the Lusi- 
ads. Returning to Goa in 1561, he was ship¬ 
wrecked and lost all his property except his 
precious manuscript. After much misfortune 
Camoens in 1570 arrived once more in his 


native land, poor and without influence, as he 
had left it. The Lusiads was now printed at 
Lisbon (1572). The Lusiads is an epic poem in 
ten cantos. Its subject is the voyage of Vasco 
da Gama to the East Indies; but many other 
events in the history of Portugal are also intro¬ 
duced. 

Camomile. See Chamomile. 

Camor'ra, a well organized secret society, 
once spread throughout all parts of the king¬ 
dom of Naples. At-one time the Camorristi 
were all-powerful, levying a kind of blackmail 
on all markets, fairs, and public gatherings, 
claiming the right to settle disputes, hiring 
themselves out for any criminal service, from 
the passing of contraband goods to assassina¬ 
tion. It had central stations in all the large 
provincial towns, and a regular staff of recruit¬ 
ing officers. Though properly a secret society, 
it did not find it necessary under the regime of 
the Bourbons to conceal its operations; but 
under the present government of united Italy, 
the society, if it has not quite ceased to exist, 
has lost almost all its power, except in the 
wilder parts of Southern Italy. See Mafia and 
Vendetta. 

Campagna (kam-pan-ya) a town of s. Italy, 
province of Salerno, surrounded by high 
mountains. It is the seat of a bishopric, and 
contains a superb cathedral. Pop. 9,028. 

Campagna di Roma (kam-pan'ya), the 
coast region of Middle Italy, in which Rome 
is situated, from 30 to 40 mi. wide and 100 long, 
and forming the undulating mostly unculti¬ 
vated plain which extends from near Civita 
Vecchia, or Yiterbo to Terracina, and in¬ 
cludes the Pontine Marshes. The district is 
volcanic, and its lakes, Regillus, Albano, 
Nemi, etc., are evidently craters of extinct 
volcanoes. The soil is very fertile in the 
lower parts, though its cultivation is much 
neglected, owing to the malaria which makes 
residence there during midsummer very dan¬ 
gerous; and during the months of July, August, 
and September its inhabitants, chiefly herds¬ 
men and peasants, seek refuge in Rome or the 
neighboring towns. In ancient times the 
Campagna, though never a salubrious dis¬ 
trict, was well cultivated and populated, the 
villas of the Roman aristocracy being numerous 
here. 

Campa'nia, the ancient name of a province 
of Italy, in the former kingdom of Naples, 
which, on account of its beauty and fertility, 
was a favorite resort of wealthy Romans, who 
built there magnificent country houses. It 
comprises the modern provinces of Caserta, 
Naples, and parts of Salerno and Avellino. 
Cumae (the oldest Greek settlement in Italy), 
Puteoli, Naples, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Baiae, 
Stabiae, Salernum, and Capua (its ancient capi¬ 
tal) were the principal cities of Campania. 
Even now Campania is the most beautiful and 
fruitful part of Italy. 

Campanile (kam-pa-ne'la), a bell tower de¬ 
tached from the church to which it belongs, 
common in the church architecture of Italy 
Among the most remarkable examples are the 
beautiful campanile of the cathedral at Flor- 


Campanula 


Camphor. 


ence, designed by Giotto, and the famous lean¬ 
ing tower of Pisa. 

Campan ula, the 
bell-flower genus, 
a large genus of 
plants which gives 
its name to the 
order Campanula- 
ceae. The species 
are herbaceous 
plants, with bell¬ 
shaped flowers usu¬ 
ally of a blue 
white color. It in 
eludes several 
American species, 
which are known 
to all lovers of wild 
flowers. The hare¬ 
bell or rock-bell 
flower, found in all 
the states on damp 
rocks and rocky 
streams, is an ex¬ 
ceedingly delicate 

plant. Canterbury Bell. 

Campbell, Sir Colin. See Clyde, Lord. 

Campbell, Sir Alexander, b. 1822, a Cana¬ 
dian statesman, went to Canada when a boy, 
and in 1843 was called to the bar of Upper 
Canada. In 1856 he was made queen’s counsel. 
He sat in the Legislative Council of Canada 
before the union. In 1867 he was made post¬ 
master general and afterward minister of the 
interior. In 1878 he was postmaster general 
and minister of the militia in the Liberal-Con¬ 
servative administration. He entered the sen¬ 
ate and became leader of the government party 
in that body; in 1881 was made ministerof jus¬ 
tice, and in 1885 postmaster general. In 1887 
he was elected lieut. gov. of Ontario. D. 1892. 

Campbell, Alexander (1788-1866), Ameri¬ 
can theologian. His father Thomas, a clergy¬ 
man, came to this country in 1807. He spent 
a year in the University of Glasgow, and in 
1809 came to America, and for a short time 
was pastor of a Presbyterian church. He be¬ 
came dissatisfied with that sect. His father 
sympathized with him, and in 1810 they formed 
a sect of.their own, which they called the 
“ Disciples of Christ,” better known as “ Camp- 
bellites.” In 1840-41 he founded Bethany Col¬ 
lege, of which he was the first president, hold¬ 
ing this office until his death. 

Campbell, Bartley (1843-1888), American 
dramatist. He began his life as a newspaper 
reporter in Pittsburg, and founded the Evening 
Mail of that city in 1868. In 1871 he began 
writing for the stage, and produced Through 
Fire , and the following year Peril. Among his 
later plays were The Big Bonanza, My Partner, 
The Galley Slave, My Geraldine, and Siberia. 
Campbell died insane. 

Campbell, John (Lord Campbell) (1779-1861), 
lord chancellor of England. He is known as 
the author of a considerable work, Lives of the 
Chancellors, which with its supplementary vols., 
Lives of the Chief Justices, enjoyed great popu¬ 
larity. 



Campbell, John Archibald ( 1811-1889 ), 
American public man. He graduated at the 
University of Georgia in 1826, practised law 
in Alabama, and was a member of the legisla¬ 
ture of that state. President Pierce made 
him an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme 
Court in 1853. He resigned in 1861 to become 
assistant secretary of war of the Confederacy. 

Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844), a noted Eng¬ 
lish poet. After leaving Glasgow University he 
resided for a short time in Edinburgh, and all 
at once attained the zenith of his fame by 
publishing, in 1799, his Pleasures of Hope. In 
1803, after spending some time in Germany, 
Campbell published an edition of the Pleasures 
of Hope with the addition of the lyrics Hohen - 
linden. Ye Mariners of England, and the Exile 
of Erin. In 1809 he published Gertrude of 
Wyoming, Lord Ullim's Daughter, and the Bat¬ 
tle of the Baltic. He became editor in 1820 of 
the New Monthly Magazine. He took an active 
part in the foundation of London University, 
and in 1827 was elected rector of Glasgow Uni¬ 
versity. He died at Boulogne, and was in¬ 
terred in the Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. 

Campeachy (or Campeche), a seaport of 
Mexico, in the state and on the bay of the 
same name, on the w. coast of the peninsula 
of Yucatan, a mart for logwood and wax. 
Cigars are manufactured, and ships are built, 
though the harbor can only admit small ves¬ 
sels. Pop. 15,196. The state Campeachy has 
an area of 25,832 sq. mi., a pop. of 90,413. 

Camphene (kam'fen), the generic name for 
the volatile oils or hydrocarbons, isomeric or 
polymeric with oil or turpentine, as oil of ber¬ 
gamot, cloves, copaiba, hops, juniper, orange, 
pepper, etc. They are liquid at ordinary 
temperatures, and are distinguished from each 
other by their odors. 

Camphine (kam' fen), the commercial term 
for purified oil of turpentine, obtained by dis¬ 
tilling the oil over quicklime to free it from 
resin. It is used in lamps, and gives a very 
brilliant light; but to prevent smoking, the 
lamp must have a very strong draught. With 
oxygen it forms camphor. 

Cam'phor, a whitish, translucent substance, 
of a granular or foliated fracture, and some¬ 
what unctuous to the touch, which is mostly 
extracted from two or three kinds of trees of 
the laurel tribe. It has a bitterish, aromatic 
taste and a strong characteristic smell. In 
chemical character it belongs to the vegetable 
oils. The common camphor of the shops is 
obtained from the camphor laurel, a native of 
China and Japan, now naturalized in many 
other countries. The camphor is chiefly pre¬ 
pared in the island of Formosa, though also 
exported from Japan, and to a small extent 
from China. The wood is cut into chips and 
distilled with water, the vapor of camphor 
rising with the steam being collected in the 
head of the still. After collection camphor oil 
drains off. In the refining process the grains 
of impure camphor are detached, and being 
introduced, along with a small proportion of 
quicklime, into a large globular glass vessel in 
quantities of about ten pounds, are reheated, 


Campl 

when first the water rises in steam, and is 
allowed to escape at a small aperture; and 
thereafter, this aperture being closed, the 
camphor sublimes and resolidifies in the in¬ 
terior upper part of the flask as a semi-trans¬ 
parent cake, leaving all the impurities behind. 
The flakes are then cooled and broken by 
throwing cold water on them, and the cam¬ 
phor taken out and sent into market. It is a 
white, tough solid, slightly lighter than water. 
It is very sparingly soluble in water, but 
freely soluble in alcohol, ether, acetic acid, 
and the essential oils. It fuses at 347°, and 
boils at 399°, but volatilizes somewhat rapidly 
at ordinary temperatures. When set fire to, it 
burns with a white, smoky flame. Thrown 
upon water, it floats, and may be set fire to. 
It has a peculiar hot, aromatic taste, and an 
agreeable characteristic odor. Borneo cam¬ 
phor is the product of a tree 100 to 130 ft. high, 
found in Borneo and Sumatra. Borneo cam¬ 
phor is not procured by distillation, but is 
found in masses, secreted naturally in cavities 
in the trunk and greater branches. Numerous 
other vegetables, such as thyme, rosemary, 
sage, etc., are found to yield camphor by dis¬ 
tillation. In medicine camphor is used both 
as an external and internal stimulant. In 
small doses it acts as an anodyne and anti- 
spasmodic; in large doses it acts as a poison. 
Its effluvia being very noxious to insects, it is 
much used to protect specimens in natural 
history. It readily dissolves in alcohol, oils, 
etc., and in this way is much used as a lini¬ 
ment. It evaporates or volatilizes at ordinary 
temperatures. A third kind of camphor, 
blumea camphor, is prepared in China from a 
tall, composite plant. 

Campi, a family of Italian artists who 
founded what is known in painting as the 
school of Cremona. Of the four of this name, 
Giulio, Antonio, Vincenzo, and Bernardino, the 
first and the last are the best known. Giulio 
(1502-72), the eldest and the teacher of the 
others, was a pupil of Giulio Romano, and ac¬ 
quired from the study of Titian and Pordenone 
a skill in coloring which gave the school its 
high place. Bernardino (1525-90) was the great¬ 
est of the school. He took Romano, Titian, 
Correggio in succession as his models, but with¬ 
out losing his own individuality as an artist. 

Campobas'so, a town of Italy, province of 
Campobasso, on a hill slope, 52 mi. n.e. Naples; 
has manufactures of cutlery, and a good trade. 
Pop. 14,818. The province (formerly Molise) 
has an area of 1,771 sq. mi.; pop. 385,140. 

Campobel'lo, an island 8 mi. long, belong¬ 
ing to New Brunswick, Canada, in the Bay of 
Fundy, with a lighthouse on its northern ex¬ 
tremity. 

Campo Formio, a town in Italy, 66 mi. n.e. 
of Venice, famous for the treaty of peace be¬ 
tween Austria and France which was signed in 
its neighborhood on Oct. 17, 1797. Its chief 
provisions were that Austria should cede the 
Belgian provinces and Lombardy to France, 
receiving in compensation the Venetian states. 

Campo=Santo (lit. “ Holy Field ”), the name 
given to a burying ground in Italy, best known 


Canada 

as the appellation of the more remarkable, 
such as are surrounded with arcades and richly 
adorned. The most famous Campo-Santo is 
that of Pisa, which dates from the twelfth 
century, and has on its walls frescoes of the 
fourteenth century of great interest in the 
history of art. Among more modern Italian 
cemeteries, that of Genoa is distinguished for 
its magnificence. 

Campus Martius (called also Campus , 
merely), was a large place in the suburbs of 
ancient Rome, consisting of the level ground 
between the Quirinal, Capitoline, and Pincian 
hills, and the River Tiber, set apart for mili¬ 
tary exercises, and sacred to the god Mars. 
In the later period of the republic it was a 
suburban pleasure ground for the Romans, and 
was laid out with gardens, shady walks, baths, 
etc. Large part of the modern city stands 
on it. 

Camuccini (ka-mut-che' ne), Vincenzo (1775- 
1844), a distinguished Italian historical painter. 
He followed the pseudo-classical style, and his 
pictures are of large size. Among his best 
known works are Death of Ccesar, Death of Vir¬ 
ginia, The Incredulity of Thomas, Horatius 
Codes, Death of Mary Magdalene. 

Camwood, a red dye-wood imported from 
tropical West Africa, and obtained from a 
leguminous tree. This wood is of a very fine 
color, and is used in turnery for making knife 
handles and other similar articles. The dye 
obtained from it is brilliant, but not perma¬ 
nent. It is called sometimes Barwood, though 
this name belongs to another tree. 

Cana, a village of Palestine in Galilee, the 
scene of Christ’s first miracle; probably repre¬ 
sented by Kana el Jelil, a modern village 9 
mi. n. of Nazareth. 

Canaan (ka'nan). See Palestine. 

Canaanites, the general name for the hea¬ 
then peoples (Jebusites, Hittites, Amorites, 
etc.) whom the Israelites found dwelling in 
Canaan (Palestine) west of the Jordan, and 
whom latterly they utterly subdued, though 
the subjugation was not quite complete till 
Solomon’s time. They are believed to have 
been, in part, at least, of kindred race to the 
Israelites; and some authorities find traces of 
their descendants among the present inhabit¬ 
ants of Palestine. 

Canada, Dominion of, an extensive series 
of British territories in North America, the 
greatest of Britain’s colonial possessions, com¬ 
prising the provinces of Ontario (formerly Up¬ 
per Canada), Quebec (formerly Lower Canada), 
Nova Scotia, New. Brunswick, British Colum¬ 
bia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, 
along with the vast regions in the north and 
northwest known as the Northwest Territo¬ 
ries, and another vast region north of Que¬ 
bec known as the Northeast Territory. The 
Dominion thus embraces the whole of British 
North America, with the exception of New¬ 
foundland and part of Labrador (which be¬ 
longs to Newfoundland), and its area is not 
much less than that of Europe. The follow¬ 
ing shows the population of the provinces of 
the Dominion (some of which have recently 


Canada 


Canada 


had their boundaries altered), according to 
the census of 1891. British Columbia, 92,766; 
Manitoba, 154,442; New Brunswick, 321,294; 
Nova Scotia, 450,523; Ontario, 2,112,909; 
Prince Edward Island, 109,088; Quebec, 1,488,- 
586; Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Assiniboia, 
61,487. Unorganized, 32,168. Total, 4,823,- 
344. 

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 
Edward Island are called the “ Maritime Prov¬ 
inces,” though British Columbia, being on the 
Pacific, is also a maritime province. In the 
Northwest Territories four districts have been 
marked out: Assiniboia, area 95,000 sq. mi.; 
Saskatchewan, 114,000sq. mi.; Alberta, 100,000 
sq. mi.; Athabasca, 122,000 sq. mi. There is 
also the district of Kewatin, subordinate to 
Manitoba. The boundaries of the dominion 
are: the Atlantic on the east, the U. S. on the 
south, the Pacific and Alaska on the west, and 
the Arctic Ocean on the north. 

Coasts .—On the east the coast line is very 
irregular, being marked by deep indentations 
and fringed by islands. The province of Nova 
Scotia forms an odd peninsula projection with 
the Bay of Fundy between it and the mainland, 
while north of it is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
shut in from the Atlantic by Cape Breton Island 
and Newfoundland. In the gulf are the Island 
of Anticosti and Prince Edward Island. The 
chief features of the north coast are the Archi¬ 
pelago of the Arctic islands and the great 
opening of Hudson’s Bay, connected with the 
Atlantic by Hudson’s Strait, and having as its 
southern continuation James Bay. On the 
west coast are Vancouver Island, the Queen 
Charlotte Islands, and many others. The 
southern boundary is most remarkable for 
passing through the system of great lakes— 
Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, between 
the last two of which are the Falls of Niagara, 
partly belonging to Canada, partly to the U.S. 

To the Atlantic the drainage of these lakes 
is carried by the St. Lawrence with which 
river, and the great gulf into which it ex¬ 
pands, are connected the provinces of Ontario, 
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and 
Prince Edward Island, together containing by 
far the greater portion of the population of the 
dominion. 

Surface .—Canada may be divided roughly 
into three great regions: a region of woodlands 
and hills or undulating ground in the e., a 
region of prairies in the middle, and a moun¬ 
tainous forest region in the w. The chief 
mountain ranges of the e. are n. and s. of the 
St. Lawrence, and run nearly parallel to that 
river. On the s. are the Shickshock Mountains 
and the Notre Dame range, the former rising 
to the height of 4,000 ft. On the n. is the 
Laurentian range (perhaps attaining 4,000 ft.), 
running in a westerly direction from the Labra¬ 
dor coast to the Ottawa River, and forming the 
watershed between the rivers which flow into 
the St. Lawrence and those which flow into 
Hudson’s Bay. The prairie region and great 
wheat-producing tract extends n.w. of Lake 
Superior to the Rocky Mountains. This is a 
great region of plains, with low hills in some 


places; it is well wooded in many parts, else¬ 
where bare or with a mixture of woodland and 
prairie. On the Pacific slope we have a dis¬ 
tinctly mountainous region, including the 
Rockies, some peaks of which (Mt. Hooker, 
Mt. Brown) attain a height of about 16,000 ft., 
as also the Gold and the Cascade ranges. 

Lakes and Rivers.— The vast lake and river 
systems which Canada possesses of its own, 
or shares with the U. S. give it a unique char¬ 
acter. Everywhere in the interior are rivers 
and lakes. To Hudson’s Bay flow the Albany, 
Nelson, Churchill, and many other streams; to 
the Arctic Ocean, the Mackenzie, Coppermine, 
and Back or Great Fish River; to the Pacific, 
the Fraser, Skeena, Stickeen, etc. The basin 
of the St Lawrence, with the connected lakes 
Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, 
affords a continuous water way from the At¬ 
lantic to the interior of the continent. To this 
system belong the Ottawa, Gatineau,Richelieu, 
St. Maurice, Saguenay, and other rivers. In 
the prairie region and the northwest are similar 
great lake and river systems, formed by the 
Saskatchewan, Nelson, Churchill, Athabasca, 
and Mackenzie rivers, and the great lakes 
Winnipeg, Athabasca, Great Slave, and Great 
Bear. The Saskatchewan, lying in the heart 
of the rich, wheat growing district, must in 
time prove a far more important water way 
than at present. The Mackenzie and its con¬ 
nected lakes and rivers form the most remark¬ 
able feature of the far northwest. This river, 
including its tributary, the Peace, has a length 
of perhaps 2,500 mi., and drains an area of 
550,000 sq. mi., or almost double that of the 
St. Lawrence basin. Between the Mackenzie 
system and Hudson’s Bay is a great region called 
from its desolate character the Barren Grounds. 

Geology and Minerals .—As regards the geo¬ 
logical features of Canada, great part of the 
Dominion north of the St. Lawrence and west 
of Hudson’s Bay is covered with archasan rocks 
belonging to the Laurentian system, and con¬ 
sisting largely of granite and gneiss, with 
quartz rock, schist, limestone, etc. South of 
the St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia, is a considerable development of Car¬ 
boniferous strata. Between the archaean rocks 
and the Rocky Mountains is a great area of 
secondary (Mesozoic) strata. In the Rocky 
Mountain region the archasan, palaeozoic, 
mesozoic, and tertiary systems are represented. 
Canada has great mineral wealth. Iron of the 
best quality has been found in great abundance 
in Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. 
The district round Lake Superior and the up¬ 
per part of Lake Huron abounds in copper, and 
has much silver as well; and Nova Scotia, 
Assiniboia, Alberta, and British Columbia are 
rich in coal. In Nova Scotia there are a num¬ 
ber of coal mines worked; gold is also ob¬ 
tained in some quantity, as well as iron. Coal 
is worked in the northwest, and more exten¬ 
sively in British Columbia; but the most val¬ 
uable mineral of the latter is gold, of which 
more than $50,000,000 has been obtained since 
1858. British Columbia is also rich in iron. 
The chief oil district is the peninsula in the 


Canada 


Canada 


province of Ontario formed by Lakes Erie and 
Huron and the river St. Clair. Other useful 
mineral products are salt, gypsum, phosphate 
of lime, slate, asbestos, plumbago, antimony, 
and building stone. 

Animals .—The chief wild animals (some of 
them represented by several species) are the 
deer, buffalo, musk-ox, bear, wolf, fox, otter, 
beaver, squirrel, raccoon, muskrat, marten, 
etc. The largest of the deer kind i§ the moose, 
or elk. The reindeer occurs in the north. 
The grizzly bear is' met with in the Rocky 
Mountains, and the polar bear in the extreme 
north and northeast. Fur-bearing animals are 
so numerous as to have been a source of reve¬ 
nue to a large trading company like the Hud¬ 
son’s Bay company for over two centuries. 
There are birds in great variety, Canada hav¬ 
ing more than 700 of these altogether. They 
include the wild swan, wild turkey, geese and 
ducks of various kinds, partridges, quail, prai- 
rie-fowl, pigeon, woodcock, snipe, plover, etc.; 
besides eagles, hawks, owls, and many smaller 
birds, among which are two species of hum¬ 
ming-bird. Except at certain seasons game 
of all kinds may be shot at will. The rattle¬ 
snake and other snakes occur, but are less 
common than in the U. S. The seas, lakes, 
and rivers, especially the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
and the neighboring waters, abound in almost 
all kinds offish, and the fisheries are extremely 
valuable, employing over 250,000 people. The 
chief sea fish caught are cod, herring, mack¬ 
erel, halibut, haddock, hake, shad, salmon, etc. 
The rivers and lakes abound with salmon, 
whitefish, bass, trout, sturgeon, maskinonge, 
pike, pickerel, etc. The seal and whale fish¬ 
eries are also valuable. Lobsters and oysters 
are abundant and excellent. 

Vegetation .— The forests are of great extent, 
and the timber trade is a great source of 
wealth. In the forests grow more than sixty 
kinds of trees." Among the most valuable are 
the white and red pine, white and black 
spruce, maple, ash, beech, oak, walnut, but¬ 
ternut, chestnut, basswood, birch, cedar, etc. 
The forests of British Columbia produce the 
largest timber, the Douglas pine being the 
chief tree. The balsam poplar grows to an 
immense size on the Athabasca, Peace, and 
Mackenzie Rivers, and even at the mouth 
of the last, within the Arctic Circle, trees of 
some size are found. The sugar maple, a forest 
tree attaining the height of 120 ft. flourishes 
in the greater part of the St. Lawrence valley 
up to lat. 49°, and is much valued for the 
sugar that is obtained from it. There are a 
great many varieties of wild fruits, as the wild 
plum, wild cherry, raspberry, service-berry, 
cranberry, gooseberry, strawberry, black and 
red currant, wild vine, blueberry, buffalo berry, 
etc.,and numerous wild flowers and flowering 
shrubs. Of the wild fruits, the raspberry, the 
cranberry, and the blueberry are alone impor¬ 
tant economically. 

Climate .— The climate differs very much in 
different places. British Columbia on the 
Pacific coast, and Nova Scotia and the other 
Alantic regions are very dissimilar to the 


prairie region of the center. In Ontario and 
the region of the Upper St. Lawrence it may 
be described as temperate. Generally the cli¬ 
mate of the Dominions shows considerable ex¬ 
tremes of heat and cold, but, except in some 
of the coast regions, the exceeding dryness of 
the Canadian atmospheres makes both ex¬ 
tremes of temperature pleasant and healthy. 
Apart from the portions of the Dominion that 
fall within the Arctic Circle, Labrador, and all 
the country e. of Hudson’s Bay have the most 
severe climate. The Pacific coast region has 
a decidedly moist climate. The peninsula 
lying between Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron 
has the finest climate, allowing of fruits, 
shrubs, and flowers to be grown that cannot 
stand the winter elsewhere. The Mackenzie 
River district — especially in'the region of the 
Peace River, where the temperature through¬ 
out the year is remarkably genial — possesses 
a climate much less severe than one might 
expect, and would allow of agriculture almost 
to the Arctic Ocean. 

Agriculture .—Both by soil and climate Can¬ 
ada is specially adapted for agriculture. Within 
the last few years its agricultural importance 
has greatly increased, and when the great 
prairies are brought under cultivation Canada 
will be one of the chief agricultural countries 
in the world. In general, sowing is later than 
in the northern parts of Britain, but the har¬ 
vest is gathered earlier, a large part of it 
usually before the end of July, so rapid is the 
growth during the hot Canadian summer. The 
chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, 
buckwheat, potatoes, turnips, mangle-wurzel, 
etc., and cattle, horses, and sheep are exported. 
The province of Ontario has an agricultural 
college and model farm at Guelph, and there 
are also model farms in Quebec. Fruit grow¬ 
ing in now an important industry in certain 
localities, and large quantities of apples are 
exported, as well as canned and dried fruits. 
Peaches are grown to most advantage in the 
Niagara district of Ontario, where peach or¬ 
chards many acres in extent are to be seen. 
The vine is cultivated too, and good wine is 
made. Pears, plums, and many kinds of berry 
fruits, etc., are produced in great perfection. 

Commerce .—The trade of the Dominion is 
chiefly with the U. S. and Great Britain. 
About four fifths of the whole exports are sent 
to these two countries, while nearly nine tenths 
of the imports come from them. Besides tim¬ 
ber, animals and their produce, and agricul¬ 
tural products, the chief articles of export are 
fish, coal and other minerals, leather, and 
wooden goods. The imports chiefly consist 
of manufactured goods, coal, iron, tea, coffee, 
sugar, cotton, etc. A uniform decimal system 
of coinage was established throughout the Do¬ 
minion in 1871. The unit of account is the 
dollar of 100 cents, the value of which is de¬ 
clared to be on the basis of 486 cents and two 
thirds of a cent to the pound of British ster¬ 
ling money. The average rate-of exchange 
makes the dollar equal to about 4 s. The money 
used consists of bank bills, and gold, silver, 
and bronze coins, besides government notes of 


Canada 


Canada 


small denominations up to 4 dollars, the bank 
bills being not of lower denominations than 5 
dollars. There is a uniform system of weights 
and measures, the Canadian standards being 
the same as the British imperial standards. 
The British hundredweight of 112 pounds and 
ton of 2,240 pounds are, however, superseded 
by the U. S. weights of 100 pounds and 2,000 
pounds respectively. 

Railways .— Of the railways the greatest is 
the Canadian Pacific Railway, running from 
Montreal across the whole continent to Van¬ 
couver on the Pacific coast in British Colum¬ 
bia; length about 2,900 mi. exclusive of 
branches. The Grand Trunk Railway con¬ 
nects the maritime provinces and the north¬ 
eastern parts of the U. S., with the western 
railways. Another important railway is the 
Intercolonial Railway from Halifax in Nova 
Scotia to Quebec. Altogether the Dominion 
has now 14,633 mi. of railway. A railway has 
been begun to connect Winnipeg and Regina 
with Port Nelson on Hudson’s Bay. This route 
will only be available for perhaps half of the 
year on account of ice in Hudson Strait and 
Bay. 

Canals .—Some of the canals are stupendous 
achievements. The most important, from a 
commercial point of view, are the St. Law¬ 
rence Canals and the Welland Canal. The 
former series of canals, with an aggregate 
length of about 70 mi., avoids the rapids on 
the St. Lawrence between Montreal and King¬ 
ston on Lake Ontario, and thus affords to ves¬ 
sels the means of ascending to that lake (in 
descending vessels of 700 tons can shoot the 
rapids with safety); and the latter, with a 
length of 27 mi., avoids the Niagara falls and 
rapids, and enables vessels to ascend from 
Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Both the Wel¬ 
land Canal and the St Lawrence series have 
been enlarged and deepened so as to accommo¬ 
date the increased traffic expected as a result 
of the settlement of the northwestern prov¬ 
inces, and the construction of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway. The Rideau Canal connects 
Lake Ontario at Kingston with the Ottawa 
near the city of that name. 

Constitution , Etc .—By the Act of Confedera¬ 
tion of 1867 the constitution of the Dominion 
was required to be similar in principle to that 
of the United Kingdom. There is a central 
federal government and separate provincial 
governments and legislatures. The central ex¬ 
ecutive government is vested in the sovereign 
of Great Britain and Ireland, and is carried on 
by a governor general appointed by the crown, 
and a privy council. The governor general has 
a salary of $50,000 per annum. He is assisted 
by a privy council consistingof the prime min¬ 
ister and twelve other ministers or heads of de¬ 
partments. The legislative authority rests 
with a Parliament consisting of two houses, 
the Senate and the House of Commons. The 
Senate consists of seventy-eight members, who 
are nominated by the governor general. Each 
senator must be a born or naturalized subject, 
thirty years of age, and possessed of real or 
personal property to the value of at least $4,000 


in the province for which he is appointed. 
The House of Commons is elected by the people 
for five years, there being one member for 
about every 20,000 of the population. There is 
a uniform franchise, a vote being given to 
every male of twenty-one years of age, pos¬ 
sessed of a small property qualification. Each 
of the provinces has a separate parliament and 
administration, independent in its own sphere, 
at the head being a lieutenant governor ap¬ 
pointed by the central government. Ontario, 
Manitoba, and British Columbia have only one 
chamber; the other provinces have two. The 
administration of justice is based on the Eng¬ 
lish model, except in Quebec province, where 
the old French law prevails. The only court 
that has jurisdiction throughout the Dominion 
(except the Exchequer and the Maritime Court) 
is the Supreme Court, the ultimate court of 
appeal in civil and criminal cases. In certain 
cases an appeal may be had to Her Majesty’s 
Privy Council. The capital of the Dominion 
is Ottawa, but the largest cities are Montreal, 
Toronto, and Quebec. Canada has both a large 
volunteer force and a militia. The former 
comprises many well equipped organizations 
in infantry, cavalry, and artillery. 

Religion and Education .—There is no state 
church in the Dominion. The prevailing re¬ 
ligion in Quebec is that of the Roman Catholic 
church. In Ontario Methodists predominate, , 
then Presbyterians, the English Church, f and 
the Roman Catholics. Of the total population 
in 1891, 1,791,892 were Roman Catholics, 742,- 
981 Methodists, 676,165 Presbyterians, 574,818 
Anglicans. Education is well attended to, be¬ 
ing everywhere more or less under the super¬ 
vision of government, and excellent free schools 
being provided. In Ontario, Quebec, and Man¬ 
itoba separate public schools are provided for 
Roman Catholics; in the other provinces the 
schools are unsectarian. All the colonies ex¬ 
cept British Columbia have universities or col¬ 
leges. 

People .—The total population, 1891, was 4,- 
820,411. Ontario is settled principally by emi¬ 
grants from Great Britain and their descend¬ 
ants, with considerable numbers of Germans 
and Americans. In the province of Quebec 
the people are mostly French in origin, speech, 
and customs, being mainly descendants of the 
French colonists who inhabited the region 
before it became British, There are, besides, 
the Indian tribes and the Eskimo, the latter 
in the extreme north. The Indians are esti¬ 
mated to number about 130,000. They are 
divided into various tribes as well as larger 
stocks or races, such as the Tinneh or Atha¬ 
bascan Indians, the Thlinkets, and Hydahs of 
British Columbia and the west coast, the Al- 
gonquins, Hurons, Iroquois, etc., of the St. 
Lawrence region. In the old provinces sepa¬ 
rate land allotments have been granted to the 
Indian population. The majority of the In¬ 
dians, however, live beyond the influences of 
this kind of civilization, and wander over the 
northwest, supporting themselves by fishing 
and hunting, carrying their furs to the forts or 
trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company. 


Canada 


Canada 


History .—English ships were the first to 
reach the shores of what is now Canada. In 
1497 John Cabot, sailing from Bristol, landed 
on the coast of Labrador, and planted the 
English flag there. But it was the French 
navigator Jacques Cartier who first really- 
opened up Canada for European settlers. 
Some years later vigorous attempts at coloni¬ 
zation were made. The Sieur de Roberval 
was appointed Viceroy of New France, as the 
newly-discovered territory had. been called, 
and under his leadership and that of Cartier 
two hundred colonists were landed, who, after 
struggling for two winters, had eventually to 
return. Martin Frobisher in 1576, and Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, explored and took 
formal possession of Newfoundland and the 
adjacent coasts. In 1603 Samuel Champlain, 
a French naval officer, sailed up the St. Law¬ 
rence to where the city of Montreal now stands. 
At length, in 1608, a French Colony under the 
leadership of Champlain and Des Monts set¬ 
tled at Quebec. Two years later another En¬ 
glish navigator, Henry Hudson, explored the 
river and the bay which bear his name. In 
1627, the fur trade having made considerable 
development under the guidance of Champlain, 
Cardinal Richelieu organized the company for 
the further colonization of New France. At 
Champlain’s death in 1635 it numbered but 
250 Europeans, and in 1663 was still under 
2,000. The most formidable foes of the colo¬ 
nists were the Iroquois Indians. In 1663, Col¬ 
bert being at the head of affairs in France, 
fresh supplies of emigrants and a strong body 
of troops were sent out to Canada. Under the 
governorship of Count de Fontenac the ex¬ 
ploration of Jesuit missionaries, and of the 
adventurers Joliet and La Salle, opened up the 
region of the Mississippi and the “Great 
West;” but the French generally preferred an 
adventurous life to the solid pursuits of agri¬ 
culture. 

The French did not altogether neglect in¬ 
dustrial development; they laid the foundation 
of shipbuilding at Quebec, encouraged the fur 
trade and other industries; but in general 
their colonists lacked the qualifications for 
agricultural and other settled pursuits. The 
British colonists, on the other hand, stuck to 
agriculture, and reclaimed every year great 
tracts of forest land. As a natural consequence 
their population rapidly increased, and when 
the final struggle began, the British colonies in 
America numbered 3,000,000 of prosperous in¬ 
habitants against some 60,000 French colonists 
hampered by feudal tenures, commercial mo¬ 
nopolies, and a corrupt set of officials. A little 
later occurred the incident of the expulsion of 
the Acadian peasants (immortalized in Long¬ 
fellow’s Evangeline ), of whom about 7,000 still 
remained in Nova Scotia, mostly on the shores 
of the Bay of Fundy. 

Canada was formally annexed to the British 
Empire, and in 1774 an act passed in the Brit¬ 
ish Parliament (the Quebec act) extended the 
bounds of the province from Labrador to the 
Mississippi and from the Ohio to the watershed 
of Hudson’s Bay. In 1775 the war of the Ameri¬ 


can Revolution broke out, and Canada became 
the scene of a brief struggle between the royal¬ 
ists and the revolted colonists of New England. 
Thousands of American royalists sought new 
homes in Canada, and a large number settled 
on the St. John River, and had that district 
erected into the separate province of New 
Brunswick. More than 10,000 settled in On¬ 
tario, where they received liberal grants of 
land. In 1791 Canada was divided into two 
provinces—Upper Canada or Ontario, and 
Lower Canada or Quebec—the latter still re¬ 
taining its seigneurial tenure and French law in 
civil cases. In Upper Canada British law and 
freehold tenure were introduced. From 1812 to 
1815, war having broken out between Great 
Britain and America, Canada was again the 
theater of a bloody strife, among the chief in¬ 
cidents of which were Brock’s victory over the 
Americans on the heights of Queenstown, and 
the battles of Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane, Mora¬ 
vian’s Town, etc. In 1837-38 the discontent 
of the people of Lower Canada with their sys¬ 
tem of irresponsible government took the form 
of a rebellion, which was repressed after a 
brief but sharp struggle. The year 1839 was 
distinguished by the celebrated “ Boundary 
Dispute” between New Brunswick and the 
U. S. After threatening preparations on both 
sides the quarrel was settled in 1842 by the 
Ashburton Treaty, which fixed the forty-fifth 
parallel as the boundary line westward from 
the disputed territory to the St. Lawrence, and 
the forty-ninth parallel, from the Lake of the 
Woods to the Pacific, the central line of the 
Great Lakes and their connecting rivers com¬ 
pleting the boundary. The result of the rebel¬ 
lion of 1837-38 and Lord Durham’s report, was 
the reunion in 1841 of Upper and Lower Can¬ 
ada as one province with equal representation 
in the common legislature, and the practical 
concession on the part of the mother country 
of responsible government. Kingston was se¬ 
lected as the new seat of government, and 
three years afterward Montreal. In 1848 the 
Parliament House at Montreal having been 
burned in a riot, the seat of government was 
removed to Toronto and Quebec alternately 
every four years. In 1854 the Reciprocity 
Treaty with America was concluded, accord¬ 
ing to which there was to be free exchange of 
the products of sea and land, with navigation 
of the St. Lawrence, the St. John, and the 
canals, and the use of the inshore fisheries in 
the British waters to the Americans and of 
Lake Michigan to the Canadians. In 1858 Ot¬ 
tawa was finally selected as the capital of Can¬ 
ada, the choice having been referred to the 
queen. In 1866 the Reciprocity Treaty with 
the U. S. having expired, the government of 
that country practically refused to renew it ex¬ 
cept on the most disadvantageous terms for 
Canada. About the same time a Fenian expe¬ 
dition against Canada, originating in the U. S. 
began to be heard of. The filibusters crossed 
the frontier, were routed by the Canadian 
militia, and dispersed by American troops. 

In 1867, March 28, the British North Amer¬ 
ica act for confederation of the colonies passed 


Canada Balsam 


Canal 


the imperial Parliament. It united Upper 
Canada or Ontario, Lower Canada or Quebec, 
New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, into one 
territory, to be named the Dominion of Can¬ 
ada. Newfoundland declared against joining 
the confederation, but with that, exception all 
the British territory north of the U. S. was 
gradually included within the Dominion—the 
Hudson Bay Company territory by purchase 
in 1868, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island in 1873. In 1870 an insurrection 
of the Red River settlers, who were under ap¬ 
prehensions as to how their titles to their lands 
might be affected by the cession of the Hud¬ 
son Bay Company’s rights, took place under 
the leadership of Louis Riel. To reassure the 
settlers, a part of the newly-purchased terri¬ 
tory was erected into an independent province 
under the name of Manitoba, the unorganized 
territory beyond receiving the name of the 
Northwestern Territory. In 1871 the Wash¬ 
ington Treaty arranged that the fisheries of 
both Canada and the U. S. v should be open to 
each country for the next twelve years, Can¬ 
ada receiving a compensation, afterward fixed 
at five and a half million dollars, for the supe¬ 
rior value of its fisheries. On Nov. 7, 1885, 
the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, 
being opened for through traffic the follow¬ 
ing year. Since 1883, when the Washington 
Treaty expired, disputes between the Ameri¬ 
can and Canadian fishermen have again been 
frequent, and several American fishing vessels 
have been seized on the British North Ameri¬ 
can coasts, and others prevented from buying 
bait. The present governor-general of Canada 
is the Earl of Minto. He was appointed in 
June, 1898, to succeed Lord Aberdeen, and ar¬ 
rived in Canada the following November. 

Canada Balsam, a fluid oleo-resin obtained 
from the balsam fir, common in Canada and 
the U. S., and also from Fraser’s balsam fir 
and the hemlock spruce. It is used in medi¬ 
cine, and in making varnishes, etc. 

Canada Goose, an American wild goose 30 
to 35 in. long, brownish above, lighter below, 
head, neck, bill, and feet black, a white patch 
on the cheek ; breeds in the north of the con¬ 
tinent, and migrates southward when the frost 
becomes severe. 

Canada Hemp, a perennial herb of the dog¬ 
bane family, native of North America. It has 
a strong fiber used by the Indians for twine, 
nets, woven fabrics, etc. 

Canada Rice, a floating grass growing in 
lakes and sluggish streams in Canada and 
the northern U. S., yielding a grain that forms 
part of the food of the Indians, and is eaten by 
whites also. 

Canadian Pacific Ry . See Pacific Railways. 

Canadian River, a river of New Mexico, 
Texas, and Indian Territory, a tributary of 
the Arkansas; length 900 mi. In 1897 a ter¬ 
rible cloudburst on its banks drowned many 
residents in the Indian Territory. 

Canal, an artificial water-course for the 
transportation of goods or passengers by boats 
or ships, or for purposes of drainage or irri¬ 
gation. The canals most familiar to ordinary 


readers are for navigation. These consist 
usually of a number of different sections, each 
on one level throughout its course, but differ¬ 
ing in relative height from the others. From 
one section to another boats are transferred by 
means of locks, or it may be by inclines or lifts. 
The lock is a water-tight enclosure with gates 
at either end, constructed between two succes¬ 
sive sections of a canal. When a vessel is de¬ 
scending, water is let into the lock till it is on 
a level with the higher water, and thus permits 
the vessel to enter; the upper gates are then 
closed, and by the lower gates being gradually 
opened, the water in the lock falls to the level 
of the lower water, and the vessel passes out. 
In ascending the operation is reversed. The 
incline conveys the vessel from one reach to 
another, generally on a specially constructed 
carriage running on rails, by means of drums 
and cables. The lift consists of two counter¬ 
balancing troughs, one going up as the other 
descends, carrying the vessel from the higher 
to the lower level, or vice versa. Works of great 
magnitude in the way of cuttings, embank¬ 
ments, aqueducts, bridges, tunnels, reservoirs 
for water supply, etc., are often necessary in 
constructing canals. Canals have been known 
from remote times, Egypt being intersected at 
an early period by canals branching off from 
the Nile to distant parts of the country, for 
purposes of irrigation and navigation. Under 
the Ptolemies, before the Christian era, there 
existed a canal between the Red Sea and the 
Nile. In China, also, canals were early made 
on a very large scale. In Holland, where the 
country is flat and water abundant, canals 
were constructed as early as the twelfth cen¬ 
tury. The lock, however, was not invented 
until the fifteenth century, both the Dutch 
and the Italians claiming the honor. Since 
then Europe has been provided with numerous 
canals, which being connected usually with 
navigable rivers, give access by water to most 
parts of its interior. 

Among the numerous canals o*f Holland, the 
most important is now the great ship canal, 
from 200 to 300 ft. wide and 23 ft. deep, which 
connects Amsterdam with the North Sea. In 
France there are many canals and canalized 
rivers, the principal being the Canal du Midi, 
branching off from the Garonne at Toulouse, 
and falling into the Gulf of Lyons at Narbonne, 
thus connecting the Bay of Biscay and Mediter¬ 
ranean, and three canals connecting the basins 
of the Rhone, Loire, Seine, and Rhine. The 
canals of France have a total length of 3,000 mi. 
In Belgium there is the Ghent-Terneuzen Ca¬ 
nal, which allows large vessels to sail to Ghent 
from the Scheldt estuary. The chief canals 
in Germany are the Ludwigs Canal in Bavaria, 
connecting (through the Main and Regnitz) 
the Rhine and the Danube; and the Holstein 
Canal, connecting the North Sea and Baltic by 
means of the Eider. The latter will be super¬ 
seded by the Great Baltic Canal for sea-going 
vessels, which is to be constructed at a cost of 
$40,000,000, starting near the mouth of the 
Elbe and reaching the Baltic near Kiel. In 
Russia there is canal and river communica- 


Canal 


Canal 


lion between the Caspian and the Baltic, large 
part of the route consisting of the Volga, in 
Britain one of the earliest and most celebrated 
is the Bridgewater Canal (1761-65), in Lanca¬ 
shire and Cheshire, with a length of 38 mi. In 
Scotland there are the Forth and Clyde Canal, 
35 mi. long, joining these t wo rivers; and the 
Caledonian, 60£ mi. (including lakes), from the 
Moray Firth on the east coast to Loch Eil on 
the west, passing through Loch Ness, Loch 
Oich, and Loch Lochy. In the British Islands 
there is a total length of canals of about 3,000 
mi., more than five sixths being in England. 
In America the most extensive undertaking of 
this kind is the canal connecting the Hudson 
with Lake Erie. It is 363 mi. in length, and 
carries an immense .traffic. In Canada the 
government has constructed, at great expense, 
the Welland Canal, uniting Lakes Erie and 
Ontario, and avoiding the Niagara River and 
its falls; and there are also other important 
canals. The greatest achievement in canal¬ 
making has been the Suez Canal. It is an 
example of a canal without locks, open at both 
ends to the sea, and freely supplied with sea¬ 
water. 

Among the greatest canals now in use is 
the Manchester Ship Canal, opened in Janu¬ 
ary, 1894, which connects Manchester with 
the Mersey, the Shropshire Union Canal, and 
the Weaver Navigation and Trent and Mersey 
Canal—the length is 354 mi., breadth 172 ft., 
and the depth 26 ft. 

On June 21, 1895, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal 
was opened by the Emperor of Germany 
This C. connects the North and Baltic Seas 
by passing through Schleswig-Holstein from 
the northern side of the mouth of the Elbe to the 
western shore of Kiel Fiord. On June 3, 1887, 
the foundation stone was laid by the Emperor 
William I. Far back in the Middle Ages, 
schemes for uniting the two seats were con¬ 
sidered, and plans and estimates \vere drawn 
up for carrying out the undertaking; yet it 
was not until the last century that a canal was 
actually formed. This was the Eider C., 
which, however, was suitable only for vessels 
of small draught. The Kaiser Wilhelm C. 
affords passage to the largest vessels afloat, 
and the squadrons of the different nations, 
represented at the opening ceremony, steamed 
through the C. from end to end without any 
difficulty or delay. 

In 1881 a ship C. was commenced across the 
Isthmus of Panama, a distance of 46 mi. In 
1888 the C. Company fell into monetary diffi¬ 
culties, and in the following year passed into 
liquidation. M. de Lesseps, the chief pro¬ 
moter of the scheme, retired from the manage¬ 
ment owing to failing health. Several of the 
directors were, proceeded against criminally, 
and convicted of fraudulent practises in con¬ 
nection with the undertaking. In 1893 further 
attempts were made to organize a new com¬ 
pany, and in 1894 the work was resumed as a 
tentative measure. The franchise was ex¬ 
tended until 1904 by Colombia. 

The alternative project and which found 
more favor in the II. S. was the Nicaragua 


Canal (which see). Expense and engineering 
difficulties have delayed this work. The 
Chicago Drainage Canal, blasted for miles 
through solid rock and destined to convey the 
waters of Lake Michigan into the Illinois 
River at Joliet, Is one of the great engineering 
works of the cent ury. 

Canal, Chicago Dkainage, a channel for the 
removal of Chicago's sewage, begun Sept. 3, 
1892, and one of the greatest engineering proj¬ 
ects of the century. It is an undertaking of 
the Sanitary District of Chicago, which was 
organized in 1889, under the authority of the 
legislature. Trustees were elected by the peo¬ 
ple of Chicago in 1890. Some sections are ex¬ 
cavated in solid rock, are 160 ft. wide, with 
perpendicular walls, and 30 to 35 ft. deep. 
When it is full earth-cut the bottom of the 
channel is 202 ft. wide. The full length of the 
channel is 28 mi. Its capacity per minute is 
600,000 cubic ft; maximum velocity of current 
per hour, 3 mi.; length of spillway, 397 ft. 
About 6,000 men were employed in construc¬ 
tion; the average amount of material removed 
daily was 60,000 cubic yards. The great work 
was completed in January, 1900, at a total 
cost of $30,000,000. It is one of the most in¬ 
teresting places in the world for the study of 
glacial geology. The most important fact, 
however, regarding this wonderful channel, 
is that it completes a link in the chain of 
great waterways, which will some day con¬ 
nect the entire inland commerce of this coun¬ 
try with that of South America, Asia, and the 
isles of the Pacific. 

Much of the machinery used for handling 
material in excavating the canal has been in¬ 
vented since the work was commenced. The 
traveling cableways consist of two towers 700 
ft. apart; the head tower is 93 ft. high and the 
tail tower is 73 ft. high. The head tower car¬ 
ries the engine, boilers, and machinery. The 
excavated material is dumped on the side of 
the canal which has the tail tower. A steel 
cable is stretched from tower to tower, directly 
across and high above the channel. On this 
cable travels a cable carriage which carries 
the pulley wheels and sheaves of the tackle that 
raises the loaded “skip” from the bed of the 
canal. The engineer does all the excavating 
except loading the skips. Each tower stands 
on trucks, the wheels of which run on tracks 
laid parallel to the channel. The skips are 
hoisted and travel over the cableway at the 
rate of 1,000 ft. a minute, and over 600 cubic 
yards of stone have been handled in 10 hours. 
Another machine is the cantalever conveyor. 
This machine resembles a swing bridge. One 
arm of the bridge extends over the working 
face, the other over the dumping bank. The 
inside arm is much lower than the outside. 
The cantalever is about 350 ft. long and is sup¬ 
ported by a tower in the center, which rises 
from a platform on which is all the machinery 
for lifting the material and moving the can¬ 
talever. The bridge carries a track on which 
a trolley car runs. This car is hauled up and 
down by an endless cable. The skips have a 
capacity of 75 cubic ft., and each is lifted, run 


Canaletto 

out, and dumped on the spoil bank and re¬ 
turned to the pit in about 50 seconds. One of 
these conveyors has been known to remove 890 
cubic yards in 10 hours and 45 minutes. Other 
machines used are revolving derricks which 
swing around on a turn-table like a swing 
bridge. The derrick has two long booms 
reaching out from a revolving tower. The 
skips are filled, lifted up, and swung around 
on the boom from the spoil bank. The chan¬ 
neling machine works upon a track laid along 
the edge of the rock channel with a long, heavy 
chisel shaped like the letter Z. It cuts a groove 
in the limestone nearly 8 in. wide and 10 or 12 
ft. deep. This cut makes a smooth wall for 
the channel and prevents injury to the sides 
from blasting. 

Canaletto.—1 , A Venetian painter (1697- 
1768), whose true name was Antonio Canale. 
He is chiefly celebrated for his pictures of 
Venice, and is said to have been the first to use 
the camera obscura for perspective, etc. 2, 
His nephew, Bernardo Belotti (1724-1780), 
who was likewise a good artist, lived in Dres¬ 
den, where he was a member of the Academy 
of Painters. The Canaletti developed the pic¬ 
torial treatment of architecture to a very high 
point. 

Canandaigua, Ontario co., N. Y., on Canan¬ 
daigua Lake, 29 mi. s.e. of Rochester. Rail¬ 
roads: New York Central, Auburn Div.; N. Y. 
C., Batavia branch; and Northern Central. 
Industries: two flouring mills, two iron foun¬ 
dries, anti-rust tin works, brewery, factories 
for the manufacture of agricultural imple¬ 
ments and pressed brick. Natural gas is found 
in limited quantities. The name Canandaigua 
is derived from the Indian “ Canadarque,” sig¬ 
nifying “The Chosen Spot.’’ The town was 
first settled in 1789, and became a village in 
1815. Pop. 1900, 6,151. 

Canary Bird, a singing bird, a kind of finch 



Norwich Canary. 


from the Canary Islands. They were intro¬ 
duced into Europe 300 or 400 years ago. A 


Canby 

large proportion of the cage canaries are really 
mules, produced by the interbreeding of cana¬ 
ries with allied species, such as the goldfinch, 
siskin, linnet, bullfinch. 

Canary Flower, an annual climbing plant of 
the Indian cress family, a native of New Gra¬ 
nada, cultivated in Europe for its showy yellow 
flowers. 

Cana'ry Islands (or Canaries), a cluster of 
islands in the Atlantic, 60 or 70 mi. from the 
n.w. coast of Africa, and belonging to Spain. 
They are thirteen in number, seven of which 
are considerable, viz., Palma, Ferro, Gomera, 
Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura, and 
Lancerota. The other six are very small: 
Graciosa, Roca or Rocca, Allegranza, St. 
Clara, Inferno, and Lobos. All are volcanic, 
rugged, and mountainous, frequently present¬ 
ing precipitous cliffs to the sea. The princi¬ 
pal peak is that of Teneriffe, 12,182 ft.; El 
Cumber in Gran Canaria is 6,650 ft. The area 
of the whole has been estimated at 2,808 sq. 
mi. Their fine climate and their fertility, 
which owes little to cultivation, justified their 
ancient name of Fortunate Islands. There are 
no rivers of note, though streams are not in¬ 
frequent. All the islands furnish good wine, 
especially Palma and Teneriffe. The exports 
amount to $1,500,000 annually, and consist of 
cochineal, wine, raw silk, fruits, etc. Of the 
Guanches, the mysterious tribe who originally 
inhabited these islands, we know little. The 
islands were discovered and conquered by the 
Spaniards between 1316 and 1334; they then 
passed into the hands of the Portuguese, but 
were reconquered toward the end of the fif¬ 
teenth century by the Spaniards, who extir¬ 
pated the inhabitants, and now constitute the 
great bulk of the population. The fortified 
capital is Santa Cruz, and the city Laguna is 
the seat of the bishop (Roman Catholic). The 
Canaries form a Spanish province. Area 2,810 
sq. mi. Pop. 291,625. 

Canary Seed, the seed of the canary grass. 
The seed is used as food in the Canaries, Bar¬ 
bary, and Italy, and is largely collected for 
canary birds. It has been successfully culti¬ 
vated in England and the European continent. 

Cana'ry Wood, the light orange-colored 
wood of two trees of the laurel family, belong¬ 
ing to the Canaries and Madeira 

Canby, Edward Richard S. (1819-1873), 
American soldier, b. in Kentucky. He gradu¬ 
ated at West Point in 1839, served on the 
frontier and took an active part in the Mexi¬ 
can War. In 1861, he became colonel of the 
nineteenth U. S. infantry. During the draft 
riots in New York City in 1863, Canby, then a 
brigadier general, had command of the U. S. 
troops. As major general of volunteers, he 
captured Mobile. Gen. Richard Taylor sur¬ 
rendered to him the last Confederate army in 
the field. In 1873, Brigadier General Canby 
was sent, with two others, as a commission to 
treat with the Modoc Indians, who, under 
their chief, “Captain Jack,” had sought 
refuge in the lava beds of Oregon. He was 
treacherously killed with his companions while 
under a flag of truce. 




Cancer 


Candlemas 


Cancer (L., a crab), in astronomy, the 
fourth sign in the zodiac, entered by the sun 
on or about the 21st of June, and quitted about 
the 22d of July. The constellation Cancer is 
no longer in the sign of Cancer, but at present 
occupies the place of the sign Leo. 

Cancer (or Carcino'ma), a malignant growth 
of structure in some part of tjie human body, 
which can extend itself and spread to neigh¬ 
boring parts, and even form again after re¬ 
moval, and usually causes death. Cancer is 
divided into scirrhous , encephaloid, colloid , and 
epithelial cancer. Scirrhous cancer is a hard, firm, 
incompressible, and nodulated mass, at first 
non-adherent to the skin and attended with 
little or no pain. On section it is smooth and 
glistening, and exudes, on pressure, a small 
quantity of milky-looking juice. Encephaloid 
cancel' is a soft elastic tumor, less circumscribed 
and increasing more rapidly than the preced¬ 
ing. It ends in a fungous vascular ulcer, to 
which the term fungus hannatodes has been 
given, and which has a great tendency to 
bleed. Colloid cancer occurs most frequently in 
the stomach and alimentary canal, and con¬ 
sists of fibers arranged so as to form loculi 
which contain a soft viscous matter of a yel¬ 
lowish, grayish, or reddish color. Epithelial 
cancer , occurring on the skin and mucous mem¬ 
branes, commences as a hard little tubercle, 
often resembling a wart, and like the other 
varieties ends in an ulcer with an ichorous dis¬ 
charge. Cancer is often a very painful disease, 
but in many cases is not attended with pain. 
No cure for it can be said to exist, though 
excision, if performed in time, may not be 
followed by a recurrence. 

Cancer Root (or Beech Drop), an American 
parasitic plant, growing on the exposed root of 
the beech tree. The whole plant is powerfully 
astringent, and the root brownish, spongy, 
and of a very nauseous, bitter taste. It has 
been used in cases of cancer. 

Can'dle, an artificial source of light, in the 
form of a long thin cylinder, or slightly con¬ 
ical rod, composed of fatty substances enclosing 
a wick of cotton rovings twisted or plaited 
together. Ancient Roman candles consisted 
of the pith of a kind of rush surrounded with 
tallow or wax. In England during the Anglo- 
Saxon period, ordinary candles were merely 
masses of fat plastered round splinters of 
wood. Candles are made by two processes, 
dipping and molding , but chiefly the latter, and 
when well made they are white, hard, glossy, 
dry, and not greasy to the touch. Dips are 
made by stringing a number of twisted wicks 
upon a rod, and dipping repeatedly into a 
trough of melted tallow, allowing the dip to 
solidify after each immersion. Dipping is 
continued till-the candles have acquired the 
requisite thickness. Molds are made with 
molds of thin pewter or glass, slightly taper¬ 
ing, which are arranged in a wooden frame 
with the narrow ends, which shape the points 
of the candles, downward. The wicks are 
stretched along the axes of the molds by 
means of wires, and the melted fat is then run 
into the molds. Next day the candles are 


withdrawn, cut, and trimmed at the base, and 
stored for use. In large manufactories, ma¬ 
chinery is employed in molding as well as in 
dipping. Before use the tallow is purified by 
mechanical or chemical means of its fibrous 
tissue and other extraneous matter. Wax 
candles are seldom molded, on account of their 
adhesion to the molds, and contraction in cool¬ 
ing. A different method of manufacture, 
termed basting, is accordingly resorted to. 
Wax candles are still employed in the Catholic 
and Greek churches as indispensable accesso¬ 
ries of the altar. Sperm candles are composed 
of spermaceti obtained from the brain of a 
species of whale, mixed with beeswax. Palm 
and cocoanut oils are now extensively used in 
candle making, and the enormous develop¬ 
ment of late years of this industry is to be at¬ 
tributed to the successful separation of stearic 
and palmitic acids from animal and vegetable 
fats. Stearine candles. — The stearic acid which 
abounds in animal fats, as beef and mutton 
suet, lard, etc., and in cocoanut oil, is the 
material of which these candles are made. 
Belmont sperm candles are made chiefly from 
palmitic acid obtained from palmitin, the 
principal ingredient in palm oil. The fat is 
raised to a high temperature, mixed with one 
twentieth of its weight of sulphuric acid; lime 
is added to neutralize the acid, and on distill¬ 
ing the product glycerine passes over first. 
Composite candles vary in composition. A beau¬ 
tiful transparent kind is made with nine tenths 
of stearic acid and one tenth of beeswax; an¬ 
other variety is formed of the stearic acid of 
tallow with the stearine of cocoanut oil. 

Paraffine candle manufacture is now carried 
on on a most extensive scale. They are much 
in demand on account of their cheapness and 
the clearness and brilliancy of their light. 
Electricity, gas, and the cheapness of mineral 
oils have done much to displace the commer¬ 
cial use of candles. 

Candleberry (Candleberry Myrtle, Wax Myr¬ 
tle, etc.), a shrub growing from 4 to 18 ft. high, 
and common in N. A., where candles are made 
from its drupes or berries, which are about the 
size of peppercorns, and covered with a green¬ 
ish-white wax popularly known as Blayberry 
tallow. The wax is collected by boiling the 
drupes in water and skimming off the surface. 
A bushel of berries yields from 4 to 5 lbs. of 
wax. Another plant belonging to the same 
genus is the sweetgale, which grows abun¬ 
dantly in bogs and marshes in Scotland—a 
small shrub, with leaves somewhat like the 
myrtle or willow, of a fragrant odor and bitter 
taste, and yielding an essential oil by distilla¬ 
tion. 

Candle Fish, a sea-fish of the salmon family 
frequenting the northwestern shores of Amer¬ 
ica, of about the size of the smelt. It is con¬ 
verted by the Indians into a candle simply by 
passing the pith of a rush or a strip of the 
bark of the cypress tree through it as a wick, 
when its extreme oiliness keeps the wick blaz¬ 
ing. It is called also Oulachon. 

Can dlemas, a church feast instituted in 
492 in commemoration of the presentation of 


Candle Nut 


Cane Sugar 


Christ in the temple and of the purification of 
Mary. It falls on February 2, and on this day 
among Catholics lighted candles are carried 
about in procession, and all candles and tapers 
which are to be used in the churches during 
the entire year are consecrated. 

Candle Nut, the nut of a tree of India, the 
Moluccas, Pacific Islands, etc. It is about the 
size of a walnut, and yields an oil used for 
food and for lamps, while the oily kernels are 
also strung together and lighted as torches. 

Candy (or Kandy), a city, Ceylon, near the 
center of the island, 72 mi. n.e. Colombo. 
The residence of the governor at the n.e. ex¬ 
tremity is among the finest structures in Cey¬ 
lon. Other noteworthy places are the Buddhist 
temple, called “the palace of the tooth,’’ the 
most sacred in the Buddhist world, the old 
royal cemetery, the military magazine in the 
center of a lake, the government brick works, 
etc. Pop. 22,000. 

Candy Making. The largest ingredient of 
candy is sugar. A small amount of glucose is 
added to the sugar to give it the proper con¬ 
sistency. This composition is boiled in water 
until the syrup is thick and almost clear. 
This syrup is then poured out upon huge 
marble slabs, where it is allowed to cool for a 
time. It is then worked by means of long iron 
paddles much as a plasterer would stir mortar. 
Under this treatment it becomes hard, white, 
and almost crystalline. This process is some¬ 
times carried on in copper kettles, which not 
only cook the ingredients, but beat them white 
and hard by means of a rotating dasher. The 
candy is now ready to be cast into various 
sizes and shapes. Candy is cast in corn starch 
molds. The starch is placed in narrow, 
shallow boxes, and smoothed off at the top. 
The boxes are run under a press, the lower part 
of which is covered by projections of just the 
size required. When the press goes down a 
little hammer taps the top of it automatically, 
and the corn starch is punctured with rows of 
smooth, clear-cut holes. When the molds are 
complete, they are filled from a tank with 
cream candy. Marshmallows are cast in the 
same way. When the candy in the molds is 
dry and hard the boxes are taken to a machine 
called the “starch-buck. ” Here the starch and 
candy are dumped into a hopper, under which 
are a series of sieves. The starch falls through 
the meshes, and the candy is carried on 
through a series of brushes to take off the re¬ 
maining starch. Chocolate creams are dipped 
by means of a little wire spoon, after which 
they are placed on a piece of oilcloth and set 
in a frame to dry. For the manufacture of 
lozenges and candy hearts the. sugar is mixed 
cold in large tubs, and the lozenges are pressed 
out in molds. Mottoes are printed on the 
hearts with a rubber stamp. For the cocoa- 
nut candy the nuts are bought whole, and the 
hard white meat is taken out and placed in a 
kettle, where it is boiled and violently stirred 
at the same time by means of rotating dash¬ 
ers. Sugar is added, and when the mass is 
sufficiently cooked it is placed on a marble 
slab, and rolled down even with a long piece 


of gas pipe. Cocoanut is colored and molded 
into various forms, and sliced up in strips 
with a patent cutting machine. Caramels are 
made of sugar and pure cream carefully boiled 
together until they are of proper consistency, 
and then poured on marble slabs to cool. They 
are then cut and wrapped. Hard candy is 
made of sugar boiled over an open fire and 
then colored in various shades. The batches 
are mixed and rolled out by hand until they 
are the size of an ordinary stick of candy, 
after which they are cut up into the regular 
lengths. Rock candy and many of the sugared 
nuts are made by the crystallization process. 
A tin box in which numerous strings run from 
top to bottom, is filled with sugar and set away 
in a warm place. The crystals of sugar form 
on the strings and harden there, thus making 
the well-known rock candy. In the same way 
crystals are allowed to form on almonds, and 
other nuts and fruit. 

Cane, a term sometimes indiscriminately 
applied to any small and smooth rod, of the 
thickness of a walking stick or less; but more 
correctly limited to the stems of the smaller 
palms and the larger grasses. We thus speak 
of sugar cane, bamboo cane, etc., among the 
latter; while among the former this name is 
particularly appropriated to the species of the 
genus Calamus, also called Rattan (the Malay 
name or a corruption of it). To this genus be¬ 
long the canes largely imported from the trop¬ 
ical regions of the East for making bottoms of 
chairs, couches, etc. See Walking stick. 

Cane'a (or Khania), a seaport of Crete or 
Candia, on the north coast, the principal mart 
for the commerce of the island in wax, soap, 
oil, silks, fruits, wool, and provisions. Pop. 
8 , 000 . 

Canel'la, White, a tree belonging to the 
West Indies, growing to the height of 10 to 50 
ft., with a straight stem branched only at the 
top. It is covered with a whitish bark, which 
is freed from its outward covering, dried in the 
shade, and brought to European long quills, 
somewhat thicker than those of cinnamon. It 
is moderately warm to the taste, and is es¬ 
teemed as a pleasing and aromatic bitter. 

Cane'phorus, one of the bearers of the bas¬ 
kets containing the implements of sacrifice in 
the processions of the Dionysia, Panathenea, 
and other ancient Grecian festivals, an office of 
honor much coveted by the virgins of an¬ 
tiquity. The term is applied to architectural 
figures bearing baskets on their heads, some¬ 
times improperly confounded with Caryatides. 

Cane Sugar, the product of the sugar cane 
plant (which see). The process of making cane 
sugar in Louisiana, the old method, is to bring 
the cane in from the field as fast as it is cut, and 
keep in a sufficient supply to run the mill night 
and day. The cane is dumped from the wagons 
on to a traveling platform which carries it to the 
roller mill, where it is crushed. The roller 
mill is a ponderous piece of machinery and 
very massive, for the sugar cane has a tough, 
hard skin and must be subjected to great pres¬ 
sure to secure its juice. Either three, five or 
nine rollers are used. As soon as the sugar 


Cane Sugar 

cane is crushed by this mill, it becomes “ba¬ 
gasse.” The bagasse is carried to the boiler 
room where it is used as fuel under the boilers. 
When the cane and bagasse are crushed, the 
juice runs down, a greenish, sticky liquid, 
through a strainer, to a well or vat, from 
which it is pumped to the clarifiers. Here 
milk of lime is stirred in and heat is applied. 
The lime neutralizes the acids in the juice, for 
the moment the cane is cut a chemical change 
begins in the juice, part of it fermenting and 
becoming acid. 

The thick scum which rises when the lime 
is stirred into the juice is removed, and the 
clarified juice is drawn off in a kettle where 
the old method of making sugar is used. Some¬ 
times the juice is bleached by fumes of burn¬ 
ing sulphur before it is taken to the battery. 
The juice is boiled to a syrup, and then to 
sugar in large, open kettles. In the first kettle 
the juice is boiled to a certain density which 
is determined by a sacchrameter. This is a 
tube-like affair which is divided into degrees, 
so that the sugar maker, by simply placing it 
in the juice, can tell when it has reached the 
proper density. The impurities which rise to 
the top are constantly skimmed off. The juice 
becomes syrup in the second kettle, and as it 
grows thicker it is transferred from one kettle 
to another. In the last kettle the syrup is 
cooked until it can be drawn out in a candied 
string. When the grain is felt, and the sac¬ 
chrameter shows that the proper density has 
been reached, the heavy syrup is placed in 
cooling vats made of wood. As the syrup cools, 
the sugar crystallizes, but it is mixed with 
molasses which will not crystallize so it is 
scooped out of the cooling vat into large hogs¬ 
heads made of cypress wood, which have a 
large number of holes bored in the bottom. 
Bits of sugar plug these holes loosely, allowing 
the molasses to drip down into the molasses 
tank. The sugar then goes to the refinery 
where it is granulated. Such is the old 
method of making sugar. 

In the new method the juice and syrup go 
from the mill to the clarifiers and on to the 
finished product untouched by hand. After 
the juice has been treated with lime and sul¬ 
phur, it is dumped into the first clarifier, 
which has a steam coil in the bottom. From one 
to the other of the four clarifiers the syrup 
goes, being constantly skimmed, and when the 
proper density has been secured, the syrup is 
dumped into the settling tank, whence it goes 
to the vacuum pan. This pan is a close, 
spherical vessel with copper steam coils in the 
bottom, and can be made air tight. An air 
pump or condenser removes the air, thus mak¬ 
ing a vacuum. In a vacuum, liquid boils at a 
much lower temperature than 212°, the boil¬ 
ing point in open air; and as there is no at¬ 
mospheric weight on the liquid, the heat 
causes the liquid to boil furiously at about 
115°. By using the vacuum pan no sugar is 
burned, and the syrup does not become 
brown. The boiling continues until crystal¬ 
lization is effected, and then the valve at the 
bottom is opened, and the whole charge is 


Canning Fruits and Vegetables 

dumped into the mixer, directly under the 
vacuum pan. The mixer is a trough-like 
arrangement, in which a long shaft with steel 
arms revolves, mixing the sugar so that the 
crystallization progresses uniformly. This 
sugar, with its molasses, is shoveled into the 
centrifugal machine. This is a kettle-shaped 
vessel, which revolves about 1,200 times a 
minute. Its sides are perforated so that the 
molasses in the sugar caught up by the centrif¬ 
ugal force flies through the perforations, leav¬ 
ing the sugar dry and snow white. The sugar 
is then dumped into the granulator and placed 
in barrels. See Sugar Cane. 

Canes Venatici (ka'nez ve-nat'i-si) (“the 
hunting dogs ”),a northern constellation,within 
the limits of which several remarkable nebulas 
occur. 

Canic'ula, the dog star or Sirius; hence Ca¬ 
nicular days, the dog days. 

Ca'nis, the genus of animals to which the 
doff, wolf, and fox belong. 

Canis Major (“the greater dog”), a con¬ 
stellation of the southern hemisphere, remark¬ 
able as containing Sirius, the brightest star. 
Canis Minor (“ the lesser dog ’’) is a constel¬ 
lation in the northern hemisphere,immediately 
above Canis Major, the chief star in which is 
Procyon. 

Canker, 1, in medicine, a collection of 
small sloughing ulcers in the mouth, espe¬ 
cially of children; called also water canker. 
2, In horticulture, a kind of gangrenous dis¬ 
ease to which fruit trees especially are liable, 
beginning in the younger shoots and gradually 
extending to the trunk. 3, In farriery, a 
disease in horses’ feet causing a discharge of 
fetid matter from the cleft in the middle of the 
frog, generally originating in a diseased thrush. 

Caunabina'ceae, the order of plants to which 
only two plants, hemp and the hop, belong, 
closely allied to the nettle order. 

Cannae, a town of South Italy, province of 
Bari, near the mouth of the Ofanto, formerly 
the Aufidus. Here the Roman army sustained 
a terrible defeat by Hannibal. The Romans 
numbered 80,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry, 
whereas Hannibal’s army consisted of 10,000 
cavalry, but only about 40,000 infantry. Of 
the Romans 70,000 fell, including the Consul 
Lucius Paulus, and 80 men of senatorial rank. 
Hannibal lost not quite 6,000. 

Cannes (kan), a seaport of France, on the 
shore of the Mediterranean, dep. Alpes-Mari- 
times; famous as a winter residence, and as 
the place where Napoleon landed when he re¬ 
turned from Elba, March 1, 1815. Pop. 19,385. 

Canning, the name of three noted English 
statesmen. 1, Charles John, Earl Canning 
(1812-1862), noted for his moderation in deal¬ 
ing with the Indian mutiny. 2, His father, 
George Canning (1770-1827), a noted author 
and statesman. 3, Stratford Canning, Vis¬ 
count Stratford de Redcliffe (1788-1880), a 
noted English diplomatist. 

Canning Fruits and Vegetables.— The proc¬ 
ess of canning fruits and vegetables is one of 
great interest and of increasing importance. 
The tomatoes, fruit, or corn are brought to the 


Canning Fruits and Vegetables 

factory and dumped into bins at the end of a 
long, steamy room, where they are left until 
the workmen are ready to feed them into the 
mouth of the machine, from the farther end 
of which they are to roll all canned and la¬ 
beled. The skins are loosened by an ingenious 
machine resembling a large steam boiler. In¬ 
side a great augur is kept boring away by 
means of a wheel connected by belting with 
the power shaft. The tomatoes, for instance, 
are dumped into a funnel-shaped hole at the 
lower end of the boiler and fall into a bath of 
hot water which stands at the bottom. The 
augur catches them and lifts them gradually 
cut. At the open end of the boiler there is a 
spout down which they slip into pails that are 
brought under it by means of a revolving 
table. These steaming pails are carried to the 
peelers, who by one or two quick movements 
remove the skin. The tomatoes are then 
dumped into the bin ready for the fillers, and 
the skins go below into the waste vat. The 
filler is a great box which tapers off to a funnel 
at the bottom. There is a long chute on one 
side. Into this empty tin cans are fed. The 
tomatoes having been dumped into the box, 
they are crushed downward by means of a 
plunger into the mouth of the can which has 
slipped into the slot below. As soon as a can 
is filled the stream of tomatoes is cut off auto¬ 
matically, the full can moves on and an empty 
one takes its place. A large number of cans 
can be filled at the same time by this process. 
The full cans are then carried to the soldering 
machine, six at a time. This soldering is all 
done by automatic machinery. The sealing 
and cooking machine is more than fifty feet 
long, and two sections of it are enclosed in 
covered iron chambers. After the filled cans 
leave the soldering machine they are carried to 
the cooking machine. They descend into the 
first iron chamber and travel along through a 
bath of water raised to a temperature of 212°. 
A small vent hole is left in the cover of the 
cans for the escape of any surplus liquid. 
Eight minutes are required for the cans to 
pass through the first chamber. They are 
then carried to the soldering place, where the 
vent holes are closed. The cans then go into 
a shallow bath of water and close watch is 
kept for any bubbles, for such would indicate 
that some of the cans leak. The cans are next 
carried into the second chamber of hot water, 
where they are to remain thirty minutes until 
their contents are completely cooked. At the 
farther end they come out and after being 
dried, they are ready for the labeling machine. 

The device for labeling is an automatic 
machine. The can is started at the top, and 
in rolling downward comes in contact with a 
paste-brush, and then strikes the pile of paper 
labels, and in passing downward it moves two 
swinging levers which turn the paste-daubers 
by means of a crank-wheel. The process of 
preparing peaches, pears, and corn, differ in 
some respects, but they are all substantially 
the same. The whole process is done by ten 
to fifteen men, and as many as 30,000 cans can 
be turned out in a single day. 


Cannon 

Cannon, Josei*h G., b. 1830, American 
statesman; removed to Illinois and practised 
law; was states attorney 1801-68. In 1874 he 
was elected to Congress as a republican from 
the fifteenth district of Illinois and has held 
office by constant re-election ever since. He 
was chairman of the ways and means commit¬ 
tee in 1804-96. 

Cannon, a big gun or piece of ordnance. 
The precise period at which engines for pro¬ 
jecting missiles by mechanical force (cata¬ 
pults, etc.) were supplanted by those utilizing 
explosive materials is a matter of controversy, 
the invention of cannon being even attributed 
to the Chinese, from whom the Saracens may 
have acquired the knowledge. A doubtful au¬ 
thority asserts their use at the siege of Bel¬ 
grade in 1073; but they were certainly brought 
into use in France as early as 1338. At first 
they were made of wood, well secured by iron 
hoops, the earliest shape being somewhat con¬ 
ical, with wide muzzles, and afterward cylin¬ 
drical. They were then made of iron bars 
firmly bound together with iron 'hoops like 
casks, Mons Meg at Edinburgh being a good 
example. Bronze was used in the second half 
of the fourteenth century, toward the close of 
which and during the fifteenth century cast- 
iron ordnance came into use. A form of breech¬ 
loading cannon was introduced in the sixteenth 
century. Cannon were formerly dignified with 
great names. Twelve cast by Louis XII were 
called after the twelve peers of France, and 
Charles V had twelve called after the twelve 
apostles. Later such names as the following 
came into general use; cannon royal, or car- 
thoun, carrying 48 pounds; culverin, 18; demi- 
culverin, 9; falcon, 6; basilisk, 48; siren, 00; 
etc. Cannon were then named from the 
weight of the balls which they carried: 0- 
pounders, 12-pounders, etc.; but are now usu¬ 
ally, especially the large ones, designated by 
their weight, as a 25-ton gun, an 80-ton gun, 
etc. Their caliber or diameter of bore is also 
used in designating them. .. 

Great improvements and changes in the 
manufacture of cannon have been introduced 
in recent times. Not so long ago they were all 
made of iron, brass, or gun-metal (a variety of 
bronze) by casting. The introduction of ri¬ 
fled small arms led the way to that of rifled 
cannon, and the adoption of heavy armor for 
ships of war rendered guns of enormous power 
and magnitude necessary in order to penetrate 
their sides. The increased inertia of the pro¬ 
jectiles and their rapid rotation in these rifled 
guns tried the piece so severely that cast-iron 
and even bronze have been largely used. 

The process of making modern cannon be 
gins in the office of the factory draughtsman, 
and the drawings and figures of every dimen¬ 
sion are made with the greatest accuracy. 
Specifications when completed go to the shop 
where the forging’s of steel are all in waiting. 
The gun is made up of a central tube, covered 
by a jacket, and rings on the outside. The 
process of putting these pieces together is 
known as assembling, and the work is done in 
a shrinking pit. The gun goes through a 


Cano 


Canova 


long course of lathes and boring machines: 
some of these lathes are 130 ft. long and have 
a swing of 8 ft., and are capable of boring a gun 
50 ft. long and weighing more than 120 tons. 
The gun may be turned on the outside and 
bored on the inside at the same time. When 
a gun leaves the lathe it is carried along to a 
revolving machine by a traveling crane over¬ 
head. The revolving machine plows the in¬ 
terior surface of the gun with a spiral groove 
which gives the shell a rotary motion when 
fired. These cuttings are made to the thou¬ 
sandth part of an inch. The climax of the 
operation is the assembling of the gun. The 
principle of the whole process lies in keeping 
the tube of the cannon,cool and expanding 
the jacket by means of hot air so it will slip 
easily over the tube. When the jacket cools it 
contracts and grasps the tube almost as closely 
as if they were one piece of metal. The heating 
is done entirely by hot air. In the pit there is 
one furnace filled with coils of pipe through 
which air is forced by a compressing pump. 
Underneath air is heated by a gas fire. In 
this condition it is forced into the cylindrical 
department in which stands the gun-jacket, 
after which it is passed off by a chimney. 
After the heating process has gone on for 
a day or two, the lid of the jacket apart¬ 
ment is lifted and the top of the cylinder of 
iron is measured to see if the expansion has 
made it large enough to fit over the tube. It 
is necessary that the inside diameter of the 
jacket be about one tenth of an inch greater 
than the exterior of the tube. The tube of 
the cannon is placed upright in the pit, with 
the upper 15 ft. smooth and shiny for the re¬ 
ception of the jacket. Inside of it cold water 
is kept flowing so that the steel will be as 
much contracted as possible. When all is 
ready, the lid of the jacket apartment is 
thrown open and the traveling crane carries 
the jacket directly over the tube where it is 
accurately plumbed so that it will slip down 
over the tube without touching it. This op¬ 
eration must be performed very quickly so 
that the jacket will not contract too much. 
After the jacket has been put on, the gun re¬ 
mains in the pit for about two days to cool, 
when it is taken to the lathe again to be pre¬ 
pared for the hoops or cylindrical pieces of 
steel. Nine of these are shrunk on while the 
gun is in a horizontal position. The making of 
the gun carriage is another part of the work 
but does not require so much skill. 

Ca'no, Alonso (1601-1664), a painter, sculp¬ 
tor, and architect, who has been called the 
Michael Angelo of Spain. He first made him¬ 
self known by his statues for the great church 
of Lebrija, and was in 1638 appointed painter 
to the king. His wife having been murdered 
by a servant or pupil, he was suspected and 
put to torture; but his right arm was spared 
from respect for his talents. He afterward 
became a priest and was made a racionero 
(resident) of Granada, where he passed the re¬ 
mainder of his lifei 

Canoe (ka-no') (through the Spanish canoa , 
from the native West Indian name), a light 


boat narrow in the beam, and adapted to be 

propelled by 
paddles, often in 
conjunction 
with sails. The 
name was orig¬ 
inally given to 
the boats of un¬ 
civilized races, 
but its applica¬ 
tion has been 
consider ably 
extended, and 
canoes of home 
make may be 
seen on the wa¬ 
ters of the most 
civilized coun¬ 
tries. They are of the most diverse materials 
and construction. Often they are hollowed 
out of a single log. The Indian canoes of Can¬ 
ada are of bark on a wooden frame. The 
Eskimo kaiaks consist of a light wooden frame, 
covered with seal skins sewed together with 
sinews, and having only one opening to admit 
the boatman to his seat. In the islands of the 
Pacific the natives have double canoes, united 
by a strong platform, serving in this way as 
one vessel. 

Canon (kan-yon'), the Spanish word for tube, 
funnel, cannon; applied by the Spanish Amer¬ 
icans, and hence in North America generally 
(often with the spelling canyon ), to long and 
narrow river gorges or deep ravines with pre¬ 
cipitous and almost perpendicular sides occur¬ 
ring frequently in the Rocky Mountains, the 
Sierra Nevada, and great western plateaus of 
North America. 

Canonization, a ceremony in the Catholic 
Church, by which deceased persons are de¬ 
clared saints. The pope institutes a formal 
investigation of the miraculous and other 
qualifications of the deceased person recom¬ 
mended for canonization; and an advocate of 
the devil , as he is called, is appointed to assail 
the memory of the candidate. If the exam¬ 
ination is satisfactory, the pope pronounces 
the beatification of the candidate, the actual 
canonization generally taking place some 
years afterward, when a day is dedicated to 
his honor, his name inserted in the canon or 
Litany of the Saints in the Mass, and his re¬ 
mains preserved as holy relics. 

Canon Law, a collection of ecclesiastical 
constitutions for the regulation of the Church 
of Rome, consisting for the most part of ordi¬ 
nances of general and provincial councils, de¬ 
crees promulgated by the popes with the 
sanction of the cardinals, and decretal epistles 
and bulls of the popes. There is also a canon 
law for the regulation of the Church of Eng¬ 
land, which under certain restrictions is used 
in ecclesiastical courts and in the courts of 
the two universities. 

Cano'pus, an ancient Egyptian city, be¬ 
tween Alexandria and the western mouth of 
the Nile, once the chief harbor of the Delta. 
It had a popular temple of Serapis. 

Cano'va, Antonio (1757-1822), an Italian 






Canovas del Castillo 


Canton 


sculptor. He went to the Academy of Venice, 
where he had a brilliant career. In 1779 he 
was sent by the senate of Venice to Rome and 
there produced his Theseus and the Slain 
Minotaur. In 1783 Canova undertook the ex¬ 
ecution of the tomb of Pope Clement XIV in 
the Church of the Apostles, a work in the 
Bernini manner, and inferior to his second 
public monument, the tomb of Pope Clement 
XIII (1792) in St. Peter’s. He produced his 
group of Venus and Adonis , the Psyche and 
Butterfly, a Repentant Magdalene, the well- 
known Ilebe, the colossal Hercules Hurling 
Lichas into the Sea, the Pugilists, and the 
group of Cupid and Psyche. In 1796 and 1797 
Canova finished the model of the celebrated 
tomb of the Archduchess Christina of Austria, 
and in 1797 made the colossal model of a 
statue of the king of Naples executed in marble 
in 1803. He afterward executed in Rome his 
Perseus with the Head of Medusa , which, 
when the Belvedere Apollo was carried to 
France, was thought not unworthy of its place 
and pedestal. In 1802 he was invited by Bona¬ 
parte to Paris to make the model of his colossal 
statue. Among the later works of the artist 
are a colossal Washington, the tombs of the 
Cardinal of York and of Pius VII; a Venus 
Rising from the Bath; the colossal group of 
Theseus Killing the Minotaur; the tomb of 
Alfieri; the Graces Rising from the Bath; a 
Dancing Girl; a colossal Hector; a Paris, etc. 
After the second fall of Napoleon, in 1815, Ca¬ 
nova was commissioned by the pope to de¬ 
mand the restoration of the works of art carried 
from Rome. 

Canovas del Castillo, Antonio (1828-97), 
Spanish statesman. He became a journalist, 
in 1854 was elected to the Cortes and is still a 
member of that body. He held cabinet posi¬ 
tions during Isabella’s reign. He was instru¬ 
mental in placing Alfonso XII on the throne 
in 1864. He was prime minister of Spain 1874- 
75, and from 1879 until August, 1897, when he 
was assassinated at Santa Agueda. 

Canrobert, Francois-Certain (1809-1895), 
marshal of France. He served many years in 
Africa, and was wounded in the siege of Con¬ 
stantine. He commanded a division in the 
Crimean War, after which he was promoted to 
commander in chief. He commanded a corps at 
Magenta and Solferino, and was made marshal 
of France and grand cross of the Legion of 
Honor. In the Franco-Prussian War his corps 
was cut to pieces by the crown prince of Prussia 
at Woerth, 1870. He was shut up in Metz 
with Bazaine, and after the surrender, was 
sent a prisoner to Germany. In 1876, and 
again in 1879, he was elected to the senate. 

Can'so, Gut or Strait of, a narrow strait 
or channel, about 17 mi. long, separating 
Nova Scotia from Cape Breton Island. One of 
the Atlantic cables lands here. 

Cantab'rian Mountains, the general name 
of the various mountain ranges extending 
from the Western Pyrenees along the n. coast 
of Spain to Cape Finisterre. 

Cantal', a central department in France, 
area 2,217 sq. mi.; capital, Aurillac. This de- 
30 


partment, formerly part of Upper Auvergne, 
is named from its highest mountain, the Plomb 
du Cantal, 6,094 ft. in height. The principal 
crops are rye, buckwheat, potatoes, and chest¬ 
nuts, hemp and flax. Cattle, sheep, pigs, horses 
and mules are reared in large numbers. Large 
quantities of cheese (“Auvergne cheese’’) are 
made. Hot mineral springs are abundant. 
Pop. 234,382. 

Cantalever, a wooden or iron block framed 
into the Avail of a house and projecting from 
it to carry moldings, eaves, balconies, etc. 
Also a large projecting framework forming 
part of an iron bridge directly carrying part of 
the roadway, and also supporting beams or 
girders bridging over a space between it and 
another similar structure. 

Can'taloupe (-lop), a small round variety of 
muskmelon, globular, ribbed, of pale green or 
yellow color, and of delicate flavor; first grown 
in Europe at the castle of Cantaloupe. 

Canterbury, a city of England in Kent, 55 
mi. s.e. of London, giving name to an archi- 
episcopal see, the occupant of Avhich is primate 
of all England. The Roman name was Du- 
rovernum, and the place was of early impor¬ 
tance. Its present name is a modification of 
the Saxon Cant-war a-byrig, the Kentishmen’s 
city. The foundation of the archiepiscopal 
see took place soon after the arrival of St. 
Augustine in 596. In the eighth, ninth, tenth, 
and eleventh centuries the city Avas dreadfully 
ravaged by the Danes, but at the Conquest its 
buildings exceeded in extent those of Lon¬ 
don. The ecclesiastical importance of the 
place was consummated by the murder of 
Thomas a Becket in the cathedral, the priory 
and see benefiting by the offerings of devotees 
and pilgrims at his shrine. Henry VIII dis¬ 
solved the priory in 1539, and ordered the 
bones of Becket to be burned; and the troops 
of Oliver Cromwell made a stable of the cathe¬ 
dral. The cathedral, one of the finest ecclesi¬ 
astical structures in England, 530ft. in length 
and 154 in breadth, has been built in different 
ages, the oldest part dating from about 1174. 
The great toAver, 235 ft. in height, is a splendid 
specimen of the Pointed style. The old archi¬ 
episcopal palace is noAV represented by a mere 
fragment, and the archbishops have long re¬ 
sided at Lambeth. There are extensive bar¬ 
racks for cavalry and infantry. Pop. 23,062. 

Canterbury, a district occupying most of 
the center of South Island, NeAV Zealand, with 
a coast line of 200 mi., and a greatest breadth 
of about 150 mi. The famous “Canterbury 
Plains,” extending along the coast, are admi¬ 
rably adapted for agriculture, Avhile the interior 
is fine pastoral country, though, except near 
the highlands, very destitute of trees. Its con¬ 
siderable mineral resources are as yet not well 
developed, though some coal—of which there 
are large beds—is raised. The chief places in 
the province are Christchurch, the capital; 
and Lyttelton, the port tOAvn, 8 mi. from 
Christchurch. Pop. 121,400. 

Canton, Fulton co., Ill., 30 mi. av. of Peoria. 
Railroads; C. B. & Q., and T. P. & W. Indus¬ 
tries: two iron foundries, flour mill, eighteen 


Canton 

cigar factories, gun and bicycle factory, and a 
cigar box factory. The surrounding country 
is agricultural and mineral (coal). The town 
was first settled in 1822 and was blown away 
in June, 1S35, became a city in 1854. Pop. 
1900, 6,564. 

Canton (Chinese, Quang-chow-foo ), an impor¬ 
tant city of Southern China, in the province of 
Quang-tung (of which name Canton is a cor¬ 
ruption). The city proper is enclosed by walls 
and divided into two parts by a wall running 
east and west; the larger portion north of this 
wall being called the old, that on the south 
of it the new city. The foreign mercantile 
houses, and the British, French, and American 
consulates, have as their special quarter an area 
in the suburbs of the southwest of the city, with 
water on two sides of it. In the European quar¬ 
ter are churches, schools, and other buildings 
in the European style. The river opposite the 
city for the space of four or five miles is 
crowded with boats, a large number of -which 
—as many it is said as 40,000—are fixed resi¬ 
dences, containing a population of 200,000. 
The industries of Canton are varied and im¬ 
portant, embracing silk, cotton, porcelain, 
glass, paper, sugar, lacquered ware, ivory carv¬ 
ing, metal goods, etc. It was the chief foreign 
emporium in China until 1850, when Shanghai 
began to surpass and other ports to compete 
with it; but its exports and imports together 
often still amount to about $40,000,000. Since 
the establishment of the colony of Hong-Kong 
a flotilla of river steamers ply daily between 
Canton, Hong-Kong, and Macao. In 1856 the 
foreign factories were pillaged and destroyed 
by the Chinese, and about a year after this 
Canton was taken by an English force, and oc¬ 
cupied by an English and French garrison un¬ 
til 1861. Pop. est. at 2,500,000. 

Canton, Stark co., O.. 56 mi, s.e. of Cleve¬ 
land. Railroads: Cleveland & Canton; Can¬ 
ton & Waynes; Valley; P., F. W. & C. In¬ 
dustries: Harvesting and threshing machines, 
flour mills, machinery, iron bridges, steel 
cutlery, safes, woolens, and soap. Surround¬ 
ing country agricultural and mineral. It is 
the home of President McKinley. Pop. 1900, 
30,667. 

Cantyre (kan-tlr') (or Kintyre), a peninsula, 
Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the 
Atlantic, forming the southern division of Ar- 
gyleshire. 

Canute (or Cnut) (ka-nut\ km.it) king of Eng¬ 
land and Denmark, succeeded iiis father Swe¬ 
den or Sweyn on his death in England in 1014 
a. d., and confirmed the Danish power in Eng¬ 
land. He began by devastating the eastern 
coast, and extended his ravages in the south, 
where, however, he failed to establish himself 
until after the assassination of Edmund Iron¬ 
side, when he was accepted king of the whole 
of England (1017). Canute, who began his reign 
with barbarity and crime, afterward became 
a humane and wise monarch. He restored 
the English customs at a general assembly, 
and ensured to the Danes and English equal 
rights and equal protection of person and 
property, and even preferred English subjects 


Cape Breton 

to the most important posts. His power was 
confirmed by his marriage with Emma, Ethel- 
red’s widow. At Harold’s death in 1018 he 
gained Denmark; in 1028 he conquered Nor¬ 
way; and in 1031 he made Malcolm of Scot¬ 
land admit his superiority. Sweden also was 
vassal to him. He d. in 1036 at Shaftesbury, 
leaving Norway to his eldest son, Sweyn; to 
the second, Harold, England; to the third, 
Hardicanute, Denmark. 

Can'vas, a coarse and strong cloth, made of 
flax or hemp, and used for sails, tents, etc. 
When prepared for portrait painting it is 
classed as kit-cat , 28 by 36 inches; three quar¬ 
ters, 25 by 30; half-length, 40 by 50; bishop's 
half-length, 44 or 45 by 56; bishop's whole length , 
58 by 94. 

Canvas=back Duck, a bird peculiar to North 
America, and considered the finest of the 
waterfowl for the table. They arrive in the 
U. S. from the north about the middle of 
October, sometimes assembling in immense 
numbers. The plumage is black, white, chest¬ 
nut-brown, and slate color; length, about 20 
inches. 

Caoutchouc (ko'chok or kou'chbk), an elas¬ 
tic gummy substance, chemically a hydrocar¬ 
bon, contained in the milky juice of a number 
of tropical trees of various orders, growing in 
South America. The name is also used as an 
equivalent of india rubber, but strictly caout¬ 
chouc is only the chief ingredient of india rub¬ 
ber. The crude india rubber is most commonly 
obtained by making incisions in the trunks of 
the trees, whence the sap exudes in the form of 
a milky fluid, which gradually thickens and 
solidifies. Caoutchouc is a non-conductor of 
electricity and a bad conductor of heat. It is 
not dissolved by water, hot or cold, but chloro¬ 
form, oil of .turpentine, bisulphide of carbon, 
etc., dissolve it. It was not until about the 
year 1736 that india rubber was known in 
Europe. It was at first only used to rub out 
pencil marks, but before the end of last century 
it was used to render leather and other sub¬ 
stances water-tight, and in 1823 Mackintosh 
took out a patent for the waterproof materials 
prepared with caoutchouc which bear his name. 
To the American inventor, Good 3 r ear, belongs 
the credit of discovering vulcanization and of 
making commercial use of india rubber. Lat¬ 
terly its uses have become innumerable. Gutta¬ 
percha is a similar substance to caoutchouc, 
and is often popularly confounded with it. 
See India Rubber 

Cap, a covering for the head, usually of 
softer materials and less definite form than a 
hat. Cap of maintenance, a cap formerly worn 
by dukes and commanders in token of excel¬ 
lency, now an ornament of state carried before 
the sovereigns of England at their coronation, 
and also before the mayors of some cities. 

Cape Breton, an island of the Dominion of 
Canada, separated from Nova Scotia, to which 
province it belongs, by the narrow Gut or 
Strait of Canso; area 3,120 sq. mi. The sur¬ 
face is rather rugged and only small portions are 
suited for agriculture, but it possesses much 
timber, valuable minerals (several coa mines 


Cape Coast Castle 


Cape Nome Gold Fields 


being: worked), and the coast abounds in fish. 
Timber, fish, and coal are exported. The 
island belonged to France from 1632 to 1763, 
and Louisburg, its capital, was long an impor¬ 
tant military post. It was separate from 
IN ova Scotia between 1784 and 1820. Chief 
town, Sydney. Pop. of Cape Breton, 34,244. 

Cape Coast Castle, a town and fort in West 
Alrica, capital of the British possessions on 
t he Gold Coast. The fortress stands on a rock 
close to the sea; the town chiefly consists of 
mud huts, and is a mart for native barter. 
Climate unhealthy; principal exports, gold 
dust, ivory, and palm oil. Pop. 11,614. 

Cape Cod, a noted peninsula on the south side 
of Massachusetts Bay in the state of Massachu¬ 
setts, 65 mi. long and from 1 to 20 broad. It 
is mostly sandy and barren, but populous. 

Cape Colony, a British colony occupying the 
southern extremity of Africa. Area 221,311 
sq. mi.; pop. 1,527,224. Several ranges of 
mountains, running nearly parallel to the 
southern coast, divide the country into suc¬ 
cessive terraces, rising as they recede inland, 
between which lie belts of fertile land, or vast 
barren-looking plains, one of them, the Great 
Karroo, being 300 mi. long and 100 broad. 
These plains make valuable sheep-walks, and 
the soil, where there is a sufficiency of water, 
is generally fertile. Irrigation, however* is 
greatly required, and large reservoirs are now 
being constructed. The principal and furthest 
inland mountain terrace, averaging 6,000 or 
7,000 ft. in height, commences in Namaqua- 
land and runs to the northeast frontier. The 
culminating point'is the Compass Berg, over 
8,000 ft. The Table Mountain at Cape Town 
rises almost perpendicularly about 3,585 ft. in 
height. The colony is deficient in navigable 
rivers, and many of the streams are dry or al¬ 
most so in the warm weather. The climate is 
very healthy and generally pleasant. Except 
along the coast, especially the southeast coast 
district, where there are extensive forests, 
timber is scarce, but with irrigation trees can 
be grown anywhere. The quadrupeds of the 
colony comprise the African elephant, still 
found in the forests of the southeast coast 
region; buffalo, wild boar, zebra, quagga, 
leopard, hyena, numerous antelopes, baboon, 
armadillo, etc. The birds include vultures, 
eagles, the serpent-eater, pelicans, flamingoes, 
and, most important of all, the ostrich, now 
bred in farms for the sake of its feathers. The 
cobra and other reptiles are found. The prin¬ 
cipal minerals are copper ore, coal, iron ore, 
manganese, and diamonds, amethysts, agates, 
etc. Coal and copper are worked, and the 
diamonds have brought a great amount of 
money into the colony since 1869, and have 
given rise to the town of Kimberley, the center 
of the diamond fields. Wheat, maize, and 
other cereals can be grown almost everywhere, 
if there is sufficient moisture, in some years 
yielding a surplus for exportation. All kinds 
of European vegetables, pot-herbs, and fruits 
thrive excellently, and fruits dried and pre¬ 
served are exported. The vine is cultivated, 
and excellent wines are made. Sheep-rearing, 


especially that of pure merinoes, is the most 
important industry, and wool the chief export. 
Ostrich feathers, hides, and skins are also ex¬ 
ported. Both native and Angora goats are 
bred, and the export of mohair is important. 
Cattle breeding is also carried on to some ex¬ 
tent. There are as yet no manufactures of 
importance. The colony is intersected by 
2,260 mi. of railway, far-inland Kimberley 
being now thus connected with Cape Town 
and Port Elizabeth. The European inhabit¬ 
ants consist in part of English and Scottish 
settlers and their descendants, but, notwith¬ 
standing the recent influx of settlers from 
Britain, the majority are still probably of 
Dutch origin. The colored people are chiefly 
Hottentots, Kaffirs, Basutos, Griquas, Malays, 
and a mixed race. The laborers are chiefly 
Hottentots and Kaffirs. Responsible govern¬ 
ment has been possessed by the colony since 
1872. The executive is vested in the governor 
(who is appointed by the crown and is also 
commander in chief) and an executive council 
of office-holders appointed by the crown. The 
legislative is in the hands of a council of 
twenty-two members (the Upper House); and 
a representative house of assembly of seventy- 
six members (Lower House), elected for five 
years. After Cape Town the chief towns are 
Port Elizabeth, Graham’s Town, Kimberley, 
Stellenbosch, King William’s Town, and Graaff 
Reinet. The Dutch first colonized the Cape in 
1652, and till the end of the eighteenth century 
the colony was under the Dutch East India Com¬ 
pany. It was held by the British from 1795- 
1801, and it came finally into British possession 
in 1806. The progress of the colony was long 
retarded by a series of Kaffir wars, the last of 
which was in 1851-53. Cape Colony was the 
scene of much of the fightingin the early part 
of the Anglo-Boer war in 1899, and the Colonial 
government had difficulty in keeping its Boer 
citizens from rebelling. 

Cape Hat'teras, a dangerous cape on the 
coast of North Carolina, the projecting point 
of a long reef of sand. 

Cape Hay'tien, a town on the north coast of 
Hayti. It has an excellent harbor, but has 
declined in importance since the last century. 
Pop. about 16,000. 

Cape Horn (or The Horn), the southern ex¬ 
tremity of an island of the same name, form¬ 
ing the most southerly point of South America. 
It is a dark, precipitous headland, 500 to 600 
ft. high, running far into the sea. Navigation 
round it is dangerous on account of frequent 
tempests. The cape was first doubled in 1616 
by Schouten, a native of Hoorn, in Holland, 
whence its name. 

Cape Nome Gold Fields. — Gold was discov¬ 
ered in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska, in the 
fall of 1898. There has been much conflict 
of opinion as to who deserves the credit for 
first opening up the untold wealth that abounds 
in this immense gold field. It is generally 
conceded, however, that to Jafet Linderberg 
and his two companions, J. Brynteson and E. 
Lindbloom, it should be given. It was early 
in October, 1898, that these three men landed 


Cape Nome Gold Fields 


Cape Nome Gold Fields 


from a small schooner near the mouth of 
Snake River where Nome City now stands, and 
going up the river for a short distance, came 
to Anvil Creek, the richest of all the creeks 
about Nome. Here they found gold in quan¬ 
tities sufficient to satisfy the most greedy. 
The news of the find was quickly noised 
abroad, and in the fall and winter of that year 
many thousands came across the ice and snow 
to stake out claims. 

The rush continued throughout the spring 
of 1899, and the excitement was increased all 
the more by the finding in the summer of 1899 
that the sea beach extending on both sides of 
Snake River, east and west, contained rich 
quantities of gold. All the prospectors who up 
to this time had been seeking to prospect the 
creeks and benches on the mountain back of 
Nome, now directed their efforts to sluicing, 
rocking, and panning on this beach, which 
was declared by the courts in Alaska to be 
free to anyone wishing to work it. This 
decision was made in view of the fact that 
there was a United States statute which pro¬ 
vided for the reservation of a sixty-foot high¬ 
way along the seacoast, and accordingly this 
strip could not be staked or controlled by any¬ 
one, but was free to all. Probably by the fall 
of 1899 some seven thousand people were 
working on the beach and in the region back 
of Nome. A careful estimate of the output of 
gold for that season places it at four million 
dollars. 

The news of the rich finds at Nome did not 
reach the outside world until the summer and 
fall of 1899. Then returning prospectors and 
others brought to the States the information 
of the new El Dorado in the northwest corner 
of the North American continent. The news 
reached Dawson, and created there a larger 
stampede than had ever before affected that 
place. Through the winter of 1899 there was 
a continuous rush of miners down the Yukon 
River from Dawson to Nome, and as soon as 
the ice cleared out of Bering Sea in the spring 
some twenty thousand people from the United 
States went to Nome in a fleet of forty or fifty 
schooners, steamers, and sailing craft of every 
description. This influx of people has become 
famous as the “Rush to Nome.” It consisted 
of men of all occupations, trades, and profes¬ 
sions coming from all parts and places in the 
world. To many the Klondike had seemed a 
place where truly gold abounded, but still 
could only be gotten by great suffering and 
much privation, but to those who joined the 
“Rush to Nome,” the new El Dorado was to 
be a simple matter. It meant simply the 
means of transportation from Seattle or San 
Francisco to the beach at Nome. Here with¬ 
out capital every man could dig and develop 
and by easy methods accumulate wealth in a 
short space of time. These people, however, 
were doomed to disappointment, for soon after 
their arrival at Nome in the spring of 1900 
nearly everyone found that the beach had 
been worked out the year before and that the 
chances of staking a claim in the interior were 
slim, as the early prospectors had, by power of 


attorney or otherwise, staked out all the region 
for a hundred miles along the coast and for 
sixty miles inland. These facts necessarily 
disheartened many who formed the crowd, and 
rushed to Nome. To others, however, the pros¬ 
pects at Nome did not appear so dark. There 
proved to be a great amount of gold in the 
regions of Anvil, Dexter, Nikola Gulch, Ore¬ 
gon, Glacier, and many other creeks, and to 
miners of experience, or the determined new¬ 
comers, commonly termed “ chechako ” there 
was afforded ample opportunity for making 
a rich strike. In the year of 1900, the new 
fields discovered were principally Topkok, the 
Golovin Bay district, the Kougarock district, 
and the Gold Run district, all lying within a 
radius of one hundred and twenty-five miles 
of the city of Nome. The developing, pros¬ 
pecting, and working of these claims and the 
claims in the Nome region required the ex¬ 
penditure of much time and money. 

Nome became the center for the outfitting 
of all parties prospecting in the different dis¬ 
tricts. Among the many who followed the 
indiscriminate masses who reached Nome 
were a great many merchants, traders, saloon¬ 
keepers, and professional folk. By July* 1900, 
they had built a town with accommodations 
for probably ten thousand people. In appear¬ 
ance it seems a crude combination of winter 
mining camp, boom-town, and Midway Plai- 
sance. At first view the saloons and gambling 
houses seem the most prominent features. 
Seen from the sea, this town, with its large 
board structures, well-equipped, well-con¬ 
structed buildings, seems to rise up in the 
center of a long line of white which is formed 
by the tents of many thousands living along 
the beach. Many of the buildings have been 
constructed and put together in a few days. 
One department store with a frontage of sixty- 
five feet and a depth of two hundred was con¬ 
structed and in running order in the short 
space of ten days. 

Perhaps no better example of the remark¬ 
able energy of the American people has ever 
been given than in the building and growth of 
the city of Nome. When in 1899 there were 
but a few tents and one or two buildings, there 
is now a town equipped with hotels, depart¬ 
ment stores, restaurants, schools, and churches, 
and with the city improvements of telephones, 
waterworks, and railroads. To those in the 
least enthusiastic over this region near the 
Arctic circle, Nome is a permanent city, the 
center of a mining region destined to equal in 
possibilities the Klondike. Nome has been 
under a great disadvantage in not having a 
harbor. In the fall of 1900 much injury was 
done to the shipping, and consequently to the 
merchants of Nome, by the havoc caused by 
storms. About a hundred miles, however, to 
the west of Nome City there is a splendid har¬ 
bor opening out from Port Clarence which is 
known as Grantley Harbor. 

Here there was begun in the spring of 1900 
a city called Teller City. It came to be the 
outfitting station for the Gold Run district. 
When news that the Gold Run Creek was 


Cape of Good Hope 


Capillarity 


likely to rival Anvil Creek in its wealth 
reached Nome, a large stampede for that place 
occurred. Teller City, recognized as an ad¬ 
vantageous shipping point with its large har¬ 
bor, was selected as the coming town, and in 
the winter of 1900 many supplies and pro¬ 
visions were carried into that city. Plans 
were agitated for the construction of a rail¬ 
road between Nome and Teller City, the con¬ 
struction of a telegraph and telephone line, 
and numerous other enterprises, all planning 
to develop a country which has been found to 
be rich not only in gold, but in coal, petro¬ 
leum, copper, and other minerals. 

JosEPn E. Freeman. 

Cape of Good Hope, a promontory near the 
southern extremity of Africa, at the termina¬ 
tion of a small peninsula extending south from 
Table Mountain which overlooks Cape Town. 
This peninsula forms the west side of False 
Bay, and on its inner coast is Simon’s Bay and 
Simon’s town, where there is a safe anchorage 
and a British naval station. Bartholomew Diaz, 
who discovered the cape in 1487, called it Cape 
of Storms; but John II of Portugal changed 
this to its present designation. It was first 
doubled by Vasco da Gama in 1497. 

Ca'per, the unopened flower bud of a low 
trailing shrub which grows from the crevices 
of rocks and walls, and among rubbish, in the 
countries bordering on the Mediterranean. 
Picked and pickled in vinegar and salt they are 
much used as a condiment (caper sauce being 
especially the accompaniment of broiled mut¬ 
ton). The plant was introduced into Britain 
as early as 1596, but has never been grown 
on a large scale. The flower buds of the 
marsh-marigold and nasturtium are frequently 
pickled and eaten as a substitute for capers. 

Capercail'zie (Capercailzie, or Cock of the 
Wood), the wood grouse, the largest of the gal¬ 
linaceous birds of Europe, weighing from 9 to 
12 lbs. In the male the neck and head are ashy 
black, the wings and shoulders brown with 
small black dots, the breast variable green, the 
belly black with white spots, the rump and 
flanks black with zigzag lines of an ashy color, 
and the tail feathers black, with small white 
spots near their extremities. The female, 
ab’out one third less than the male, is striped 
and spotted with red or bay, black, and white, 
and has the feathers of the head, breast, and 
tail of a more or less ruddy hue. 

Capernaum, a town in ancient Palestine, on 
the west side of the Sea of Tiberias. Nothing 
of it now remains, but the site is identified 
with Tel Hum. 

Cape St. Vincent, the southwest point of 
Portugal; noted for the naval victory gained off 
it by Sir John Jervis (afterward earl of St. Vin¬ 
cent) on Feb. 14, 1797. 

Ca'pet, the name of the French race of kings 
which has given 118 sovereigns to Europe,viz., 
86 kings of France, 22 kings of Portugal, 11 of 
Naples and Sicily, 5 of Spain, 8 of Hungary, 3 
emperors of Constantinople, 3 kings of Na¬ 
varre, 17 dukes of Burgundy, 12 dukes of Brit¬ 
tany, 2 dukes of Lorraine, and 4 dukes of 
Parma. The first of the Capets known in his¬ 


tory was Robert the Strong, a Saxon, made 
count of Anjou by Charles the Bold, and after¬ 
ward duke of the lie de France. His descend¬ 
ant, Hugh, son of Hugh the Great, was in 987 
elected king of France in place of the Carlo- 
vingians. On the failure of the direct line at 
the death of Charles IV the French throne was 
kept in the family by the accession of the in¬ 
direct line of Valois, and in 1589 by that of 
Bourbon. Capet being thus regarded as the 
family name of the kings of France, Louis 
XVI was arraigned before the National Con¬ 
vention under the name of Louis Capet. 

Cape Town, capital of the Cape Colony, 
South Africa, at the head of Table Bay, and at 
the base of Table Mountain, 30 mi. from the 
Cape of Good Hope. The port has a break¬ 
water 2,000 ft. long, 2 docks 16 acres in area, 
and a large graving dock. Besides the railway 
going inland, a railway connects the town with 
Simon’s Town on False Bay. Pop. 51,251; in¬ 
cluding suburbs, 83,718. 

Cape Verd, the extreme west point of Africa, 
between the Senegal and the Gambia, discov¬ 
ered by Fernandez, 1445. 

Cape Verd Islands, a group of ten or fifteen 
volcanic islands and rocks in the Atlantic, 320 
mi. w. of Cape Verd (see above), belonging to 
Portugal. They produce rice, maize, coffee, 
tobacco, the sugar cane, physic nuts, and vari¬ 
ous fruits. Coffee, hides, archil, physic nuts, 
etc., are exported. Most of the inhabitants 
are negroes or of mixed race. The chief town 
is Praia, a seaport on Sao Thiago (Santiago), 
the largest island. Porto Grande, on Sao 
Vicente, is a coaling station for steamers. Pop. 
about 110,000. 

Cape Wrath, the northwest extremity of 
Scotland, county Sutherland. It is a pyramid 
of gneiss bearing a lighthouse, the lightof which 
is 400 ft. above sea level. 



Capillaries. 

a.—the artery; b.— the 
vein; c.—the interven¬ 
ing capillaries. 


Cap'illaries, in anat¬ 
omy, the fine blood-ves¬ 
sels which form the links 
of connection between 
the extremities of the 
arteries and the begin¬ 
nings of the veins. 

Capillar Tty, the gen¬ 
eral name for certain 
phenomena exh i b i t e d 
by fluid surfaces when 
the vessels containing 
the liquid are very nar¬ 
row, and also exhibited 
by that portion of the 
fluid surface which is in 
close proximity to the 
sides of a larger vessel, 
or to any inserted object. 
Thus if an open tube of 
small bore be inserted in 
water, it will be noted 
that the liquid rises 
within it above its for¬ 
mer level to a height 
varying inversely as the 
diameter of the bore, 
and that the surface of 
































Capital 


Capital Punishment 


this column is more or less concave in.form. 
The same phenomenon occurs in any fluid 
which will wet the tube; but in the case of a 
fluid like mercury, which does not wet the 
glass, the converse phenomenon appears, the 
liquid being depressed in the tube below its 
former level, and the portion within the tube 
exhibiting a convex surface. Similarly round 
the sides of the respective vessels, and round 
the outsides of the inserted tubes, we find in 
the first case an ascension, and in the second a 
depression of the liquid, with a corresponding 
concavity or convexity at its extreme edge. 
Two parallel plates immersed in the liquids 
give kindred results. As these phenomena oc¬ 
cur equally in air and in vacuo they cannot be 
attributed to the action of the atmosphere, but 
depend upon molecular actions taking place 
between the particles of the liquid itself, and 
between the liquid and the solid, these actions 
being confined to a very thin layer forming 
the superficial boundary of the fluid. Every 
liquid, in fact, behaves as if a thin film in a 
state of tension formed its external layer; and 
although the theory that such tension really ex¬ 
ists in the superficial layer must be regarded as 
a scientific fiction, yet it adequately represents 
the effects of the real cause, whatever that 
may be. Scientific calculations with respect 
to capillary depressions and elevations proceed, 
therefore, on the working theory that the super¬ 
ficial film at the free surface is to be regarded 
as pressing the liquid inward, or pulling it 
outward according as the surface is convex or 
concave—the convex or concave film being 
known as the meniscus (crescent). The part 
Avhich capillarity plays among natural phe¬ 
nomena is a very varied one. By it the fluids 
circulate in the porous tissues of animal bod¬ 
ies; the sap rises in plants, and moisture is ab¬ 
sorbed from air and soil by the foliage and 
roots. For the same reason a sponge or lump 
of sugar, or a piece of blotting paper soaks in 
moisture, the oil rises in the wick of a lamp, etc. 

Cap'ital, in trade, the term applied, as the 
equivalent of “stock,” to the money, or property 
convertible into money, used by a producer or 
trader for carrying on his business; in political 
economy, that portion of the produce of 
former labor which is reserved from consump¬ 
tion for employment in the further production 
of wealth — the apparatus of production. It 
is commonly divided under two main heads — 
circulating capital and fixed capital. Circu¬ 
lating capital comprises those forms of capital 
which require renewal after every use in pro¬ 
duction, being consumed (absorbed or trans¬ 
formed) in the single use, e. g.. raw materials 
and wages. Fixed capital, on the other hand, 
comprises every form of capital which is ca¬ 
pable of use in a series of similar productive 
acts, e. g., machinery, tools, etc. From the ordi¬ 
nary economic point of view capital is conven¬ 
iently limited to material objects directly em¬ 
ployed in the reproduction of material wealth, 
but from the higher social point of view many 
things less immediately concerned in produc¬ 
tive work may be regarded as capital. Thus 
Adam Smith includes in the fixed capital of a 


country, “the acquired and useful abilities of 
all the inhabitants;” and the wealth sunk in 
prisons, educational institutions, etc., plays 
ultimately a scarcely less important part in 
production than that invested in directly pro¬ 
ductive machinery. 

Capital, an architectural term, usually re¬ 
stricted to the upper portion of a column, the 
part resting immediately on the shaft. In 
classic architecture each order has its dis¬ 
tinctive capital, but in Egyptian, Indian, Sara¬ 
cenic, Norman, and Gothic they are much 
diversified. 

Capital Punishment, in criminal law, the 
punishment by death. Formerly in Great 
Britain, as in many other countries, it was the 
ordinary form of punishment for felonies of all 
kinds; but a more accurate knowledge of the 
nature and remedies of crime, a more discrim¬ 
inating sense of degrees in criminality, and an 
increased regard for human life have latterly 
tended to restrict, if not to abolish, the em¬ 
ployment of the penalty of death. The im¬ 
provement in the penal laws of Europe in this 
respect may be traced in large part to the pub¬ 
lication of Beccaria’s treatise on Grimes and 
Punishments in 1764. At that time in England, 
as Blackstone a year later pointed out with 
some amount of feeling, there were 160 capital 
offenses in the statute book. The work of 
practical reform was initiated in 1770 by Sir 
William Meredith, who moved for a committee 
of inquiry into the state of the criminal laws; 
but the modifications secured by it were few, 
owing to the opposition of the House of Lords, 
which continued down to 1832 to oppose sys¬ 
tematically all attempts at criminal law re¬ 
form. The publication of Madan’s Thoughts 
on Executive Justice, in 1774, urging the stricter 
administration of the law as it then stood, 
brought out the opposition of Sir Samuel Rom- 
illy, who replied to it in 1785, and introduced 
at short intervals a series of bills for the aboli¬ 
tion of the extreme sentence for minor offenses. 
The influence of Paley and Lord Ellenborough, 
and the reaction from the revolutionary prin¬ 
ciples, which prior to the reign of terror had 
inaugurated great penal changes in France, 
told strongly against his efforts; and even his 
Shoplifting act, to abolish the sentence of 
death in cases of theft to the value of five shil¬ 
lings, was resolutely rejected, though passed 
by the Commons in 1810, 1811, 1813. and 1816. 
Romilly’s work was taken up by Sir James 
Mackintosh in 1820, and under Peel’s ministry 
with greater success. At his death, however, 
in the year of the passage of the Reform bill 
(1832) forty kinds of forgery with many less 
serious offenses were still capital, though from 
that time the amelioration was rapid. In the 
five years following the Reform act, the capi¬ 
tal offenses were reduced to 37, and subsequent 
changes left in 1861 only four capital charges 
—setting fire to H. M. dockyards or arsenals, 
piracy with violence, treason, and murder. At 
the present time the last of these may be re¬ 
garded as the only capital crime; and the state¬ 
ment holds good for Scotland also, though 
robbery, rape, incest, and wilful fire raising are 


Capitanis 

still capital crimes in Scottish common law. 
In several other European countries—Sweden, 
Denmark, North Germany, Bavaria, Austria— 
there is even a greater unwillingness to enforce 
capital punishment than is found in Great 
Britain, though the penalty remains upon the 
statute books. In Belgium there has been no 
execution since 18(33. In Switzerland capital 
punishment was abolished in 1874, and though 
the right of restoring it was allowed to each 
canton in consequence of an increase of mur¬ 
ders, only 7 out of a total of 22 have availed 
themselves of it. In Roumania it was abol¬ 
ished in 18(34; in Holland in 1870; and it has 
also been discontinued in Portugal. In sev¬ 
eral of the states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Rhode 
Island, and Maine—imprisonment for life has 
been substituted for murder in the first degree; 
in the remainder capital punishment is re¬ 
tained, though the experiment of its abolition 
was made for a short time in New York and 
Iowa. • 

The manner of inflicting the punishment of 
death has varied greatly. Barbarous nations 
are generally inclined to severe and vindictive 
punishments; and even in civilized countries, 
in cases of a political nature, or of very great 
atrocity, the punishment has been sometimes 
inflicted with many horrible accompaniments, 
such as tearing the criminal to pieces, starving 
him to death, breaking his limbs upon the 
wheel, pressing him to death in a slow and 
lingering manner, burning him at the stake, 
crucifixion, etc. In modern times among civ¬ 
ilized nations, public opinion is strongly dis¬ 
posed to discountenance the punishment of 
death by any but simple means; and even in 
governments where torture is still counte¬ 
nanced by the laws it is rarely or never re¬ 
sorted to. In Great Britain and in most parts 
of the U. S. the method of execution is by 
•hanging, except in the states of New York and 
Colorado, where electricity is employed. In 
Germany and France the sword and the guillo¬ 
tine are the usual means; in Spain, strangula¬ 
tion by means of the garrote, a sort of iron 
collar tightened by a screw. Since 1868 the 
l^w of England has required all executions to 
take place privately within the prison walls, 
and this system was adopted in 1877 by Ger¬ 
many. Capital punishment cannot be in¬ 
flicted, by the general humanity of the laws of 
modern nations, upon persons who are insane 
or who are pregnant, until the latter are deliv¬ 
ered and the former become sane. In military 
law, .sentence of death may be passed for va¬ 
rious offenses, such as sedition, violence, and 
gross neglect of duty, desertion, assault upon 
superior officers, disobedience to lawful com¬ 
mands, etc. 

Capita' nis, the hereditary chieftains of cer¬ 
tain bands of Christian warriors who, about 
the beginningof the sixteenth century, retired 
to the mountain fastnesses of Northern Greece, 
where they maintained a kind of independ¬ 
ence of the Turkish government, and sup¬ 
ported themselves by predatory incursions on 
the neighboring provinces. The Turks tried 
to organize them as a paid police, but with 


Capri 

imperfect success: and in the struggle for 
Greek independence they not only formed an 
insurgent body of about 12,000 men, but fur¬ 
nished most of the Greek generals of that 
period—Odysseus, Karatasso, Marko Bozzaris, 
etc. 

Capitol (now Campidoglio), the citadel of an¬ 
cient Rome, standing on the Capitoline Hill, 
the smallest of the seven hills of Rome. It 
was planned by Tarquinius Priscus, but not 
completed till after the expulsion of the kings. 
At the time of the civil commotions under Sulla 
it was burned down, and rebuilt by the senate. 
It suffered the same fate twice afterward, and 
was restored by Vespasian and by Domitian, 
who instituted there the Capitoline games. 
The present capitol (Campidoglio), standing 
partly on the site of the old one, is a modern edi¬ 
fice, begun in 1536 after the design of Michael 
Angelo. It is used as a hotel de mile , mu¬ 
seum, etc., contains some fine statues and 
paintings, and commands a superb view of the 
Campagna—the name of capitol is also given 
to the edifice in Washington where Congress 
assembles. The various separate states also 
call their statehouses capitols. 

Capo d’Istria, John Anthony, Count (1776- 
1831), Greek statesman. In 1809 he entered 
the service of Russia and obtained an appoint¬ 
ment in the department of foreign affairs. As 
imperial Russian plenipotentiary he subscribed 
the Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815. In 1828 he 
became president of the Greek Republic, in 
which office he was very unpopular, and he 
was assassinated by Constantine and George 
Mauromichalis. 

Cappado cia, in antiquity, one of the most 
important provinces in Asia Minor, the greater 
part of which is included in the modern prov¬ 
ince of Karaman. Its boundaries varied 
greatly at different times. It was conquered 
by Cyrus, and was ruled by independent kings 
from the time of Alexander the Great until 17 
a.d., when it became a Roman province. It 
was traversed by the river Halys, and among 
its chief towns were Comana, Ariarathia, and 
Tyana. 

Cappagh Brown (kap'-a/d, a bituminous 
earth, colored by oxide of manganese andiron, 
which yields pigments of various rich brown 
colors; called also manganese broicn. It derives 
its name from Cappagh, near Cork, in Ireland. 

Capre'ra, a small, rocky and infertile Italian 
island, on the northeast of Sardinia, and sepa¬ 
rated from it by a narrow strait. Area about 
15 sq. mi. It was for many years the place of 
retirement of the Italian liberator Garibaldi, 
who died here in 1882. 

Capri (ancient Caprice), an island belonging 
to Italy, in the Gulf of Naples, 5 mi. long and 
2 broad, rising to the height of about 1,900 ft., 
everywhere well cultivated. The inhabitants, 
amounting to 6,000, are occupied in the pro¬ 
duction of oil and wine, in fishing, and in 
catching quails at the seasons of their migra¬ 
tions. It contains the towns of Capri in the 
east, and Anacapri in the west, situated on the 
summit of a rock, and accessible by a stair of 
522 steps. The emperor Tiberius spent here 


Capricornus 


Capybara 


the last seven years of his life in degrading 
voluptuousness and infamous cruelty. The 
ruins of his palaces are still extant, and other 
ruins are scattered over the island. The island 
has several stalactitic caverns or grottoes in 
its steep rocky coast, which are famed for the 
wondrous colors reflected on the rocks, the 
Blue Grotto being the most famous. 

Cap'ricornus (Capricorn), a constellation of 
the southern hemisphere, and one of the twelve 
signs of the zodiac, the one to which belongs 
the winter solstice, represented by the figure 
of a goat or a figure having the fore part like a 
goat and the hind part like a fish. Tropic of 
Capricorn. See Tropics. 

Cap' rid® (L. caper , a goat), the goat tribe, a 
family of ruminating animals, in which the 
horns are directed upward and backward, and 
have a bony core. 

Caprivi, General von (George Leo von Ca- 
privi de Caprara de Monteculli), chancellor of 
the German Empire, was b. in 1831. He en¬ 
tered the Prussian army in 1849; served in the 
war of 18G6 and the Franco-Prussian War, and 
in 1877 became major general. In December, 
1882, he was given command of the third army 
division and from 1883 to 1888 was at the head 
of the admiralty. He held command of the 
tenth army corps, stationed in Hanover. In 
1890 he became chancellor, in succession to 
Prince Bismarck. Died Feb. 6, 1899. 

Cap'sicin, an alkaloid, the active principle 
of the capsules of Capsicum annuum, or Guinea 
pepper. It has a resinous aspect and a burn¬ 
ing taste. 

Cap'sicum, a genus of annual, sub-shrubby 
plants, with a wheel-shaped corolla, project¬ 
ing and converging stamens, and a many- 



seeded berry. They are chiefly natives of the 
East and West Indies, China, Brazil, and 
Egypt, but have spread to various other trop¬ 
ical or subtropical countries, being cultivated 
for their fruit, which in some reaches the size 
of an orange, is fleshy and variously colored, 
and contains a pungent principle (see Capsicin) 
which is present also and more largely in the 
seed. The fruit or pod is used for pickles, 


sauces, etc., and also medicinally. Several of 
them yield Cayenne pepper, and the first (called 
often Guinea pepper, though originally a na¬ 
tive of South America) also yields chillies. 

Caption, in law, a certificate stating the time 
and place of executing a commission in chan¬ 
cery, or of taking a deposition, or of the find¬ 
ing of an indictment, and the court or author¬ 
ity before which such act was performed, and 
such other particulars as are necessary to ren¬ 
der it legal and valid. 

Cap'ua, a fortified city of Italy, province 
Caserta, in a plain 18 mi. n. Naples, on the 
Yolturno, which is crossed by a handsome 
bridge. It is the residence of an archbishop, 
and has a cathedral. Pop. 13,886. The an¬ 
cient city was situated 3£ mi. s.e. from the 
modern town. The site is now occupied by 
a small town, called Santa-Maria-di-Capua 
Vetere. The ancient Capua was of such ex¬ 
tent as to be compared to Rome and Carthage. 
It was a favorite place of resort of the Romans 
on account of its agreeable situation and its 
healthy climate, and many existing ruins (in¬ 
cluding an amphitheater) attest its ancient 
splendor. 

Capuchin Monkey (kap-u-shen'), a name 
given to various species of South American 
monkeys of the genus Cebus. The hair of 
their heads is so arranged that it has the ap¬ 
pearance of a capuchin’s cowl, hence the name. 
The name is most frequently given to the Sai, 
the Horned Sapajou, as well as to a monkey 
belonging to an allied species. 

Capuchins (kap-u-shenz'), monks of the or¬ 
der of St. Francis, so called from the capuclion 
or capuce, a stuff cap or cowl, the distinguish¬ 
ing badge of the order. They are clothed in 
brown or gray, go barefooted, and never shave 
their beard. 

Capyba'ra, a species of rodent, sometimes 
known by the name of the water hog, and of 
the family Cavidae (guinea pig). It attains the 
length of about 3 ft., and has a very large and 
thick head, a thick body covered with short, 



Capybara. 


coarse, brown hair, and short legs, with long 
feet, which, being in a manner webbed, fit it 
for an aquatic life. It has no tail. It is com¬ 
mon in several parts of South America, and 
particularly in Brazil. It feeds on vegetables 
and fish, which it catches somewhat in the 
manner of the otter. 











Carbobo. 


Carbazotic Acid 


Carbo'bo, a state of Venezuela, washed on 
the n. by the Caribbean Sea. Area about 2,984 
sq. mi.; pop. 167,499. The capital is Valencia, 
the chief port Puerto Cabello. 

Car acal, a species of lynx; a native of 
Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia. It is 
about the size of a fox, and mostly of a deep- 



Caracal. 


brown color, having tufts of long black hair 
which terminate the ears. It possesses great 
strength and fierceness. 

Caracal la, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 
eldest son of the Emperor Severus (188-217). 
On the death of his father he succeeded to the 
throne with his brother Antoninus Geta, whom 
he speedily murdered. To effect his own secur¬ 
ity upward of 20,000 other victims were butch¬ 
ered. He was himself assassinated by Mac- 
rinus, the praetorian prefect, who succeeded 
him. 

Carac'as, a city of South America, capital 
of Venezuela, situated in a fine valley, about 
3,000 ft. above the Caribbean Sea, connected 
by railway with the port La Guayra, about 10 
mi. distant. It is regularly laid out, and has 
some good buildings, including a cathedral, 
university, federal palace, and other govern¬ 
ment buildings, etc. It has various parks and 
gardens, gas and water supply, telephones, 
tramways, etc. In 1812 it was in great part 
destroyed by an earthquake, and nearly 12,000 
persons buried in the ruins. Pop. 55,638. 

Caraccioli (ka-rach'o-le), Francesco (1748- 
1799), Italian admiral. In 1798 he entered the 
service of the Parthenopean Republic, and re¬ 
pelled, with a few vessels, an attempt of the 
Sicilian-English fleet to effect a landing. When 
Ruffo took Naples in 1799 Caraccioli was ar¬ 
rested, and, contrary to the terms of capitula¬ 
tion, was condemned to death, and hanged at 
the yard arm of a Neapolitan frigate, Lord Nel¬ 
son consenting to his execution. 

Car'adoc (or Carac'tacus), a king of the an¬ 
cient British people called Silures, inhabiting 
South Wales. He defended his country with 
great perseverance against the Romans, but 
was at last defeated, and led in triumph to 
Rome, a.d. 51, after the war. His noble bear¬ 
ing and pathetic speech before the Emperor 
Claudius procured his pardon, but he and his 
relatives appear to have remained in Italy. 


Caram'bola, the fruit of an East Indian 
tree. It is of the size and shape of a duck’s 
egg, of an agreeable acidulous flavor, used in 
making sherbets, tarts, and preserves. 

Car'amel, the brown mass which cane sugar 
becomes at 220° C., used in cooking as a color¬ 
ing and flavoring ingredient, in giving a brown 
color to spirits, etc. The name of a certain 
preparation of candy. 

Car'at, a weight of 3.17 troy grains, used 
by jewelers in weighing precious stones and 
pearls. The term is also used to express the 
proportionate fineness of gold. The whole 
mass of gold is divided into twenty-four equal 
parts, and it is called gold of so many carats 
as it contains twenty-four parts of pure 
metal. Thus if a mass contains twenty-two 
parts of pure gold out of every twenty-four it 
is gold of twenty-two carats. 

Carau'sius, a Roman general, a native of 
Batavia. He was sent by the Emperor Max- 
imian to defend the Atlantic coasts against the 
Franks and Saxons; but foreseeing impending 
disgrace, he landed in Britain and got himself 
proclaimed emperor by his legions (287 a. d.). 
In this province he was able to maintain him¬ 
self six years, when he was assassinated at 
York by one of his officers named Allectus 
(293 a.d.). 

Caravaggio (ka-ra-vaj 'o), a town of Northern 
Italy, prov. of Bergamo, 24 mi. e. of Milan, on 
the Gera d’Adda. It is celebrated as the birth¬ 
place of the two great painters, Polidoro Cal- 
dara and Michael Angelo Merighi, both called 
Caravaggio. Pop. 6,089. 

Car'avail, a Persian word used to denote 
large companies which travel together in Asia 
and Africa for the sake of security from rob¬ 
bers, having in view, principally, trade or 
pilgrimages. In Mohammedan countries cara¬ 
vans of pilgrims are annually formed to make 
the journey to Mecca. The most important 
are those which annually set out from Damas¬ 
cus and Cairo. Camels are used as a means of 
conveyance on account of their remarkable 
powers of endurance. 

Car'avel, the name of different kinds of ves¬ 
sels, particularly a small ship used by the 
Spaniards and Portuguese in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries for long voyages. It was 
narrow at the poop, wide at the bow, and car¬ 
ried a double tower at its stern and a single 
one at its bows. It had four masts and a bow¬ 
sprit, and the principal sails were lateen sails. 
It was in command of three such caravels that 
Columbus crossed the Atlantic and discovered 
America. 

Caravel'las, a seaport of Brazil, prov. Bahia, 
the principal port of the surrounding country, 
and the headquarters of the Abrolhos Islands 
whale fishery. Pop. about 4,000. 

Car'away, a biennial plant, with a tapering 
fleshy root, a striated, furrowed stem, and 
white or pinkish flowers. It produces a well- 
known seed used in confectionery, and from 
which both a carminative oil is extracted and 
the liquor called kummel prepared. 

Carbazot'ic Acid, a crystallizable acid and 
bitter substance obtained by the action of ni- 



Carbohydrate 


Carboniferous System 


trie acid on indigo and some other animal and 
vegetable substances. It is of great impor¬ 
tance in dyeing. When silk which has been 
treated with a mordant of alum or cream of 
tartar, is immersed in a solution of this acid, 
it is dyed of a beautiful permanent yellow 
color. Often called Picric Acid. 

Carbohy'drate, an organic compound con¬ 
taining carbon and the elements of water, as 
starch and cellulose. 

Carbol'ic Acid, an acid obtained from coal- 
tar. It is, when pure, a colorless crystalline 
substance, but it is usually found as an oily 
liquid, colorless, with a burning taste and the 
odor of creosote. Carbolic acid is now much 
employed as a therapeutic and disinfectant. 
It may be taken internally in cases in which 
creosote is indicated; but its principal use in 
medicine is an external application to un¬ 
healthy sores, compound fractures, and to ab¬ 
scesses after they have been opened, over 
which it coagulates, forming a crust imper¬ 
meable to air and to the organic germs floating 
in the atmosphere, which produce decomposi¬ 
tion in the wound. The action of the acid is 
not only to exclude these germs but also to 
destroy such as may have been admitted, for 
which reason it is introduced into the interior 
of the wound. Called also Phenic Acid and 
Phenol. 

Carbon, one of the elements, existing un¬ 
combined in three forms, charcoal, graphite, or 
plumbago, and the diamond; chemical sym¬ 
bol C, atomic weight 12. The diamond is the 
purest Jorm of carbon; in the different varie¬ 
ties of charcoal, in coal, anthracite, etc., it is 
more or less mixed with other substances. 
Pure charcoal is a black, brittle, light, and in¬ 
odorous substance. It is usually the remains 
of some vegetable body from which all the vol¬ 
atile matter has been expelled by heat; but it 
may be obtained from most organic matters, 
animal as well as vegetable, by ignition in 
close vessels. Carbon being one of those ele¬ 
ments which exist in various distinct forms is 
an example of what is called allotropy. The 
compounds of this element are more numer¬ 
ous than those of all the other elements take' 
together. With hydrogen especially it form,, 
a very large number of compounds, called hy¬ 
drocarbons, which are possessed of the most 
diverse properties, chemical and physical. 
With oxygen, again, carbon forms only two 
compounds, but union between the two ele¬ 
ments is easily effected. It is one of the reg¬ 
ular and most characteristic constituents of 
both animals and plants. See Diamond , Char¬ 
coal, Graphite, Bone Black, Carbonic Acid, Coke, 
etc. 

Carbonari (lit. charcoal burners), the name 
of an Italian political secret society, which ap¬ 
pears to have been formed by the Neapolitan 
republicans during the reign of Joachim (Mu¬ 
rat), and had for its object the expulsion of 
the strangers and the establishment of a dem¬ 
ocratic government. 

Car'bonates, compounds formed by the 
union of carbonic acid with a base, as the 
carbonate of lime, the carbonate of copper, 


etc. Carbonates are an important class of 
salts, many of them being extensively used in 
the arts and in medicine. 

Car'bondale, Lackawanna co., Pa., on Lack¬ 
awanna River, 16 mi. n.e. of Scranton. Rail¬ 
roads: Delaware Hudson; Erie & New York; 
and Ontario & Western. Industries: Refrig¬ 
erator factory, three flouring mills, two iron 
foundries, silk mill, and several other factories. 
Elk Mountain, two miles distant, is the second 
highest point in Pennsylvania. The town was 
first settled in 182G, and became a city in 1850. 
Pop. 1900, 13,536. 

Carbon ic Acid, more properly called Car¬ 
bonic Anhydride, or Carbon Dioxide, a gaseous 
compound of 12 parts by weight of carbon and 
32 of oxygen, coloness, without smell, twenty- 
two times as heavy as hydrogen, turning blue 
litmus slightly red, and existing in the atmos¬ 
phere to the extent of 1 volume in 2,500. It 
is incapable of supporting combustion or ani¬ 
mal life, acting as a narcotic poison when 
present in the air to the extent of only 4 or 
5 per cent. It is disengaged from ferment¬ 
ing liquors and from decomposing vegetable 
and animal substances, and is largely evolved 
from fissures in the earth, constituting the 
choke damp of mines. From its weight it has 
a tendency to subside into low places, vaults, 
and wells, rendering some low-lying places, as 
the upas valley of Java, and many caves, un¬ 
inhabitable. It has a pleasant, acidulous, pun¬ 
gent taste, and aerated beverages of all kinds— 
beer, champagne, and carbonated mineral 
water—owe their refreshing qualities to its 
presence, for though poisonous when taken 
into the lungs, it is agreeable when taken into 
the stomach. This acid is formed and given 
out during the respiration of animals, and in 
all ordinary combustions, from the oxidation 
of carbon in the fuel. It exists in large quan¬ 
tities in all limestones and marbles. It is 
evolved from the colored parts of the flowers 
of plants both by night and day, and from the 
green parts of plants during the night. Dur¬ 
ing the day, plants absorb it from the atmos¬ 
phere through their leaves, and it forms an 
important part of their nourishment. 

Carbonic Oxide, a substance obtained by 
transmitting carbonic acid over red-hot frag¬ 
ments of charcoal, contained in a tube of iron 
or porcelain, and also by several other proc¬ 
esses. It is a colorless, inodorous gas, sp. gr. 
0.9727, has neither acid nor alkaline properties, 
is very poisonous, and burns with a pale laven¬ 
der flame. 

Carboniferous System, in geology, the 
great group of strata which lie between the 
Old Red Sandstone below and the Permian 
or Dyas formation above, named from the 
quantities of coal, shale, and other carbona¬ 
ceous matter contained in them. They include 
the coal measures, millstone grit, and moun¬ 
tain limestone, the first being uppermost and 
containing the chief coal fields that are worked. 
Iron ore, limestone, clay, and building stone 
are also yielded abundantly by the carbonifer¬ 
ous strata which are found in many parts of 
the world, often covering large areas. See 


Carbon Points 


Cardinal Bird 


Coal. The thickness of the coal measures in 
South Wales has been estimated at 10,000 to 
13,000 ft. As coal consists essentially of meta¬ 
morphosed vegetable matter, fossil plants are 
very numerous in the carboniferous rocks, 
more than 1,500 species of them having been 
named, a large proportion of which are ferns, 
tree lycopods, and large horsetail-like plants. 
The animals include insects, scorpions, am¬ 
phibians, numerous corals, crinoids, molluscs, 
cephalopods, sharks, and other fishes. 

Carbon Points, in electric lighting, two 
pieces of very hard, compact carbon, between 
which the electric current is broken, so that 
the resistance which they offer to the passage 
of the current produces a light of extraordi¬ 
nary brilliancy. 

Carbun'cle, a beautiful gem of a deep red 
color with a mixture of scarlet, found in the 
East Indies. When held up to the sun it loses 
its deep tinge, and becomes exactly of the 
color of a burning coal. The carbuncle of the 
ancients is supposed to have been a garnet. 

Car'bureted Hydrogen, the name given to 
two compounds of carbon and hydrogen, one 
known as light carbureted hydrogen , and the 
other as olefiant gas. The former is the com¬ 
pound, which occurs in coal mines (fire damp) 
and about the neighborhood of stagnant pools. 
Mixed with atmospheric air from seven to 
fourteen times that of the gas it explodes. 
The latter is obtained from distilling coal or 
fat substances in close vessels. It explodes 
when mixed with ten or twelve volumes of 
atmospheric air. 

Carcassonne, capital of the dep. Aude, 
France. The old town is surrounded by a 
double wall, part of it so ancient as to be at¬ 
tributed to the Visigoths. The new town is 
regularly built, and has many handsome 
modern houses. The staple manufacture is 
woolen cloth. Pop. 27,512. 

* Card, an instrument for combing, opening, 
and breaking wool, flax, etc., freeing it from 
the coarser parts and from extraneous matter. 
It is made by inserting bent teeth of wire in a 
thick*piece of leather, and nailing this to a piece 
of oblong board to which a handle is attached. 
But wool and cotton are now generally carded 
in mills by teeth fixed on a wheel moved by 
machinery. The word is derived through the 
French carde, a teasel, from L. carduus , a 
thistle, teasels having been used for cards. 

Car'damoms, the aromatic capsules of dif¬ 
ferent species of plants, employed in medicine 
as well as an ingredient in sauces and curries. 
The cardamoms known in the shops are the 
large, supposed to be produced by a Mada¬ 
gascar plant; the middle sized and the small, 
both supposed to be the produce of a native of 
Sumatra- and other Eastern islands. Those 
recognized in the American pharmacopceia, 
called true or ojficinal cardamoms and known in 
commerce as Malabar cardamoms, are the prod¬ 
uce of a native of the mountains of Malabar 
and Canara. 

Cardan (or Carda'no Geronimo) (1501- 
1576), Italian philosopher, physician, and math¬ 
ematician. He acquired extraordinary repu¬ 


tation as a physician, and was invited to Scot¬ 
land to attend Archbishop Hamilton of St. 
Andrews, who had been sick for ten years, 
and who was restored to health by his pre¬ 
scriptions. He made some important dis¬ 
coveries in algebra, studied astrology, pre¬ 
tended to a gift of prophecy, and wrote a 
large number of books. 

Card'board, a kind of stiff paper or paste¬ 
board for cards, etc., usually made by stick¬ 
ing together several sheets of paper. 

Carde'nas, a seaport on the north coast of 
Cuba, 103 mi. e. of Havana, with which it is 
connected by rail. One of the principal com¬ 
mercial centers of the island; chief exports: 
sugar, molasses, and coffee. Pop. 12,910. 

Car'diff (“the city on the Taff ”), seaport, 
the county town of Glamorganshire, Wales, 
situated at the mouth of the Taff on the estu¬ 
ary of the Severn. It is a rapidly increasing 
town, and the principal outlet for the mineral 
produce and manufactures of South Wales. 
Iron shipbuilding is carried on, and there are 
iron and other works on a large scale. The 
docks are extensive and well constructed 
(total area about 200 acres), and various im¬ 
provements to the port have been carried out. 
It is the chief coal port of England. Pop. 
128,849. 

Cardigan, the county town of Cardigan¬ 
shire, South Wales, on the river Teifi, about 3 
mi. from its mouth in Cardigan Bay. Pop. 
3,447. The county of Cardigan has an area of 
443,387 acres, of which two thirds is under 
crop or pasture. The surface of the northern 
and eastern parts is mountainous, but inter¬ 
spersed with fertile valleys; while the southern 
and western districts are more level and pro¬ 
duce abundance of corn. It is rich in meval- 
liferous lodes, the lead mines still yielding 
largely. The principal town is Aberystwith. 
Pop. 62,596. 

Cardinal Bird, a North American bird of the 



Cardinal Finch. 

finch family, with a fine red plumage, and a 
crest on the head. Its song resembles that of 























Cardinal Flower 


Carlisle 


the nightingale, hence one of its common 
names, Virginian Nightingale. In size it is 
about equal to the starling. Called also Scar¬ 
let Grosbeak or Cardinal Grosbeak and Red Bud. 

Cardinal Flower, the name commonly given 
to Lobelia cardinalis, because of its large, very 
showy, and intensely red flowers; it is a native 
of North America, but is much cultivated in 
gardens in Britain. 

Carding, the process wool, cotton, flax, etc., 
undergo previous to spinning, to lay the fibers 
all in one direction, and remove all foreign 
substances. See Card. 

Ca'ret (L., “there is something wanting”), 
in writing, a mark made thus, /\» which shows 
that something, omitted in the line, is inter¬ 
lined above or inserted in the margin, and 
should be read in that place. 

Ca'rey, Henry (1696-1743), a British com¬ 
poser, dramatist, and poet. He composed the 
words and music of many popular songs, in¬ 
cluding Sally in Our Alley , God Save the King , 
etc. He also wrote farces and other works. 

Carey, Henry Charles (1793-1879), political 
economist, b. in Philadelphia. His father, 
Matthew Carey, was a publisher and political 
economist. He gave his son a liberal educa¬ 
tion, and at the age of eight the boy entered 
his father’s bookstore. He was successful in 
business, and made a study of economic ques¬ 
tions. He was a member of the Republican 
party from its formation, supported the Union 
during the Civil War, was a trusted adviser of 
Lincoln and Chase, and was a member of the 
constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, in 
1872. At his death he gave his valuable library 
to the University of Pennsylvania. He advo¬ 
cated a new system of political economy, and 
wrote extensively on protection and the cur¬ 
rency. 

Ca'ria, an ancient country forming the s.w. 
corner of Asia Minor, and partly settled in 
early times by Greek colonists chiefly of the 
Dorian race. About b. c. 129 it was incorpo¬ 
rated in the Roman province of Asia. Cnidus, 
Halicarnassus, and Miletus were among the 
chief towns. 

Caria'co, a seaport town, Venezuela, situ¬ 
ated to the east of the Gulf of Cariaco, near the 
mouth of a river of the same name. Pop. 7,000. 
The Gulf of Cariaco is 38 mi. long, from 5 to 
10 broad, from 80 to 100 fathoms deep, sur¬ 
rounded by lofty mountains. 

Caribbe'an Sea, that portion of the North 
Atlantic Ocean lying between the coasts of 
Central and South America, and the West 
India Islands. It communicates with the 
Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatan channel. 

Car'ibbee Bark, the bark of a tree growing 
in the West Indies, closely allied to Cinchona, 
and occasionally substituted for the true species 
of the latter. It is called also St. Lucia Bark. 

Car'iboo (Caribou), the name of two Ameri¬ 
can species of reindeer, sometimes regarded as 
specifically identical with the Old World rein¬ 
deer. The woodland cariboo most nearly re¬ 
sembles the common reindeer. It is found 
over considerable tracts of Canada, as also in 
Newfoundland and Labrador, and is migra¬ 


tory in its habits. The Barren Ground cari¬ 
boo is much smaller, but has larger horns. It 
executes considerable migrations, going north 
to the Arctic Ocean in summer, and returning 
in autumn. 

Car'ibs, the original inhabitants of the 
West Indian Islands, and, when Europeans 
became acquainted with America, also found 
in certain portions of Central America and the 
north of South America. At present only a 
few remain on Trinidad, Dominico, and St. 
Vincent. 

Car'icature, a representation of the quali¬ 
ties and peculiarities of an object, but in such 
a way that beauties are concealed and pecu¬ 
liarities or defects exaggerated, so as to make 
the person or thing ridiculous, while a general 
likeness is retained. Though a degenerate, it 
is one of the oldest forms of art. Egyptian 
art has numerous specimens of caricature, 
and it has an important place in Greek and 
Roman art. It flourished in every European 
nation during the Middle Ages, and in the 
present day it is the chief feature in the so- 
called comic journals. 

Carimat'a, an island about 50 mi. from the 
coast of Borneo. It is about 10 mi long and 
rises to a height of 2,000 ft. It is visited by 
Malays, who collect tortoise-shell, tripang, 
and edible birds’ nests. 

Carinth'ia, a province of Austria; area 
4,006 sq. mi. The iron, lead, and calamine 
mines are the main sources of its wealth, 
though there are several manufactories of 
woolens, cottons, silk stuffs, etc., most of 
which are in Klagenfurt, the capital. Pop. 
348,730. 

Car'isbrooke, a village of the Isle of Wight, 
England. In its ancient castle Charles I was 
imprisoned thirteen months previous to his ex¬ 
ecution. 

Carleton, Will, American author, was b. 
in Hudson, Mich., Oct. 21, 1845. He graduated 
at Hillsdale College in that state; and soon 
after completing his studenthood, he began to 
lecture in various parts of the U. S. and Can¬ 
ada. He has more than once visited Europe. 
His best-known works are ballads of domestic 
life. His fresh and striking Farm Ballads 
(1873), Farm Legends (1875), Farm Festivals 
(1881), City Ballads (1885), and other poems, 
possess both vigor and pathos, and have at¬ 
tained a wide popularity on both sides of the 
Atlantic. 

Carleton, William (1798-1869), Irish novelist. 
His education commenced at a hedge school, 
and terminated with two years’ training in an 
academy. Thence he went to Dublin to try 
his fortune in the walks of literature. There, 
in 1830-32, were published his Traits and 
Stories of the Irish Peasantry. He published 
several other popular novels. He enjoyed a 
government allowance of $1,000 per annum 
several years before his death. Barnett-Smith 
calls him “one of the truest, the most power¬ 
ful, and the tenderest delineators of Irish 
life.” 

Carlisle, a town of England, county town 
of Cumberland. Sacked by the Danes and re- 


Carlisle 

built by William Rufus. It was held by the 
Scots during their tenure of Cumberland, and 
the church of St. Mary’s was founded by Da¬ 
vid I, who d. here. During the border wars 
Carlisle underwent many sieges. It surren¬ 
dered to Charles Edward in 1745. The ca¬ 
thedral, begun in the reign of William Rufus, 
was partly destroyed by Cromwell in 1648. In 
the various improvements of the city all the 
walls, gates, and fortifications have been re¬ 
moved,except a portion of the west wall, and 
the castle. Carlisle is the seat of various manu¬ 
factures, of which cotton is the principal. Pop. 
39,176.. P P 

Carlisle, Cumberland co., Pa., on Conodo- 
guinet River, 18 mi. w. of Harrisburg. Rail¬ 
roads: Cumberland Valley, and Philadelphia 
& Reading. Industries: iron foundry, flour 
mill, three shoe factories, two silk mills, axle 
works, ice and lumber and wrapper factories, 
etc. It is the seat of Dickinson Methodist 
College, founded in 1873, and of Carlisle school 
for the education of Indian pupils. Pop. 1900, 
9,626. 

Carlisle, John Griffin, American states¬ 
man, b. in Kentucky, Sept. 5, 1835. He be¬ 
came a lawyer and served several terms in the 
state legislature. He was state senator, 1866- 
71. From 1871 to 1875 he was lieutenant gov¬ 
ernor of the state, and in 1877 took his seat in 
Congress. From 1883 to 1889 he served as 
speaker of the House of Representatives. In 
1890 he was elected senator to succeed Mr. 
Beck. He was secretary of the treasury in 
President Cleveland’s second administration. 

Carlos', Don (1545-1568), Infant of Spain, son 
of Philip II. He was deformed in person, of a 
vindictive disposition. He was presumably 
murdered, but of this there is no proof. The 
story of Don Carlos has furnished the subject 
of several tragedies. 

Carlos de Bourbon, Don Maria Isidor (1788- 
1855), the second son of Charles IV of Spain. 
His eldest son, Don Carlos, excited insurrec¬ 
tions in his favor in his native country, but 
these attempts were always frustrated. His 
nephew, Don Carlos, duke of Modena, b. 1848, 
is the present representative of the Carlists. 
In 1873 he instigated a rising in the north of 
Spain, and continued the struggle till after 
Alfonso XII came to the throne, wh.en he was 
defeated and withdrew. 

Carlotta, ex-empress of Mexico, daughter of 
Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, was b. 
July 7, 1840. In 1857 she became the wife of 
the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who af¬ 
terward usurped the throne of Mexico. The 
execution of her husband preyed on her mind, 
and for many years she was under restraint. 

Carlovin'gians, the second dynasty of the 
French or Frankish kings, which supplanted 
the Merovingians, deriving the name from 
Charles Martel or his grandson Charlemagne. 
Charles Martel (715-741) and his son Pepin 
(741-768) were succeeded by Charlemagne and 
his brother Carloman (768-771). Charlemagne 
became sole king in 771, and was succeeded in 
the Empire of the West by his son Louis le 
Debonnaire, 814. He divided his empire among 


Carlyle 

his sons, and at his death (840) his son Charles 
the Bald became king of France. He died in 
877, and was succeeded by a number of feeble 
princes. The dynasty came to an end with 
Louis V, who d. in 987. 

Car'low, an inland county of Ireland, prov¬ 
ince of Leinster. Area 346 sq. mi. From 
the remarkable fertility of its soil it is alto¬ 
gether an agricultural county, producing a 
great deal for exportation. Pop. 40,936. Car- 
low, the county town, is 34 mi. s.w. of Dublin. 
It is the principal mart for the agricultural 
produce of the surrounding country. There 
is a Roman Catholic cathedral and divinity 
college. On rising ground stand the ruins 
of the ancient castle of Carlow. Pop. 6,619. 

Carlowitz (kar'lo-vits), a town of Austrian 
Slavonia, 7 mi. s.e. Peterwardein; the center 
of a famous wine-growing district. A peace 
was concluded here in 1699 between Austria, 
Russia, and Poland, and the Turks. Pop. 
5,800. 

Carlsbad (karls'bat) (“Charles’s Bath’’), a 
town of Bohemia, famous for its hot mineral 
springs, and much frequented by visitors from 
all parts of the world, being useful in diabetes, 
gout, etc. Pop. about 11,000. 

Carlscro'na (“Charles’s Crown”), a forti¬ 
fied seaport of Sweden, capital of the province 
of Blekinge or Carlscrona. It is the chief 
Swedish naval station, the harbor being safe 
and spacious, with fine dock, shipyards, ar¬ 
senal, etc. It has a considerable export trade 
in timber, tar, potash, tallow, etc. Pop. 
19,497. 

Carlsruhe (karls'ro) (“Charles’s Rest”), 
the capital of the Grand-duchy of Baden, Ger¬ 
many. The castle of the grand duke stands 
as a center, and from this point a number of 
streets radiate at regular distances, thus form¬ 
ing a kind of fan. The court library contains 
100,000 volumes; there are also a large public 
library, several valuable museums and art col¬ 
lections, a botanic garden, polytechnic school, 
etc. Pop. 61,074. 

Carlstadt (karl'stat), Andreas Rudolf Bod- 
enstein (1480-1541), a German reformer. 
About 1517 he became one of Luther’s warm¬ 
est supporters. He was excommunicated by 
the bull against Luther, and was the first to 
appeal from the pope to a general council. 
While Luther was at the Wartburg, Carlstadt 
instigated the people and students to the de¬ 
struction of the altars and the images of the 
saints. In 1524 he declared himself the op¬ 
ponent of Luther, and commenced the contro¬ 
versy respecting the sacrament, denying the 
bodily presence of Christ in the sacramental 
elements. This controversy ended in the 
separation of the Calvinists and Lutherans. 
After many misfortunes he settled as vicar 
and professor of theology at Basel, where he d. 

Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), one of the 
greatest English writers of the present cen¬ 
tury, b. at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. He 
was the eldest son of James Carlyle, a mason, 
afterward a farmer, and was intended for the 
church, with which object he was carefully 
educated. In his fifteenth year he was sent to 


Carmagnole 


Carnegie 


the University of Edinburgh, where he devel- 
oped a strong taste for mathematics. Having 
renounced the idea of becoming a minister, 
after finishing his curriculum he became a 
teacher for about four years. In 1818 he re¬ 
moved to Edinburgh, where he supported him¬ 
self by literary work. His career as an author 
may be said to have begun with the issue in 
monthly portions of his Life of Schiller in the 
London Magazine , in 1828, this work being en¬ 
larged and published separately in 1825. In 
1824 he published a translation of Legendre’s 
Geometry , with an essay on proportion by him¬ 
self prefixed. The same year appeared his 
translation of Goethe’s T Vilhelm Mdster's Appren¬ 
ticeship. He was next engaged in translating 
specimens of the German Romance writers, 
published in 4 vols. in 1827. In 1827 he mar¬ 
ried Miss Jane Bailie Welsh, a lineal descend¬ 
ant of John Knox. After his marriage he 
resided for a time in Edinburgh, and then 
withdrew to Craigenputtock. Here he wrote 
a number of critical and biographical articles 
for various periodicals; and here was written 
Sartor Resartus, the most original of his works. 
The publication of Sartor soon made Carlyle 
famous. On his removal to London he fixed 
his abode at Cheyne Row, Chelsea, where his 
life henceforth was mainly spent. His next 
work of importance was on the French Revolu¬ 
tion. He delivered several series of lectures, 
the most important of these, on Heroes ancl 
Hero-worship, being published in 1840. Char¬ 
tism, published in 1839, and Past and Present, 
in 1843, were small works bearing on the af¬ 
fairs of the time. In 1845 appeared his Oliver 
Cromwell's Letters, and Speeches, with Elucida¬ 
tions. In 1850 came out his Latter-day Pam¬ 
phlets. He next wrote a life of his friend John 
Sterling, published in 1851. The largest and 
most laborious work of his life, The History of 
Frederick 1L of Prussia, called Frederick the 
Great, next appeared, the first two volumes in 
1858, the second two in 1862, and the last two 
in 1865, and after this time little came from 
his pen. In 1866, having been elected lord 
rector of Edinburgh University, he delivered 
an installation address to the students on the 
Choice of Books. While still in Scotland the 
sad news reached him that his wife had died 
suddenly in London. Mrs. Carlyle, besides 
being a woman of exceptional intellect, was a 
most devoted and affectionate wife. He left 
the estate of Craigenputtock to the University 
of Edinburgh, stipulating that the income 
from it should form ten bursaries to be annually 
competed for — five for proficiency in mathe¬ 
matics and five for classics (including English). 

Carmagnole (kar-ma-nyol), a name applied 
in the early times of the French Republic 
(1792-93) to a highly popular song, and a dance 
by which it was accompanied. 

Carmarthen (or Caermar' then), a mari¬ 
time county, South Wales. It is of a moun¬ 
tainous character generally, and its valleys 
are noted for the beauty of their scenery. The 
mineral products of the county are iron, lead, 
coal, and limestone. The chief towns are 
Carmarthen and Llanelly. Pop. 130,574. Car¬ 


marthen, the county town, is situated 9 mi. 
from the sea, on the Towy. The salmon fish¬ 
ery is extensive. Pop. 10,338. 

Carmel, a range of hills in Palestine, ex¬ 
tending from the Plain of Esdraelon to the 
Mediterranean. It has a length of about 16 
mi., and its highest point is 1,850 ft. above 
the sea. 

Carmelites, mendicant friars of the order of 
Our Lady of Mount Carmel. From probably 
the fourth century holy men took up their 
abode as hermits on Mount Carmel in Syria. 

Car'minatives, medicines obtained chiefly 
from the vegetable kingdom, and used as 
remedies for flatulence and spasmodic pains. 

Car'mine, the fine red coloring matter or 
principle of cochineal, from which it is pre¬ 
pared in several ways, the result being the 
precipitation of the carmine. It is used to 
some extent in dyeing, in water-color paint¬ 
ing, to color artificial flowers, confectionery, 
etc. 

Carnac, a village of Brittany, France, dep. 
of Morbihan, on a height near the coast, 15 
mi. s.e. of Lorient, and remarkable for the so- 
called Druidical monuments in its vicinity. 

Carnar'von (or Caernarvon), a maritime 
county of North Wales; area 369,477 acres. It 
is traversed by lofty mountains, including the 
Snowdon range, whose highest peak is 3,571 
ft., and the highest mountain in South Britain. 
Slate is the chief mineral, large quantities of 
which are exported. Pop. 118,225. Carnar¬ 
von, the county town, is aseaporton the south¬ 
east side of the Menai Strait. The old part of 
the town is surrounded by an ancient wall. 
Pop. 9,804. 

Carnat'ic, the district in Southeastern In¬ 
dia extending from Cape Comorin to the north¬ 
ern Circars, lying east of the Ghats, and reach¬ 
ing to the sea on the Coromandel coast. 

Carnation, the popular name of varieties of 
the clove pink. The carnations of the florists 
are much prized for the beautiful colors of 
their sweet-scented double flowers. They are 
arranged into three classes according to color, 
viz., bizarres, flakes, and picoiees. 

Carnegie, Andrew, an American million¬ 
aire, was b. at Dunfermline, Scotland, 1835, 
whence his father, a hand-loom weaver, emi¬ 
grated to America. The family settled in 
Pittsburgh, where Andrew obtained employ¬ 
ment first as a telegraph messenger. A fortu¬ 
nate acquaintance with the sleeping-car pat¬ 
entee laid the foundation of his success; then 
came lucky ventures in oil and the starting of 
a rolling mill from which has grown the larg¬ 
est system of iron and steel industries in the 
world. 

Carnegie, Alleghany co., Pa., on Chartier’s 
Creek, 30 mi. from Pittsburg. Railroads: Pan 
Handle; Chartier’s Valley; and P. C. & Y. In¬ 
dustries: iron and steel mills and other manu¬ 
factories. Coal, oil, and natural gas to be found 
in large quantities. First settled in 1842 by 
Col. M. B. Brown, and the name was changed 
from Mansfield Valley to Carnegie in 1894. 
Carnegie has two weekly papers. Pop. 1900, 
7,330, 


Carniola 


Carpenter 


Carnio la, province of Austria; area 3,856 
sq. mi. There are iron, lead, and quicksilver 
mines, and abundance of coal, marble, and 
valuable stone. Pop. 498,958. The capital is 
Laibach. 

Carnival, the feast or season of rejoicing 
before Lent, observed in Catholic countries 
with much revelry and merriment. 

Carnot, Marie Francois Sadi (1837-1894), 
French statesman, was born at Limoges. At 
the age of 20 he entered the Ecole Polytech¬ 
nique and passed with distinction to a school 
for special instruction in the building of 
roads and bridges. He was appointed Prefect 
of Seine Inferieure during the siege of Paris 
and gave valuable assistance as commissary- 
general in organizing the defenses of that de¬ 
partment. He was made a member of the 
National Assembly a month later, and in 1886 
he took office in the Brisson cabinet. On the 
resignation of M. Grevy in 1887, M. Carnot 
was elected President of France. In March, 
1891, the Czar of Russia conferred upon him 
the Order of St. Andrew. He took a prom¬ 
inent part in the Franco-Russian/etes at Paris 
and Toulon in 1893. During a fete given in 
his honor at Lyons he was killed by an as¬ 
sassin. 

Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite (1753- 
1823), a French statesman, general, and strate¬ 
gist. When the revolution broke up he was 
captain in the corps of engineers. In 1791 he 
was sent to the Army of the North, where he 
took command, and successfully repulsed the 
enemy. As a member of the Committee Car¬ 
not was formally responsible for the decrees 
of Robespierre. In 1797 Carnot, having unsuc¬ 
cessfully opposed Barras, had to escape to 
Germany, but returned, and was appointed 
minister of war by Napoleon (1800). For seven 
years after this Carnot remained in retirement, 
publishing several valuable military works. 
In 1814 Napoleon gave him the chief command 
at Antwerp, and in 1815 the post of minister 
of the interior. After the emperor’s second 
fall he retired from France. 

Caroline, British queen (1768-1821), a daugh¬ 
ter of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. 
In 1795 she was married to the Prince of 
Wales, afterward George IY. When the 
Prince of Wales assumed the throne in 1820 
he offered her an income of $250,000 on con¬ 
dition that she would never return to Eng¬ 
land, on account of reports which were 
circulated against her honor. She refused, 
and in June of same year entered London 
amid public demonstrations of welcome. The 
government now instituted proceedings against 
her for adultery, but the public feeling and 
the splendid defense of Brougham obliged the 
ministry to give up the Divorce bill after it 
had passed the Lords. Though banished from 
the court, the queen assumed a style suitable 
to her rank. 

Caroline Islands (or New Philippines), a 
large archipelago, North Pacific Ocean, be¬ 
tween the Philippines and the Marshall Isles, 
first discovered by the Spaniards in 1543, if not 
by the Portuguese in 1525, The most impor¬ 


tant vegetable productions are palms, bread¬ 
fruit trees and bananas. Germany purchased 
these islands from Spain in June, 1899. 

Caron, Sir Adolphe, Canadian statesman 
(1843), practised law and became queen’s coun¬ 
sel in 1879. He entered the Dominion Par¬ 
liament as a Conservative in 1873, became 
minister of militia in November, 1880, which 
position he held for over ten years. 

Caro'tid Arteries, the two great arteries 
which convey the blood from the aorta to the 
head and brain. The common carotids, one on 
either side of the neck, divide each into an 
external and an internal branch. The external 
carotid passes up to the level of the angle of 
the lower jaw, where it ends in branches to the 
neck, face, and outer parts of the head. The 
internal carotid passes deeply into the neck, 
and through an opening in the skull behind 
the ear enters the brain, supplying it and the 
eye with blood. 

Carp, a genus of soft-finned abdominal fish 
distinguished by the small mouth, toothless 



Carp (Cyprinus carp to ). 

a.—fore fin; b .—hind fin; c— anal fin; d.— large 
barbule. 


jaws, and gills of three flat rays. The com¬ 
mon carp is olive green above and yellowish 
below, and in many parts is bred in ponds for 
the use of the table. It is said to live to the 
great age of 100 or even 200 years. The well- 
known goldfish is of this family and is believed 
to be originally from China. 

Carpa'thian Mountains, a range of moun¬ 
tains in Southern Europe, chiefly in Austria, 
forming a great semicircular belt of nearly 
800 mi. in length. The Carpathian range is 
rich in minerals, including gold, silver, quick¬ 
silver, copper, and iron. 

Car'pel, in botany, a single-celled seed-ves¬ 
sel, or a single cell of a seed-vessel. The pistil 
or fruit often consists of only one carpel, in 
which case it is called simple; when either con¬ 
sists of more than one carpel it is called 
compound. 

Carpenta'ria, Gulf of, a large gulf on the 
north coast of Australia. 

Carpenter, Matthew Hale (1824-1881), 
American jurist and statesman. He spent two 
years at West Point. In 1847 he was admitted 
to the bar in Vermont. The year following 
he settled at Beloit, Wis., from whence he re¬ 
moved to Milwaukee in 1856. He was con¬ 
sidered the greatest constitutional lawyer of 
his time, and tried many important cases 
before the U. S. Supreme Court. From 1869 
to 1875, he was U. S. senator from Wisconsin. 



Carpenter 

In 1879 he was again elected to the Senate, 
and died in office. 

Carpenter, William Benjamin (1813-1885), 
an English physiologist. He wrote several 
well-known works on physiology: Principles of 
General and Comparative Physiology; Principles 
of Mental Physiology; Principles of Iluman Phys¬ 
iology; a Manual of Zoology , etc. He took a 
leading part in the expeditions sent out by 
government in 1868-70 for deep-sea exploration 
in the North Atlantic. 

Carpenter Bee, the common name of the 
different species of hymenopterous insects of 
the genus Xyloctipa. The species are numer¬ 
ous in Asia, Africa, and America, and one 



Carpenter Bee ( Xylocopa ). 

Showing the cells for eggs and larvae, excavated in 
dead wood. 


species inhabits the South of Europe. They 
are generally of a dark, violet blue, and of con¬ 
siderable size. 

Car'pentry is the art of combining pieces of 
timber to support a weight or sustain pressure. 
The work of the carpenter is intended to give 
stability to a structure, that of the joiner is ap¬ 
plied to finishing and decoration. The term 
frame is applied to any assemblage of pieces of 
timber firmly connected together. The points 
of meeting of the pieces of timber in a frame 
are calledyomfa. Lengthening a beam is unit¬ 
ing pieces of timber into one length by joining 
their extremities. When neatness is not re¬ 
quired this is done by fishing, that is, placing a 
piece of timber on each side of where the 
beams meet and securing it by bolts passed 
through the whole. When the width of the 
beam must be kept the same throughout scarf¬ 
ing is employed. When greater strength is re¬ 
quired than can be produced by a single beam 
building and trussing beams are resorted to. In 
trussing the beam is cut in two in the direc¬ 
tion of its length, and supported with cross 
beams-, as in roofing. Mortise and tenon is a 
mode of jointing timber. The timber frame¬ 
work of floors is called naked flooring, and is 
single if there be but a single series of joists, 
double if there are cross binding joists, and 
framed if there are girders or beams in addition 
to the joists. The roof is the framework by 
which the covering of a building is supported. 
The principal instruments used in carpentry 


Carpet Sweepers 

are saws, as the circular, band, and tenon saws; 
planes, as the jack plane, smoothing plane, 
molding plane, chisels, gouges, gimlets, etc. 

Carpet, a thick fabric, generally composed 
wholly or principally of wool, for covering the 
floors of apartments, staircases, and passages 
in the interior of a house. They were origi¬ 
nally introduced from the East, where they 
were fabricated in pieces, like the modern rugs, 
for sitting on. Eastern carpets are still highly 
thought of in Europe. The Persian, Turkish, 
and Indian carpets are all woven by hand, and 
the design is formed by knotting into the warp 
tufts of woolen threads. Of carpets made in 
this country and Europe Brussels carpet is a 
common and highly esteemed variety. It is 
composed of linen thread and worsted, the lat¬ 
ter forming the pattern. The linen basis does 
not appear on the surface, being concealed by 
the worsted, which is drawn through the retic¬ 
ulations and looped over wires that are after¬ 
ward withdrawn, giving the surface a ribbed 
appearance. Wilton carpets are similar to Brus¬ 
sels in process of manufacture, but in them the 
loops are cut open by using wires with a knife- 
edge, and the surface thus gets a pile. 

Carpet=bagger, a needy political adventurer 
who goes about the country pandering to the 
prejudices of the ignorant with the view of 
getting into place or power, so called because 
regarded as having no more property than 
might fill a carpet-bag. Originally applied to 
needy adventurers of the Northern states of 
America who tried in this way to gain the votes 
of the negroes of the Southern states. 

Carpet Sweepers. —The first sweepers were 
manufactured in 1858 in Boston. The original 
sweeper was very crude as it was made almost 
entirely by hand. The infant industry was 
ruined by the war but sprung up again in the 
early ’70’s when several factories were estab¬ 
lished in different parts of the country. There 
are now carpet-sweeper factories in several 
countries of Europe, but they have not per¬ 
fected automatic machinery to the extent that 
Americans have, and in consequence their prod¬ 
uct is of inferior quality. 

The principal parts of a carpet sweeper are 
the bail, case, brush, and wheels. The bail is 
a metal attachment which circles half way 
around the sweeper and to which the handle 
is attached. It is of malleable iron and comes 
to the sweeper factory warped and crooked. 
It is placed in a press, which, with a single 
blow, straightens it out completely. The bail 
is then polished on emery wheels or belts and 
is passed to a room where it is boiled in lye 
and copper and nickel-plated or Japanned be¬ 
fore receiving the final polish on cloth wheels, 
preparatory to being sent to the assembly 
rooms. The wooden case is usually made of 
oak. It is run through dry-kilns and allowed 
to season thoroughly before it is cut up into 
the proper sizes. The brush is a wooden roller 
thickly studded with bristles. They are turned 
out in machines which work automatically, 
and are given a coat of black filler before reach¬ 
ing the factory. These rollers are first placed 
in a machine which bores the holes for the 






Carracci 


Carroll 


bristles which are put in by machinery. They 
are arranged on a long tray and are fed into 
the machine from the back. A little prong 
jerks out just enough of the bristles for a bunch 
and passes it to a pair of metal fingers, which 
encircle the bunch around the middle with a 
staple of wire, and then pass it to another pair 
of fingers, which press the bunch of hair into 
the hole in the roller, and spread the staple 
until it penetrates the wood and anchors the 
bristles far stronger than could be done with 
glue. The brush is put through a machine 
where it is properly trimmed when it goes to 
the assembling room. The wooden wheels are 
turned out at the rate of 100 a minute and are 
carefully finished and painted. The metal 
wheels are sent to the rubbering room where 
rubber bands are put on. The tin for the bot¬ 
tom pans is cut and put in proper shape by 
automatic machinery. The wire for the springs 
of the sweeper comes in heavy coils and is also 
cut into the required length by automatic 
machinery. Every part of the sweeper is con¬ 
stantly moving toward the assembly room. 
Each part is kept separate and has an apart¬ 
ment for itself. In the assembling room the 
parts are all put together and the machine 
thoroughly tested. 

Carracci (kar-rach-e), Ludovico, Agostino, 
and Annibale (1555-1619), the three founders 
of the Bologna, or, as it has been called, the 
eclectic school of painting. 

Carrageen. See Irish Moss. 

Carra'ra, a city of Northern Italy, 59 mi. 
s.w. of Modena. It is surrounded by hills 
which contain fine white statuary marble. 
Pop. 11,869. The Carrara marble is the 
variety generally employed by statuaries. 
Although the Carrara quarries have been 
worked for 2,000 years, having furnished the 
material for the Pantheon at Rome, the sup¬ 
ply is still practically inexhaustible. They 
employ 6,000 or 7,000 men. 

Carrickfer'gus, seaport of Ireland, county 
Antrim; memorable as the landing place of 
King William III, 1690. There are some manu¬ 
factures, principally linen, and extensive fish¬ 
eries. Pop. 10,009. 

Carrier (kar-ya), Jean Baptiste (1746-1794), 
an infamous character of the first French 
revolution. In 1792 he was chosen member of 
the National Convention. In October, 1793, 
he was sent to Nantes to suppress the civil 
war, and to finally put down the Vendeans. 
He first caused ninety-four priests to be con¬ 
veyed to a boat with a perforated bottom, 
under pretense of transporting them, but in¬ 
stead they were drowned by night. This ar¬ 
tifice was repeated a number of times, while 
Carrier also caused multitudes of prisoners to 
be shot without any pretense of trial. Some 
months before the fall of Robespierre, Carrier 
was recalled and guillotined. 

Carrier Pigeon, a variety of the common 
domestic pigeon used for the purpose of carry¬ 
ing messages. Several varieties are thus em¬ 
ployed but what is distinctively called the 
carrier pigeon is a large bird with long wings, 
large tuberculated mass of naked skin at 


the base of the beak and 
with a circle of naked skin 
around the eyes. Pigeons 
have been employed in this 
way at a very ancient date, 
but there appear to be some 
differences of opinion as to 
who first so utilized them. 
Probably the first on record 
who employed pigeons in this 
Homing Pigeon, capacity was Joshua, who, 
or Messenger. w hen invading Palestine (in 
the sixteenth century b.c.), employed them as 
mediums of communication between head¬ 
quarters and camps in lands far on the other 
side of the Jordan. The Chinese are said to 
have used pigeons to carry messages at even 
an earlier date than this. The Greek poet 
Anacreon, who lived 500 years b.c., mentions 
the use of pigeons as bearers of epistles. Pliny, 
the Roman naturalist, speaks of communica¬ 
tions being kept up between Hirtius and Deci- 
mus Brutus at the siege of Mutina (Modena) 
by means of pigeons; and there is an instance 
recorded of their having been employed during 
the crusade of St. Louis. One writer has re¬ 
corded the employment of pigeons to carry 
messages to Mahmoud Malek-al-Adel Nour- 
Eddin, sultan of Egypt, in the twelfth century. 
During the siege of Paris, 150,000 official mes¬ 
sages were carried into the city by pigeon 
post. Carrier pigeons in calm weather fly on 
an average 1,200 yards a minute; with a mod¬ 
erate breeze in their favor they make 1,500 
yards a minute; while with the wind strongly 
in their favor, they attain a speed of 2,000 
yards per minute. The record for distance is 
held by an American homing pigeon, which 
recently made a journey of 1,040 mi. with¬ 
out a stoppage. An actual post system in 
which pigeons were the messengers was es¬ 
tablished at Bagdad by the Sultan Nureddin 
Mahmud, who died in 1174, and lasted until 
1258 when Bagdad fell into the hands of the 
Mongols. These birds can be used in this 
way only in virtue of what is called their 
“homing” faculty or instinct, which enables 
them to find their way back home from sur¬ 
prising distances. They are better to get 
some training by trying them first with short 
distances, which are then gradually increased. 
Large numbers of these birds are now kept in 
England, Belgium, France, etc., there being 
numerous pigeon clubs which hold pigeon 
races to test the speed of the birds. These 
pigeons are also kept in several European 
countries for military purposes. 

Carrion Crow, the common crow, so called 
because it often feeds on carrion. The name 
is also given to a small species of vulture, 
called the black vulture. 

Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton (1737-1832), 
American statesman. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution he was the wealthiest man in the 
colonies, and he was ever ready to use his influ¬ 
ence and means for the aid of liberty. As early 
as 1770, he had protested against arbitrary taxa¬ 
tion, in 1774 was appointed one of the committee 
of correspondence for the province, and in 1775 




Carroll 


Carthage 


was elected a member of the Council of Safety. 
In 1776 he was elected to the Continental Con¬ 
gress from Maryland, and signed the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. He was again a dele¬ 
gate to Congress in 1777, and served on the 
committee which visited Valley Forge to in¬ 
vestigate complaints about General Washing¬ 
ton. In 1788 he 'was elected the first sena¬ 
tor from Maryland under the Constitution of 
the U. S., serving until 1791. He was again 
elected to the state senate, and served until 
1801. He was the last surviving signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

Carroll, John (1735-1815), American Catholic 
archbishop. He was a cousin of Charles Car- 
roll, of Carrollton, being descended from the 
Carrolls who emigrated to Maryland about the 
year 1689. In 1789 he was appointed first 
bishop in the U. S., with his see in Baltimore. 
He was an ardent Federalist, and one of the 
most powerful factors of his church in this 
country. Pious, learned, patriotic, and elo¬ 
quent, he represented one of the oldest fami¬ 
lies of Ireland and Maryland, and its union 
with the Jesuits. Congress invited him to de¬ 
liver a panegyric on Washington, on Feb. 22, 
1800. His writings are chiefly controversial. 

Carrot, a biennial umbelliferous plant. 
There are three chief varieties. The leaves 
are tripinnate, of a handsome feathery appear¬ 
ance. The plant rises to the height of 2 ft,, 
and produces white flowers. The root is small, 
tapering, of a white color, and strong flavored; 
but that of the cultivated variety is large, 
succulent, and of a red, yellow, or pale straw 
color, and shows remarkably the improvement 
which may be effected by cultivation. It is 
cultivated for the table and as a food for cattle. 

Carson City, Ormsby co., Nev., in Eagle 
Valley, near the foot of the Sierra Nevada, 178 
mi. n.e. of San Francisco. Surrounding coun¬ 
try, lumber and mining. A U. S. branch mint 
for dealing with the immense quantities of 
gold and silver produced in this region is lo¬ 
cated here. Pop. 1900 2,100, 

Carson, Christopher (1809-1868), a famous 
American frontiersman, better known as 
“Kit,” b. in Kentucky; d. in Colorado. He 
became famous as a scout and trapper, and 
guided Fremont across the Rocky Mountains. 
His name is classed with those paladins of the 
Western plains such as Crockett, Boone, and 
W. F. Cody. 

Cart, a carriage with two wheels, with or 
without springs, fitted to be drawn by one 
horse. 

Cartagena, (or Carthagena) (kar-ta-7ni'na, 
kar-tha-je'na), a seaport of Spain, in the prov¬ 
ince of and 31 mi. s.s.e. of Murcia; with a 
harbor which is one of the largest and safest 
in the Mediterranean, sheltered by lofty hills. 
It is a naval and military station. Lead 
smelting is largely carried on; and there are 
in the neighborhood rich mines of excellent 
iron. Esparto grass, lead, iron ore, oranges, 
etc., are exported. Cartagena was founded by 
the Carthaginians under Hasdrubal about 243 
b.c., and was called New Carthage. It was 
taken by Scipio Africanus b.c. 210, and was 


long an important Roman town. It was ruined 
by the Goths, and revived in the time of Philip 
II. Pop. 84,171. 

Cartagena (or Carthagena) (kar-ta-7^a'na, 
kar-tha-je'na), a seaport of Colombia, on the 
Caribbean Sea, capital of the state of Bolivar. 
The exports are coffee, cotton, ivory nuts, 
rubber, hides, etc. The trade, which had 
partly gone to Sabanilla and Santa Marta, is 
being again recovered since the reopening of 
the canal to the river Magdalena. Pop. 8,600. 

Carta'go, a town of Central America in 
Costa Rica. It formerly had a population of 
about 37,000, but was utterly ruined by an 
earthquake in connection with an eruption 
of a neighboring volcano in 1841, so that its 
population has decreased to 6,000. 

Carta'go, a town in Colombia, in the valley 
of the Cauca, in a well cultivated district and 
with a good trade. Pop. 8,000. 

Carte Blanche (kart-blansh) (literally white 
or blank paper), a blank paper duly signed, en¬ 
trusted to a person to fill up as he pleases, and 
thus giving unlimited power to decide. Thus 
in 1649 Charles II tried to save his father’s life 
by sending from The Hague to the Parliament 
a signed carte blanche to be filled up with any 
terms which they would accept as the price of 
his safety. In 1832 Earl Grey was said to have 
been armed with a carte blanche for the crea¬ 
tion of new peers. 

Carte'sian Diver, a hydrostatic toy consist¬ 
ing of a little hollow glass figure, which has 
a small opening some distance below the top, 
and is rather lighter than an equal column of 
water, so as to be able to float. The figure is 
placed in a bottle or cylindrical vessel of water, 
closed with a piece of bladder or india rubber 
so as to exclude air. On pressing this with the 
finger the air inside the figure is compressed, 
it sinks down, and from the introduction of a 
small quantity of water becomes specifically 
heavier. By removing the pressure the water 
is expelled. 

Car'thage, the most famous city of Africa in 
antiquity, capital of a rich and powerful com¬ 
mercial republic, situated in the territory now 
belonging to Tunis. Carthage was the latest 
of the Phoenician colonies in this district, and 
is supposed to have been founded by settlers 
from Tyre and from the neighboring Utica 
about the middle of the ninth century before 
Christ. The history of Carthage falls natu¬ 
rally into three epochs. The first, from the 
foundation to 410 b.c., comprises the rise and 
culmination of Carthaginian power; the sec¬ 
ond, from 410 to 265 b.c., is the period of the 
wars with the Sicilian Greeks; the third, from 
265 to 146 b.c. , the period of the wars with 
Rome, ending with the fall of Carthage. 

The rise of Carthage may be attributed to 
the superiority of her site for commercial pur¬ 
poses, and the enterprise of her inhabitants. 

In extending ■ her commerce Carthage was 
naturally led to the conquest of the various 
islands which from their position might serve 
as entrepots for traffic with the northern 
shores of the Mediterranean. The First Punic 
War, in which Rome and Carthage contended 


Carthage 

for the dominion of Sicily, was prolonged for 
twenty-three years, b.c. 2G4 to 241, and ended, 
through the exhaustion of the resources of 
Carthage, in her expulsion from the island. 
The loss of Sicily led to the acquisition of 
Spain for Carthage. The Second Punic War, 
arising out of incidents connected with the 
Carthaginian conquests in Spain, and con¬ 
ducted on the side of the Carthaginians by the 
genius of Hannibal, and distinguished by his 
great march on Rome aaid the victories of 
Lake Trasimene, Trebia, and Cannae, lasted 
seventeen years, b.c. 218 to 201, and after just 
missing the overthrow of Rome, ended in the 
complete humiliation of Carthage. The policy 
of Rome in encouraging the African enemies 
of Carthage occasioned the Third Punic War, 
in which Rome was the aggressor. This war, 
begun b.c. 150, ended b.c. 146, in the total 
destruction of Carthage. 

The constitution of Carthage, like her his¬ 
tory, remains in 'many points obscure. After 
the destruction of Carthage her territory be¬ 
came the Roman province of Africa. Twenty- 
four years after her fall an unsuccessful at¬ 
tempt was made to rebuild Carthage by Caius 
Gracchus. This was finally accomplished by 
Augustus, and Roman Carthage became one 
of the most important cities of the empire. It 
was destroyed by the Arabs in 638. The re¬ 
ligion of the Carthaginians was that of their 
Phoenician ancestors. They worshiped Moloch 
or Baal, to whom they offered human sacri¬ 
fices: Melkart, the patron deity of Tyre; As- 
tarte, the Phoenician Venus, and other deities. 

Carthage, Jasper co., Mo., on Spring River, 
150 mi. s. of Kansas City. Railroads: St. L. 
& S. F.; and Missouri Pacific. Industries: 
stone quarries, five flouring mills, two iron 
foundries, woolen mill, and carriage, bed 
spring, and window bracket factories. Sur¬ 
rounding country agricultural and mineral 
(zinc mines). The town was first settled in 
1843 and became a city about 1865. Pop. 1900, 
9,416. 

Cartier, Sir George Etienne (1814-1873), 
Canadian statesman. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1835, took part in the rebellion of 1837, 
and had for a time to leave Canada. In 1848 
he entered the Canadian Parliament, and in 
1855 became provincial secretary. Next year 
he became attorney general for Lower Canada, 
in which post he was active in behalf of legal 
reforms. In 1857 he was a member of the 
Macdonald ministry, and in 1858 he himself 
became premier. He was active in bringing 
about the establishment of the Dominion of 
Canada in 1867, and held a post in the first 
Dominion cabinet. 

Cartier (kar-tya), Jacques, a French navi¬ 
gator, b. at St. Malo, 1494, time of death not 
known. He commanded an expedition to 
North America in 1534, entered the Straits of 
Belle Isle, and took possession of the mainland 
of Canada in name of Francis I. He subse¬ 
quently went to found a settlement in Canada, 
and built a fort near the site of Quebec. He 
was living in France in 1552. 

Car'tilage (or Gristle), a firm and very elastic 


Cartwright 

substance occurring in vertebrate animals. 
When cut, the surface is uniform, and con¬ 
tains no visible cells, cavities, or pores. It 
enters into the composition of parts whose 
functions require the combination of firmness 
with pliancy and flexibility. The ends of 
bones entering into the formation of a joint 
are always coated with cartilage. Temporary 
cartilages are those from which bones are 
formed by ossification. The permanent carti¬ 
lages are of various kinds. They are found in 
the external ear, and aid in forming the nose, 
the larynx, etc. 

Cartoon', in painting, a drawing intended 
to be used as a model for a large picture in 
fresco, a process in which it is necessary to 
complete the picture portion by portion and in 
which a fault cannot afterward be easily cor¬ 
rected. The cartoon is made exactly the size 
of the picture intended, and the design is 
transferred to the surface to be ornamented by 
tracing or other processes. Cartoons executed 
in color are used for designs in tapestries, mo¬ 
saics, etc. The most famous are those painted 
by Raphael for the Vatican tapestries. In 
modern times the term is also applied to a pic¬ 
torial sketch relating to some notable character 
or events of the day, and in 1897 an effort was 
made by legislation in the state of New York 
to restrain newspapers from printing cartoons 
without the consent of the person depicted. 
The attempt failed. 

Cartouche (kar'tosh), 1, In architecture, a 
sculptured ornament in the form of a scroll 
unrolled, often appearing on the cornices of 
columns, used as a field for inscriptions, etc. 
2, In heraldry, a sort of oval shield, much used 
by the popes and secular princes in Italy, and 
others, both clergy and laity, for painting or 
engraving their arms on. 3, The name given 
to that oval ring or border which includes, in 
the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the names of per¬ 
sons of high distinction. 

Cartridge, a case of paper, parchment, or 
flannel suited to the bore of firearms, and 
holding the exact charge, including, in the 
case of small arms, both powder and bullet. 
The cartridges used for breech-loading rifles 
contain the powder in a case of solid brass, 
and have the percussion cap by which they 
are ignited fixed in the base. Such cases can 
be refilled and used a number of times in suc¬ 
cession. Cartridges for large guns are usually 
made of flannel and contain only the powder. 
Blank cartridge is a cartridge without ball or 
shot. Cartridges for blasting are filled with 
dynamite or other explosive. • 

Cartwright, Edmund (1748-1823), the in¬ 
ventor of the power loom. He was educated 
at Oxford, and took orders in the church. In 
1785 he brought his first power loom into ac¬ 
tion. Although much opposed both by manu¬ 
facturers and workmen, it made its way, and in 
a developed and improved form is now in uni¬ 
versal use. Cartwright spent much of his 
means in similar inventions, and fell into 
straitened circumstances, from which a par¬ 
liamentary grant of $50,000 relieved him. 

Cartwright, Sir Richard, b. 1835, Canadian 


Carupano 


Cashew 


statesman, entered the Dominion Parliament 
as a Conservative in 1863, and in 1870 identi¬ 
fied himself with the reform party. Minister 
of finance in 1873 under Mr. Mackenzie. 

Caru'pano, seaport of Venezuela, on the 
peninsula of Paria. Pop. 12,389. 

Car'ver, John (1575-1621), the first governor 
of the Plymouth colony in the New World, 
was b. in England and went to Leyden, then a 
refuge for the Puritans. He was an elder in 
the church, and in 1620 sailed with the Pil¬ 
grims in the Mayflower. C. was a prudent and 
firm ruler, but did not long survive his arrival 
in New England, dying at Plymouth. 

Carvin (kar-van) (or Carvin Epinay), a town 
of France, dep. of Pas de Calais; industries: 
coal mining, iron founding, distilling, beet 
root sugar, fiax-spinning, etc. Pop. 8,000. 

Carving, as a branch of art, is the process 
of cutting a hard body by means of a sharp in¬ 
strument into some particular'shape, and is a 
term generally employed in speaking of figures 
cut out in ivory or wood. In the early and 
middle ages wood carving beoame general for 
the decoration of Christian churches and al¬ 
tars. One of the latest developments in the 
art of carving is the modern invention of carv¬ 
ing by machinery. A machine patented in 
1845 by Jordan is capable of copying any 
carved design that can be produced, so far as 
that is possible, by revolving tools; the finish 
is afterward given by hand labor. 

Cary, Alice (1820-1871), American novelist. 
She published several novels, including Glover- 
nook, Pictures of Country Life , and The Bishop's 
Son , and wrote many domestic poems. 

Cary, Rev. Henry Francis (1772-1844), 
British author. In 1805 appeared his transla¬ 
tion of Dante in English blank verse. He sub¬ 
sequently translated the Birds of Aristophanes 
and the Odes of Pindar. In 1826 he was ap¬ 
pointed assistant librarian in the British Mu¬ 
seum, and retired in 1837 on a pension of 
$1,000 a year. 

Caryat'ides (-dez) (or Car'yatids), in archi¬ 
tecture, figures of women dressed in long robes, 
serving to support entablatures. Correspond¬ 
ing male figures are Atlantes. 

Casale (ka-sa'la), a city of Northern Italy, 
province of Alessandria, on the Po, 18 mi. 
n.n.w. of Alessandria. Silk is the chief in¬ 
dustry. Pop. 17,096. 

Casano'va, Giovanni Jacopo, de Sein- 
galt (1725-1798), known by his Memoirs as an 
adventurer who acted a prominent part in all 
situations, among all classes of society, and in 
all the large cities of Europe, by turns acting 
the part of diplomatist, preacher, abbot, law¬ 
yer, and charlatan. 

Casau'bon, Isaac de (1559-1614), classical 
scholar. In his ninth year he spoke Latin 
fluently. In 1582 he became professor of the 
Greek language at Geneva. Henry IV invited 
him to Paris and made him royal librarian. 
After the death of Henry IV he followed Sir 
Henry Wotton, envoy extraordinary from 
James I, to England, where he was received 
with distinction, had two benefices and a pen¬ 
sion conferred on him. 


Cascade Range, a range of mountains in 
the U. S., British Columbia, and Alaska, near 
the Pacific coast, to which they are parallel, 
extending from the Sierra Nevada in California 
northward to Alaska. It contains several act¬ 
ive volcanoes. Highest peak, Mount St. Elias, 
19,500 ft. The highest peaks in the U. S. 
portion of it are in Washington, where Ta¬ 
coma reaches 14,444 ft. 

Cascaril'la, the aromatic bitter bark of a 
small tree of the nat. order Euphorbiaceae. 
The name has recently been applied also to a 
subdivision of the genus Cinchona. 

Casco Bay, a bay of Maine, between Cape 
Elizabeth on w.s.w. and Cape Small Point on 
e.n.e. Within these capes are more than 300 
small islands, most of them very productive. 

Case, in grammar, a modification or inflec¬ 
tion of a noun, pronoun,or adjective, by which 
a different shade of meaning is communicated 
to the word. In nouns and pronouns case sup¬ 
plies the place of prepositions, indicating the 
relation of the word thus modified to other 
words in the phrase or sentence. There is 
only one case in English for nouns, the possess¬ 
ive or genitive. English pronouns have three 
cases—nominative, genitive, and accusative. 
In Sanskrit there are eight cases. In French, 
Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese the nouns 
have no case inflections. In German there are 
four cases, nominative, genitive, dative, ac¬ 
cusative. 

Case=hardening is a process by which iron 
is superficially converted into steel, in such ar¬ 
ticles as require the toughness of the former 
conjointly with the hardness of the latter sub¬ 
stance. The articles intended for case harden¬ 
ing are first manufactured in iron, and are 
then placed in an iron box, with charcoal in 
powder, and heated to redness. Immersion 
in water then converts the surface into a 
coating of steel. 

Casein (ka'se-in), that ingredient in milk 
which is coagulated by the action of acids and 
constituting the chief part of the nitrogenized 
matter contained in it. Cheese made from 
skimmed milk and well pressed is fully half 
casein. Casein is one of the most important 
elements of animal food as found in milk and 
leguminous plants. It consists of carbon 53.7 
per cent., hydrogen 7.15, nitrogen 15.65, oxygen 
22.65, and sulphur 0.85. 

Case'mates, in fortification, vaults which 
are proof against bombs, and which may serve 
as a place for keeping ordnance, ammunition, 
etc. 

Caser'ta (or Caserta Nuova), the capita] of 
the province of Caserta, South Italy, 18 mi. 
from Naples. The principal edifice is the 
royal palace, a large and richly-decorated 
structure, commenced in 1752 by Charles III 
of Spain. Pop. 31,349. 

Case Shot, in artillery, is formed by putting 
a quantity of small iron balls into a cylindrical 
tin box called a canister , that just fits the bore 
of the gun. The shrapnel shell is a modern 
variety of case shot. 

Cashew' , a tree common in the West Indies. 
Its fruit is called the cashew nut. The nut is 


/ 


Cashmere 


Cassandra 


small, kidney-shaped, ash-gray, and contains 
an acrid juice. It is used to flavor Madeira 
wine, and is eaten cooked in various ways. 



The stalk or receptacle of the nut is large and 
fleshy and has an agreeable acid flavor. 

Cash'mere (or Kash'mir), an extensive prin¬ 
cipality in the n.w. of Hindustan, subject to 
a ruler belonging to the Sikh race. It is po¬ 
litically subordinate to the British-Indian em¬ 
pire. The principality embraces Cashmere, 
Jamoo or Jummoo, Baltistan or Little Thibet, 
Ladakh, Gilghit, etc. The area is estimated 
at 80,900 sq. mi. Cashmere proper, which 
forms a small portion of the whole, is a valley 
surrounded by mountains, the Himalaya and 
Hindu Kush, and traversed by the river 
Jhelum. There are ten chief passes through 
the mountains into this valley, varying in 
height from about 9,000 to 12,000 ft. The ele¬ 
vated situation of the valley, and the moun¬ 
tains of snow which surround it, render the 
climate rather cold; but the region is well wa¬ 
tered by streams and very fertile. Forests on 
the slopes, fields of corn, rice crops along the 
sides of the rivers, rich orchards, and an abund¬ 
ant growth of flowers distinguish the district. 
Among its minerals are iron and plumbago. 
Sulphur springs are com mon. Earthquakes fre¬ 
quently occur, and in 1885 one caused the loss 
of thousands of lives. Bears, leopards, wolves, 
the ibex and chamois are among the animals. 
The common European fruits are grown, and 
attention is now being paid to the culture of 
the vine. The chief crops are wheat, barley, 
rice, and Indian corn, and two harvests are 
reaped in the year. The chief manufacture 
is that of the celebrated Cashmere shawl. 
The genuine Cashmere shawls owe their supe¬ 
riority to the material of which they are made, 
which is properly speaking not wool, but a 
fine kind of down with which the animals of 
this region are clad during the winter season, 
and which in length and fineness far surpasses 
the merino wool. This down is obtained in 


great quantities from the Cashmere goat, the 
yak of Thibet, and the wild sheep. It is spun 
by women and girls, and then passes into the 
hands of the dyers. From the dyers the yarns 
are passed to the weaver, and the shawl is 
woven m stripes which are afterward very 
skillfully sewed together. The average time 
taken to manufacture a good Cashmere shawl 
is from sixteen to twenty weeks. The inhabit¬ 
ants are a fine race physically. There are 
thirteen separate dialects in use. The capi¬ 
tal of the whole principality is Jamoo. Srina¬ 
gar (or Cashmere) is the maharajah’s summer 
residence and largest town. Pop. 2,543,952. 

Cashmere Goat, a variety of the common 
goat remarkable for its fine downy fleece, said 
to be found in perfection only in Thibet in the 
neighborhood of Lhassa, but also found in 
other parts of this region, including Ladakh, 
now a province of Cashmere. The colder the 
region where the goat pastures, the heavier is 
its fleece. A full-grown goat yields not more 
than 8 oz. A large shawl of the finest quality 
requires 5 lbs. of the wool; one of the inferior 
quality from 3 to 4 lbs. 

Casimir=Perier, Jean Paul Pierre, Ex-Pres¬ 
ident of France, was b. Nov. 8, 1847. He was 
trained for a political career and during the 
Franco-Prussian war greatly distinguished 
himself, receiving the cross of the Legion of 
Honor. In 1874 he was elected to the Cham¬ 
ber of Deputies and three years later he en¬ 
tered the Cabinet as Under-Secretary of State 
in the Department of of Public Instruction. 
He formed a ministry in 1893, but it was of 
short duration. On the assassination of Car¬ 
not he was elected President of the French 
Republic June 27, 1894, his chief opponent 
was M. Brisson. Annoyed by the election of 
some of his political enemies to state offices he 
resigned, Jan. 15, 1895. 

Caspian Sea, a large lake or inland sea be¬ 
tween Europe and Asia; area 170,000 sq. mi.; 
the largest isolated sheet of water on the globe. 
Its surface is 85 ft. below that of the Sea of 
Azof; greatest depth about 3,250 ft. Russian 
territory surrounds it on three sides, Persia on 
the fourth. It abounds in shallows, making 
navigation difficult. The water is less salt 
than that of the ocean, of a bitter taste, and of 
an ochre color, without ebb or flow. The fish¬ 
eries are valuable. Steam packets are now 
established on it. The Russians have also a 
fleet of war ships in the Caspian. 

Cass, Lewis (1782-1866), an American states¬ 
man, b. in Exeter, New Hampshire. In 1813, 
having entered the army, he rose to the rank 
of general; in 1814-30 was governor of Michi¬ 
gan, was minister of war in 1831, was a candi¬ 
date for the presidency several times, was long 
a senator, and in 1857-60 was secretary of 
state. He wrote the History , Traditions, Lan¬ 
guages, etc., of Indians in the United States. 

Cassandra, in Greek legend, a daughter 
of Priam and Hecuba. She is fabled to have 
been endowed by Apollo with the gift! of 
prophecy. She frequently foretold the fall of 
Troy, and warned her countrymen in vain 
against the strategem of the horse. 



Cassava 


Cassowary 


Cassa'va, a South American shrub, about 8 
ft. in height, with broad, shining, and hand¬ 
shaped leaves, and beautiful white and rose- 
colored flowers. A nutritious starch is ob¬ 
tained from the white, soft root of the plant, 
and is called by the same name. It is prepared 
in the West Indies, tropical America, and in 
Africa. From cassava the tapioca of com¬ 
merce is prepared. Another species, the sweet 
cassava, has roots the juice of which is an 
agreeable and nutritive food. 

Cas'sel (or Kassel), formerly the residence of 
the elector of Hesse-Cassel, is now the chief 
town in the province of Hessen-Nassau, Prus¬ 
sia, on the Fulda, 91 mi. n.n.e. of Frankfort- 
on-the-Main. The city has manufactures of 
machinery, mathematical instruments, gold 
and silver wares, chemicals, knives, gloves, 
leather, porcelain, etc. Pop. 58,290. 

Cas'sia, a large genus of leguminous plants 
found in the tropical parts of the world. The 
species consist of trees, shrubs, or herbs; the 
leaves are abruptly pinnated, and usually bear 
glands on their stalks. The leaflets of several 
species constitute the well-known drug called 
senna. The leaves and flowers are purgative. 
The bark and roots of several of the Indian 
species are much used in medicine. Cassia 
bark is a common name for the bark of an en¬ 
tirely different plant belonging to the laurel 
family. Its flavor resembles that of cinnamon, 
and as it is cheaper it is often substituted for 
it. The cassia of the Bible was probably cassia 
bark. 

Cas'sicus, an American genus of insesso- 
rial birds, the Cassicans (American orioles), 
allied to the starlings, remarkable for the in¬ 
genuity with which they weave their nests. 
The crested oriole, a South American bird, 
constructs a pouch-shaped nest of the length of 
30 in. 

Cassi'ni, a name famous in astronomy and 
physics for three generations:— 1 , Giovanni 
Domenico (1625-1712), became professor of as¬ 
tronomy at the University of Bologna, but 
afterward settled in France. He discovered 
four new satellites of Saturn and the zodiacal 
light, proved that the axis of the moon is not 
perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, and 
showed the causes of her libration. 2, Jacques. 
his son (1677-1756). After several essays on 
subjects in natural philosophj’ - , etc., he com¬ 
pleted his great work on Saturn’s satellites and 
ring. His labors to determine the figure of the 
earth are well known. 3, Cassini de Thury, 
C^sar Franqois (1714-1784), son of the pre¬ 
ceding, member of the Academy from his 
twenty-second year, undertook a geometrical 
survey of the whole of France, which was com¬ 
pleted by his son. 4, Cassini, Jean Domi¬ 
nique, Count de Thury (1748-1845), son of 
the preceding, was a statesman and mathema¬ 
tician. In 1787 he completed the topograph¬ 
ical work which was begun by his father. 

Cassi'no, a game at cards somewhat resem¬ 
bling whist. 

Cassiodorus(or Cassiodorius), Magnus Auer- 
lius, a Roman writer, of the fifth century a. d. 
He became chief minister of the Ostrogoth 


king Theodoric, and wrote a collection of let¬ 
ters, Variarum Epistolarum Libri XII, which 
contain most valuable information with regard 
to the Ostrogothic rule in Italy. 

Cassiopeia (-po'ya), a conspicuous constella¬ 
tion in the northern hemisphere, situated next 
to Cepheus, and often called the Lady in her 
Chair. It contains fifty-five stars, five of which, 
arranged in the form of a W, are of third mag¬ 
nitude. 

Cassiquiari (ka-sik-i-ii're) (or Cassiquia're), 
a large river of South America, in Venezuela, 
which branches off from the Orinoco and 
joins the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Ama¬ 
zon. Length 130 mi. 

Cassiter'ides (-'.~z), a name derived from the 
Greek kassiteros, tin, and anciently applied to 
the tin district of Cornwall, or the Scilly Isles. 

Cassit'erite, an ore of tin widely distrib¬ 
uted, and the one from which most of the 
metal is obtained. It is a peroxide, and con¬ 
sists of tin 79, oxygen 21. 

Cassius (full name, Caius Cassius Longi¬ 
nus), a distinguished Roman, one of the assas¬ 
sins of Julius Caesar. In the civil war that 
broke out between Pompey and Caesar he es¬ 
poused the cause of the former, and, as com¬ 
mander of his naval forces, rendered him im¬ 
portant services. After the battle of Phar- 
salia he was apparently reconciled with Cae¬ 
sar, but later was among the more active of 
the conspirators who assassinated him b.c. 44. 
He then, together with Brutus, raised an 
army, but they were met by Octavianus and 
Antony at Philippi. The wing which Cassius 
commanded being defeated, he imagined that 
all was lost, and killed himself, b.c. 42. 

Cas'sowary, a family of birds akin to the 
ostrich, emeu, etc., among living, the moaand 



Cassowary. 


others among extinct, birds. The shortness of 
their wings totally unfits them for flying, and, 
like others of their order, the pectoral or wing 
muscles are comparatively slight and weak, 
while those of their posterior limbs are very ro¬ 
bust and powerful. 






Cast 

Casv. in the fine arts, is an impression taken 
by means of wax or plaster of Paris from a 
statue, bust, bas relief, or any other model. 
When plaster casts are to be exposed to the 
weather their durability is greatly increased by 
saturating them with linseed oil, with wliich 
wax or resin may be combined. 

Casla'lia, a celebrated fountain in Greece 
sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and fabled to 
have the power of inspiring those who drank 
its waters. It issues from a fissure between 
two peaked cliffs adjoining Mount Parnassus. 

Cas'tanets, an instrument composed of two 
small concave shells of ivory or hardwood, 
shaped like spoons, placed together, fastened to 
the thumb, and beat with the middle finger. 
This instrument is used by the Spaniards and 
Moors as an accompaniment to their dances 
and guitars. 

Caste, a term applied to a distinct class or 
section of a people marked off from others by 
certain restrictions, and whose burdens or 
privileges are hereditary. The word is de¬ 
rived from the Portuguese casta , a breed or 
race, and was originally applied to the classes 
in India whose occupations, customs, privi¬ 
leges, and duties are hereditary. It is probable 
that wherever caste exists it was originally 
grounded on a difference of descent and mode 
of living, and that the separate castes were 
originally separate races. It now prevails 
principally in India, but it is known to exist or 
to have existed in many other regions. 

Castelar'y Rissoli, Emilio, b. 1833, a 
Spanish statesman and author. In 1856 he 
was made professor of history in the University 
of Madrid, but becoming involved in the re¬ 
publican disturbances of 1866, he had to take 
refuge in Switzerland. Having gone back to 
Spain in 1868 he was returned to the Cortes in 
the following year. In 1873 he was elected 
president of the Republican Cortes, but re¬ 
signed in January, 1874. After the pronunci- 
amento in favor of Alphonso XII, Dec. 13, 
1874, Castelar retired from Spain, but in a year 
or two returned, and has since been a member 
of the Cortes. He has published many novels, 
poems, and political works. 

Castel' lamare. —1, A seaport town of Italy, 
on the Gulf of Naples. It is fortified, and has 
a royal dockyard, manufactories of linen, silk, 
etc. Pop. 34,064. 2, A seaport on the north 

coast of Sicily, 20 mi. e. of Trapani. Wine, 
fruit, grain, oil, etc., are exported. Pop. 
16,513. 

CastelIon=de=Ia=Plana (kas-tel-yon'), a town, 
Spain, capital of the province of Castellon, 40 
mi. n.n.e. of Valencia. Manufactures of sail¬ 
cloth, woolen and hempen fabrics, ropes,paper, 
soap, etc., and some trade in hemp, grains and 
fruit. Pop. of town, 23,204; of province. 323,- 
474; area of latter, 2,445 sq. mi. 

CasteNVetra'no, a town, Sicily, province of 
Trapani. Industries: silk, linen, c«tton, etc. 
The white wine produced in the neighborhood 
is esteemed the best in Sicily. Pop. 22,448. 

Cast igli one (kas-tel-yo-na), Baldassare, 
(1478-1529), one of the most elegant of the 
older Italian writers. Among his works the 


Castle 

Libra del Cortegiano (Book of the Courtier) is the 
most celebrated. 

Castile (kas-tel'), an ancient kingdom of 
Spain, the nucleus of the Spanish monarchy, 
extends over a large part of the peninsula from 
the Bay of Biscay southward. It is divided 
into New Castile and Old Castile. The former 
occupies nearly the center of the peninsula; 
area 44,718 sq. mi. This ancient province 
now forms the five provinces of Madrid, Ciu¬ 
dad-Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Toledo. 
Pop. 2,249,769. Old Castile stretches from 
the Bay of Biscay to New Castile; area 25,- 
408 sq. mi. Old Castile now forms the prov¬ 
inces of Burgos, Logrono, Santander, Soria, 
Segovia, Avila, Palencia, and Valladolid. Pop. 
1,719,349. 

Castillejo (kas-til-ya'Ao), Cristo'val de 
(1494-1556), a Spanish poet. His works possess 
great originality, and his language is pure and 
manly, yet sparkling with wit and satire. 

Casting, the running of melted metal into 
a mold prepared for the purpose, so as to pro¬ 
duce an article of a certain shape. For the 
various processes, see Iron, Bronze, Brass, Steel, 
etc. 

Cast Iron, the name given to the iron ob¬ 
tained from the blast furnace by running the 
fused metal into molds prepared for the pur¬ 
pose. The molds are in the form of long nar¬ 
row channels, from which the iron, when it 
has cooled and solidified, is taken in bars called 
pigs, between 3 and 4 ft. long and 3 or 4 in. 
broad. 

Castle, an edifice serving at once as a resi¬ 
dence and as a place of defense, especially such 
an edifice belonging to feudal times. The 
first defense of a castle was usually the moat 
or ditch that sometimes comprised several 
acres; and behind it was the outer wall, gen¬ 
erally of great height and thickness, strength¬ 
ened with towers at regular distances, and 
pierced with loopholes through which missiles 
could be discharged at the assailants. The 
main entrance through the outer wall was 
protected by the barbican, with its narrow 
archway, and strong gates, and portcullis, and 
inside there were usually an outer and an inner 
court, and the strong, more or less detached 
building known as the keep, which formed the 
residence of the owner and his family. This 
was the most strongly constructed of all the 
buildings, to which the defenders retreated 
only in the last extremity. The walls were all 
strengthened by towers, either circular, square, 
oblong, or multangular, projecting both out¬ 
ward and inward. Such towers were capable 
of being defended independently of the castle. 
The gatehouses are distinct works covering 
the entrance; they contain gates, one or two 
portcullises, and loopholes raking the passage. 
From the front of these gatehouses the draw¬ 
bridge was lowered over the ditch. The gate¬ 
ways had frequently a barbican attached. 
This was a passage between high walls, in 
advance of the main gate, and having an outer 
gate of entrance, which was defended by 
towers and the parapet connected with the 
main gateway. The top of the wall was de- 


Castletown 


Catacombs 


fended by a battlemented parapet, and fre¬ 
quently pierced by cruciform loopholes. 

Castletown, a small town and seaport near 
the southern extremity of the Isle of Man, long 
the capital of the island. In the center is 
Castle Rushen, originally a Danish fortress of 
the tenth century, latterly much extended, 
and now partly used as a prison and public 
offices. Pop. 2,243. 

Castor and Pollux, in Greek mythology, 
twin divinities, sons of Zeus (Jupiter) and 
Leda, also called Dioscuri (sons of Zeus). Cas¬ 
tor was mortal, but Pollux was immortal. 
They were the patron deities of mariners. In 
the heavens they appear as one of the twelve 
constellations of the zodiac, with the name of 
Gemini (the Twins). 

Castor and Pollux are two minerals which 
are found together in granite in the island of 
Elba. Castor is a silicate of aluminum and 
lithium, pollux is a silicate of aluminum and 
the rare element caesium. 

Castor oil, the oil obtained from the seeds 
of a plant, a native of India, but now distrib¬ 
uted over all the warmer regions of the globe. 
The oil is obtained from the seeds by bruising 
and pressing. The oil that first comes away, 
called cold-drawn castor oil, is reckoned the 



Castor Oil Plant. 


best. The oil is afterward heated to the boil¬ 
ing point, which coagulates and separates the 
albumen and impurities. Castor oil is used 
medicinally as a purgative. It is chiefly im¬ 
ported from India. The plant is often culti¬ 
vated as an ornamental plant. 

Castro, Inez de, a lady of noble birth, se¬ 
cretly married to Pedro, son of Alphonso IV, 
king of Portugal, after the death of his wife 
Constantia (1345). The old King Alphonso, 
fearful that this marriage would injure the 
interests of his grandson Ferdinand (the son 
of Pedro by his deceased wife), resolved to put 
Inez to death. 

Casuari'na (or Botany Bay Oak), the single 
genus of the Cassowary trees. There are 
about thirty species, natives chiefly of Aus¬ 
tralia. They are jointed leafless trees or 
shrubs, nearly related to the birches, having 
their male flowers in whorled catkins and their 
fruits in indurated cones. 

Cat, a well-known domesticated quadruped, 
the same name being also given to allied forms 
of the same order. It is believed that the cat 
was originally domesticated in Egypt, and the 
gloved cat of Egypt and Nubia has by some 


been considered the original stock of the do¬ 
mestic cat, though more probably it was the 
Egyptian cat. Some have thought that the 
domestic breed owed its origin to the wild cat. 
The domestic cat belongs to a genus—that 
which contains the lion and tiger—better 
armed for the destruction of animal life than 
any other quadrupeds. The short and power¬ 
ful jaws, trenchant teeth, cunning disposition, 
combined with nocturnal habits (for which 
their eyesight is naturally adapted) and much 
patience in pursuit, give these animals great 
advantages over their prey. The cat in a 
degree partakes of all the attributes of her 
race. Its food in a state of domestication is 
necessarily various, but always of flesh or fish 
if it can be obtained. It is a very cleanly 
animal. Its fur is easily injured by water 
on account of the want of oil in it, and it 
can be rendered highly electric by friction. 
It is usually regarded as less intelligent than 
the dog, but this is by no means certain. It 
has a singular power of finding its way home 
when taken to a distance and covered up by 
the way. Among the various breeds or races 
of cat may be mentioned the tailless cat of the 
Isle of Man (and the Crimea); the tortoise shell, 
with its color a mixture of black, white, and 
brownish or fawn color; the large Angora or 
Persian cat, with its long, silky fur; and the 
blue or Carthusian, with long, soft, grayish- 
blue fur. 

Catacombs, caves or subterranean places 
for the burial of the dead, the bodies being 
placed in graves or recesses hollowed out in 
the sides of the cave. Caves of this kind were 
common among the Phoenicians, Greeks, Per¬ 
sians, and many Oriental nations. In Sicily and 
Asia Minor numerous excavations have been 
discovered containing sepulchers, and the cata¬ 
combs near Naples are remarkably extensive. 
Those of Rome, however, are the most im¬ 
portant. The term catacumbce is said to have 
been originally applied to the district near 
Rome which contains the chapel of St. Se¬ 
bastian, in the vaults of which, according to 
tradition, the body of St. Peter was first de¬ 
posited, but it is now applied in a special way 
to all the extensive subterranean burial places 
in the neighborhood of Rome, which extend 
underneath the town itself as well as the neigh¬ 
boring country, and are said to contain not 
less than 6,000,000 tombs. They consist of 
long narrow galleries usually about 8 ft. high 
and 5 ft. wide, which branch off in all direc¬ 
tions, forming a perfect maze of corridors. 
Different stories of galleries lie one below the 
other. Vertical shafts run up to the outer air, 
thus introducing light and air, though in small 
quantity. The graves or loculi lie longwise in 
the galleries. They are closed laterally by a 
slab, on which there is occasionally a brief 
inscription or a symbol, such as a dove, an 
anchor, or a palm branch, and sometimes all. 
The earliest that can be dated with any cer¬ 
tainty belongs to the year 111 a.d. It is now 
regarded as certain that in times of persecu¬ 
tion the early Christians frequently took refuge 
in the catacombs, in order to celebrate there 



Catalan! 


Cataract 


in secret the ceremonies of their religion; but it 
is not less certain that the catacombs served also 
as ordinary places of burial -to the early •Chris- 
ians, and were for the most part excavated by 
the Christians themselves. In early times 
rich Christians constructed underground bury¬ 
ing places for themselves and their brethren, 
which they held as private property under the 
protection of the law. But in course of time, 
partly by their coming under the control of 
the church and partly by accidents of pro¬ 
prietorship, these private burying grounds 
were connected with each other, and became 
the property, not of particular individuals, 
but of the Christian community. In the third 
century a.d. there were already several such 
common burying places belonging to the 
Christian congregations, and their number 
went on increasing till the time of Constantine, 
when the catacombs ceased to be used as bury¬ 
ing places. 

Catala'ni, Angelica (1779-1849), one of the 
most celebrated of Italian female singers. 
Family misfortunes compelled her to turn her 
remarkable voice to account, and in her 16th 
year she made her first appearance on the 
stage at Venice. After filling the chief so¬ 
prano parts in the best opera houses of Italy 
she visited successively Madrid, Paris, and 
London, enjoying everywhere great profes¬ 
sional triumphs, as she continued to do in simi¬ 
lar tours which she repeatedly made after¬ 
ward. 

Catalaunian Plain, the wide plain around 
Chalons-sur-Marne, famous as the field where 
Aetius, the Roman general, and Theodoric, 
king of the West Goths, gained a complete 
victory over Attila, 451 a.d. 

Catalep'sy, a spasmodic disease, generally 
connected with hysteria, in which there is a 
sudden suspension of the senses and volition, 
with a statue-like fixedness of the body and 
limbs in the attitude immediately preceding 
the attack, while the action of the heart and 
lungs continues, and the pulse and tempera¬ 
ture remain natural. It is generally the conse¬ 
quence of some other disease, or of a constitu¬ 
tion enfeebled by the gradual operation of 
unobserved causes. 

Catalo'nia, an old province of Spain. 
Wheat, wine, oil, flax, hemp, vegetables, and al¬ 
most every kind of fruit are abundant. There 
are mines of lead, iron, alum, etc. On the 
coast is a coral fishery. Catalonia stands pre¬ 
eminent for the industry of its inhabitants, 
v Pop. 1,843,549; area 12,480 sq. mi. It com¬ 
prises the modern provinces of Tarragona, 
Gerona, Lerida, and Barcelona. 

Catal'pa, a genus of plants, with simple 
leaves and large, gay, trumpet-shaped flowers. 
C. syringifolia, a North American species, is 
well adapted for large shrubberies, and has 
been introduced into England and other parts 
of Europe. C. longissima contains much tan¬ 
nin in its bark, and is known in the West In¬ 
dies by the name of French oak. 

Catalysis (or Contact Action), the chemical 
change which occurs when one body decom¬ 
poses another without being itself changed; 


thus oxide of cobalt decomposes a solution of 
bleaching powder into chloride of calcium and 
oxygen, itself remaining without change. 

Catamaran', a sort of raft used in the East 
Indies, Brazil, and elsewhere. Those of the 
island of Ceylon, like those of Madras and 
other parts of that coast, are formed of three 
logs lashed together. Their length is from 20 



to 25 ft., and breadth to 3£ ft. The center 
log is much the largest, and is pointed at the 
fore end. 

Catamar'ca, a province of the Argentine 
Republic, South America; area about 31,500 sq. 
mi.; mountainous in all directions except the 
south. Pop. 102,000. The capital is Catam- 
arca, or more fully San Fernando de Catam- 
arca. Pop. about 6,000. 

Cat'amount (or Catamountain), the wild 
cat. The name is also given to the tiger or 
the puma. 

Cata'nia, a city on the east coast of Sicily, 
in the province of Catania, at the foot of 
Mount Etna. It has been repeatedly visited 
by tremendous earthquakes, one of the worst 
of which was in 1693, when 18,000 people were 
destroyed, and has been partially laid in ruins 
by lava from eruptions of Mount Etna. The 
ruins of the amphitheater, which was more 
extensive than the Colosseum at Rome, are 
still to be seen, as also the remains of the thea¬ 
ter, baths, aqueducts, sepulchral chambers, 
hippodrome, and several temples. The har¬ 
bor was choked up by the eruption of 1669,, so 
that for larger vessels there is nothing but a 
roadstead. In spite of this Catania has a con¬ 
siderable trade, and exports wheat, barley, 
wine, oil, etc. Pop. 103,715. Area of the 
province, 1,917 sq. mi.; pop. 656,827. 

Catanza'ro, a cathedral city, South Italy, 
capital of province of the same name, on a 
height, 5 mi. from the Gulf of Squillace, with 
manufactures of silk and velvet, and some 
trade in wheat, wine, oil, etc. Pop. 28,960. 
Area of prov. 2,030 sq. mi.; pop. 462,987. 

Cat'apult, a machine of the ancients for 
projecting missiles, chiefly arrows. They may 
be described as a kind of gigantic cross-bows. 
Balistce were engines somewhat similarly con¬ 
structed, but were chiefly confined to the shoot¬ 
ing of stones. 

Cataract, a disease of the eye, consisting in 
an opacity of the crystalline lens, or its capsule, 
or both. It is quite different from amaurosis, 
which is a disease of the retina. In cataract 
the lens becomes opaque, and is no longer capa¬ 
ble of transmitting the light. Its earliest ap¬ 
proach is marked by a loss of the natural color 
of the pupil, and when developed it causes the 


Cataract 

pupil to have a milk-white or pearly color. It 
is most common in old or elderly people, and 
is quite painless. Cataract is treated by differ¬ 
ent surgical operations, all of them consisting 
in removing the diseased lens from its situa¬ 
tion opposite the transparent cornea. In 
couching , the lens is depressed, removed down¬ 
ward, and kept from rising by the vitreous hu¬ 
mor; but this method is now almost entirely 
given up in favor of removal of the lens by ex¬ 
traction. Extraction consists in making an in¬ 
cision in the cornea, and in the capsule of the 
lens, by which the lens may be brought for¬ 
ward, and through the cut in the cornea, so as 
to be altogether removed. The third opera¬ 
tion is by absorption. This consists in wound¬ 
ing the capsule, breaking down the crystalline, 
and bringing the fragments into the anterior 
chamber of the eye, where they are exposed to 
the action of the aqueous humor, and are at 
length absorbed and disappear. Extraction is 
now the regular method, and after it is effected 
a special kind of spectacles is required. 

Cat'aract (or Waterfall), the leap of a stream 
over a ledge or precipice occurring in its 
course. Many cataracts are remarkable for 
their sublimity, the grandest being the Falls 
of Niagara, on the Niagara River between 
lakes Erie and Ontario, and between the U. 
S. and Canada, the river having there a fall of 
about 160 ft. Among other notable falls are 
those of the river Montmorency, a tributary of 
the St. Lawrence, which are 242 ft. in height; 
that of the river Potaro, in British Guiana, 
about 822 ft. high and 369 broad; that of the 
Yosemite River, California, which makes a 
perpendicular leap of 2,100 ft.; the Victoria 
Falls, on the river Zambezi, in South Africa, 
about 370 ft. high and 1,860 yds. broad. The 
cataract of the Riukanfoss, on the river Maan, 
in Norway, is about 900 ft. high. The cascade 
of Gavarnie, in the Pyrenees, is reputed the 
loftiest in Europe, being about 13,000 ft. The 
fall of the Staubbach at Lauterbrunnen, in 
Switzerland, is between 800 and 900 ft., but 
has also a very small volume of water; the falls 
of the Rhine at Schaffhausen, renowned over 
Europe, are 300 ft. broad and nearly 100 ft. in 
height. In Italy the Falls of Terni, on the 
Velino, and those of the Anio, at Tivoli, are 
artificial but very beautiful. Among British 
waterfalls, the falls of the Clyde, three in 
number, viz., Bonniton Linn, 30 ft., Corra 
Linn, 84 ft., and Stonebyres Linn, 80 ft., are 
remarkable for their beauty and grandeur. 

Catarrh (ka-tar') (I flow down), an increased 
secretion of mucus from the membranes of the 
nose, fauces, and bronchi, accompanied with 
fever, and attended with sneezing, cough, 
thirst, lassitude, and want of appetite. There 
are two species of catarrh, one which is very 
common, and is called a cold in the head; and 
another, the influenza, or epidemic catarrh. 

Cataw'ba, a river in North Carolina, giving 
its name to a light wine of rich Muscadine 
flavor, which has acquired some celebrity in 
the U. S., the grape from which it is made 
having been first discovered near its sources. 

Cat Bird, a well-known species of American 


Category 

thrush, which during the summer is found 
throughout the Middle and New England 
states, frequenting thickets and shrubberies. 
Its note is strikingly similar to the plaint of a 
kitten in distress. The plumage is a deep slate 
color above and lighter below, and it is about 
9 in. in length. In habit it is lively, familiar, 
and unsuspicious; the song is largely imitative 
of those of other birds. During the winter it 
inhabits the extreme south of the U. S., and is 
found also in Mexico and Central America. 

Cateau=Cambr6sis (ka-to-kan-bra-sis),a town, 
France, dep. Nord, famous for the treaty of its 
name signed here in 1559, by which Henri II 
of France gave up Calais to the English, and 
agreed to a mutual exchange with Spain of all 
conquered territories. It has various textile 
manufactures. Pop. 10,544. 

Catechism, an elementary book containing 
a summary of principles in any science or art, 
but particularly in religion, reduced to the 
form of questions and answers. The first reg¬ 
ular catechisms appear to have been compiled 
in the eighth and ninth centuries, those by 
Kero of St. Gall and Otfried of Weissenburg 
being most famous. Among Protestants the 
catechisms of Luther (1518, 1520, and 1529) 
acquired great celebrity, and continue to be 
used in Germany. The catechism of the 
Church of England in the first book of Edward 
VI, March 7, 1549, contained merely the bap¬ 
tismal vow, the creed, the ten commandments, 
and the Lord’s prayer, with explanations, the 
part relative to the sacraments being subjoined 
at the revision of the liturgy during the reign 
of James I. The catechism of the Church of 
Scotland is that agreed upon by the Assembly 
of Divines at Westminster, with the assistance 
of commissioners from the Church of Scotland, 
and approved of by the General Assembly in 
the year 1648. What is called the Shorten' Cate¬ 
chism is merely an abridgment of the Larger, 
and is the one in most common use. The best 
known catechism among Protestant Dissenters 
was that of Doctor Watts. 

Cat'egory (or Predicament), in logic, an as¬ 
semblage of all the beings contained under 
any genus or kind ranged in order. The an¬ 
cients, following Aristotle, held that all beings 
or objects of thought may be referred to ten 
categories, viz.: quantity, quality , relation, ac¬ 
tion , passion, time , place, situation, and habit. 
Plato admits only five: substance, identity, di¬ 
versity, motion, and rest; the Stoics four: subjects, 
qualities, independent circumstances, relative cir¬ 
cumstances. Descartes suggested seven divis¬ 
ions: spirit, matter, quantity, substance, figure, 
motion , and rest. Others make but two cate¬ 
gories, substance and attribute, or subject and 
accident; or three, accident being divided into 
the inherent and circumstantial. In the phi¬ 
losophy of Kant the term categories is applied 
to the primitive conceptions originating in the 
understanding independently of all experience, 
though incapable of being realized in thought 
except in their application to experience. 
These he divides into four classes: quantity, 
quality, relation, and modality. J. S. Mill 
applies the term categories to the most general 


Catenary Curve 

Meads under which everything that may be 
asserted of any subject may be arranged. Of 
these he makes five: existence, co-existence, 
sequence, causation, and resemblance, or, con¬ 
sidering causation as a peculiar case of se¬ 
quence, four. 

Cat enary Curve, that curve which is 
formed by a cord or chain of uniform density 
and thickness when allowed to hang freely be¬ 
tween two points. It is of interest as bearing 
on the theory of arches and domes, and as the 
curve assumed by the chains of a supension 
bridge. 

Caterpillar, the larval stage of butterflies 
and moths, and the representative in this 
special order of the grub, maggot, or larva 
phase in the life history of many insects. The 
caterpillar, so familiar in its external appear¬ 
ance, has usually 12 bodyyings, not including 
the head, is provided with strong biting jaws, 
strikingly contrasted with the mouth organs 
of the adult, has three pairs of five-jointed 
clawed legs on the region corresponding to the 
thorax, and usually five rudimentary stumps 
or pro-legs on the abdomen. These unjointed 
appendages are borne on the sixth to the ninth, 
and on the twelfth segments of the body; some 
of them may be absent; in the majority of 
cases they are adapted for clambering. The 
body may be naked or covered with hairs, bris¬ 
tles, and spines, which, in caterpillars living 
an exposed life, are usually brightly colored. 
The large head is divided by a median line, 
and bears six eye-spots on each side, a pair 
of short three-jointed feelers, strong upper 
jaws or mandibles, besides jointed palps on 
the two successive pairs of mouth appendages. 
Two well-developed spinning organs open on 
the second pair of maxillae forming the lower 
lip. On each side, on the first ring, and on 
the fourth to the eleventh, there are nine pairs 
of openings into the respiratory air tubes. The 
colors are familiarly bright in many instances. 
The surface is often beautifully marked longi¬ 
tudinally, or transversely, or with ring spots 
and eye spots. Odoriferous and other glands 
frequently occur on the skin, and are in some 
cases eversible. Most caterpillars lead an act¬ 
ive life, some roving only at night, others also 
in the daytime. Their movements are guided 
by an appreciation of the force of gravitation; 
they usually crawl upward: and they alwaj^s 
know their food-plant when they come to it. 
Their ravages among vegetables and other 
plants are only too well known. Some forms 
are carnivorous. 

Catfish, a remarkably voracious fish, be¬ 
longing to the family of gobies, the name com¬ 
mon to several North American fish. Is 
known also as the Horned Pout and Bullhead. 
It is excellent eating. 

Cat'gut, a cord made from the intestines of 
sheep, and sometimes from those of horse, ass, 
and mule, but not from those of cats. The 
manufacture is chiefly carried on in Italy and 
France by a tedious process. Catgut for 
stringed instruments, as violins and harps, is 
made mostly in Milan and Naples, the latter 
having a high reputation for treble strings. 


Catharine de Medici 

Catharine I, Empress of all the Russias (1684- 
1727). She was the daughter of poor parents, 
who died when she was three years old. In 
1701 she married a dragoon of the garrison of 
Marienburg. The town was taken by the 
Russians in 1702, and C. was sent with others 
to Moscow, where she first saw Peter the 
Great. She now dropped her real name, Martha 
Rabe, was baptzied in the Greek Church, and 
took the name of Jekaterina Alexei'evna. Peter 
married her in 1711. She was afterward 
crowned at Moscow, 1724; and on her hus¬ 
band’s death she became empress. 

Catharine II (1729-1796), Empress of Russia. 
In 1745 she was married to Peter, nephew and 
successor of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, 
on whose death in 1762 her husband succeeded 
as Peter III. In danger of being supplanted 
by the Countess Woronzoff, Catharine, with 
the assistance of her lover, Gregory Orlotf, and 
others, won over the guards and was pro¬ 
claimed monarch (July, 1762). On the death 
of Augustus III of Poland she caused her old 
favorite, Poniatowski, to be placed on the 
throne with a view to the extension of her in¬ 
fluence in Poland, by which she profited in 
the partition of that country in the successive 
dismemberments of 1772, 1793, and 1795. By 
the war with the Turks,which occupied a con¬ 
siderable part of her reign, she conquered the 
Crimea and opened the Black Sea to the Rus¬ 
sian navy. Her dream, however, of driving 
the Turks from Europe and restoring the By¬ 
zantine Empire was not to be fulfilled. Her 
relations with Poland and with other Euro¬ 
pean powers induced her to make peace with 
Turkey in 1792. She appears to have been 
successful in improving the administration of 
justice, ameliorated the condition of the serfs, 
constructed canals, founded the Russian Acad¬ 
emy, and in a variety of ways contributed to 
the enlightenment and prosperity of the 
country. Her enthusiasm for reform, how¬ 
ever, was summarily checked by the events of 
the French Revolution; and the dissipation and 
extravagance of her court were such that there 
was even a danger of its exhausting the em¬ 
pire. Of her many advisers Potemkin was long¬ 
est in favor, retaining his influence from 1775 
till his death in 1791, directing Russian politics 
throughout that period in all essential matters. 

Catharine de Medici (da-med'i-che) (1519- 
1589), wife of Henry II, king of France, the 
only daughter of Lorenzo de Medici, duke of 
Urbino, and the niece of Pope Clement VII. 
She was married to the duke of Orleans, after¬ 
ward Henry II, in 1533. The death of Francis 
placed the reins of government, during the mi¬ 
nority of her son Charles IX, in her hands. 
Wavering between the Guises, who had put 
themselves at the head of the Catholics, and 
Conde and Coligny, who had become very pow¬ 
erful by the aid of the Protestants, she played 
off one faction against the other in the hope of 
increasing her own power; and the thirty years 
of civil war which followed were mainly due 
to her. Her influence with Charles IX was of 
the worst kind, and the massacre of St. Bar¬ 
tholomew’s Day was largely her work. 


Catharine Howard 


Cat Island 


Catharine Howard (1522-1542), queen of 
England, fifth wife of Henry VIII, daughter of 
Lord Edmund Howard, son of the duke of 
Norfolk. Her beauty and vivacity induced 
the king to marry her in 1540, but her con¬ 
duct appears to have been of a dubious kind 
both before and after marriage, and in 1542 she 
was executed for impropriety of conduct. 

Catharine of Aragon (1485-1536), queen of 
England, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand 
of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. In 1501 she 
was married to Arthur, prince of Wales, son 
of Henry VII. Her husband dying about five 
months after, the king unwilling to return her 
dowry, caused her to be contracted to his re¬ 
maining son, Henry, and a dispensation was 
procured from the pope for that purpose. On 
his accession to the throne as Henry VIII in 
1509 she was crowned with him, and despite 
the inequality of their ages retained her as¬ 
cendency with the king for nearly twenty 
years. Her children, however, all died in in¬ 
fancy, excepting Mary, and on the advent of 
Anne Boleyn, Henry affected to doubt the le¬ 
gality of his union with Catharine. 

Catherine Parr (1512-1548), sixth and last 
wife of Henry VIII of England, had had two 
husbands before she became Henry’s queen in 
1543. After the death of the king, she espoused 
the lord- admiral, Lord Thomas Seymour, 
uncle to Edward VI; but the union was an 
unhappy one. 

Cathe'dral, the principal church of a dio¬ 
cese, so called from its possessing the episcopal 
chair or cathedra. This is really what dis¬ 
tinguishes a cathedral from other churches, 
though most cathedrals are also larger and 
more elaborate structures than ordinary 
churches, and have various dignitaries and 
functionaries connected with them. As re¬ 
gards architecture cathedrals naturally vary 
much. Those in England are almost all in the 
Gothic style, cruciform or cross-shaped in ar¬ 
rangement, and having connected with them a 
chapter house, side chapels (varying in num¬ 
ber and position), cloisters, crypt, etc. This 
style and arrangement are also common on the 
continent of Europe, and in most modern 
cathedrals; but the Romanesque, Renaissance, 
and Byzantine styles of architecture are also 
employed. Many cathedrals furnish the most 
magnificent examples of the architecture of 
the Middle Ages. Among the most noted 
cathedrals are St. Peter’s, the largest of all, 
founded 1450; the cathedral at Milan, founded 
in 1386, built of white marble; the cathedral 
at Florence, begun about 1294, one of the finest 
specimens of the Italian-Gothic style; Cologne 
cathedral, commenced in 1248 (and only fin¬ 
ished recently); Notre Dame, at Paris, begun 
1163; and those of Amiens, Chartres, and 
Rheims. The most noteworthy English ca¬ 
thedrals are St. Paul’s, London (1675-1711), in 
the Renaissance style, and those of Canterbury, 
Ely, Exeter, Lichfield, Lincoln, Norwich, 
Salisbury, Wells, Westminster, and York. 
The cathedrals of Glasgow and Kirkwall are 
the only entire cathedrals in Scotland, exclu¬ 
sive of modern edifices. 


Cathetom'eter, an instrument for measur¬ 
ing small differences of level between two 
points; in its simplest form, a vertical gradu¬ 
ated rod upon which slides a horizontal tele¬ 
scope. With the telescope the observer sights 
the two objects under examination, and the 
distance on the graduated rod moved over by 
the telescope is the measure of the distance of 
height between the two objects. 

Catholic Church.— The term catholic liter¬ 
ally signifies “ universal. ” The phrase Catholic 
Church is therefore equivalent to “universal 
church,” and cannot properly be applied to 
any particular sect or body, such as the Roman, 
Anglican, Genevan, Reformed, Lutheran, or 
Presbyterian, all of which form merely por¬ 
tions more or less pure of the “church univer¬ 
sal.” It occurs for the first time in the pseudo- 
Ignatian Epistle to the Smyrnceans. It was 
first employed from about 160 a. d. to mark 
the difference between the orthodox “univer¬ 
sal ” Christian church and the various sects of 
the Gnostic heretics; though, afterward, it 
served also to distinguish the all-embracing 
Christian church from the religious exclusive¬ 
ness of the pre-Christian ages, in which the 
church was restricted to a single nation. 

Cat'ilinefLucius Sergius Catilina) (b.c. 108- 
62), a Roman conspirator, of patrician rank. 
In his youth he attached himself to the party 
of Sulla, but his physical strength, passionate 
nature, and unscrupulous daring soon gained 
him an independent reputation. He was 
elected prastor in b.c. 68, and governor of Africa 
in 67. In b.c. 66 he returned to Rome to contest 
the consulship, but was disqualified by an im¬ 
peachment for maladministration in his prov¬ 
ince. Urged on by his necessities as well as 
his ambition, he entered into a conspiracy with 
other disaffected nobles. The plot, however, 
was revealed to Cicero, and measures were at 
once taken to defeat it. Thwarted by Cicero 
at every turn, and driven from the senate by 
the orator's bold denunciations, Catiline fled, 
and put himself at the head of a large but -ill- 
armed following. The news of the suppression 
of the conspiracy and execution of the ring¬ 
leaders at Rome diminished his forces, and he 
led the rest toward Gaul. Metellus Celer 
threw himself between the rebels and their 
goal, while Antonius pressed upon their rear, 
and, driven to bay, Catiline turned upon the 
pursuing army and perished fighting. 

Catinat (ka-ti-na), Nicholas (1637-1712), 
marshal of France. He attracted the notice 
of Louis XIV at the storming of Lille (1667), 
and by his conduct, especially at the battle of 
Senef, gained the friendship of Conde. He 
was sent as lieutenant general against the 
Duke of Savoy, gained the battles of Staffardo 
(1690), and Marsaglia (1693), occupied Savoy 
and part of Piedmont, and was made marshal 
in 1693. In Flanders he displayed the same 
activity, and took Ath in 1697. In 1701 he 
received the command of the army of Italy 
against Prince Eugene; but his ill-furnished 
forces were defeated at Carpi, and he was dis¬ 
graced, 

Cat Island, one of the Bahama Islands, 


Catlin 


Cattle 


about 46 mi. in length from n. to s., and 3 to 7 
in its mean breadth. Pop. 3,000. It was long 
thought that it was the Guanahani, or San 
Salvador, where Columbus -first touched the 
New World in 1492. 

Catlin, George (1796-1872), the delineator 
of the Indians. After practising as a lawyer 
for two years, he set up at New York as a 
portrait painter, and in 1832 commenced spe¬ 
cial studies of Indian types, residing many 
years among them both in North and South 
America. His finely-illustrated works are: 
Manners , Customs , and Condition of the North 
American Indians; North American Portfolio; 
Eight Years' Travel in Europe; Last Rambles 
among the Indians; etc. 

Catmint (or catnip), a plant of the natural 
order Labiatse, widely diffused throughout 
North America, Europe, etc. It grows erect 
to a height of 2 or 3 ft., "has whorls of rose- 
tinged, whitish flowers, and stalked, downy, 
heart-shaped leaves. It has much the same 
fascination for cats as valerian root. 

Cato, Dionysius, the reputed author of the 
small collection of moral apophthegms known 
as Catonis Bisticha de Moribus ad Filium. 
Nothing is known of him; but the work, 
which is apparently in large part a genuine 
classic, had a high reputation in the Middle 
Ages. 

Cato, Marcus Porcius, the Censor (b.c. 
234-149), surnamed Priscus also Sapiens , and 
Major (the Wise, and the Elder), a celebrated 
Roman. He inherited from his father, a plebe¬ 
ian, a small estate in the territory of the Sabines. 
He served his first campaign, at the age of 
seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, was pres¬ 
ent at the siege of Capua in 214 b. c.; and five 
years after fought under the same commander 
at the siege at Tarentum. After the war was 
ended, he returned to his farm, but by the ad¬ 
vice of Valerius Flaccus removed to Rome, 
where his forensic abilities had free scope. 
He rose rapidly, accompanied Scipio to Sicily 
as quaestor, became an aedile, and in 198 was 
chosen praetor, and appointed to the province 
of Sardinia. Three years later he gained the 
consulship, and in 194 for his brilliant campaign 
in Spain obtained the honor of a triumph. In 
191 he served as military tribune against 
Antiochus, and then returned to Rome. For 
some years he exercised a practical censor¬ 
ship, scrutinizing the characters of candidates 
for office, and denouncing false claims, pecu¬ 
lations, etc. His election to the censorship in 
184 set an official seal to his efforts, the un¬ 
sparing severity of which has made his name 
proverbial. From that year until his death, 
he held no public office, though zealously 
continuing his unofficial labors for the state. 

Cato, Marcus Porcius (b.c. 95-46) (called 
Cato of Utica, the place of his death, to distin¬ 
guish him from the censor, his great-grand¬ 
father), a distinguished Roman. He formed 
an intimacy with the Stoic Antipater of Tyre, 
and ever remained true to the principles of 
the Stoic philosophy. He distinguished him¬ 
self as a volunteer in the war against Sparta- 
cus, served as military tribune in Macedonia 


in b.c. 67, was made quaestor in b. c. 65. His 
rigorous reforms won him general respect, and 
in b.c. 63 he was chosen tribune of the people. 
During the troubles with Catiline Cato gave 
Cicero important aid both by his eloquence 
and sagacity, and at the same time set him¬ 
self to thwart the ambitious projects of Pom- 
pey, Caesar, and Crassus. To get rid of him 
they sent him to take possession of Cyprus, 
but, having successfully accomplished his mis¬ 
sion, he returned, opposed the Tribonian law 
for conferring extraordinary powers on the 
triumvirs, and in 54 b.c. enforced as praetor, 
an obnoxious law against bribery. On the 
breach between Pompey and Caesar he threw 
in his lot with Pompey, and guarded the stores 
at Dyrrhachium, while Pompey pushed on to 
Pharsalia. After receiving news of Pompey’s 
defeat he sailed to Cyrene and effected a junc¬ 
tion with Metellus Scipio at Utica, in b.c. 47. 
He took command of that city, but its defense 
appearing hopeless after the defeat of Scipio 
at Thapsus, he determined on suicide, and 
after spending some time in the perusal of the 
Phaedo of Plato, stabbed himself with his 
sword. 

Cat’s=eye, a mineral, a variety of quartz, 
very hard and semitransparent, and from cer¬ 
tain points exhibiting a yellow opalescent radi¬ 
ation or chatoyant appearance resembling a 
cat’s eye. 

Catskill, Greene co., N. Y., on Hudson River, 
36 mi. s. of Albany. Railroads: Central Hud¬ 
son; N. Y. W. S. & B.; and Catskill Mts. & 
Cairo. Industries; vitrified paving brick, iron 
foundry, two knitting mills, sash and door fac¬ 
tory, brickyards, electric light and gas plants. 
Surrounding country agricultural. The vil¬ 
lage was first settled about 1650 by the Dutch. 
Pop. 1900, 5,484. 

Catskill Mountains, a fine range of moun¬ 
tains in New York state. They lie on the west 
side of and nearly parallel to the Hudson, from 
which their base is, at the nearest point, 8 mi. 
distant. The two most elevated peaks are 
Round Top and High Peak; the former 3,804 ft., 
the latter 3,718 ft. high. The Dunderberg is 
the scene of Washington Irving’s inimitable 
Rip Van Winkle. 

Cat'tegat, a large gulf of the North Sea, be¬ 
tween Denmark and Sweden. It is noted for 
its herring fishery. 

Cattle, a term applied collectively to the 
larger domestic quadrupeds, and often exclu- 



Shorthorn Bull and Cow. 

sively to those of the ox genus. The cattle of 
the U. S. and Canada present almost endless 


Cattle 


Caudine Forks 


variety of form and character. They are 
descended from importations of cattle from 
Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, France, 
and England, Scotland, and Ireland. About 
the year 1525, some six years after the discov¬ 
ery of Mexico by the Spaniard Cortez, cattle 
were introduced into that country from Spain, 
and in the abundant pasturage of the Mexican 
territory they increased rapidly, spreading 
with the enterprising Spanish settlers into 
Texas, California, and other parts of the far 



Hereford Bull and Cow. 


West. Exactly 100 years later the Dutch set¬ 
tlers in New York brought cattle thither from 
Holland, and a few years earlier small importa¬ 
tions of cattle had been made from the West 
India Islands into Virginia. The earliest of 
these arrivals in Virginia are assigned to 1610 
and 1611, but that colony was broken up in 
1622 by the Indians, who massacred 347 men, 
Avomen, and children, and, it is presumed, also 
destroyed their cattle. In 1624—four years 
after the landing of the English Plymouth col¬ 
ony there—cattle were introduced into Massa¬ 
chusetts from England, and many other im¬ 
portations followed during the next feAv years. 
The SAvedes brought cattle into Delaware in 
1627, and in 1631 the two following years Dan¬ 
ish emigrants introduced cattle from their 
native country into NeAv Hampshire. English 
emigrants settled in Maryland in 1633, in 


Galloway Bull. Jersey Cow. 

North and South Carolina in 1660 and 1670, 
and in Pennsylvania in 1682, and took with 
them, or had sent after them, large numbers of 
English cattle. The French colonists brought 
cattle into Quebec as early as 1608; and 
toAvard the close of the seventeenth century 
fresh importations of European cattle poured 
into the great American continent. There is 
no authentic information as to the character 
of the cattle first introduced into America, 
but all the leading breeds of the British Isles, 
as Avell as the chief milking breeds of the 
European continent, are noAv strongly repre¬ 


sented in North America: Hereford, Polled 
Aberdeen, Angus, Galloway, Devon, Norfolk 
and Suffolk Red Polls, Jersey, and Dutch 
breeds. The Texan cattle still retain the 
rough, coarse character which distinguished 
their Spanish ancestors. Improvement among 
the Texan cattle is proceeding very sloAvly. 

Catul lus, Caius (or Quintus) Valerius, 
(b. c. 94-54), a famous Roman lyric poet. Al¬ 
most all the knoAvn details of his life are de¬ 
rived by inference from his works, and relate 
to such matters as his passion for Lesbia, his 
journey to Bithynia, and voyage home in his 
yacht, his pleasant villa on Lake Benacus, etc. 
He Avas the first of the Romans Avho success¬ 
fully caught the Greek lyric spirit, and gave 
to Roman literature its most genuine songs. 

Cauca, (kou'ka), a S. A. river in Colombia, 
an important tributary of the Magdalena; 
length 600 to 700 mi. It gives its name to a 
department or state of Colombia; area 52,000 
sq. mi.; pop. 450,000. 

Caucasian Race, a term introduced into eth¬ 
nology by Blumenbach, in Avhose classification 
of mankind it was applied to one of the five 
great races into Avhichall the different nations 
of the world were divided. Blumenbach be¬ 
lieved this to be the original race from which 
the others Avere derived, and he gave it the 
epithet of Caucasian because he believed that 
its most typical form—which was also that of 
man in his highest physical perfection—was to 
be met Avith among the mountaineers of the 
Caucasus. In later classifications this “race” 
is usually divided into Aryan or Indo-European, 
and Semitic. Most of the tribes inhabiting the 
Caucasus belong to the Turanian class. 

Cau' casus, a chain of mountains which 
gives name to a lieutenancy under Russian 
government lying to the southeast of Russia 
proper, betAveen the Black Sea and the Cas¬ 
pian. The total area of the lieutenancy is 
179,527 sq. mi. and the pop. about 5,500,000. 
The Causasus chain of mountains traverses 
the lieutenancy from northwest to southeast 
through a length of 700 miles. The heights of 
the chief summits are Elbruz, 18,572 ft; Kosh- 
tan-tau, 17,123; Dych-tau, 16,928; Kasbek, 16,- 
546. 

Caucus, a term, originally American, for a 
private meeting of citizens to agree upon can¬ 
didates to be proposed for election to offices or 
to concert measures for supporting a party. 
Its origin is referred to a fray between some 
British soldiers and Boston rope makers in 
1770, Avhich resulted in democratic meetings 
of rope makers and caulkers, called by the 
Tories caucus meetings. 

Cau'dex, in botany, the stem of a tree, more 
especially the scaly trunk of palms and tree 
ferns. It often appears as a rhizome running 
along the surface of the earth or under¬ 
ground. 

Caudine Forks, a pass of Southern Italy, in 
the form of tAvo lofty fork-shaped defiles, in the 
Apennines (now called the valley of Arpaia), 
into which a Roman army Avas enticed by the 
Samnites, b.c. 321, and being hemmed in was 
forced to surrender. 
















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